The biblical festivals reveal the plan of God
In this video we’re explaining the meaning of the biblical holy days and festivals revealed in the New Testament.
You will see how each of the seven festivals picture the seven major steps in God’s plan of salvation for mankind. It is only through this understanding that we can know what God is doing in the world and where we are in Bible prophecy.
Passover is the first biblical festival
The first biblical festival of the year is Passover, which points to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and the forgiveness of our past sins that comes through His shed blood.
Foreshadowing Christ’s sacrifice and His blood covering our sins, ancient Israel was commanded to kill the Passover lamb, and smear its blood on the doorposts and lintel of their homes so the death angel would pass over them (Exodus 12:3–7, 13–14).
The ultimate meaning of these events was fulfilled by Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 5:7 says, “For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.”
In Revelation 13:8 He’s called “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”
New Testament instruction and symbols for Passover: Unleavened bread, wine, and foot-washing
In addition to Jesus giving His life as the Passover Lamb for all of mankind, He gave the new symbols of bread and wine with spiritual meaning for His followers to keep even after His death.
In the gospel accounts of Jesus’ last Passover with His disciples, He washed their feet and taught them to do the same.
He said, “If I then… have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you” (John 13:14-15).
Then He took bread and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me” (1 Corinthians 11:23–24).
Then He took some wine, and said, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me” (1 Corinthians 11:24).
For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes (1 Corinthians 11:26).
- The washing of feet points to the humility and serving attitude of our Savior that we are to reflect.
- The unleavened bread to be eaten on the Passover points to the broken body of His sacrifice, “by whose stripes you were healed” as Peter states (1 Peter 2:24), for “He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses” (Matthew 8:17).
- And the wine points to His shed blood through which we have the forgiveness of our past sins (Ephesians 1:7; Romans 3:23–25; Romans 5:9).
The Feast of Unleavened Bread is the second biblical festival
This brings us to the second festival, the Days of Unleavened Bread, reminding us year after year to put sin out of our lives, and to grow in the character and righteousness of Jesus Christ.
Exodus 12 says:
Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. …you shall remove leaven from your houses… For seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses… You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your dwellings you shall eat unleavened bread (Exodus 12:15–20).
There are two main parts to this holy day period.
Leavening symbolizes sin
First, we are to put leaven out of our lives, but not just physical leaven. We must also put out what the leaven symbolizes during this time. And if we let the Bible interpret the Bible, we see that leaven represents sin.
Repentance is the proper response to Christ’s sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins and salvation from death through His blood.
Unleavened bread symbolizes righteousness
Second, God commands us to eat unleavened bread during this seven-day period. But not just physical unleavened bread, also what the unleavened bread symbolizes during this time—that is, Jesus Christ and His righteousness.
Let’s read what Jesus Himself taught during and around the Days of Unleavened Bread.
In Matthew 16:6, He taught to “take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.”
In John 6, He said, “I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world” (John 6:51).
The Apostle Paul, writing to the Gentile Church at Corinth during the Days of Unleavened Bread was addressing a terrible sin the entire congregation was accepting.
He said, “You are puffed up, and have not rather mourned… Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?” (1 Corinthians 5:2–6).
Like leavening, sin puffs us up—with pride
In other words, like leaven, the sin they had committed made them prideful and puffed them up. Instead, they should have been humbled and sorrowful for their sin.
You might think of the difference between a loaf of leavened bread compared to flat, unleavened bread.
He continued with, “Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened” (1 Corinthians 5:7).
In other words, you’ve removed the physical leaven from your homes, now, get the spiritual leaven of sin out of your lives and become a new person.
Let us keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread
He went on to tell this Gentile congregation to keep the feast, but not just the physical part. They must apply the spiritual aspect as well.
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 5:8).
Pentecost is the third biblical festival
The next step is in the third festival, the Day of Pentecost. It points to the part of God’s plan when His people receive His Holy Spirit. This holy day is also known as the Feast of Firstfruits or the Feast of Weeks (Leviticus 23:9–22).
In Acts 2 we read:
When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place… And they were filled with the Holy Spirit… (Acts 2:1–4).
Only 120 disciples (Acts 1:15) initially received God’s Spirit, though Peter’s sermon inspired more to be added to the Church. He told the crowd, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38).
God gives His spirit to those who repent and are baptized. But God is not calling everyone to Jesus Christ at this time.
Jesus said in John 6:65, “No one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father.”
Pentecost is also called the Feast of Firstfruits
This is why the Day of Pentecost is also known as the Feast of Firstfruits. The faithful, repentant, obedient individuals made righteous by the blood of Jesus Christ, and who have received God’s Spirit after baptism and the laying on of hands, are the firstfruits of God.
We can see this in Revelation 14:4 where it says, “These were redeemed from among men, being firstfruits to God and to the Lamb.”
And in James 1:18 where they are called, “a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.”
The firstfruits are the smaller, initial group of people whom God is calling
We see from this holy day that God is currently working with a very small group of people, the firstfruits, before the return of Christ, but as we will see in sixth and seventh festivals—the Feast of Tabernacles and the Last Great Day—God will eventually make His Spirit available to all who have ever lived, who are willing to receive it.
But before that, we have the fourth step in God’s plan, pictured by the Feast of Trumpets.
The Feast of Trumpets is the fourth biblical festival
This holy day pictures the one-year period immediately before Jesus’ return called the Day of the Lord, during which the seven trumpet plagues of Revelation will be unleashed on mankind.
