Light My Path.

I have heard many reasons why Christians today do not keep the biblical festivals.

I have often wondered why people want to find an excuse not to celebrate these days when they add so much to the Chrisian way of life. They are not a burden but a pleasure.

Some say they were only for the Jews others say they were fulfilled by Christ, rendering them no longer applicable. Instead, they celebrate Christmas and Easter which if you research these particular holidays are historically pagan.

If you believe the biblical festivals are fulfilled and therefore are unnecessary but celebrate Christmas and Easter—why? Obviously, even if Christmas and Easter were legitimate Christian holidays they are definitely fulfilled since Christ was born and resurrected—past events.

The purpose of this article is not to go into the pagan origins of Christmas and Easter but to show that the biblical festivals are essential to the modern-day Christian. They give us deep meaning into God’s plan for mankind.

Here is a brief list of the Festivals found in Lev 23 which are stated to be the Feasts of the Lord not the Jews.

Lev 23:1-2 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, Concerning the feasts of the LORD, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my feasts.

Passover – commemorating Christ’s death and sacrifice. Each year that we take the Passover we renew our covenant with Him.

Unleavened Bread – pictures putting sin out of our lives which we need to do continually as long as we are human.

Pentecost – the receiving of God’s holy spirit

Trumpets – the return of Christ

Atonement – the putting away of Satan

Feast of Tabernacles – the millennial 1000 year reign with Christ

The Last Great Day – picturing the White Throne Judgement

When were these days established:

Gen 1:14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:

The Hebrew word for “seasons” is mo-ed which means:

(Strong’s concordance) môwʻêd, mo-ade’; or מֹעֵד môʻêd; or (feminine) מוֹעָדָה môwʻâdâh; (2 Chronicles 8:13), from H3259; properly, an appointment, i.e. a fixed time or season; specifically, a festival; conventionally a year; by implication, an assembly (as convened for a definite purpose); technically the congregation; by extension, the place of meeting; also a signal (as appointed beforehand):—appointed (sign, time), (place of, solemn) assembly, congregation, (set, solemn) feast, (appointed, due) season, solemn(-ity), synogogue, (set) time (appointed).

The KJV translates Strong’s H4150 in the following manner: congregation (150x), feast (-23x), season (13x), appointed (12x), time (12x), assembly (4x), solemnity (4x), solemn (2x), days (1x), sign (1x), synagogues (1x).

The majority of times this Hebrew word is referring to congregating for God’s appointed festivals. Even when the word is translated “season” it is not implicating the four seasons of the year as we would use the word today.

Looking at a couple instances of when this word was translated as “season”, we see that it is again referring to the festivals.

Lev 23:4 These are the feasts of the LORD, even holy convocations, which ye shall proclaim in their seasons.

Num 9:3 In the fourteenth day of this month, at even, ye shall keep it in his appointed season: according to all the rites of it, and according to all the ceremonies thereof, shall ye keep it.

Ex:13:10  “You shall therefore keep this ordinance in its season from year to year.”

So not a season as we think of it today as Spring, summer, winter, fall but seasons or appointed times for God’s festivals.

The usage of words change over time. We cannot assume that a common word used today had the same meaning in Biblical times especially when the Bible was not written in English.

These appointed times were established at creation just as the Sabbath, long before the nation of Israel existed.

Did the Patriarchs celebrate the Festivals?

The Bible only gives us the highlights of the lives of Abraham, Issac and Jacob. Did they celebrate the Festivals? Most likely they did. We know that when God told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac that it was symbolic and foreshadowed the sacrifice of Christ which we commemorate at Passover.

After such a significant event, did Abraham just go on with his life and forget about it or did he commemorate it each year? Did God explain to him afterward the full meaning of what he did?

Gen 17:21 But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year.

The phrase in this verse “set time” is the same word “mo-ed” explained earlier to mean appointed time referring to God’s Festivals. It is a Jewish tradition that Issac was born on the same date as Passover. It would also make sense that it was Passover when God told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, as mentioned earlier that this was symbolic of Christ’s sacrifice.

God is a God of order and planning. He does nothing haphazardly. He is not the author of confusion. It would make sense that He orchestrated significant events to fall on specific dates that held prophetic meaning for later generations.

Rom 4:3 For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.

