BIBLICAL FEASTS
By Otilia Cisneros

Pesach/Passover, Shavuot/Pentecost, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot

PESACH OR PASSOVER
There has only been one single Passover day in history, the day God’s angel “ Passed over” those door frames that had the blood of the lamb in the houses of the Hebrew people in Egypt, and their firstborn sons were spared from death, and the following morning they were free, free from slavery and free to go to their promised land. God asked them to remember this day and to never forget how God had performed miracles among them.

Remembering this day, the following generations would sacrifice a lamb and pour its blood in the altar of the temple. Once the temple was destroyed the Jewish people have placed a bone of a lamb in the center of the table.

Jesus, or Jeshua, or Y’shua, (salvation from YHWH) is the sacrificial lamb who died for our sins, those who are “covered by His blood” by faith in Him have eternal death “Passover” them; which is the Salvation from YHWH, there is no other was of salvation, salvation is only provided by God himself.
(back to top)

SHAVUOT OR PENTECOST
Fifty days after Passover God gave the Jewish people the Torah on Mount Sinai and therefore Judaism is born. God asked the Jewish people to remember this day for generations to come.

The Greek word for five is “penta” the Greek word for fifty is Pentecost, the reason many Jewish people were in Jerusalem (Acts 2) was to celebrate Shavuot, on this day God gives the Holy Spirit and the church is born.

The two greatest gifts from God to guide human lives were given on the same feast, a day chosen by God.
(back to top)

ROSH HASHANAH
The feast of trumpets, celebrates creation and therefore it is taken as the beginning of the year, with the blowing of the shofar.

YOM KIPPUR
The day of atonement; before the temple was destroyed in Jerusalem, the Jewish priest would enter the Holy of Holies to offer sacrifice for the forgiveness of the sins of the nation., this day was also a day of fasting, prayer and confession.

Without the temple, the Jewish people have not been able to bring the sacrifice, but they still fast, pray and confess, the problem comes when we read Lev 17:11 “For the life of the criture is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life” The blood of Y’shua has made atonement for all you believe in Him.
(back to top)

SUKKOT or The Feast of Tabernacles.
Jewish people have been building Sukkahs (tents made of branches) for generations remembering that their forefathers lived in these tents when they were traveling in the desert after leaving Egypt. The feast last a week, and it at this time that the Jewish people would bring the yearly contribution for the temple, they would bring a little each day and on the last day they would bring the rest, at least a tenth of their gains in the previous year, at this time the people would pray for blessing on their work for the coming year and they would pour water on the floor asking God to water their fields. When reading John 7 (the whole chapter is about the feast of Sukkot) and understanding the context of this feast, we see that:
1.“The middle of the feast” (John 7:14) is three or four days after it has begun.
2.When people are praying for blessing on their fields, Jesus declares “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture (The TNK = Old Testament) has said, streams of living water, will flow from within him” ( (John 7:38) In the feast context Jesus is Saying he is God Himself.
(back to top)