In the Old Testament, trumpets were used for several purposes, including two key reasons that apply to the Feast of Trumpets: One is the announcement of imminent war and destruction (Numbers 10:1–10), and the other is the coronation of a king (1 Kings 1:34, 39).
Each of the seven trumpets of Revelation announces devastating destruction that will come upon mankind.
Revelation 8:6 says, “The seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.”
Then we read of the destruction to follow in the rest of chapter 8 and chapter 16.
Revelation 11:15 describes the blast of the seventh trumpet:
Then the seventh angel sounded: and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!”
After this announcement of the King of kings, the final bowl judgments are poured out as part of the finality of the seventh trumpet (Revelation 15).
This final trumpet will also be the time of the first resurrection.
Paul wrote:
We shall all be changed—in a moment in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed (1 Corinthians 15:51–52).
Many in the world will not fully understand what is happening during this terrible time, but faithful Christians will understand because they keep the Feast of Trumpets.
Atonement is the fifth biblical festival.
The fifth step of God’s plan is pictured by the Day of Atonement. It points to Satan the Devil being put away so he can no longer deceive mankind, and man can finally be at one with God.
Leviticus 16 describes a ritual on this day involving two goats. One was for the LORD, which was to be sacrificed as a sin offering, while the other was selected as the scapegoat, or more properly, Azazel, which was to have the sins of the people and the guilt associated with those sins, laid upon its head and to be let go “in the wilderness” (Leviticus 16:10).
The first goat pointed to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, which makes atonement for the sins we’ve committed.
The second goat foreshadowed what would happen to Satan the Devil as part of God’s plan at the end of the age. He will first be bound in a bottomless pit for a thousand years and, eventually, be thrown into the lake of fire.
Atonement pictures Satan and his sin-filled influence being removed.
Why is this part of God’s plan?
Satan, whom Jesus called the “ruler of this world” (John 14:30), has not deceived just a few people, but rather the whole world as we see in Revelation 12:9.
Under his veil of lies, peoples and nations have been in rebellion against God for the last 6,000 years of human history.
After the return of Jesus Christ and the final bowl judgments of the seventh trumpet, Satan the Devil will be bound for 1,000 years to prepare the world for the reign of Jesus Christ and His saints.
Revelation 20 describes the scene:
Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished (Revelation 20:1–3).
Eventually, after the thousand years, Satan will be released for a brief time (Revelation 20:7), then “cast into the lake of fire and brimstone… where he will be tormented day and night forever…” (Revelation 20:10).
The Feast of Tabernacles is the sixth biblical festival
Those thousand years are the sixth step in God’s plan and are pictured by the Feast of Tabernacles.
With humanity humbled by the Tribulation and Day of the Lord, Jesus Christ having returned as King of kings and Lord of lords, the faithful saints having been resurrected, and Satan the Devil having been locked away from mankind, the Feast of Tabernacles pictures the 1,000-year reign of Jesus and His Saints, known as the Millennium.
Picking it back up in Revelation after Satan is put away, it says:
And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them… and they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years… they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years (Revelation 20:4–6).
It is during this time that God will make His Spirit available to all those who surrender their life to Jesus Christ once their mind is opened to the truth. It will be a time of peace and prosperity like this world has never known.
Of this time, God says in Jeremiah 31:33, “I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”
He also says in Isaiah 61, “And they shall rebuild the old ruins, and they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the ruined cities, the desolations of many generations… everlasting joy shall be theirs” (Isaiah 61:4, 7).
And we see in Zechariah 14 that “the LORD shall be King over all the earth… And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations… shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and… keep the Feast of Tabernacles” (Zechariah 14:9,16).
The Last Great Day is the seventh biblical festival
After the Millennium comes the seventh and final step in God’s plan, revealed by the Last Great Day. This is the eighth day commanded in Leviticus 23:36 to be observed following the seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles.
This day looks forward to the second resurrection at the end of the Millennium (Revelation 20:5). Revelation 20:11 says:
Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it… And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God… And the dead were judged according to their works… The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them.
Jesus talked about this future time, when peoples from all generations who did not know the truth would be raised alongside each other (Matthew 11:21–22; 12:41–42).
It is recorded in John 7:37.
On the last 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” (John 7:37).
It is at this time God’s Spirit and the opportunity to come to Jesus Christ will be opened to all who have ever lived.
While not everyone will choose to surrender to God, Peter says, “God is not slack concerning His promise… [and He is] not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).
And Paul said that God “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim 2:3–4).
Everyone will be offered the opportunity of salvation. The question of when is simply a matter of timing.
Those He is calling now to repentance are part of the firstfruits pictured by the Day of Pentecost. Some will respond to Jesus Christ during the Millennium, and God’s Spirit will be poured out on those who accept Jesus Christ and God’s way of life during the Great White Throne judgment.
Therefore, God is fair. And those who have never had a chance to know the truth about salvation before they died will finally have their opportunity in the Great White Throne Judgment.
Romans 2:11 declares “there is no partiality with God.”
The seven festivals and holy days in the Bible reveal God’s plan of salvation
The festivals and holy days express the incredible plan that God has had in store for mankind since the beginning of creation. The meaning is profound and, when understood, it is humbling to consider that He has done all of this for all of us because of His great love for us.
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