וַיּוֹצִאֵנוּ יְהוָה, מִמִּצְרַיִם, בְּיָד חֲזָקָה וּבִזְרֹעַ נְטוּיָה, וּבְמֹרָא גָּדֹל–וּבְאֹתוֹת, וּבְמֹפְתִים

The first of the seven feasts given by the LORD is Pesach/Passover. It celebrates the Israelites deliverance from their bondage in Egypt when the “LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great terror and with signs and wonders.” Deuteronomy 26:8

Yeshua celebrated the Passover with His disciples at the Last Supper (Matthew 26:17-30). Later, He fulfilled it when He became our Passover Lamb and was sacrificed. (1 Corinthians 5:7).  Passover is the Feast of Salvation. In both Old and New Testaments, the blood of the Lamb delivers from slavery ~ the Jew from Egypt and the believer in Yeshua from sin. Pesach is celebrated with a special dinner called the ‘Seder’ (Order). This dinner involves figurative foods that remind us of our deliverance out of Egypt, and our deliverance from sin. The Passover is an image of the promised Messiah, who, as the final sacrifice, delivered us and forgave us of our sin (John 1:29).

Yeshua was sacrificed on Passover and has been celebrated every year for nearly 3,500 years. It celebrates the Israelites deliverance from bondage – a story of redemption through the blood of a lamb. Passover has since been fulfilled in Messiah Yeshua/Jesus, “He has become our Passover” (1 Corinthians 5:7). Yeshua died for us on Pesach, redeeming us with His blood. He was buried on Unleavened Bread. He was resurrected on First Fruits and is the fulfillment of Passover. Yeshua (Jesus) is the Jewish Messiah and is the God-given Passover Lamb. In the Scriptures, He is called “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”.

The second mo’ed is the ‘Feast of Unleavened Bread’ and begins the day after Passover and lasts for seven days (Leviticus 23:6-8). Throughout the week, Jewish families remove all leaven from their homes and eat only unleavened bread, called Matzah. In preparation for their deliverance from Egypt, God instructed the children of Israel, “when you hear my voice, leave in haste and do not wait for the bread to rise” (Deuteronomy 16:3). Instant obedience was required, in order for them to be delivered. Yeshua is the fulfillment of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. At Passover, Yeshua took the Matzah and breaking it said, “take this Matzah and eat, this is My body which is given for you”(Luke 22:19). In the Scriptures, leaven or yeast is a symbol of sin (1 Corinthians 5:6-7). In the B’rit Chadasha, the Unleavened Bread is the picture of the body of Messiah Yeshua.

So during this week we eat no foods made with yeast. Our Matzah is bread without yeast, which is pierced and striped – a symbol of Yeshua who was pierced and striped from the flogging and piercing, yet, He had no sin. Removing leaven from our home is a symbol of purifying our lives of sin. Yeshua came so that all our sins would be forgiven. Yeshua paid the price. It was his death that brought us life.

יום  תרוּעה

The first of the Fall Feasts is The Feast of Trumpets, originally known in Hebrew as ‘Yom Teruah’,  יום  תרוּעה which means ‘Day of Blowing’. Today in Judaism, it is also known as Rosh Hashanah, Head of the Year, and is celebrated as the civil Jewish New Year and is considered to be the beginning date of creation, hence, Rosh Hashanah meaning head of the year.

A common greeting is “L’shanah tovah” לשׁנה טוֹבה, which means, “May it be a good year.” Another tradition is to eat apples dipped in honey. The apples and honey represent God’s provision and sweetness that He will manifest to us in the coming year. We read about The Feast of Trumpets (Yom T’ruah) in Leviticus 23:24 – “Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, in the seventh month, on the first of the month (Tishri), you shall have a rest, a reminder by blowing of (shofars) trumpets.”

The trumpet blown on this holy day represents the trumpet blast that will signify the end of the age. This feast is surrounded by a forty-day season of repentance known as Elul, during which the trumpet is blown each day to remind the people to repent.

We read about The Feast of Trumpets (Yom T’ruah יום  תרוּעה) in Leviticus 23:24 – “Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, in the seventh month, on the first of the month (Tishri), you shall have a rest, a reminder by blowing of shofars/trumpets.”   

What does the shofar help us to remember? In the Scriptures, there are two passages that speak of the LORD, Himself, blowing the shofar.

The first passage is found in Exodus 19:13, when the children of Israel prepared themselves to go up to Mount Sinai to meet the LORD.., “When the shofar sounds, they may come up to the mountain.”   The second passage is found in…

1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, “For the Lord Himself shall come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the blast of God’s shofar, and the dead in Messiah shall rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left behind, will be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air…”

In these passages, the blowing of the shofar announces God’s presence.

In Exodus 19, the sound of a shofar from heaven grew louder and louder so that the people who stood at the base of Mount Sinai began to tremble. Then God spoke, and more than a million Israelites heard the voice of Lord God at the same time.

In 1 Thessalonians 4:16, God again blows His shofar from heaven, as Yeshua the Messiah returns to the world manifesting the glory of God!

The Blowing of the Shofar Announces God’s Manifest Presence.

Each year at the sounding of the Shofar on The Feast of Trumpets, we remember that Messiah Jesus, Yeshua HaMashiach, is coming back soon in the clouds to meet us in the air.

יוֹם כּפּוּר

Yom Kippur/Day of Atonement is considered the most holy day on the Hebrew calendar. It is not a feast day, it is a day of fasting. It is a solemn time of acknowledging our sins and seeking God’s forgiveness and mercy.

Yom Kippur was the day that the High Priest would carry the blood of the bull and goat through the veil and into the Most Holy Place in the Tabernacle- the Holy of Holies. The Israelite  High Priest would then pour the blood onto the altar over the Ark of the Covenant and, in doing so, would make atonement for the children of Israel (Leviticus 17:11). The book of Hebrews chapters 9 and 10 tell us that the blood of the bulls and the goats offered up to the LORD in the ancient Temple was a foreshadow of the blood of Yeshua/Jesus. Through the death and shed blood of Yeshua/Jesus, we are forgiven once and for all!

For us, Yom Kippur is a time of thanking and worshiping Yeshua for His sacrifice and forgiveness of our trespasses and sins. We pray for the

time when all of Israel will turn to Messiah Yeshua as prophesied in Zechariah 12:9-10:

And on that day I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. 10 “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn. The New Testament foretells of this same event in Romans 11:26, which states that at Messiah’s return “all Israel will be saved”.