Festivals
The Autumn Festivals
God clearly describes the feasts, set in the yearly calendar of Israel in Leviticus 23 as His feasts. They are special events full of significance. They are called holy convocations, in Hebrew “miqra”, which also means rehearsals. By instituting the feasts, God was painting a picture of the various prophetic milestones of His entire plan of salvation! By rehearsing them every year throughout the yearly calendar, His people would be able to recognise the fulfilments when they occurred as being the work of God. Yeshua said all things from the Law and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled concerning Him, Luke 24:44.
We can learn some important things from the fulfilments of the springtime feasts:
- each one was fulfilled by Yeshua (Jesus) in His first coming
- each one was fulfilled sequentially
- each one was fulfilled at the actual time of the feast itself (ie. Yeshua fulfilled Passover as the Passover Lamb of God “who takes away the sin of the world” at Passover)
So, applying these lessons to the autumnal feasts we can expect that:
- each one will be fulfilled by Yeshua
- each one was fulfilled sequentially, in God’s order
- each one will be fulfilled by Yeshua in His second coming
- each one will be fulfilled at the actual time of the feasts (with one exception, as we will see)
The autumnal feasts, the Feast of Trumpets (Rosh Hasana), the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) and the Feast of Tabernacles (Succot), will all be fulfilled by Yeshua in His second coming at exactly the right time.
When the Lord first came, according to the prophets in the Old Testament (the Hebrew Bible, also known as the Tanach), he came as a baby born in Bethlehem for the purpose of making the sacrificial death on the cross, as an adult, for all our sins. He then rose again and later ascended to His Father, all according to the prophets. However, the people of the time, although they were expecting a Messiah to come, they weren’t expecting it to happen as it did. That’s because their expectations were not based on the Word of God but on hearsay. Just as Yeshua's first coming fulfilled the spring-time feasts of the Lord (Lev.23), so also will His second coming fulfil the autumn feasts of the Lord.
Today, many Christians’ expectations of the Lords' return are also based on litary & film media rather than the Word of God. This is dangerous because Yeshua said there would be deceptions around prior to His return. So what does He say about His own return? What will it be like?
The Lords return is therefore decribed by the autumnal feasts, and so starts with the Feast of Trumpets, which according to Leviticus 23 occurs on the 1 st Tishrei, the first day of the seventh month. In Mat.24:29, Jesus describes the sign of the end of the age. This is the beginning of the Lord’s return. It is the event that will cut short the great tribulation before it has run the 7 year course. No-one knows when this will be exactly, and it is the first of several events, which will begin the second coming of the Lord. These events will quickly follow one another, so as to happen as one single occurrence.
Imagine the scene. Although the times are not normal, people the world over are carrying on their daily lives under the worldwide regime of the most terrible dictator the world has ever seen. Many warnings have been made to the people of the world not to worship the anti-christ nor to take his mark, but to worship the One True God and His Son Yeshua. Millions though have chosen to reject this message, although many others have heeded it.
All of a sudden, without warning and like a thief in the night, an event of such magnitude & awesomeness happens that even the most confirmed atheists recognise it is the One True God at work, and they flee in terror. Simultaneously, the natural lights of heaven, the sun, moon and stars, go totally dark and plunge the earth into complete darkness. At the same time, the whole world is shaken by massive global earthquakes. Nowhere is untouched. The whole world is shaken. This is what Yeshua called the sign of the end of the age.
Please take time to read these scriptures - Isaiah 2:19, Joel 2:10-11, Haggai 2:6 & 7, Mat.24:29-31, Rev.6:12-17. This event is described all over the Bible, such is its significance. This signifies the beginning of the awesome Day of the Lord, long promised by God when He will pour out His wrath in judgement on the evil deeds of the world. It’s the time when Yeshua said unbelieving men’s hearts would be failing them for fear, knowing God’s judgement is coming (Luke 21:25-26). But conversely, it’s the time when He says to those who believe in Him to look up for your redemption draws near! (Luke 21:28).
Jesus said in Mat.24:27 that His return will be like the lightning, which flashes across the whole sky. It’s not going to be a secret, quiet thing. The darkness and devastation of the sign of the end of the age immediately leads to the sign of the Son of man. In Mat.24:30, this sign, the bright as lightning illumination of the whole sky worldwide, will be seen by every eye. This is the majestic supernatural brilliance of Yeshua's glory flashing like lightning from one end of the heavens to the other. It is followed by the actual, physical return of the Lord Himself. Yeshua said all the tribes of the earth will mourn and they (every tribe, ie. everyone) will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory!
This is so utterly, amazingly, glorious and indescribable. It’s the return of the glory of God, just like He said it would happen! How can words adequately capture such an event? Read these Scriptures: read again Mat.24:30, Psalm 68:4 & 33, Psalm 97:1-6, Rev.1:7, 1Thes.4:16, Titus 2:13, 1 Pet.4:13, 1 Jn.3:2,3. It is truly awesome!
