The Biblical Feasts
The seven appointed feasts of the Lord (Moedim) — their commandment in Leviticus 23, their typology, and how they are fulfilled in Christ past and future.
“Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, Concerning the feasts of the LORD, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my feasts.”
I. The Moedim — Appointed Times
The Hebrew word translated "feast" in Leviticus 23 is moed — an appointed time, a divine appointment, a rehearsal. The seven feasts the Lord commanded Israel are not merely festivals; they are a prophetic calendar. Each one rehearses, in advance, something the Lord is going to do — first in the mission of the Messiah and ultimately in the last days.
“Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.”
Paul's phrase is exact: the feasts are shadows cast by a body yet to come. To study them is to read the Lord's own schedule of redemption.
II. The Spring Feasts — Already Fulfilled
The first four feasts fall in the spring of the Jewish year (Nisan–Sivan). Each was fulfilled on its own calendar day in the first coming of Christ.
| Passover · Pesach (Lev 23:5) | The lamb slain; its blood sprinkled on the doorposts so the destroyer passes over. Fulfilled: Christ crucified as the Passover Lamb on Passover day (John 19:14; 1 Corinthians 5:7). |
|---|---|
| Unleavened Bread · Matzot (Lev 23:6–8) | Seven days of eating bread without leaven — the putting away of sin. Fulfilled: Christ's sinless body in the tomb, the bread broken without corruption. |
| Firstfruits · Bikkurim (Lev 23:9–14) | The wave offering of the first sheaf of the barley harvest. Fulfilled: Christ risen as "the firstfruits of them that slept" (1 Corinthians 15:20) on the morrow after the Sabbath — resurrection morning. |
| Weeks · Shavuot / Pentecost (Lev 23:15–22) | Fifty days after Firstfruits — two leavened loaves waved before the Lord. Fulfilled: the outpouring of the Holy Ghost on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2), gathering Jew and Gentile into one body. |
III. The Fall Feasts — Yet to Be Fulfilled
The last three feasts fall in the seventh month (Tishri). None has yet been fulfilled in the same literal, calendar-day way the spring feasts were. Each points forward to the second coming, the atonement of a nation, and the kingdom.
| Trumpets · Yom Teruah (Lev 23:23–25) | A day of shofar blasts — a calling to awaken. Anticipates the trump of God announcing Christ's return (1 Thessalonians 4:16; Matthew 24:31). |
|---|---|
| Day of Atonement · Yom Kippur (Lev 23:26–32) | The single day each year when the high priest entered the Holy of Holies with the blood of atonement. Anticipates the national repentance of Israel when they look upon him whom they pierced (Zechariah 12:10; D&C 45:51–53). |
| Tabernacles · Sukkot (Lev 23:33–43) | Seven days dwelling in booths, remembering the wilderness. Anticipates the Millennial reign — the nations coming up year by year to keep the feast of tabernacles before the King (Zechariah 14:16–19). |
IV. The Sabbath as the Chief Appointment
Before the seven yearly feasts are listed in Leviticus 23, the chapter opens with the Sabbath — the weekly appointment from which all the others draw their rhythm. The seventh day is itself a shadow of the seventh millennium: the rest of God, the Millennial reign, the final Sukkot.
“For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works … There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.”
V. Why a Christian Studies the Feasts
- They are the prophetic calendar of redemption — the Lord's schedule, not man's.
- They interpret the death, resurrection, and Pentecost of Christ as calendar-exact fulfilments, not coincidences.
- They teach the second coming by typology — what kind of day each fall feast represents.
- They bind the Old Testament, the New Testament, and the Restoration into a single literal story.
- They are, in Paul's language, "a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ" (Colossians 2:17).
The feasts were never abolished by the gospel — they were fulfilled by it, and their remaining shadows still point forward. To dismiss them is to throw away the calendar God himself gave for reading his own redemption.
