by Hildegard Schneider
The Elohim of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob has his own festival calendar, which he communicated through Moses:
“And YHWH spake unto Moses, saying: Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, concerning the feasts of YHWH which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are MY feasts.“ Leviticus 23:1-2, KJV
Notice that they are the feasts of the LORD, not the feast of the Jews.
All 12 tribes and the foreigners belonged to the Israelites:
“One law shall be to him that is homeborn, and unto the stranger that sojourns among you.” Exodus 12:49, KJV
Therefore, under no circumstances can one draw the conclusion that his feasts are Jewish feasts.
“My feasts are these …” with these words YHWH gave us His festivals as eternal ordinances for our generations in all of our residences.
These instructions caused a real tragedy. Should YHWH really have said that the list of His feasts in Leviticus 23 are His feasts? It’s the same old question asked in the Garden of Eden.
The Shabbat, an integral part of all feasts, was replaced by Sunday, Passover by Easter and the Autumn festivals were even more rigorously ignored and set aside. They were completely abolished, and in the vast majority of Christian circles, they are not observed.
Or, as King Jeroboam had ordered, they were simply celebrated a month later. Israel no longer celebrated the festivals in the seventh month, but in the eighth, calculated according to the biblical counting of the months.
Because of this, YHWH punished Israel’s behavior with 390 years of exile, and as they did not repent, he increased the sentence sevenfold according to his Torah instructions.
And after all this, if you do not obey Me, but walk contrary to Me, then I also will walk contrary to you in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins. Leviticus 26: 27-28
Because of this, the lost ten tribes are still in exile to this very day. Why does YHWH take it so seriously that we be obedient to His instructions on when and how to keep the feasts? Because all festivals reflect his Son. And the Autumn feasts indicate the return of His Son to earth. YHWH wants to make sure we don’t miss the arrival of Yeshua.
The beauty of His feasts lies in a perfect prophetic mirror of his Son Yeshua. The prophetic significance of the spring feasts has already been revealed through the first coming of Yeshua, and the prophecies of the autumn feasts will soon be fulfilled through His second coming.
By celebrating the Autumn feasts, we proclaim His return to the visible and invisible world. That is why we rehearse the Autumn festivals every year, so that when Yeshua actually comes, we will also wait for him at this festival.
The start of the autumn festivals is Yom Teruah, the day of the shofar blowing.
Yom Teruah
The instruction of YHWH for His festivals can be found in Leviticus:
” Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. “ Leviticus 23:24
The Hebrew word for noise blowing is teruah.
The purpose of YHWH is to wake us up on that day, the day of the wake-up call, the sound of the shofar.
Teruah means translated: “Awakening Blast”. The sound of the shofar teaches us to awaken from spiritual sleep.
Paul also speaks of the feast of Yom Teruah, the feast of the blowing of the trumpet, and tells us what happens at the sound of the last trumpet:
„Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.“ 1 Corinthians 15:51-52 KJV
And the letter to the Thessalonians also speaks of the sound of the trumpet:
„For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.“ 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17
Yom Kippur
And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of atonement: it shall be an holy convocation unto you; and you shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord. And you shall do no work in that same day: for it is a day of atonement, to make an atonement for you before the Lord your God.For whatsoever soul it be that shall not be afflicted in that same day, he shall be cut off from among his people. And whatsoever soul it be that does any work in that same day, the same soul will I destroy from among his people.You shall do no manner of work: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.
It shall be unto you a sabbath of rest, and ye shall afflict your souls: in the ninth day of the month at even, from even unto even, shall you celebrate your sabbath“ Leviticus 23:26-32, KJV
In the instructions for the Day of Atonement, we find a great deal of tension between doing nothing and a whole range of activities. His people are not allowed to do anything and the high priest works ceaselessly, so to speak. We are not allowed to do anything but humiliate what is expressed in fasting. We are not to do any work. Yom Kippur is not even one of the pilgrimage festivals, so that it is also ensured that one does not travel.
In contrast to this, over 80 verbs of activity in chapter 16 of Leviticus indicate the concentrated work of the Hgh Priest. Atonement is the entire work of the High Priest. And this, of course, is a mirror of Yeshua. Yeshua made the atonement for us alone and completely, and once and for all. He took our sins upon himself. And all we do is enter into it and respond with faith. Our redemption comes by faith, not by works:
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. Ephesians 2:8-9
Every Yom Kippur we are reminded that our sins are atoned for once and for all through Yeshua.
