The Feasts of Israel
Lessons 7 & 8 
Brian Kelson
 

Lesson 7
 

Israel�s Feasts unfolded as they were delivered from Egypt and taken into their promised land. What happened way back then pictured what would and will happen when the Feasts are fulfilled.

 

We have seen that the original Passover and Unleavened Bread occurred in Egypt. About 50-60 days later the original Pentecost occurred around Mt Sinai but we leave an examination of that situation to a future lesson. Today we move forward into the final Feasts which occurred as Israel entered their promised land. This looks forward to a greater entry for them one day.

 

The Final set of Feasts was;

Trumpets, Atonement, Tabernacles/Booths.

 

TRUMPETS.

Trumpets is the first Feast in the seventh month bringing in the second set.

 

Israel used Trumpets to gather people together (Neh.4:20, Jer.4:5, Joel 2:15); to herald something important (Lev.25:9); in war (Jos.6:5); to worship their God (Ps.150:3), and to announce the entry of the King (Ex.19:13, 16). Psalm 47 is a great prophecy looking forward to the fulfilment of this Feast when Israel�s God is King of all the earth. You may already be thinking of the book of Revelation.

 

The first Feast of Trumpets for Israel was when they entered their Promised Land and this could have been experienced very early in their history if they had faith.

 

Israel spent about a year around the base of Mt Sinai after being delivered from Egypt and when all things were ready they were marched straight to the southern border of their land arriving there in eleven days;

Deu 1:2  eleven days from Horeb by way of Mount Seir to Kadesh-barnea

 

Twelve is a number associated with Israel, 12 tribes and 12 apostles etc. etc., so perhaps on the twelfth day Israel could have entered their inheritance but unfortunately and very sadly, they lacked faith to do so;

Deu 1:21  Behold, Jehovah your God has set the land before you. Go up. Possess it, even as Jehovah, the God of your fathers has said to you. Do not fear, neither be troubled.

Deu 1:26  But you would not go up, but rebelled against the command of Jehovah your God.

Deu 1:27  And you murmured in your tents and said, Because Jehovah hates us, He has brought us forth out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us.

 

Deu 1:32 �.in this thing you did not believe Jehovah your God,

 

If you read the rest of Deut.1 you will find that the people changed their mind and tried to enter the Land, but they were defeated by the Amorites because God was not with them. To read the fuller account see Numbers 13 and 14. Israel was turned away from their Promised Land and wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. During this time, all those who had rebelled at Kadesh-barnea died;

Deu 2:14  And the days in which we came from Kadesh-barnea, until we had come over the brook Zered were thirty-eight years; until the end of all the generation. The men of war were destroyed from the midst of the camp, as Jehovah swore to them.  (See Deut.1)

 

Why did God lead Israel around in the wilderness for forty years after Kadesh-barnea?

 

First of all Israel needed to learn that Jehovah would provide:

Deu 2:7  For Jehovah your God has blessed you in all the works of your hand. He knows your walking through this great wilderness. Jehovah your God has been with you these forty years. You have lacked nothing.

Deu 8:4  Your clothing did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell, these forty years.

See also Neh.9:21-23.

 

When Israel arrived at Mount Sinai, they received the Commandments of God, but they were a murmuring faithless bunch of slaves too quick to forget how powerfully God had brought them out of Egypt. At their first real test of faith at Kadesh-barnea they failed, rebelling and disobeying their God. What would happen the second time they were commanded to go up and possess their inheritance?

 

Israel had to learn to fear God�s Word and respond, in other words, they had to have faith in what God said;

Deu 8:2  And you shall remember all the way which Jehovah your God led you these forty years in the wilderness in order to humble you, to prove you, to know what is in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.

Deu 8:3  And He humbled you and allowed you to hunger, and then He fed you with manna, which you did not know, neither did your fathers know it, so that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes out of the mouth of Jehovah man shall live.

 

Israel was God�s son, His firstborn and this son had to learn by punishment what it was like to belong to God, the King of all the earth. When God spoke, He was to be obeyed:

Deu 8:5  And you have known with your heart, that, as a man chastens his son, so Jehovah your God chastens you.

Deu 8:6  And you shall keep the commandments of Jehovah your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him.

