Why Believers Should Keep Yahweh’s HOLY DAYS
DATE: Biblical Month 1 / Day 3 / Year 5995
Yahweh’s Holy Days – Passover & Unleavened Bread
Why did Yahweh institute the WEEKLY Sabbath and, later, seven ANNUAL Sabbaths? What do they picture? Were Yahweh’s Holy Days for ancient Israel only, or are they also for the New Testament Congregation of Yahweh?
YAHWEH’S MASTER PLAN
The annual Holy Days picture Yahweh’s Master Plan for mankind, and His Son, Yahshua Messiah, plays the central role in Yahweh’s little-known plan for man.
Yahweh’s plan is revealed by seven annual festivals. These annual observances give a step-by-step outline of how Yahweh is working out His Master Plan for man. Each vividly pictures a great event in Yahweh’s plan. It was not until the Israelites were being delivered from Egypt that Yahweh began to reveal His annual festivals.
As our Heavenly Father made the weekly Sabbath for man when man was made, so He gave His people seven annual festivals, with their annual Holy Days (Sabbaths), when He established the Congregation (or congregation of Israel) in the wilderness. But Israel, under the covenant made at Sinai, rejected the promise of receiving the Holy Spirit, and therefore could not understand the spiritual meaning of these annual observances.
Regardless of carnal Israel’s lack of understanding, Yahweh’s annual Holy Days were ordained to be kept FOREVER! Messiah kept them. The New Testament Congregation, founded by Yahshua in A.D. 30, kept them. And Yahweh’s Congregation keeps them today!
Just as the weekly Sabbath is a “sign” between Yahweh and His people, so are the annual Holy Days.
Exo 31:13 And you speak to the sons of Israel, charging them, only My sabbaths you shall keep; for it is a sign between Me and you for your generation; to know that I am Yahweh your sanctifier.
They are the “Feasts of Yahweh“, “My feasts,” said Yahweh (Lev. 23:2, 4).
These feasts are, as the Elohim of the Old Testament said in Leviticus 23:37-38, to be kept as holy convocations “beside the [weekly] Sabbaths of Yahweh”! Yahweh’s festivals, which are a part of Yahweh’s law, were not done away with, when the Sinaitic Covenant ceased to be in force at Messiah’s death.
The whole story of Yahweh’s marvelous plan is to be reenacted year after year by Yahweh’s Spirit-begotten children through the keeping of Yahweh’s Holy Days. The observance of these days reminds them of His great Master Plan and their part in it. Lev 23:2 states that we are to have a Holy Convocation. One of the meanings of this Hebrew word is a rehearsal. Each time we commemorate one of Yahweh’s Holy Days we are rehearsing for His soon coming Kingdom.
Yahweh’s Spiritual Harvests
In the land settled by ancient Israel (and now occupied by the modern State of Israel), there is a small spring grain harvest followed by a much larger late summer-early autumn harvest. These yearly agricultural harvests are symbolic of Yahweh’s spiritual “harvests” of mankind!
Today, we can understand from the teachings of Messiah and the apostles that Yahweh intends the spring festivals to illustrate that all those He has called to become His Spirit-begotten children before Messiah’s Second Coming are only the “firstfruits” harvest (James. 1:18) – only the relatively small beginning of His spiritual harvest of individuals into His divine Family.
The festivals of the much larger autumn harvest season picture Yahweh’s calling of thousands of millions to salvation in His glorious Kingdom after Messiah’s return.
In Leviticus 23, we find a summary of these annual festivals. The first three, beginning with the Passover, are memorials of the first part of Yahweh’s Master Plan. They picture the first fruits of Messiah’s labors. The last four festivals look forward to the future and show how and when Yahweh will reap the great autumn harvest of people into His Family!
Holy Days Preserved for Yahweh’s Congregation.
Let’s begin to understand the tremendous meaning of these “Feasts of YAHWEH”!
THE PASSOVER
Most Bible commentators and scholars agree that the many passing references to Yahweh’s annual festivals in the New Testament indicate that the observance in the early Congregation was known, accepted – even taken for granted. More importantly Messiah and the Congregation of Yahweh customarily kept the annual festivals: “In the early Messianic Congregation celebrating the festivals together with the whole of the Jewish people was never questioned, so that it needed no special mention” (The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology, vol. 1, p. 628).
