Passover was established during the tenth plague in which Pharaoh was finally persuaded to let the Jewish people leave Egypt. God’s avenging angel killed the firstborn in each Egyptian household, but he “passed over” the homes of the Jews.

The Jews had been instructed to mark their doorposts with the blood of a lamb (Ex. 12:5). This was their mark of redemption. The blood of Christ, our Lamb, is our redemption. Paul refers to the Lord as “Christ our Passover” (1 Cor. 5:7).

Significantly, the Lord was crucified exactly on Passover day, 14 Nisan. The night before, while Christ was celebrating the Passover meal with His disciples, He lifted the wine and said, “For this is my blood of the new testament (covenant), which is shed for many for the remission of sins” (1 Cor. 11:25).

The Lord’s own disciples (Jews), surely understood the fulfillment of this feast through the shedding of Jesus’ blood. But most Jews today continue to celebrate Passover in remembrance of the Exodus from Egypt. Though this was perfectly proper before the Messiah’s coming, it is tragically inappropriate now that the feast has been fulfilled.

The seven-day Feast of Unleavened Bread begins on the day following Passover. Nisan, the first month (which contains the first three feasts), corresponds to late March or early April on our Julian calendar.

God commanded the Jews to eat only pure, unleavened bread during this week, for leaven symbolized sin and evil. As sin corrupts and permeates the human condition, so leaven corrupts and permeates bread dough. The Apostle Paul developed this symbol further when he urged Christians to “purge out the old leaven” by purifying themselves (1 Cor. 5:7).

The fulfillment of this Biblical “type” in Christ emphasizes the Lord’s body. At His Passover table He took the unleavened bread and called it His body, even as He afterward referred to the wine as His blood. The bread makes an excellent symbol of His body: it is striped, pierced, and pure. Because of the way the unleavened bread is prepared (without fat or any rising agent), it bears stripes from the grill, and it must be pierced to cook through.

Incredibly, most Jews have failed to see the gospel in this ceremony repeated every year on the anniversary of Christ’s crucifixion! God performed the exact fulfillment of this ceremony with the unleavened Bread of Life, giving to all of us the Cup of Redemption.

The feast of thanksgiving for a bountiful land occurs on Sunday (the marrow after the Sabbath) during the Week of Unleavened Bread. The Israeli farmers were to bring the initial yield of their spring barley crop to Jerusalem, where a priest would wave these first fruits before the House of the Lord.

This was most clearly fulfilled by Jesus, who was resurrected on the Sunday during the week of Unleavened Bread. Paul explains: “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive (resurrected). But every man in his own order: Christ for the first fruits, and afterwards they that are Christ’s at His coming” (1 Cor. 15:22, 23).

The Jewish leaders have failed to notice that Jesus was raised on the Sunday following Passover. Christians call this day “Easter” rather than First Fruits and perhaps also miss the ultimate significance of this prophetic feast. It is not only that Christ was raised; we will all be raised, and so we celebrate! He was the first fruits, but we will all follow in due time.

The Spirit came as Christ had promised, at the Feast of Pentecost. Pentecost occurred 50 days after First Fruits on the Jewish calendar (usually in May or June). The disciples anxiously waited for this miracle. Christ had rejoined them for 40 days after His resurrection, but then He ascended to His Father. As he departed He instructed them to go to Jerusalem and await the fulfillment of His promise.

After ten days, when the Day of Pentecost was “fully come,” the Holy Spirit came upon the worshipers at the temple. The Spirit did not come on just any day, but on Pentecost, the beginning of the fullest harvest season. God’s great harvest, the Church Age, was getting under way!

In modern Judaism the Rabbis teach that Pentecost marks the day when Moses received the law on Mount Sinai. On that day exactly 3000 people died when the Law as given (for worshipping the golden calf), while exactly 3000 people were saved on the same day later when the Spirit was given (preaching of the Gospel). Truly, “the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life (2 Cor. 3:6)!

So Pentecost, the fourth feast, the “birthday” of both the Law and the Spirit, starts the Church Age, God’s mighty harvest of human souls.

The Jews left Jerusalem following the Feast of Pentecost in the Spring and spent four summer months harvesting wheat in the land (4 months is Church Age).

When the harvest was complete they would make their pilgrimage to Jerusalem. There the High Priest would stand on the high peak of the southwestern corner of the Temple mount and sound the trumpet (Ram’s horn), calling the nation together for the holy feast. The people would gather together in the Temple at the sound of the trumpet to commemorate the holiday, the Feast of the Trumpets.

The Feast of Trumpets symbolizes “regathering” for both the Church and the Jewish nation. The Rapture will culminate the redemption of the Church. “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (1 Cor. 15:52). The trumpet will also regather the Jews to their land. Isaiah heard God’s trumpet and foresaw a great homecoming of exiled Jews. “And they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem” (Isa. 27:13).

This feast, following Trumpets by just 10 days, represented the most solemn day on the ancient Jewish calendar-and it still does. On this day the High Priest of Israel would enter the Most Holy place of the sanctuary of the Lord. In this chamber where the Ark of the Covenant was placed, the High Priest would seek atonement (covering) for the sins of all Israel. He would apply the blood of a goat to the mercy seat of the Ark for the sins of Israel.

Today the Jews have no “Most High Place” and therefore no assurance of redemption. The fulfillment of this feast for believers lies in the finished work of Christ on the cross, through which everyone may claim permanent redemption.

The chosen people will not be left out-the Day of Atonement will be fulfilled for “all Israel” on the coming occasion of the national atonement in the Promised Land.

Paul informs us that when the Deliverer (the Messiah, Christ) returns to Zion, “all Israel will be saved” (Rom. 11:26). Zechariah proclaims a coming day when Israel will mourn in national repentance and will finally accept her Messiah: “They shall look upon Me, whom they have pierced” (Zech. 12:10). At that time they will realize a true “Day of Atonement.” Then will be opened a “fountain of cleansing” for the Jews (Zech. 13:1).

This will occur when Jesus returns after the Tribulation period and establishes His kingdom on the earth. All Jews will then experience the “Christian Day of Atonement“-the day on which the believer receives Christ and stands before his Creator as a forgiven man.

The Jew today has two alternatives. He can receive his Messiah now and join Him at the sound of the trump, or he can try to survive until Armageddon, retreating to Israel at the sound of the trumpet and awaiting the Lord in the midst of bloodshed. If he dies or is killed between now and the day of the Second Coming he is a permanently dead man, no different than any pagan who dies without the Lord. “So too at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace” (Rom. 11:5).

This final feast symbolizes the Millennium, that 1000-year rule of Christ on earth which follows the other events that have been discussed.

The Feast of Tabernacles takes us back to the times of the Israelites in the wilderness (Lev. 23:42, 43), when they lived in makeshift shelters or “booths.” This feast also looks forward to the coming kingdom as pictured by Zechariah (14:16-19).

The orthodox Jews believe in the Messianic implications of the Feast of Tabernacles. They build little shelters from which hang fruit and nuts, and some actually sleep in the “tabernacles” for the duration of the 8-day feast. They feel this feast will bring the peace and rest that will come to Israel and the world in the “days of Messiah, when “every man will dwell under his own vine and fig tree” (Micah 4:4).

This feast will clearly be fulfilled during Christ’s coming reign on earth, when everyone “shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of Hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles” (Zech. 14:16).

The Christian nation of Israel will finally take its place as the “head of the nations,” and the Church, the Bride of Christ, will reign with the Lord.

CONCLUSION: Where are we according to the timetable of the feasts? Jesus Himself alluded to our position in the sequence of feasts when He admonished us to look to the harvest period: “Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields for they are white already to harvest” (John 4:35). We are in the Church Age (the harvest), somewhere between Pentecost and the Rapture. Listen for the sound of the trumpet!