{"id":2227,"date":"2014-09-14T20:38:10","date_gmt":"2014-09-14T20:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/?p=2227"},"modified":"2014-09-16T18:19:15","modified_gmt":"2014-09-16T18:19:15","slug":"a-christian-and-the-jewish-festivals-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/a-christian-and-the-jewish-festivals-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"A Christian and the \u201cJewish\u201d Festivals \u2013 Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Elisabeth Hinze
\n\"pesach\"<\/a>
\nThere are many reasons why I keep the so-called Jewish festivals. Firstly, because they\u2019re not Jewish. They\u2019re God\u2019s, \u201cthe feasts of the Lord\u201d (Leviticus 23:4). His appointed times. His idea. His plan. But there\u2019s another reason too. A simple one. I keep the Biblical festivals because Yeshua did.<\/p>\n

We have enough proof of that in the Gospels. In John 7, Yeshua goes to Jerusalem for Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles. In John 10 it\u2019s Hanukkah. We\u2019re told how He went to Jerusalem with His parents for Passover as a young man (Luke 2:42) and again how He celebrated this festival with His disciples on the night before He was crucified (John 13). The list goes on.<\/p>\n

So Yeshua celebrated the festivals. And if I am to imitate Him, if He is to be my example, the one Whose image I grow into\u2026 Well, it\u2019s only a logical conclusion, right?<\/p>\n

But Yeshua wasn\u2019t only a participant or observer of the festivals. Oh no. He is also the fulfiller thereof. It\u2019s a plan spanning thousands of years and just as many generations. Because God has never been in a hurry. But little by little, festival after festival, Yeshua fulfils that which God gave us a mirror image of. Because these festivals aren\u2019t just random, independent events. They are pieces of a puzzle, each carefully slotting into the other. And with each festival, with each piece of the puzzle that falls into place, we see a little more of the final picture.<\/p>\n

Ah yes, the final picture\u2026 Because that is, after all, what we want. So how do we get a glimpse of the end result? Well, by looking at the pieces of the puzzle of course. And more importantly, at the pieces that have already fallen into place.<\/p>\n

The seven Biblical festivals fall into two main categories: the spring festivals and the fall festivals. The reasoning is obvious. The first four take place during the spring and the second three during the fall. It is that first four, the spring festivals, Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits and Shavuot, that Yeshua has already fulfilled.<\/p>\n

It happened like this. Yeshua is crucified and buried on Passover. For the first three days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, He lays buried. Just to be resurrected from the dead on the festival of Firstfruits. Fifty days later, on the festival of Shavuot, the Holy Spirit is poured out.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve always found it easy to see Yeshua\u2019s fulfilment in Passover and Shavuot. It is so expertly orchestrated, so meticulously planned that the sheer brilliance astounds you. On the day of Passover, at exactly the time that the Passover Lamb would have been offered at the Temple, Yeshua was crucified. He became our perfect, spotless Passover Lamb (1 Corinthians 5:7). His blood secured our redemption so that the Angel of Death would forever pass us over. It\u2019s hard to miss, really. Yeshua\u2019s fulfilment kind of jumps out at you. <\/p>\n

Then there is Shavuot, which celebrates God giving His Torah to the children of Israel at Sinai. It is on this day that the Comforter, Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthner and Standby (John 14:16) that Yeshua promised arrives. And instead of writing His law on tablets, Holy Spirit comes to write it on our hearts. Again, hard to miss the fulfilment. <\/p>\n

But that leaves us with the middle two festivals, Unleavened Bread and Firstfruit. And at first glance, their fulfilment isn\u2019t all that noticeable, that in-your-face obvious. Yet the significance is no less astounding.<\/p>\n

The festival of Unleavened Bread lasts for seven days. During that week, eating any leaven is forbidden. See, leaven represents sin, death and decay. On the opposite side of the spectrum we have Yeshua, Who is holy, pure and sinless. His life, and ultimately also His sacrifice for us, was untouched by the curse of sin. But then came the best part. Ever since Adam and Eve\u2019s choice in the Garden, all of us fell under the curse of death and decay, from dust we came and to dust we would return (Genesis 3:19). But Yeshua was different. Death and decay couldn\u2019t touch Him. In His death, He abolished death (2 Timothy 1:10), conquering it on our behalf (1 Corinthians 15:57) by becoming our righteousness. And securing life everlasting for us. <\/p>\n

Which makes Him the first\u2026 The first-born in God\u2019s family of sons and daughters. Because that is what the festival of Firstfruists celebrates \u2013 bringing the first batch of the harvest to the Temple. As an investment, a sign of more to come. Yeshua is that first batch of the harvest. And He is the sign, the promise, that more sons and daughters of the Father are to come. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead\u201d (1 Corinthians 15:20-21).<\/p>\n

That covers it. The four spring festivals fulfilled. The puzzle pieces that have fallen into place so far. Which leaves us with the remaining three autumn festivals. And as we watch and wait, we remember His promise, \u201cHis going forth is certain as the dawn, and He will come to us as the rain, as the latter rain that waters the earth\u201d (Hosea 6:3). <\/p>\n

\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"pinterest\"<\/a>\"linkedin\"<\/a>\"rss\"<\/a>\"youtube\"<\/a>\"flickr\"<\/a>\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"pinterest\"<\/a>\"linkedin\"<\/a>\"rss\"<\/a>\"youtube\"<\/a>\"flickr\"<\/a><\/div>Follow News from JerusalemShare this page with your friends
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By Elisabeth Hinze There are many reasons why I keep the so-called Jewish festivals. Firstly, because they\u2019re not Jewish. They\u2019re God\u2019s, \u201cthe feasts of the Lord\u201d (Leviticus 23:4). His appointed times. His idea. His plan. But there\u2019s another reason too. A simple one. I keep the Biblical festivals because Yeshua did. We have enough proof more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2230,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10,34],"tags":[372,75,625,631,371,125],"class_list":{"0":"post-2227","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-biblical-spiritual","8":"category-jewish-calendar","9":"tag-festivals-of-the-lord-jewish-calander","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-israeli-news","12":"tag-israeli-life","13":"tag-jewish-festivals","14":"tag-news-from-jerusalem","15":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2227"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2227\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2244,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2227\/revisions\/2244"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}