However, it is obvious from a study of the New Testament that Yahweh’s annual festivals took on ~ new significance in the apostolic Congregation of Yahweh. Yahshua’s teaching and example gave new understanding about the meaning of these days and how they are to be observed.
Who does the Bible say originated these annual festivals, besides the weekly festival of the Sabbath?
Lev 23:1 And Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
Lev 23:2 Speak to the sons of Israel, and you shall say to them, The set feasts of Yahweh which you shall proclaim as holy gatherings, shall be these: These are My appointed feasts:
Lev 23:3 Work is to be done six days, and on the seventh day shall be a Sabbath of rest, a holy gathering; you shall do no work; it is a Sabbath to Yahweh in all your dwellings.
Lev 23:4 These are appointed times of Yahweh, holy gatherings which you shall proclaim in their appointed seasons:
Did Yahweh specifically state that His annual feasts were to be observed in addition to the weekly Sabbath?
Lev 23:37 These are the set feasts of Yahweh which you shall proclaim, holy gatherings, to bring a fire offering to Yahweh, a burnt offering, and a food offering, a sacrifice, and drink offerings, the thing of a day on its own day;
Lev 23:38 besides the Sabbaths of Yahweh, and besides your gifts, and besides all your vows, and besides all your freewill offerings which you shall give to Yahweh.
COMMENT: Notice that these are not the “feasts of the Jews” or “feasts of Moses,” as some have thought. They are Yahweh’s own feasts, which Yahweh instituted and gave to His people to keep annually. Also notice that they are not separated from the Sabbath day, but are all commanded to observe yearly with the weekly Sabbath. There are many Sabbath observers today who wrongly believe that we only need to keep the Seventh day Sabbath and not the annual Holy day Sabbaths. This scripture clearly shows they are mistaken and that all the seven Holy Days are to be kept as well as the weekly Sabbath.
What is the first festival to be observed each year?
Lev 23:5 In the first month, on the fourteenth of the month, between the evenings is the Passover to Yahweh.
When did Yahweh institute the first Passover? Read and summarize Exodus 12:1-14, 21-27
The Passover was to be a yearly reminder of Yahweh’s intervention in delivering the Israelites’ firstborn from death. It also pictured, in advance, the great sacrifice of Yahshua Messiah, “our Passover” lamb (1 Cor. 5:7; I Pet. 1:18-19), for the sins of mankind. The sparing of the Israelites’ firstborn from the death angel, through the shed blood of lambs on that first Passover, is a symbolic type of our being spared today from the eternal penalty of sin (Rom. 6:23) through Messiah’s sacrifice.
Did Yahweh command, before Sinai, that the Passover be kept forever?
Exo 12:14 And the day shall be a memorial for you. And you shall celebrate it as a feast to Yahweh, for your generations. You shall celebrate it as a law forever.
Exo 12:24 And you shall observe this Word for an ordinance for you, and for your sons forever.
Did Yahshua Messiah observe the Passover?
Joh 2:13 And the Passover of the Jews was near. And Yahshua went up to Jerusalem.
Joh 2:23 And as He was in Jerusalem, at the Passover, at the Feast, many believed into His name, seeing the miracles which He did.
COMMENT: Yahshua kept the annual festivals. All of these Holy days point to His redemptive work that He is doing through His Sacrifice for our sins. Was He truly the real Passover lamb?
1Co 5:7 Then clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are unleavened. For our Passover is Messiah who was sacrificed for our sake.
What was one new command He gave them regarding the observance of the Passover?
Joh 13:1 And before the Feast of the Passover, Yahshua knowing that His hour had come that He should move from this world to the Father, loving His own in the world, He loved them to the end.
Joh 13:2 And supper having occurred, the Devil having put already into the heart of Simon‘s son Judas Iscariot that he should betray Him,
Joh 13:3 Yahshua knowing that the Father has given all things into His hands, and that He came out from Yahweh, and goes away to Yahweh,
Joh 13:4 He rose up from the supper and laid aside His garments. And taking a towel, He girded Himself.
Joh 13:5 Then He put water into the basin and began to wash the feet of the disciples, and to wipe off with the towel with which He was girded.
Joh 13:14–15 If then I washed your feet, the Master and the Teacher, you also ought to wash the feet of one another. For I gave you an example, that as I did to you, you also should do.
