Seven Feasts of Israel – Passover – Unleavened Bread – First Fruits – Pentecost

Seven Feasts of Israel – Passover – Unleavened Bread – First Fruits – Pentecost

Continued from Seven Feasts of Israel -Passover 

Passover was celebrated by Israel in remembrance of their delivery by God from the slavery of Egypt. God delivered Israel by their obedience of applying the blood of a lamb to the doorposts of their homes when the death angel came through the land of Egypt, killing all the firstborn sons of the Egyptians. When God saw the blood applied to the homes of the children of Israel, the death angel passed over their homes and spared their firstborn sons.

Unleavened Bread was celebrated in remembrance of their having to leave Egypt in a hurry. It became known as the Bread of Haste. Because it was prepared in a hurry, no leaven was used in its making. Leaven represented sin, pride, hypocrisy, false teachings, and unbelief. (Luke 12:1, Matthew 16:6, Mark 8:15, I Corinthians 5:6 & Galatians 5:7-9)

Given time, leaven will reproduce, spreading throughout the dough and changing the chemistry of the dough as it works. Sin, like leaven, has a polluting quality. It starts out small and quickly spreads, eventually affecting our entire being. God demonstrated His purity by manifesting in a body of flesh and living without sin among sinful men. As believers in Christ, we are expected to examine our lives continually for any sin or any leaven that would defile ourselves as temples of God. God’s Holy Spirit wants to dwell in temples of sincerity and honesty, practicing the truths of His Word. (I Corinthians 11:27-32)

The children of Israel had no time to put leaven into their bread and wait for it to rise so they could bake it. They had to be ready to leave at a moment’s notice. Christians, likewise, have no time to play with the sins of this world; as we do not know the hour when Christ will appear to resurrect us out to be with Him. We are to constantly examine our hearts and minds, searching for any hypocrisy, sin, false beliefs, doubt, pride or self-righteousness, asking Him to forgive and cleanse us of any unrighteousness so that we can have full fellowship with Him and be ready to go when He calls our name. Whether it is the Rapture or death, we do not know when God will say our time on earth is finished. We need to live each day as if it is our last, with a pure conscience before Him.

First Fruits celebrated the harvest. The children of Israel were to bring a sheaf of their crops representing the very first of their harvest and wave it before the Lord, a symbolic gesture that the coming harvest was dedicated to Him. (Barley was usually the first crop to ripen)

Jesus was crucified on Passover, celebrated the unleavened bread with His disciples at the Last Supper, and was raised from the dead on First Fruits. His resurrection was like an offering waved before His Father as the first fruits of the harvest that was to come at the end of the age.

Paul said, “But now is Christ risen from the dead and become the First Fruits of them that slept.” “For in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order, Christ the First Fruits, afterward they that are Christ’s at His coming.” I Corinthians 15:20, 23)

These three feasts were kept in the spring of the year. Jesus has fulfilled all three of these feasts. He is our Passover. He is our Living Bread of Truth. He is our First Fruits from the dead.

Jesus resurrected from the grave, appeared to His disciples and many others, and then He ascended back to His Father. The angels told His disciples in Acts 1:11, “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why are you standing here staring into heaven? Jesus has been taken from you into heaven, but someday he will return from heaven in the same way you saw him go!”

The angels said Jesus will come again in the same manner that He went away. Paul says in I Thessalonians 4:16-17, “For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”

Hebrews 9:28 says, “So Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him.”

Pentecost came fifty days after the First Fruits. Rabbinic scholars believe this to be the day that God gave Moses the Ten Commandments on Mt. Sinai. Pentecost was also known as Shavuot or the festival of Weeks. This became the celebration of the birth of the nation of Israel.

Pentecost also became a prophecy of the Day of Pentecost and the coming of the New Covenant. Pentecost was the day when Jews from different countries came into Jerusalem to celebrate the completion of the harvest season; the feast of Shavuot or the Feast of Weeks=Pentecost.

God descended on Mt. Sinai, giving Moses the Torah, or the Law. He descended on the Day of Pentecost, giving the New Covenant. Just as there was a demonstration of God’s power on Mt. Sinai, there was also a demonstration of God’s power on the Day of Pentecost, with a mighty rushing wind, tongues of fire, and both Jew and Gentile coming to believe in Christ as their Lord and God.

God’s invisible Presence met only with Moses and Israel on the Day of Atonement under the Law. The invisible Presence of God now meets with believers in Christ, daily, through the visitations of the Holy Spirit. Acts 3:19, “Repent therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the Presence of the Lord.”

Jesus fulfilled the first three feasts of Israel; and the fourth feast, or the harvest of the Pentecost, continues to this day and will continue until Jesus appears in the clouds to catch His bride away. Jesus asks us to pray that the Lord of the Harvest will send forth laborers into the harvest for it is overripe and needs to be harvested without delay. (Luke 10:2) We need to pray for all Pastors, teachers, missionaries, and everyone who is witnessing about Jesus Christ and His soon coming, that God will protect them from temptation and deliver them from the evil one, while giving them wisdom and strength to do what God has called them to do for His kingdom. We all need to be open to opportunities to tell those around us about Jesus and His offer of eternal life for them. He is coming soon, and when He does, He will set in motion the last remaining three feasts of the Lord: The Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles.