Sid: Let me read from Romans the 11th chapter the 24th verse, “For if you were cutout of the olive tree which is wild by nature and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree. How much more will these who are natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree?” You know I thought many times that here we have been grafted into a Greco-Roman olive tree but it was supposed to be the other way around. The Gentile was to be grafted into the Jewish olive tree. Won’t it be easier for Jewish people that do not know their Messiah when they can see the Jewish olive tree? I have a Hebraic scholar on the phone, a wonderful Bible teacher. I’m speaking to him at his home in Cincinnati, Kevin Howard. The reason I have him on the telephone is I’m featuring this week his book. The only word I have for this book and it’s called “The Feasts of the Lord,” is magnificent. It’s a hardback book and it has the most gorgeous artwork so that you can visualize the way Yeshua, that’s Hebrew for Jesus, observed these Biblical festivals. It’ll like bring you right into the home and see how these festivals were observed from a historical basis, from a modern basis, and most importantly from a prophetic basis. Now Kevin Howard you do this wonderfully in your book but I would like you take us through each of the 7 main festivals and explain its prophetic significance.
Kevin: Well the Lord gave 7 annual feasts or holidays for Israel. Four were spring feasts and 3 were the fall or autumn feasts. To tie it all together Paul told us clearly in Colossians 2:16, 17 that “The feasts were simply shadows of the Messiah and the Messiah was a substance.” These feasts speak prophetically of the Messiah, Jesus the Savior. Now these 7 feasts, 7 annual feasts the first one is Passover begins in spring the first feast is a one day holiday and this speaks of redemption. God redeemed Israel brought them out of Egypt, but Paul tells us clearly in Corinthians that, he says to quote him “For even Messiah our Passover Lamb has been sacrificed for us.” He says without any hesitation, any doubt at all Messiah when He died as our sacrifice He was fulfilling the Passover lamb, a very important part of His death. So prophetically Passover looks back to God’s redemption of Israel out of Egypt, but prophetically it looks forward to Jesus dying as a sin offering, as a substitute for us to redeem us from the greater bondage that of sin. So the Passover speaks of the death of the Passover Lamb, the Messiah who was yet to come. Now the 2nd holiday is Unleavened Bread it’s a 7day holiday. During that holiday only unleavened bread is eaten speaks of purity and sanctification. Prophetically that speaks of Messiah when He was in the tomb, when He was in the grave He did not decay. That was a direct fulfillment of prophecy in Psalm 19 as well as Isaiah 53, the Messiah was not to rot or decay in the grave. Why? Otherwise He’d be under the curse, He’d be a sinner, it would indicate He was a sinner but yet He was a perfect clear sacrifice. So unleavened bread speaks about the Messiah’s burial, that was one of the key points of the gospel. He would die, be buried, then He would raise again and that’s the 3rd holiday. First Fruits was the 3rd holiday that spoke of resurrection. A sheaf of grain was taken to the temple, in the days of Israel’s temple, but Paul used long and hard and with great eloquence in 1st Corinthians 15 “That Jesus is our first fruits.” And by that he said clearly “The fact that Jesus rose from the dead on First Fruits and became our first fruits is guarantee that there will be a final harvest.” That is all men, all mankind are going to raise from the dead someday. First some, the righteous, to resurrection of blessing, there’s going to be a 2nd resurrection under damnation, but… so we have 3, 3 of the 4 spring holidays. Jesus died on Passover became our Passover Lamb, He was in the grave on Feast of Unleavened Bread, He rose again on First Fruits and became our first fruits. Then 50 days later, or 50 days after Passover you have the Feast of Weeks, or what the New Testament calls Pentecost, 50th. It was on that holiday that Jesus, Messiah, sent the Holy Spirit as a fill and a guarantee and bringing in of the New Covenant which Jeremiah promised and prophesied.
Sid: Isn’t it amazing Kevin that these Biblical feasts are such prophetic shadows, but not only that even their order is exactly the way the Messiah came and died and was buried and rose, and sent the Holy Spirit.
Kevin: Exactly no mistakes with God always on schedule. So you’ve got the 4 spring feasts…
Sid: You know a lot of… well in traditional Judaism the last part, or the conclusion of Passover is Pentecost, or Shavuot. They put it all together.
Kevin: You’re right that’s the close of the Passover season. It’s really amazing when you begin to look at the holidays, at the feasts exactly how clear of a picture the Messiah it is. So I would submit to you that the New Testament clearly teaches that the Messiah in His first coming fulfilled the first 4 holidays or the spring holidays. Then there’s a long summer stretch there…
Sid: And as you pointed out yesterday isn’t it fascinating that we have this long stretch to separate the 2 appearances of the Messiah.
Kevin: Exactly.
Sid: It’s been a long stretch (laughing).
Kevin: It sure has and we look forward to His soon return. That’s really what the 3 fall feasts look forward to. Trumpets, or what is today called Rosh Hashanah…
Sid: And I might point out Mishpochah that this Friday even begins Rosh Hashanah, go ahead Kevin.
Kevin: Sure. Well those 3 holidays speak about his 2nd coming, Messiah’s 2nd coming. In just a quick thumbnail sketch, Trumpets the observance of Trumpets was with the shofar. That speaks prophetically of the Messiah’s return. Paul, the Apostle Paul, said “The Messiah’s going to return and the Lord will descend and it will be with a shout of the archangel and the trumpet of God.” The shofar is going to be blown, the Messiah’s going to begin His return, and it will be a time of great pouring out of great judgment upon the earth. It’s a… the Trumpets, the Feast of Trumpets is a very somber holiday. A time of preparing for the 6th holiday or Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, so it’s a time of preparation and time of really dealing with one’s sins and repenting. So Rosh Hashanah the beginning of the high holy days speaks of the Messiah coming in great wrath to judge the wicked but also to blow the shofar and deliver the righteous to Himself. The next holiday Yom Kippur, Day of Atonement that prophetically speaks of the Messiah dealing and meeting with Israel as a nation to bring them to repentance as a nation. Paul looked forward to this when Israel as he said in Romans chapter 11 “All Israel shall be saved.” He said “When the times of the Gentiles is finished,” or prophetically that long summer stretch of months, when that’s finished Israel’s going to be saved as a nation.
Sid: How do you picture that? How do you visualize that Kevin that event?
Kevin: Sort of like Jeremiah, sorry Zechariah chapter 12, “They are going to physically,” as a nation, “be brought into the wilderness and be brought upon Me whom they have pierced (putting the Lord through Zechariah) and mourn for Him as an only Son.” There’s a day coming when Israel is prepared, turns and repents to the Lord and all of a sudden sees and realizes that the Messiah is none other than Jesus. The one they had abhorred so here He is and so they mourn for Him as an only Son.
Sid: Well that’s 6 festivals there’s 7 one more.
Kevin: The final festival is called Tabernacles or usually in Jewish circles called Sukkot, the building of booths. That prophetically looks forward to the time when the Messiah is going to come and tabernacle, or dwell, as Zephaniah said “God will dwell among His people and of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end. The Son of David will come, He will descend, He will usher in His kingdom and there will be peace and harmony, it will be paradise on earth, and Tabernacles speaks of that time.
Sid: Well how far away do you feel we are from the fulfillment of those last 3 festivals?
Kevin: Well the Bible doesn’t tell us obviously, you know a specific date, it tells us to be ready and to be watching.
Sid: I tell you with what’s going on in Jerusalem today, what’s going with the peace process, what’s going on with the computers, what’s going on with the sin, and the judgments coming that are actually on this earth, I really believe it could be very close.
Kevin: It could be so close and happen so quickly that those who aren’t watching and ready just catch them by surprise. I mean the Temple Mount is at the center and East Jerusalem is at the center of all the peace negotiations discussed, and things could move very quickly around those topics.
Sid: Well Kevin on the rest of the week I’d like to take each Biblical festival.
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