The Three Pilgrimage Feasts Unto the Lord

The Lord said, “Celebrate three feasts in my honor.” (Ex. 23:14)

The purpose of the feasts charged to the Israelites
was to unify the nation,
to worship God (Adonai in the Hebrew tongue),
And gave birth to the signs of the coming Messiah.

In the deeper spiritual realm of things being done,
God called forth and ordained these three feasts
to be partaken in the preparation for the redemption of the spiritual body.
To illustrate spiritual truths,
And gives light to the inner workings of the Godhead
in foreshadowing the day of the coming King of Glory.

(Act I) The First Feast - 

“The Feast of Unleavened Bread/Passover (Pesach).”

In the Old Testament history of the Israelites’ deliverance from Egypt, 

they were directed to eat of an unblemished sacrificial lamb, 

and the blood of the lamb was placed onto the doorposts of their dwellings,

so that the “angel of death,” the last plague to come upon Egypt, 

would pass over the houses of the Israelites.

“Do this at the appointed time in the month of Abib 

(also called Nisan - the first month of the Hebrew calendar);

For in that month you came out of Egypt.”  (Ex. 23:15)

This was to be a reminder of their deliverance from the bondage 

of enslavement to the Egyptians, and as an expression of gratitude to God.

Also during this 7-day Passover period, bread made without yeast, 

unleavened, was to be consumed - which represented purity, 

sincerity, and truth.

(This is also called the barley harvest; 

it ripens first around the time of Passover.)

The Lamb of God, Jesus (yeshu’ah), our deliverer, 

has now come to be ingrained in us - “The Seed of Life.”

The incorruptible Seed of God into our lives was planted.

He fulfilled the Passover.

It typifies the Lord’s death.

“Jesus said, I am the Bread of Life.”  (John 6:35)

And through His death, we are freed from the bondage of sin.

…”For Christ, our Passover Lamb has been sacrificed.” (1 Corinthians 5:7)

And a new meal offering given.

“Jesus took bread, praising and giving thanks to God, and asked His blessings over it. 

He broke it and gave it to His disciples, and said, Take, eat, this is My body. 

He took a cup and when He had given thanks, He gave it to them, 

saying, Drink of it…for this is My blood of the new covenant,

which is being poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”  

 (Matthew 26:27-28)

We received our spiritual birth.

Our spirit was made alive by the Spirit of the Lord.

“The Father has delivered and drawn us to Himself out of the control 

and the dominion of darkness and has transferred us into 

the kingdom of the Son of His love.   

In Whom we have our redemption through His blood, 

(which means) the forgiveness of our sins.”  

(Colossians 1:13-14)

In this light… “There is no condemnation for those who walk in Christ Jesus.   

Who live and walk not after the dictates of the flesh 

(the uncircumcised “state” of “being”), but after the dictates of the Spirit.”   

(Romans 8:1)

(Circumcision indicated the sign of a covenant relation, 

and seal/mark of righteousness.  Rom. 2&4)

God looks upon all in Christ as being completely acceptable to Him.   

We are considered righteous in the sight of God…

“…Having forgiven us all our transgressions.”  (Col. 2:13)

The spots and blemishes are still upon us,

But when God looks upon us, all God sees is the blood.

We are covered by the blood of the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ.

“He was made like His brethren in every respect, in order that 

He might become a merciful and faithful High Priest in the things related to God,

 to make atonement and reconciliation for the sins of the people.”  (Hebrews 2:17)

The Messiah’s promised return of His Holy Spirit to empower us is -

(Act II) “The Feast of Pentecost.”

It is the Second Feast - also known as

“The Feast of the Jewish Harvest/The Feast of Weeks (Shavuot)”

To take place, “when you start to harvest the first fruits of your fields 

of what you sow in the fields (wheat harvest).”  (Ex. 23:16)

It is called The Feast of Weeks because it was observed seven weeks 

after the first day of Passover at Mt. Sinai - 

where the Israelites received the law (the Torah).

It is rendered in the Greek as Pentecost to denote – “50^th day.”

It is symbolic of, and identified with, the covenant between God 

and His people, and commemorates the giving of the law.

The bread on this occasion was made of newly harvested grain baked 

“with leaven.”   (Lev. 23:17)

“Leaven” under the present order is indicative of the impure 

“body of Christ” - the present church.

But we have a promised new life through the inception of the Holy Spirit 

coming into His people at the time of Pentecost as transcribed in the 

“Book of Acts.” Giving us ear to God’s Voice.

And making us receptors and vessels to receive the counsel of His truths.

“The Counselor (Advocate, the Strengthener, the Helper, Intercessor), 

the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in My Name, 

will teach you all things.” (John 14:26)

We gain entrance into the door of holy communion with the Most High.   

