Leviticus 23

Is it too creative or speculative to suggest that the annual feasts of the Levitical calender of Old Testament Israel provide a road map for the entire New Testament era? Surely these feasts are full of meaning. Is it unreasonable to think that the annual pattern beginning with Passover and ending with Tabernacles and beyond also has an important message for Jews and Gentiles today? The only way to answer such a question is to consider carefully the use of the feasts in the Prophets and especially in the New Testament revelation.

It is undeniable that Jesus died in connection with the Passover, that he rose again from the dead on the feast of Firstfruits, that the Spirit was poured out upon the church on the Day of Pentecost, and that the church is told that when Christ returns again the trumpet will sound. The words associated with the Old Testament feasts are used in the rest of the Bible in a way that confirms an important order of events as we await the culmination of the Lord's eternal purposes. Leviticus 23 is a great chapter for the consideration of the Israelite pattern of time, and the meaning that this calendar might convey to those who are watching and waiting for the reunion of heaven and earth in Christ.

The chapter begins with the only element of the Old Testament calendar that is continued as a part of New Testament ceremonial life: the Sabbath. Even though the one day of rest in seven pattern is the same, the change of that day from the last day of the week to the first day of the week is important. Old Testament believers were looking for the coming of rest. New Testament believers do our work out of the strength of the rest that is ours in a Christ who has already come. We gather on the first day of the week, the day of our Lord's resurrection, as believers have since the earliest years of church life.

According to the Bible, the annual pattern of Jewish life should begin with the Passover. This feast looked back on the deliverance from Egypt, but now the Passover Lamb has come, and those who are united to Jesus Christ have been rescued from sin, death, and hell.

Passover was part of the first cluster of Jewish special days. This first cluster also included the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Feast of Firstfruits. During the seven days of unleavened bread the Jews could only eat bread without leaven. In the New Testament Jesus warns His disciples about the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees, meaning the teaching of these groups that on one hand put the doctrines of man-made religious tradition above the Word of God, and on the other hand denied the power of God and rejected the clear teaching of the Scriptures. Paul told the churches in Corinth and Galatia that a little leaven in the church will soon leaven the whole lump. He wrote in 1 Corinthians 5:6-8 about their boasting in sin. “Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” The death of Christ is associated for us with an unleavened lifestyle of dedicated holiness, sincere love, and commitment to the truth.

The third feast in this first cluster is firstfruits. This is the dedication to God of the very beginning of what will be a much larger harvest. It took place on the day after the Saturday Sabbath; the Sunday after the Passover. Jesus rose from the dead on that day. He was presented to His disciples as the firsfruits of a much larger resurrection from the dead. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:20, “Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” The remainder of the resurrection comes in fullness at the return of Christ. Until that time, the church is receiving the firstfruits of the Spirit, since we have Christ in us, the hope of glory.

The second cluster of festivals has only one feast, and it takes place fifty days to the day after the Sabbath associated with the Passover. On that Day of Pentecost in the year of the death and resurrection of Jesus, a great harvest of souls began with the pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples in Jerusalem. Pentecost was a harvest festival, with the harvest continuing until the end of a long period of growth. Pentecost is the beginning of a great season of planting, watering, and gathering. In New Testament times, the church lives in the age of Pentecost. There is already a holy convocation above in the heavens as those who have lived their days below go to be with the Lord awaiting the next moment in the plan of God.

The sign of that moment is in the final cluster of festivals, beginning with the Feast of Trumpets, and then the Day of Atonement, where there is a final reckoning concerning sin, and then the grand culmination of the calendar in the joyous celebration of Tabernacles. The day will come when the Son of God, who tabernacled with us here below and then put on a better resurrection temple, will dwell with His people forever as we live forever in the glory of resurrection. Until that day comes we should proclaim the message of Christ and remember the poor and the stranger as the church moves throughout the earth.

These were the appointed Old Testament Feasts of the Lord. They have a story to tell for all who are being gathered up in the Lord's Pentecost. One day the trumpet shall sound, and then the Lord will judge, and we shall be together with Jesus forever.