We don’t know all that God taught Abraham, but we know he obeyed. Personally, I believe that God probably did teach Abraham about the Festivals since they were instituted from creation and God said he obeyed His laws.

Gen 26:5 …Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.

The word here for laws is:  to-raw’; or תֹּרָה tôrâh; from H3384; a precept or statute, especially the Decalogue or Pentateuch:—law.

Part of the law or Torah given to the Israelites was the command to observe the Festivals. So, if Abraham obeyed the law or Torah he must have been observing the Festivals.

Gal 3:29 And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Abraham’s seed was Israel. God made a covenant with Israel when He gave them the Torah. The Israelites had forgotten the law during the 400 years they were slaves in Egypt. These were not new laws just for Israel—Abraham, Issac and Jacob had already been obeying them.

The promise was passed on to Isaac and Jacob the father of Israel. God later changed Jacob’s name to Israel. Therefore, if you are following Christ then you are a spiritual Israelite or Jew graphed in. That is how you become Abraham’s seed. Which means that the law (or Torah) given to Israel, also applies to followers of Christ. In Lev 23 it says the festivals were to be a statute forever.

Lev 23:2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, Concerning the feasts of the LORD, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my feasts.

John 4:22 … salvation is of the Jews.

Matt 5:18 “For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.

Christ as our Example:

1 Pet 2:21 For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:

It is obvious from the scriptures that Christ, as a Jew, kept the festivals.

Growing up He kept the Feast with his family:

Luke 2:42 And when he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast.

During his ministry, we have the example of Him keeping Passover with the disciples before His crucifixion. He added the symbols of the bread and wine and the foot washing, but he did not change the fact that Passover was to be observed.

John 2:23 Now when he was in Jerusalem at the passover, in the feast day, many believed in his name, when they saw the miracles which he did.

Did Paul keep the festivals?

1 Cor 11:1 Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ.

If the Festivals were no longer of necessity after Christ died, why does the Bible not say so. We need to consider what is not said. The apostles were all Jewish. They had grown up keeping these days. It would have been a massive change to stop keeping them. We find no evidence in the Bible that they taught otherwise.

Acts 18:21 … I must by all means keep this feast that cometh in Jerusalem: but I will return again unto you, if God will. And he sailed from Ephesus.

1 Cor 5:8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

If these festivals were fulfilled by Christ and no longer needed to be kept, why was Paul still keeping them?

Not only Jews kept the Feast.

John 12:20 Now there were certain Greeks among those who came up to worship at the feast.

In 1 Cor 11, Paul admonishes the Corinthian brethren for not properly conducting Passover. These were mostly Gentile converts. (I won’t print out the whole passage here.)

The following verse has been widely misunderstood.

Col 2:16-17 Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.

So, what does this mean “let no man judge you”. Does it mean you can do whatever you want?

As mentioned above, Paul was speaking to a mainly Gentile audience. These were most likely new converts to Christianity, who may have been criticized by friends or family for adopting the Sabbath and Holy days and Paul is saying don’t listen to the criticism.

I have heard it said that because these days are just a “shadow” they don’t need to be kept, but in fact the opposite is true.

What is a shadow? It is an obscure image of something. A real person casts a shadow but it is not the real person. So, if the holy days are a shadow they are representing the real thing to come. And by following the shadow we will come to the real understanding God has in store for us.

Future Observation:

Zech 14:16-18 And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles.

And it shall be that whichever of the families of the earth do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, on them there will be no rain.

If the family of Egypt will not come up and enter in, they shall have no rain; they shall receive the plague with which the LORD strikes the nations who do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.

Zechariah is a prophetic book. This is talking about the millennium when Christ returns and rules on this earth. At that time the Feast of Tabernacles will be celebrated by all nations not just the Jews. Those who refuse to do so will be punished.

Obviously, these “appointed times” or “seasons” have great meaning for our great God. People will worship and keep these festivals even after Christ returns, when ALL is supposedly fulfilled, so doesn’t it make sense that we should be keeping them now?

By keeping these days every year, we learn more and more about them and God’s plan for mankind. Without the repetition we would forget their meaning.

Maybe there is more to these days and deeper meaning than we understand today, which will be revealed to us later—they are in fact the shadow we should be following until we see the real thing.