What completely new way of observing the Passover did Yahshua institute shortly before His death?
Luk 22:19-20 And He took bread and gave thanks and broke it and gave it to them and said, This is My body, which for your sake is given. Do this for My memorial. And in like manner the cup, after having supped, saying, This cup is the New Covenant in My blood, which is being shed for your sakes.
Were they to teach this to the world?
Mat 28:19-20 Then having gone, disciple all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son, and the Holy Spirit teaching them to observe all things, whatever I commanded you. And, behold, I am with you all the days until the completion of the age. Amen.
COMMENT:
The New Testament Passover is commanded to be kept as an annual memorial of Messiah’s suffering and death. It is through eating His flesh and drinking His blood, symbolized by partaking of the unleavened bread and wine, that we may be granted eternal life (John 6:32-33, 35, 50-51, 53-58).
The Passover reaffirms year by year “till he come”
1 Co 11:26 For each time that you may eat this bread, and drink this cup, you solemnly commemorate the death of the Master, until His coming.
Exo 13:10 And you shall keep this ordinance in its season from year to year.
364 days a year we proclaim a living Messiah; Yahshua HaMashiach. People should see Him in our lifestyle and we are to be living sacrifices to Him daily (Rom. 12:1-2). But one day a year on the 14th day of the first month Aviv, according to Yahweh’s calendar, (this is usually in April) we commemorate a dying Messiah and we remember the sacrifice that He made so that our sins may be forgiven.
The true believer’s faith is expressed in the blood of “Messiah our Passover” (1 Cor. 5:7) for the remission or forgiveness of sins, as symbolized by the drinking of wine.
Eating the broken bread symbolizes our faith in the body of Messiah, which was brutally beaten and scourged by the Romans. It demonstrates our total commitment to Yahweh and His way of life and our willingness to partake of Messiah’s sufferings, to suffer as a disciple for righteousness’ sake (Rom. 8:17; I Pet. 2:19-25).
Messiah suffered this torture and subsequent death on the tree so that we, through faith in His broken body and shed blood, may have the forgiveness of our sins, and that He may live in us and we in Him through a new and consecrated way of life (Heb. 10:19-20; John 6:53-58).
COMMENT: The Congregation Yahshua built kept the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread-not Easter. (“Easter” in Acts 12:4 in the King James Version is a flagrant mistranslation of the Greek word Pascha. It should be rendered “Passover,” as it is in all modern translations.) Will the Passover be kept by Messiah and others after He establishes the Kingdom of Yahweh on earth?
Mat 26:29 But I say to you, I will not at all drink of this fruit of the vine after this until that day when I drink it new with you in the kingdom of Yahweh.
Also read Luke 22:15-16. In the mean time, was it to be kept as a yearly memorial of Messiah’s suffering and death? Review I Corinthians 11:25-26.
COMMENT: Yahshua commanded His disciples to keep the Passover in remembrance of Him until He returns. The apostles did keep it, and today, Yahweh’s true Congregation still keeps the Passover!
If a baptized covenant believer in Yahshua does not partake in the yearly Passover symbols he is cut off from his covenant Relationship.
Num 9:13 But the man that is clean, and is not on a journey, and has failed to prepare the Passover, even that person shall be cut off from his people, because he did not bring the offering of Yahweh in its appointed season, that man shall bear his sin.
Feast of Unleavened Bread
The Passover, the first of Yahweh’s annual festivals, pictures the beginning, the very first step, in Yahweh’s great Master Plan of salvation for mankind. It was Yahshua Messiah, “our Passover” (I Cor. 5:7), who suffered and died for our sins. But accepting Messiah’s sacrifice to pay for our sins is not enough.
To help keep us in the knowledge of the second step in Yahweh’s plan, Messiah gave His Congregation the second annual feast. The observance of this feast impresses upon us that we must strive not to return to the sins Yahshua paid for with His shed blood. Let’s understand.
What feast did Yahweh command the Israelites to keep immediately after the Passover?
Exo 12:17 And you shall observe the unleavened bread for on this very day I brought your armies from the land of Egypt. And you shall observe this for your generations, a statute forever.
Exo 12:18 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at evening you shall eat unleavened bread, until the twenty-first day of the month, at evening.