Returning to Matthew 24, Yeshua then describes in verse 31 what has come to be known as the Rapture. That word simply means the catching away of God’s people. Immediately following the sign of the end of the age, and the sign of the Son of Man and Yeshua's actual physical return in glory, He says in this verses that he will send His angels with a great trumpet blast to gather His elect from one end of heaven to the other. This is what the apostle Paul describes in 1 Thess.4:16-17. It’s the classic rapture passage. In 1 John 3:2-3, reference is made to our being made like Him when He is revealed. In 2 Thess.2:1, Paul also groups our gathering to Him with the return of the Lord.
In Mat.24:36-42 and Luke 17:26-30, Yeshua said it will happen as it was in the days of Noah & Lot. Noah had warned the people there would be a worldwide flood. His warnings were ignored, and Yeshua said that on the same day Noah entered the ark, the judgement (flood) came. Lot had been warned to leave Sodom. Only he and his wife and daughters heeded the warning. Yeshua said that on the same day as Lot fled away from Sodom, the judgement (burning sulphur balls of fire) rained down and destroyed the cities. In the same way, Yeshua is saying the rapture (which corresponds to Noah entering the ark, and Lot escaping from Sodom) & the beginning of the Day of the Lord judgement will occur on the same day!
Look at another example. When God led Moses and the children of Israel out of Egypt, His cloud of glory became light for the Israeli’s, but darkness & gloom for the unbelievers, the Egyptians (Exodus14:19-20). And God delivered the children of Israel on the same day as he judged the Egyptians! God’s word and character are wonderfully consistent!
Therefore, when the Lord physically and bodily returns, He will gather His people to Himself (2Thes.2:1) & will initiate the Day of the Lord judgements (Is.2:10,11,19, 13:9-11) on the same day!!!
The next feast described in Leviticus 23 is the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur. This occurs on the 10 th Tishrei. This in fact is a day of fasting, the most solemn and holy day of the year, the time when the nation’s sin was atoned for by the High Priest entering the Holy of holies on behalf of all the people.
God declared to Israel that “on this day atonement will be made for you, to cleanse you”. Leviticus 16:30. The blood that the High Priet offered on the Day of Atonement every year was symbolic of the blood of the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”, the blood shed by Yeshua on the cross at Passover, to pay for the sin of the whole world.
Why then is there a separate “day of atonement” for Israel? Because Israel must reach the stage when she, as a nation, atones for her sin against the Lord. Individually, many Jews are turning to Yeshua as their Saviour even today. In fact, there are more Jewish believers in Yeshua today than at any time since New testament times. It’s as a nation that Israel must atone for her sin.
And in Daniel 9:24, we see this described. The angel speaking to Daniel says:
“Seventy weeks are determined for your people and for your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy.”
The fulfilment of the Day of Atonement is the day when all Israel will be saved, Romans 11:26. It is referred to in Zechariah 12:10, when “they will look on Him whom they pierced”, when Israel will look upon Yeshua & repent & turn to Him as a nation. Halleluyah!
It’s interesting to note that this day, according to Daniel 9, comes at the end of the 7 year tribulation period, and applying the same rules we saw in the fulfilments of the spring feasts, in that the feasts are fulfilled sequentially, it comes after the rapture has already taken place!
Next in God’s prophetic timetable is the Feast of Tabernacles, Succot. This begins 5 days after the Day of Atonement, on the 15 th Tishrei, and is celebrated on Mount Zion in Jerusalem. Tradionally, it is a celebration of God’s protection of people of Israel throughout their wilderness wanderings after the deliverance from Egypt under Moses. It also celebrates the end of the harvest and God’s provision for the people. It is celebrated by singing Psalm 118 as the people ascend Mount Zion.
Part of this Psalm related to the spiritual deliverance of the nation , and her salvation. (verses 19-24), specially singing about the “stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone”! It was also from this Psalm that the people in Jerusalem mistook was happening when Yeshua rode into Jerusalem on the donkey. Known as “Palm Sunday” in Christian circles, in Matthew 21:9, they were quoting from Psalm 118, declaring the Messianic praise as Yeshua entered the city.
They had the wrong feast though. It was Passover then, not Tabernacles! However, at the fulfilment of Tabernacles Yeshua will enter Jerusalem as King of kings and Lord of Lords, and the people will be singing Psalm 118, declaring Him as their Messiah and King!
The Feast of Tabernacles’ fulfilment is the triumphant entry of Yeshua into Jerusalem as Messiah, to be crowned the King of Israel, and from where He will reign throughout the 1000 year Millenial reign of earth! And every year throughout Yeshua’s earthy physical reign from Jerusalem, Zechariah 14:16-17.
What can we know of the timing of all these events. First of all, as has been mentioned earlier, no-one knows the exact timing of the return of the Lord. However, we are given an approximation of when these things will take place. We know the rapture occurs when the Lord physically returns in glory (Mat.24:29-31). That this happens after the event of the mid-point of the 7 year tribulation (Daniel 9:27), the abomination of desolation and the revealing of the identity of the anti-christ, is clear from 2 Thess.2:1-4 and the sequence of Yeshua’s descriptions in Matthew 24. Therefore, we can deduce that the return of the Lord to gather His people and to initiate the Day of the Lord judgements happen sometime during the 2nd half of the 7 year tribulation period, when exactly we cannot know for sure. It has to happen before the end of the 7 year tribulation period, since we can be sure the Day of Atonement fulfilment comes at the end of the 7 years, swiftly followed by Tabernacles fulfilment.
Andy King