Meaning of the Pilgrim Feasts

"Three times a year all of your men must appear before the LORD your God at the place I will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened bread, the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Tabernacles. No man should appear before the LORD empty-handed: Each of you must bring a gift in proportion to the way the LORD your God has blessed you." - Deuteronomy 16:16, 17

Three of the seven feasts the LORD gave to Israel required all the men to participate. If you wanted to be part of Israel, you had to keep these feasts. These were called the Pilgrim feasts because they involved traveling to the site where the feast were held. Although they were historically held in Jerusalem, God made certain all understood they would be in a place which He chose. These were the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles. Prophetically, this is telling us that there is something about these feasts that must be in each of our lives to allow us to come before God.

The Feast of Unleavened Bread began one day after Passover and lasted for seven days. Passover represents Jesus Christ's sacrifice for us on the cross. He was the Passover Lamb. You cannot keep the Feasts of the LORD until you have accepted His sacrifice for your sins. Then the Feast of Unleavened Bread represents the searching out of all leaven, which is a type of sin, from your life. The Apostle Paul likens this to a life-time effort:

"Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore, let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." - 1 Corinthians 5:7,8

Paul warns us not to leave little crumbs of leaven which will destroy us. "Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?" (1 Corinthians 5.6). The message is clear. We cannot live with one foot in the world and one in the kingdom of God! We cannot fulfill the Feast of Unleavened Bread and still live in sin. Therefore, let us take the candle of the Lord, which is the Holy Spirit, and search ourselves. As Paul wrote, "if we judge ourselves, we will not be judged." (1 Corinthians. 11.31).

Incorporated in this feast was the Feast of Firstfruits, which occurred on the second day of this feast. The first ripe barley was presented before the LORD as a testimony of faith that the greater harvest would follow. Jesus was the firstfruits offering to God, but, we also are called a firstfruits offering: "Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures." - James 1:18. As we are part of His harvest fulfillment, so, we should work that there would be many in our harvest fulfillment. The idea is that we are 'set apart' for God. But, we cannot be this firstfruits offering if our lives are mixed with the leaven of the world. These feasts negate the idea of 'Sunday' Christians!

The Feast of weeks is commonly called Pentecost as it occurs 50 days after the Feast of Firstfruits. At this feast the firstfruits of the wheat harvest was waved before the LORD in the form of two leavened loaves. Though the Firstfruits Feast used unleavened bread because Jesus was sinless, this feast used leavened bread because it represents believers, who are redeemed but not sinless. These two loaves represent Jew and Gentile believers. "For He Himself is our peace, who made both [Jew and Gentile] one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation . . . to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace." - Ephesians 2.14, 15. This feast was prophetically fulfilled by Jesus as He tarried with the disciples 40 days after His resurrection, then told them to pray for10 days longer, when they would be "endued with power from on high" and receive the "promise of the Father". On the day of Pentecost, they were all baptized in the Holy Spirit, speaking with other tongues.

When Moses brought the tablets of the Law down from Mt. Sinai, about 3000 perished in the camp because of sin (Exodus 32:28). But when the Holy Spirit fell on Pentecost, about 3000 were saved. God poured His Spirit into their hearts and wrote His law on tablets of flesh - Hebrews 8:10. While the first law on stone brought death, the second on hearts of flesh brought life. It is God's plan that every believer be baptized in the Holy Spirit. It is the enduing with power that enables us to live as we aught.

The Feast of Tabernacles, often referred to as Sukkot, is the last of the Pilgrim Feasts. It is a seven day feast beginning on the 15th of the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar, Tishri. It represented the final harvest of livestock, grains, and fruits and is often called the 'Feast of Ingathering'. It was celebrated with great joy, both for God's past goodness and provision and for His present goodness and provision. It began with a Sabbath day and ended with a Sabbath day in which the people were to meet with God. It teaches two very important concepts: 1) wait on the LORD for His guidance and blessing on all your endeavors whether they be great or small, and 2) be thankful for the results whatever they are and give thanks to God at the end of the time of harvest. This feast, more than all others, reminded people of their pilgrim status on this earth.

"And you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of beautiful trees, branches of palm trees, the boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God for seven days. ... You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All who are native Israelites shall dwell in booths, that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God." - Leviticus 23:40-43.

"These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country .... But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for He hath prepared for them a city." - Hebrews 11:13-16.

We must be reminded that we are strangers on this earth, here for a short time to gather fruit for our God. He is not ashamed to claim us if we have that attitude. The Feast of Tabernacles helps to remind us of these important detail of our salvation.

God specifically commanded them to be joyful, to rejoice, like King David did when he brought the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem with dancing and music and singing. During this feast the Water Ceremony was held in which the high priest took water from the Pool of Siloam and walked through the Water Gate, so-called because of this ceremony, entered the Temple and poured out water as one of the priest repeated Isaiah 12:3, "Therefore with joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation." As the priest sang Psalm 118, a Messianic Psalm, the people joined in "Save now, I pray, O LORD; O LORD, I pray, send now prosperity" - Psalm 118:25. As the people sang, the priests with palm branches in their hands marched around the altar. This is exactly what was happening as Jesus made His triumphal entry into Jerusalem and the people shouted Hosanna, Hebrew for Save now, and waved palm branches. They were proclaiming Him Messiah. It was at this feast that Jesus stood and called out,

"If any one is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him. By this He meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive." - John 7:38, 39.

There are many other aspects of this feast which teach about the Lord, such as the Temple Lighting ceremony which took place at night as they celebrated the water ceremony, in which the Temple was filled with light and impressive torch light dances took place by the priests. It was at this celebration that Jesus stood and cried out, "I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life." - John 8:12.

The Feast of Tabernacles is the one feast of the three Pilgrim feasts that has not been completely fulfilled prophetically. It will be fulfilled when the Lord Jesus returns again to deliver His people and defeat wickedness. Then He will tabernacle with His people as His 1000 year reign begins.

These three feasts were required to be kept by the LORD Himself. We cannot fully please Him without doing so. The Feast of Unleavened Bread reminds us that we need a Passover Lamb and that we must purge out leaven ,sin, from our lives to walk with Him. When we first accept the Passover Lamb's sacrifice for us, we begin a harvest for the Lord. Then the Feast of Weeks, or Pentecost, reminds us that our harvest should be increasing, but that cannot happen without the full working of the Holy Spirit in our lives. If we despise any of the Spirit's gifts for us, we despise Him. And we despise the Lord too, as we willingly compromise his harvest. Lastly, the Feast of Tabernacles reminds us that we are pilgrims, sojourners on this earth for a short time. During that time we learn that He alone is our light and our living water, without which there would be no harvest. It also reminds us that He is coming again and that we will partake of the greatest harvest then. There is yet more for us to discover about these feasts as we pray and spend time in our Sabbaths with the Lord.