If we are diligent in reading God’s Word, sometimes we will find a statement that stops us cold, and sets us to thinking “How does this apply to me, or does it?” Such a statement is found in Leviticus 23:2. “The feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are My feasts” (NKJV).

If you mention these feasts to anyone, chances are they will come back with “Oh, you mean the Jewish feasts”. Read verse two again. God says they are “My feasts” – they are not Jewish feasts – and has invited, no, commanded us to proclaim and observe them, “You shall proclaim”. Paul writes to Timothy, reminding him that:

“All scripture (the only scripture available at the time Paul wrote that was what we call the Old Testament) is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness”,
2 Timothy 3:16-17, NKJV.

But someone might bring out that Moses was speaking to the Children of Israel, for those die-hards Paul tells the Gentile Church in Rome that they were grafted into the tree of Israel. See Romans 11. Throughout the New Testament we see what God applied to Israel applied to Christians as well. You can find Christ and His disciples keeping the Sabbaths and Holy Convocations throughout the Gospel. In fact, the Holy Spirit was given on one of God’s Holy Convocations – the day of Pentecost called the Day of First Fruits in the Old Testament. Compare Leviticus 23:10-12, Numbers 28:26, and Acts 2.

So let’s take a look at the emphasis the Bible places on God’s feasts. Let’s start at the first few verses of Leviticus 23. The Bible names them “the feasts of the Lord” and God says they are His feasts, then He commands His people to proclaim them. Then in verse four, the scripture repeats their name and repeats God’s instructions to proclaim them, adding they are to be proclaimed in their appointed seasons. God’s Feasts are Holy Convocations – times of gathering together in and with the presence of the Lord.

The Hebrew word used in Leviticus 23:2 translated as “feasts” is mo’ed. This word means “appointed times”. God is saying His feasts are “My appointed times” – Holy Convocations – which you shall proclaim and observe. The word mo’ed first appears in Genesis 1:14, here God said “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons (mo’ed) and for days and years”. We see here that God’s appointed times or meetings were so important to God that He set the lights in the heavens as the means of calculating them from creation. But there is a hint in Isaiah that these appointed times existed even before creation as we know it.

In Isaiah 14 we see that Lucifer, one of the anointed cherubs who covered God’s throne (see Ezekiel 28:14), rebelled against God. Lucifer turned Satan said
“I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God (the angels); I will also sit on the mount of the congregation (mo’ed, the appointed times of God) – I will be like the Most High”, Isaiah 14:13-14, NKJV.

Satan wanted to take over God’s appointed times and make them his. This rebellion of Satan and his demons took place before the world as we know it was created. We know this because shortly after God created Adam and Eve, Satan appeared to Eve as the serpent in rebellion against God. Another clue to the importance of God’s festivals is found in the book of Revelations, where John records Jesus’ words about Himself “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world”, Revelation 13:8, NKJV. The very act of Salvation through Jesus Christ’s death is told to them. Now do we begin to see how much importance God
places on them?

The apostle Paul writes to the Gentile church at Corinth stating :“
For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast”,
1Corinthians 5:7-8, NKJV.

Paul is not only referring to the taking of the Passover symbols but the full feast of unleavened bread, lasting seven days, in which two Holy Convocations are included. Paul also wrote the largely Gentile church at Colosse, explaining the importance of God’s festivals as prophetic, revealing the salvational acts of Jesus Christ.

“So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ”
Colossians 2:16-17, NKJV.

What Paul is telling the Colossians is written for our admonition as well. Now that should make you sit up and notice. This implies that these things somehow reveal the salvational acts of Jesus Christ. God’s festivals were so important to Paul that he would even cut his journeys short so he could be in Jerusalem on the Feast Day, see Acts 20:16 and 1 Corinthians 16:8.

Luke, writing in the books of Acts, mentions the feast of Atonement: “The Fast was already over”, Acts 27:9, NKJV, so the reader would understand why “sailing was now dangerous” (the festival of Atonement falls in the Fall, usually our month of October).

John, in writing the book of Revelation, says he was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day. John was not talking about Sunday nor the Sabbath, but the prophetic Return, the second coming of Jesus Christ.

So lets take a good look at what God’s appointed feasts reveal about the salvational acts of and through Jesus Christ. Leviticus 23:3:
“Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work on it; it is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings”.

On the sixth day of creation, God finished the physical creation, with mankind created in physical perfection, see Genesis 1:31. But mankind was to be made into the very image of God (Genesis 1:26-27). To complete His creation, God gave him the seventh day Sabbath, a holy time of communicating with God, and Jesus the Christ, Lord of the Sabbath (Mark 2:28).

Return to Leviticus 23- next comes the first yearly Holy Convocation to be proclaimed. Leviticus 23:5, “On the fourteenth day of the first month at twilight is the Lord’s Passover”.

Like all of God’s festivals, you have to search God’s word to get the full understanding and meaning of the Passover. Suffice it to say, that the Passover – Christ’s willing sacrifice –is the beginning step of God’s plan for mankind’s salvation. Leviticus 23:6-8, “And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord – On the first day you shall have a holy convocation – The seventh day shall be a holy convocation.”