Exo 12:19 For seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses. For anyone eating any leaven, that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, among the foreigners, and among the natives of the land.
Exo 12:20 You shall not eat anything leaven. You shall eat unleavened bread in all your dwellings. Exo 12:24 And you shall observe this Word for an ordinance for you, and for your sons forever.
COMMENT: Notice that the Feast of Unleavened Bread was given by Yahweh before the people reached Mt. Sinai – before they even left the land of Egypt. It was also to be kept by all their succeeding generations – forever! The first month of the Hebrew calendar, which Yahweh inspired the Jews to preserve for New Testament disciples, was called Aviv or, later, Nisan. It falls sometime during the months of March and April of the Roman calendar today. The Feast of Unleavened Bread begins on the 15th of Aviv, the day after the Passover. It continues for seven days until the 21st of Aviv. Both the 15th and the 21st are special Sabbaths-annual “holy convocations”-days of rest and worship of Yahweh.
Leaven as it relates to the Feast of Unleavened Bread is any substance used to cause dough or batter to rise by the formation of carbon dioxide gas. Leavening agents in this category are yeast, baking soda and baking powders.
Is leaven clearly a symbol for sin?
Mat 16:6 And Yahshua said to them, Watch and take heed from the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
1 Co 5:8 Therefore, let us perform the feast, not with old leaven, nor with leaven of malice and of evil, but with unleavened bread of purity and holiness.
Does Yahweh specifically command His people to eat unleavened bread during this festival?
Exo 12:15 You shall eat unleavened bread seven days. Indeed, on the first day you shall cause leaven to cease from your houses. For anyone eating any leaven, that soul shall be cut off from Israel, from the first day until the seventh day.
COMMENT: The Israelites were not merely to remove all leavening and leavened foods from their property. That would have only symbolized putting away sin. They were commanded to eat unleavened bread during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Eating unleavened bread symbolizes the opposite of sin – active obedience to Yahweh! It is also interesting that first we take the Passover symbols on the evening portion of the 14th of Aviv, and then we take the leaven out of our homes the next day on the daylight portion of the 14th. This signifies that until we take the symbols of the body and blood of Messiah, we cannot on our own strength remove the leaven (sin) from our lives. Upon repentance and baptism, Messiah’s sacrifice blots out all of one’s past sins. When Paul asked if we should continue in sin, what did he answer? Rom. 6:15-16. What was his apostolic command? Verses 11-13.
COMMENT: Messiah died so that we would not have to pay the penalty of death ~ Rom. 6:23). After repentance and baptism, Yahweh expects us to strive to obey His law – to “unleaven” our lives. Yahweh does not want us to continue in sin, for Messiah is not the minister of sin (Gal. 2:17). Did Paul, under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, say New Testament believers should keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread?
1Co 5:8 Therefore let us perform the feast, not with old leaven, nor with leaven of malice and of evil, but with unleavened bread of purity and holiness.
In the Greek this is written in command form from Paul. What did Paul say that clearly shows the Congregation of Yahweh at Corinth was, at the time he wrote, keeping the Feast of Unleavened Bread?
Verse 7. Notice the words ”as you are unleavened.”
COMMENT: The Apostle Paul was telling the Corinthian Congregation members to put out spiritual leaven, just as they had already put out all physical leaven in preparation for this festival. They were to keep the Feast not only with unleavened bread, but also with the spiritually “unleavened” attitude of sincerity and truth. Does Yahweh want true Believers to forsake this world’s way of sin? Are we to continually strive-to expend effort and energy-to put sin out of our lives as it crops up? Heb. 12:1, 4. If we are to become Spirit-born members of Yahweh’s Family, we must prove that we will obey Yahweh here and now by striving to get the spiritual leaven of sin out of our lives and keep it out! This is our part in Yahweh’s great Master Plan. Hence, every spring the seven-day Feast of Unleavened Bread specially reminds Spirit-begotten believers of their continual need to keep Yahweh’s commandments. It is a time when they symbolically renew their resolve to live in harmony with Yahweh’s law – to rededicate their lives to continual spiritual growth and overcoming.