 

The forty years wandering was a period of chastisement and learning; a preparation for the kingdom;

Deu 8:11  Beware that you do not forget Jehovah your God, in not keeping His commandments, and His judgments, and His statutes, which I command you today,

Deu 8:12  lest when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and lived in them,

Deu 8:13  and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied,

Deu 8:14  then your heart might be lifted up, and you might forget Jehovah your God who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of slaves.

 

What about you and me dear readers? Do we believe what God has said, or could it be that we are in such sufficiency that we leave our personal Bible study and prayer time behind the things of this life. Let us all resolve to take a lesson from this wilderness experience of Israel, let us firm up our faith to believe the rightly divided Word of Truth and resolve not to let the cares of this world choke the good Word of God.

 

The time has come for Israel to experience the Feats of Trumpets, the battle cry of war as they enter their promised land.

Lesson 8

 

We continue our look at the Feasts and while I had thought to linger around Mount Sinai and consider all that Pentecost was originally, we might be better placed if we recap on some important features before moving forward.

 

Please remember that Moses was given the instructions regarding these Feasts before Israel entered the land. This is why we see instructions for that future day, cp Ex.12:25, Lev.23:10, 22, and 39.

 

Here are the two groups of annual Feasts from Leviticus 23, disregarding Saturday which was a weekly Feast;

 

First group.

In the first to third months of the year, beginning our March/April through to late May.

Passover.  

Unleavened Bread.

Pentecost.  

 

  Gap -  Tending crops and harvesting in the land. Lev.23:22.

 

Second Group.

In seventh month of the year. September/October

Trumpets.  

Atonement.

Tabernacles/Booths.

 

There are many number similarities in these two groups of Feasts. Passover and Unleavened Bread totalled 8 days and Tabernacles/Booths totalled 8 days. Eight is the number of new beginnings and resurrection.

 

Passover and Unleavened Bread featured the10^th, 14^th and 15^th days.

Trumpets, Atonement and Tabernacles had the 1^st, 10^th and 15^th days.

 

In Leviticus 23 we have the 7^th day, the 7^th week (the 50^th day) and the 7^th month.

 

In Leviticus 25:1-17, we have the 7^th year Sabbath of rest for the land and the 7x7 years plus one, being the 50^th year.

 

Pentecost was a Feast observed on the 50^th day; Atonement was a Feast with extra significance in the 50^th year. Pentecost anticipated Jubilee or the fulfilment of the Feast of Atonement. Pentecost looked forward to the second group of Feasts.

 

The fiftieth year was called the Jubilee year when all purchased possessions had to be returned to the original owner. A trumpet was blown on the 10^th day of the 7^th month in the 50^th year, that is, on the Feast of Atonement in the 50^th year, the trumpet of Jubilee was sounded;

Lev 25:9  Then you shall cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound on the tenth of the seventh month; in the day of atonement, the trumpet shall sound throughout all your land.

 

Trumpets was a Feast to be observed but the Feast of Atonement also had a trumpet involved. The second group of Feasts opened with many trumpets.

 

When Israel entered their land and crops were planted, the gap in these Feasts coincided with the vigorous farming activities which would have occupied Israel�s daylight hours during those middle months. The Feasts resume at the end of harvests in the 7^th month.

 

In Leviticus 23:22 the Lord tells Israel not to harvest in the corners and not to pick up anything that dropped to the ground from the reapers� hands.

Lev 23:22  And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not completely reap the corner of your field. When you reap the gleaning of your harvest, you shall not gather. You shall leave them to the poor and to the stranger. I am Jehovah your God.

 

Leaving part of the crop in the corners of the fields and fallen stalks on the ground provided food for the poor of Israel and the Gentiles who had chosen to live among them.

 

We know that Israel were a special nation chosen by God for a special purpose on the earth. Before God called Abraham He had dispersed people into their lands with their own languages. I am sure we remember the story of the Tower of Babel which was yet another rejection by people of their Creator;

Gen 11:8  So Jehovah scattered them abroad from that place upon the face of all the earth. And they quit building the city.