It is extremely noteworthy that the word Yom Kippur appears in the middle of first five books of Moses. According to the Rabbis, the five books of Moses have 79,977 words. The word in the middle can be found in Leviticus 8:15:
And he slew it; and Moses took the blood, and put it upon the horns of the altar round about with his finger, and purified the altar, and poured the blood at the bottom (yesod) of the altar, and sanctified it, to make reconciliation upon it.
The word, bottom, in Hebrew is is “Yesod”, and it means “foundation”. The first word in Genesis is Breishit and the last word in Deuteronomy is Israel.
So, the question arises: what has been the foundation of Israel – since the beginning? What has been the alliance between YHWH and Israel from the beginning? What is the meaning of the verse that contains the middle word foundation, yesod? Let’s look at this verse again in greater context:
„And he brought the bullock for the sin offering: and Aaron and his sons laid their hands upon the head of the bullock for the sin offering.“ Leviticus 8:14
„And he slew it; and Moses took the blood, and put it upon the horns of the altar round about with his finger, and purified the altar, and poured the blood at the bottom (yesod) of the altar, and sanctified it, to make reconciliation upon it.“ Leviticus 8:15 (KJV)
That is the central message of the Torah. Redemption and atonement come through the High Priest who stood between Israel and YHWH. And Aaron, the high priest, points us to Yeshua, our Great High Priest. Biblical understanding is always cyclical.
On Yom Kippur, sins were forgiven for the whole nation of Israel and now through Yeshua all nations of the world can partake in the atonement. Unfortunately, not yet all of the house of Israel are participating in Yeshua’s atonement. In this respect, this festival still has a prophetic character for the day when the word of the prophet Zechariah is fulfilled
„And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.“ Zechariah 12:10
We look with great hope to this day when all Israel will be converted. The following applies:
“For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead? “ Romans 11:15, KJV
Their repentance will be a tremendous blessing to the nations.
Sukkot
Sukkot, a very happy festival, is the seventh and last festival in Autumn. It is also called the “Festival of Joy”. It begins five days after Yom Kippur on the 15th day of the month of Tishri and ends on the 22nd of Tishri. It is a seven-day festival that ends with an eighth day of the festival. After that is Simchat Torah, and on this day one begins again with reading new the Torah cycle for the year. The first and the eighth days are a Shabbat:
“Also, in the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruit of the land, you shall keep a feast unto the Lord seven days: on the first day shall be a sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a sabbath.” Leviticus 23:39, KJV
The seventh festival, for seven days, in the seventh month! Whereby every single day represents a thousand years of human history.
“And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the feast of tabernacles for seven days unto the Lord. On the first day shall be an holy convocation: you shall do no servile work therein. Seven days you shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord: on the eighth day shall be a holy convocation unto you; and you shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord: it is a solemn assembly; and you shall do no servile work therein.“ Leviticus 23,33-36; NKJV
Sukkot marks the end of the harvest season, the last bringing in of the entire harvest, before the coming winter. That is why it is also called Chag HaAsif, the festival of gathering.
“And the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of your labours, which you have sown in the field: and the feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year, when you have gathered in your labours out of the field. “ Exodus 23:16,NKJV
The harvest symbolizes the end days. The harvest here specifically refers to the people that YHWH gathers, both Jews and non-Jews belonging to Yeshua. The prophet Jeremiah was saddened by the people who are not part of this harvest:
“The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.“ Jeremiah 8:20
In the book of Revelation, the souls of men are compared to bringing in a harvest:
“And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle.
And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for you to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe.
And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped.
And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle.
And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe.
And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.
And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.“ Revelation 14:14-20, KJV
Those who have accepted the Messiah will see the true Sukkot in the Messianic Age. The nations of the world are related to Sukkot. Seventy bulls were sacrificed on the altar during Sukkot, related to the seventy nations. The nations that do not turn to YHWH and do not celebrate Sukkot will be punished. There will be no rain for them.
“And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles.
And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain.
And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, that have no rain; there shall be the plague, wherewith the Lord will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.“ Zechariah 14:16-18
As we have seen, the Autumn feasts are very prophetic: they are associated with the end of the world, the judgment and the wedding feast of the Lamb.
Chag Sameach from all of us at The Torah House!
Prayer Targets
*Pray into Leviticus 23:1-2 ~ Abba, we repent for neglecting your festivals and sometimes even not celebrating the autumn festivals at all.
*Pray into Leviticus 23:3-4 ~ Abba, help us that we walk in your righteous circles, that we understand, honor and keep your festivals until the return of your son.
*Pray into 2 Timothy 2: 24-26 ~ Abba, help us to teach others in love about the meaning of your festivals.
*Pray into Psalm 45:13-15 ~Abba, help us get ready for the big wedding day.