Feasts of the Bible
The Feasts of the Bible and How They Point to Christ
God gave Israel a calendar of appointed feasts, and the New Testament calls them a shadow of things to come, whose body, whose substance, is Christ. Passover, Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits, Pentecost, Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, Tabernacles, and the weekly Sabbath each hold a picture of the gospel, drawn into the life of a nation centuries before Jesus came to fulfill them.
The key that opens them allWhich are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.Colossians 2:17 (KJV)
The apostle Paul writes that the feasts and holy days of Israel are a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ. A shadow is not nothing; it is cast by something real, and it shows the shape of what is coming. These feasts were true gifts to Israel, kept for over a thousand years, and every one of them was quietly bearing the shape of Jesus. The spring feasts He fulfilled at His first coming, to the very day. The fall feasts many read as pointing toward His return. Below is each feast, with the Old Testament command that gave it and the New Testament word in which the church sees it fulfilled.
The spring feasts, fulfilled at the first coming
Four feasts crowd the spring of Israel's year, and Christians see them fulfilled to the very day in the death, burial, resurrection of Jesus, and the gift of the Spirit.
The Passover · Leviticus 23:5 → 1 Corinthians 5:7
The Feast of Unleavened Bread · Leviticus 23:6 → 1 Corinthians 5:8
The Feast of Firstfruits · Leviticus 23:10 → 1 Corinthians 15:20
The Feast of Pentecost · Leviticus 23:16 → Acts 2:4
The fall feasts, pointing toward the second coming
Three feasts fall in the solemn seventh month. Many Christians see them pointing toward the return of Christ, held in hope and without the setting of any date, for no one knows the day or the hour.
The Feast of Trumpets · Leviticus 23:24 → 1 Thessalonians 4:16
The Day of Atonement · Leviticus 23:27 → Hebrews 9:12
The Feast of Tabernacles · Leviticus 23:34 → John 1:14
The weekly Sabbath, the rest that runs through all
Older than the nation and set apart at creation, the Sabbath is the weekly picture of the rest for the soul that is found at last in Christ.
The Sabbath · Leviticus 23:3 → Matthew 11:28
A note in honesty: Christians read these feasts as shadows whose substance is Christ, in the words of the apostle Paul (Colossians 2:17), and they are cherished across the traditions as one of the clearest windows into the gospel. Faithful Jewish readers understand them differently, and we hold ours with respect and without contempt. The spring feasts were fulfilled at the first coming of Jesus, to the very day; the fall feasts many see as pointing toward His return, though Scripture forbids the setting of dates, for no one knows the day or the hour. We marvel at the pattern without pretending to a calendar God has not given.
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