AN INTRODUCTION TO THE SEVEN FEASTS OF THE LORD
The Seven Feasts of the Lord are called in scripture the 'Feasts of the Lord'. In the Hebrew scripture the word for 'Lord' in these passages is 'YHVH', the name of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. These feasts are key waypoints on a roadmap in holy history. They tell the story of the main Covenant events between God and His Elect people as they occur here on the earth and down through time. It is a long and epic saga, with a beginning and a conclusion. The story begins back with the people God called out to Himself in Old Testament times. And it extends right through to the Apocalyptic events John saw in vision and wrote about in the Book of Revelation. Indeed the very next feast, the Feast of Trumpets is coming up in some dark future night. Something momentous will happen on the new moon of Tishrei that year. And the upcoming feast that awaits fulfilment will express itself in its New Covenant fulfilment. It will be a blockbuster day in holy history. As we shall see, the Feast of Trumpets will almost certainly be the one that will usher us into the 70th week of Daniel and the final seven years of this present age. At the end of those seven years the final Day of Atonement will come into its ultimate fulfilment as well. This will be the very last day of this age.
The Seven Feasts of the Lord will take us into the Apocalypse and beyond. The seventh feast, the joyous Feast of Tabernacles, will come into its ultimate fulfillment as the true new age dawns. This will bring in the Millennium of Messiah, that glorious age to come. The deserts will bloom and streams of waters will break forth upon the dry ground. God will camp out with mankind for 1,000 years as Emmanuel, "God with us". And as a shepherd feeds and tends his sheep He will draw His people to Himself.
Is there an 8th feast? Might the Feast of Hannukah, the festive winter season of the Eternal Light celebrate the glorification of all the saints from both this age and the 1,000 year Millennial age to come? Our Apostle Paul gives us a glimpse of that. - 1Cor. 15:24-28 But that will be a study for another time.
The first four of the Seven Feasts of the Lord have already been fulfilled. They were fulfilled in spectacular fashion. They were fulfilled right on the auspicious Hebrew calendar dates on which they have been celebrated in times past, the same dates that will be celebrated forever more. The three spring feasts were fulfilled by Jesus our Saviour. And the summer Feast of Pentecost was fulfilled as well. It was fulfilled by the Holy Spirit 2,000 years ago. Here is the situation so far.
