The Seven Feasts of Israel serves as God’s prophetic calendar to carry out His plan for our redemption. Other than the Passover, I don’t remember being taught about the Seven Jewish Feasts, perhaps because, as Christians, we are not required to observe them. However, by not teaching about these seven feasts, not only in terms of their historical background but also in their prophetical context, I believe we have failed to teach Christians a significant part of the heritage of our Christian Faith, especially how its roots are firmly planted in Judaism.
In Romans 15:4, the Apostle Paul said, “Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning!” I believe the church should have continued to follow the pattern of these seven feasts as a tool to teach children the incredible story of God’s amazing grace and how each feast points to and finds its fulfillment in the Person and Work of Jesus Christ, as well as the progress of our redemption, from our justification to our reunification with God in His new kingdom!
The first four feasts have already been fulfilled – Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits, and Pentecost, and the last three feasts will be fulfilled as we enter into the end-times of this age. The next event on God’s prophetic calendar is the Feast of Trumpets, followed by the Day of Atonement, the day when the last remnant of Israel will be saved, and then the Feast of Tabernacles, as the Lord sets up His kingdom on this earth as it is now in heaven, and He dwells with us personally.
As the sun sets on September 15 of this year, Jewish families will observe the first of the final three fall feasts, the Feast of Trumpets, or as the Jews call it, “Rosh Hashanah,” the day of the blowing of the trumpets; marking the end of the summer harvest, and the beginning of a new year. The only biblical requirement for keeping the Feast of Trumpets is the blowing of the Shofar or the ram’s horn.
Today, the Feast of Trumpets is observed in the Jewish synagogues by blowing a hundred shofar blasts, the last of which is a long, extended blast known as the “tekiah gedolah” or “the great blast!” The Feast of Trumpets will be fulfilled on the day of the rapture of the Church, when those who received Jesus Christ as their Savior since the Day of Pentecost, whether deceased or alive, will receive their glorified bodies and vanish from the earth to be with the Lord forever.
In 1 Thessalonians 4 and 1 Corinthians 15, the Apostle Paul exposed the mystery God had revealed unto him, that on a day which is soon to come, the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a “shout,” but also with the “trumpet of God.” And, whether their physical bodies have decayed in the dust, been blown to bits, or scattered as ashes in the wind, every believer’s body will be raised imperishable. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, every Christian will be caught up together to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
However, something else begins on the day of the rapture that has to do with the events that will follow. In Isaiah 27:12-13, the prophet said, on that day, the LORD will start His threshing from the stream of the Euphrates to the brook of Egypt, “and you will be gathered up one by one, O sons of Israel. It will come about also in that day that a great trumpet will be blown, and those who were perishing in the land of Assyria and who were scattered in the land of Egypt will come and worship the LORD in the holy mountain at Jerusalem.”
While we have seen the phenomenal return of the Jews to Israel since 1948, on the day of the rapture, every Jew, no matter where they live or how long they have lived there, will be motivated and inspired to return to their homeland, because God will renew His covenant with them for a season. They will be allowed to worship in that new temple, at least for 3 ½ years. However, God is also calling His people home to fulfill the final prophecies of this age, including the terrible events in what is known as the Tribulation, which have to do with the Jews in Israel and Jerusalem as the capital city of Israel.
Now, get the picture here! Just as the Feast of Passover was fulfilled in the crucifixion of the Lamb of God, the Feast of Unleavened Bread was fulfilled in the sinlessness of that sacrificed Lamb, and the Feast of First Fruits was fulfilled when Jesus rose from the grave, triumphant over sin and death. The Feast of Pentecost, or the Feast of Weeks, was fulfilled on the Day of Pentecost, 2000 years ago, exactly 50 days after the resurrection of Jesus Christ, when the Holy Spirit came down and baptized “two sinful loaves” into one new body: The Church! In 1 Corinthians 12:13 and Ephesians 2:15, Paul said: “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Gentiles, that He might make the two into one new man!”
So, the formation of the church at Pentecost completed the fulfillment of the spring festivals, and that’s where we are today! On the Jewish calendar there was a 4-month interval before the fall feasts began, but on the Church calendar, this is where we will be until the fall feasts are fulfilled. We are in the Church Age, and as Jesus said in John 4:35, “Do not say there are yet four months, and then comes the harvest; lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white unto harvest!”
For the last 2,000 years, there has been an “ingathering” of souls, as the gospel of Jesus Christ is being preached around the world. But the harvest will not be finished until that last elect is found! God has gifted each of us with the strength we need to do the work He assigned to us, and if we would put those gifts and callings together, we could get the whole Word to the whole world very quickly.
So, the fall feasts begin September 15 with the Feast of Trumpets. Could this be the year of the last Trumpet? Yes, I know, Jesus said we could not know the day or the hour, but since the Feast of Trumpets is a 2-day feast, it could happen at any hour on either day! The best advice is to be ready.
However, for some reason, I’ve been singing a song our youth choir sang back in the late 70s entitled, “There’s Something in the Air.” Even though that was over 40 years ago, I still remember every line:
The whispering winds seem to softly say, there’s something different about today: I wonder, what can it be?
The flowers lift their heads so high, as though to see something in the sky: I wonder, what can it be?
There’s something in the air! I can feel it everywhere. I know there’s something in the air!
Could it be that this would be the day that starts eternity, the day that we’ve been waiting for so long?
Could it be that yet today, the King of Kings will turn and say, pick up a trumpet, blow it loud and strong!
Could it be the soul of me, can sense it will soon be free?
Is that my soul that’s telling me to look up in the sky, and see? There’s something in the air, I can feel it everywhere! I know there’s something in the air!
Are you rapture ready?