Gen 11:9  Therefore the name of it is called Babel; because Jehovah confused the language of all the earth there. And from there Jehovah scattered them abroad on the face of all the earth

 

This scattering of people into their lands and languages was not indiscriminate as Deuteronomy tells us;

Deu 32:8  When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the people according to the number of the sons of Israel

 

People were dispersed into the world with different languages, but they were dispersed according to the number of the sons of Israel, seventy (70) being a number which those who wish to further examine this might carefully consider.

 

After God dispersed people into nations, then He began to deal with the nation, Israel. People were divided by God into two groups, Israel and the rest. Israel did not choose themselves, God chose them (Is.41:8). God made the difference between Israel and the nations or Gentiles. He began by calling their father Abram into a special land which is very close to the geographical centre of the earth. Genesis chapter 12 marks a new era in God�s dealing with people. >From the beginning of Israel�s history we see that God was preparing them for a special task;

Gen 12:2  And I will make you a great nation. And I will bless you and make your name great. And you shall be a blessing.

Gen 12:3  And I will bless those that bless you and curse the one who curses you. And in you shall all families of the earth be blessed

 

And again;

Exo 19:5  And now if you will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then you shall be a peculiar treasure to Me above all the nations; for all the earth is Mine.

Exo 19:6  And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

 

The Prophet Isaiah looks forward to the day when Israel shall be all that God has planned for them when their Messiah rules;

Isa 61:6  But you will be named the priests of Jehovah; it will be said of you, Ministers of our God; you will eat the riches of the nations, and you will revel in their glory

 

The Lord Christ, who was the minister of the Circumcision (Roms.15:8) said to Israel;

Mat 5:13  You are the salt of the earth, ......

Mat 5:14  You are the light of the world. ......

 

Peter wrote to the dispersed Israelites and he told them this;

1Pe 2:9  But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for possession, so that you might speak of the praises of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;

 

The book of the Revelation is a prophecy about our Lord returning to the earth as King of Kings and Lord of Lords and it says this;

Rev 1:5  ......Jesus Christ the faithful Witness, the First-born from the dead and the Ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood,

Rev 1:6  and made us kings and priests to God and His Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen

 

Israel was to be a witness to the rest of the world and while they were a faltering and failing witness in the past, under Christ they will be a beacon light to God�s goodness and grace.

 

The Church which is the Body of Christ will not be a Kingdom of Priests but Israel will be a kingdom of Kings and Priests or as Peter says, a royal priesthood. Priests are mediators, those who serve God on behalf of others, and the others Israel will serve are the rest of the people God cast off. Israel is the nation by which God will reach out to the other nations He scattered way back in the beginning.

 

Part of Israel�s instruction was to consider and care for the Gentiles. Parts of Israel�s crops were left for the gentiles showing that they were blessed with and by Israel. Think of those people of other nations who came to Israel for help, or who were warned and assisted by Israel�s prophets. Here are some other passages showing how Israel was instructed to care for foreigners or Gentiles;   

 

Exo 20:10  But the seventh day is the Sabbath of Jehovah your God. You shall not do any work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger within your gates.

 

Exo 22:21  You shall neither vex a stranger nor oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.

 

Lev 19:34  The stranger that dwells with you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself. For you were strangers in the land of Egypt. I am Jehovah your God.

 

Num 15:14  And if a stranger stays with you, or whoever is among you in your generations, and will offer an offering made by fire of a sweet savor to Jehovah; as you do, so he shall do.

 

Num 15:16  One law and one way shall be for you and for the stranger that lives with you.

 

Unfortunately, when the message began to go to Gentiles in the Acts period, many of Israel had become so introspective and myopic that they refused and opposed anyone preaching to them. Paul wrote this to the Thessalonians;

1Th 2:14  For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus. For you also have suffered these things by your own countrymen, even as they also by the Jews;

1Th 2:15  who both killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, also driving us out and they do not please God and being contrary to all men,

1Th 2:16  forbidding us to speak to the nations that they might be saved, to fill up their sins always; but the wrath has come upon them to the uttermost.

 

When the Lord returns to the earth and establishes Israel as the nation above all other nations, then they shall be that great Kingdom of Priests ready and willing to be share their light to the world, and their light is the true Passover Lamb, the One who died and brought deliverance from the bondage of sin and death for all people.

 

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