And “clothed with power from on high.”  (Luke 24:49)

“And when the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all 

assembled together in one place (in one accord). 

When suddenly there came a sound from heaven

like the rushing of a violent tempest blast,

And it filled the whole house in which they were sitting.

And there appeared to them tongues resembling fire,

And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit…”   (Acts 2:1-4)

Jesus returned as the indwelling Holy Spirit.

We were sealed.

Jesus spoke it - “I give them eternal life, and they shall never lose it 

or perish through the ages, (by no means be destroyed).

And no one is able to snatch them out of My hand.”  (John 10:28)

 

At Jesus’ ascension, He said, “I go to My Father.  

 The works I shall do, you do also, and greater works than these 

you shall do.”  (John 14:12)

The Father is an omnipresent “Spirit.” 

Jesus went to the Father.

Saith the Lord Himself, “I and the Father are one.” 

(John 10:30)

“Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me.” 

(John 14:11)

And the Father is in Him….”reconciling the world unto Himself,

not imputing their trespasses unto them,

and has committed into us the Word of reconciliation.”  (II Cor. 5:19)

We are sealed by the Holy Spirit with a promise.

“I will put my teaching into their innermost being and write it 

on their hearts.” (Jeremiah 31:31)

His Spirit has come back to us.  All that Jesus is.

And you are in Him, made full and having come into the fullness of life 

in Christ being filled with the Godhead - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  (Col. 2:10)

This is His coming as the indwelling spirit.

The Spirit has come in power to remove every spot and sin, 

to  deal with our sinful nature.

“From now on we regard and estimate no one from a purely human point 

of view, even though we once did estimate Christ from a human viewpoint 

as a man. Yet now we know Him no longer in terms of the flesh.”  (IICor. 5:16)

He already dwells within by His Spirit.

He is not coming down, but rising within us as He works His nature in us.

And after we have been tried by fire - 

to purify the heart and electrify the mind, 

tested for endurance - where we learn obedience and the lessons 

of the overcomer, and proven to earn the right to be as God,

we will enter into the new promised land.

(Act III) At the Third Feast –

“The Feast of Tabernacles.”

“You should keep the “Feast of Ingathering/Tabernacles (Sukkoth/Succot)” 

during Tishri (autumn), when you gather in the fruits of your labor 

from the fields.” (Exodus 23:16)

“You shall observe the Feast of Weeks, the first fruits of wheat harvest, 

and the Feast of Ingathering (the grapes harvest) at the year’s end.”  

 (Exodus 34:22)

It was to commemorate God’s sheltering and protection of Israel 

during their wilderness experience.

According to Old Testament law of Israel, the first portion of any harvest 

was gathered prior to the full harvest and dedicated to God, 

in a gesture that the whole belonged to Him.  The first grain to ripen, 

following the entire field of wheat would eventually come to maturity.

(Taken from a study with Preston Eby).

After which follows the “Year of Jubilee,”

The blowing of the ram’s horn.

The Israelites possessing the Promise Land – 

freeing of indentured servants, family renewal, land redemption.

We are now at the end of the “Church Age.”

The church is a mix of flesh and spirit.

With its divisions and derisions,

Infighting and backbiting.  Its fears and jeers.

Its condemnations and suffocations.

Its rules and rituals, traditions and conditions.

“My people perish for lack of knowledge.”  (Hosea 4:6)

And know little on the truths and nature of the Feast of Tabernacles.

But there is a remnant who hears “His Voice.”

“The King will say to those at His right hand, Come, 

you blessed of My Father, receive as your inheritance, 

the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” (Matt. 25:34)

We are the land.

The land is a realm of spirit where we walk in the fullness 

that Jesus purchased for us.

The Holy Spirit guaranteed our inheritance in anticipation of full 

redemption and our acquiring possession of it - to the praise of His Glory. Amen!

“For creation waits expectantly and longs earnestly for God’s sons 

to be made known (for the disclosing, the revealing of their sonship).”

“For creation (nature) was subjected to frailty (to futility, 

condemned to frustration), not because of some intentional fault on its part, 

but the will of Him who so subjected it.”(Rom. 8:19-20)

At Tabernacles - we receive our new body.

We become the manifestation of the Son.

We become true expressions of His substance.

“…They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven 

(which means, the manifestation of the divine glory, the divine presence) 

with power and great glory manifested in a divine company, 

The Sons of God.” (Matt. 24:30)

Note:  When Moses completed the structuring of the tabernacle,

“A cloud (manifestation of the divine glory, divine presence) covered 

the tent of meeting and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.”  (Ex. 40:34)

“But it is not the spiritual life which came first, but the physical

and then the spiritual.” (1 Cor. 15:46)

“He who has an ear, let him hear.”  (Matt. 11:15)