Jesus Christ died on Passover day, “the preparation Day”, Mark 15:42. Jesus Christ’s death –Christ’s blood covering our sins, allowing us access to the Father (see John 14:6) – prepared the way for the keeping of the first holy convocation of the days of Unleavened Bread. The days of Unleavened Bread represent repentance and the putting out of our lives sin and replacing it with the unleavened bread of life, Jesus Christ. (See 1 Corinthians 5:6-8 and John 6:3240.) Jesus Christ made the removal of Sin from our lives possible through His death.

Next comes the ceremony of the first fruits. This is one ceremony we are not asked to replicate. “You shall bring a sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest. He shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted on your behalf; on the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it”, Leviticus 23:10-11, NKJV.

This represents Jesus Christ as “the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep”,(1 Corinthians
15:20, NKJV) “the firstborn from the dead”, Colossians 1:18, NKJV. John shows us that the wave sheaf offering was fulfilled just after Christ’s Resurrection. When Mary approached Jesus’s tomb, He said to her “Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God’.”, John 20:17, NKJV.

We see that Christ then ascended to His Father and was accepted on our behalf when later the same day He appeared to the disciples and showed them His hands and His side. John 20:19-20.

As Paul writes, “each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming”, 1 Corinthians 15:23, NKJV.

The wave sheaf offering plays an important part in the next two festivals. Leviticus 23:15, “And you shall count for yourselves – from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering: seven Sabbaths shall be completed.”

This festival is variously called the Feast of Weeks (Exodus 34:22) or the Feast of Harvest (Exodus 23:16). It is unique in that it revolves around our “laborers which you have sown in the field”. Jesus talks about this harvest feast, recorded in John 4:35:
“Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the (fall) harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest.”

Christ then goes on to explain that there is labor involved in the harvest and that there will be wages paid that include Eternal Life. The focus of the Feast of the Harvest is all about personal evangelism.

The second feast that ties back to the wave sheaf is the day of the first fruits. Leviticus 23:16, “Count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath; then you shall offer a new grain offering to the Lord.”

Numbers 28:26, states: “And on the day of first fruits when you bring a new grain offering to the Lord after your weeks have been counted, you shall have a holy convocation”.

In the New Testament, the Day of First Fruits is called Pentecost (Acts 2). This is the day tradition tells us the Ten Commandments were given. It is the day in the New Testament when the power of the Holy Spirit is first manifested. Christ’s salvational acts are plainly revealed in the Spring and summer festivals.

Now we will look at the Fall feasts. Leviticus 23:24, “In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a sabbath-rest, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation.”

This day of rest and meeting together looks forward to the Return of Jesus Christ. The trumpet here is the ram’s horn, or traditionally the trumpet of war, picturing Jesus Christ’s Return to Earth along with His saints and army to take back this Earth from Satan and to rule as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Revelation 17-20. Leviticus 23:27-28, “Also the tenth day of this seventh month shall be the Day of Atonement. It shall be a holy convocation for you; you shall afflict your souls (fast) – And you shall do no work on that same day, for it is the Day of Atonement, to make atonement for you before the Lord your God.”

Also, see Leviticus 16 – This day is considered the most solemn day of Rest – No work is allowed. It pictures the two goats, one sacrificed for the forgiveness of sins, the other representing the Azazel. This day also pictures being able to come face to face with God, as the High Priest was able to do on that day, and at the same time Satan being bound in the bottomless pit (Revelation 20:1-3), no longer able to terrorize the world for 1000 years.

Next comes the Feast of Tabernacles. Leviticus 23:34, “The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days to the Lord.” Verse 42, “You shall dwell in booths for seven days.”

This feast pictures the reign of Jesus Christ on this Earth with His saints, ruling for 1000 years. (Revelation 20:4-6.) A time of peace, safety, and prosperity such as the world has never known since before Adam and Eve bowed to Satan.

John 7:37, “On the last day (the seventh day), that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out saying, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me – out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive”.

The last, or seventh, day of the feast represents the Great White Throne Judgment – the second Resurrection in which millions of people will be resurrected to life – they will have the opportunity to receive the Holy Spirit upon Repentance and baptism. See Revelation 20:11-15 and Acts 2:38.

There remains yet one more Holy Convocation. Leviticus 23:36, “For seven days you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. On the eighth day, you shall have a holy convocation – It is a sacred assembly, and you shall do no customary work on it.”

The Eighth Day is special, set aside from the Feast. They were allowed to return home on the seventh day, the Feast of Tabernacles being over they were no longer required to dwell in booths (see Leviticus 23:41-42), but yet were called back by God to come again “on the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation – It is a sacred assembly”. In John chapters seven and eight, we see this very thing happening. John 7:37-39, we see Jesus preaching “on the last day” of the feast, calling any who thirst to come to Him and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus was giving everyone the opportunity to repent and be baptized, and upon doing so they would receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This was prophetic “because Jesus was not yet glorified”, verse 39. See also Acts 2:38, where Peter made a similar offer after Jesus’ glorification. Returning to John chapter 7:53, we see that everyone returned to their own homes because the seven-day feast was over. But in John 8:2, we see everyone returning.

“Now early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people came to Him; and He sat down and taught them.” This is the eighth day, which represents a time beyond. All the other Holy Convocations have been completed; on the eighth day, mankind can enter into the presence of God. It is the time John wrote about. “I saw a new heaven…”, see Revelation 21:1-7.

Welcome to God’s Holy Convocations.