The Jews’ Passover And Nisan 14
There are some today who have wrongly started to keep the Passover on the beginning of the 15th of Aviv according to the custom of modern Rabbinical Jews instead of keeping it according to the Biblical mandate of the beginning of the 14th day of Aviv. When Yahweh gave the Israelites a law to kill and eat the Passover on the 14th day of Aviv (Exodus 12), He did not tell them to kill the lamb late in the afternoon and finally get it roasted to eat after the sundown beginning the 15th – after the Passover day was ended. (Remember that a Biblical day begins with a dark half, and then concludes with a light half – see Leviticus 23:32; Genesis 1:5, 8, 13). He told them: “In the first month, on the fourteenth of the month, between the evenings is the Passover to Yahweh. And on the fifteenth day of this month is the Feast of Unleavened…” (Lev. 23:5-6). (Note that Passover was IN the 14th day, not after it)
The Jews for many centuries have made the eating of the lamb the same as the Feast of Unleavened Bread (how can it be a feast of “unleavened bread” when it is the feast of the “lamb”?). Thus they have confused the two festivals, making them one. But it is obvious, from Yahshua’s own “last supper” example, that the originally commanded time to slay the lamb was early in the beginning of the 14th – as Exodus 12:6 puts it, “between the two evenings” – between sunset and darkness.
Yahshua clearly kept the Passover with his disciples early 14th as Scripture states.
Luk 22:7 And the day of the Unleavened Bread came, on which the Passover must be slaughtered. (The Passover was killed before the last supper or Passover according to Scripture)
Luk 22:8 And He sent Peter and John, saying, Having gone, prepare for us the Passover, that we may eat.
Luk 22:9 And they said to Him, Where do You desire that we prepare?
Luk 22:10 And He said to them, Behold, when you enter into the city, you will meet up with a man carrying who is bearing a skin of water. Go after him and where he enters,
Luk 22:11 And you will say to the housemaster of that house, Our Master says to you, Where is the guest room where I may eat the Passover with My disciples?
Luk 22:12 And that one will show you a large upper room which he has furnished. Prepare there.
Luk 22:13 And having gone, they found as He had told them, and they prepared the Passover. (clearly this was the Passover)
Luk 22:14 And when the hour came, He reclined, and the twelve apostles with Him.
Luk 22:15 And He said to them, I have greatly desired that I eat this Passover with you before I suffer.
Clearly this was the day the PASSOVER MUST BE KILLED! (Luke 22:7 early 14th of Aviv as Yahshua did) There are also 12 other references calling this the Passover. Why must men trying to outwit Yahweh try to change the Passover to the 15th as the Jewish rabbi’s incorrectly did? Should we follow the Rabbi’s or scripture?
There was the early 14th Passover meal with the slain lamb, and then late in the 14th, going into the 15th was the night to be much observed.
Exo 12:42 It is a night of celebration to Yahweh, for bringing them out from the land of Egypt. This night is a celebration for all the sons of Israel to their generations.
Clearly this was the night after the Passover when they left, as the night of the Passover the Israelites were commanded not to leave their homes until morning (daybreak Ex. 12:22). Also the night of the Passover was a night of mourning and death not a night of celebration. The celebration did not come until the next evening when they had gathered to Raamses (8 miles from Goshen where they lived) during the daylight portion of the 14th of Aviv and left the beginning of the evening of the 15th of Aviv. This was the night of celebration when they actually left Egypt. What the Jews did was to combine these 2 events (slaying of Passover/ night to be observed) into one festivity on the beginning of the 15th against scripture. The meal in the book of John that the Jews were afraid they could not eat so not to go into the Pratitorium was not the eating of the Passover lamb, but was what was called the 2nd Haggidah, or night to be observed sacrifice. If it was the Passover lamb being mentioned in the book of John, they would have only been defiled until that evening for entering the Pratitorium and could have eaten it after sunset.
Yahshua kept the Passover with His disciples early on the 14th of Aviv according to scripture, and then was crucified on the daylight portion of the 14th of Aviv and then was buried before sunset of the start of the fifteenth and the Holy day.
Joh 19:31 Then, since it was Preparation, that the bodies not remain on the tree on the Sabbath, for that Sabbath was a holy day, the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and they be taken away.
Lev 23:6-7 And on the fifteenth of this month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to Yahweh; you shall eat unleavened things seven days. On the first day you shall have a holy gathering; you shall do no laborious work;
As Elohim of the Old Testament, Yahshua foreknew He would change the emblems of the Passover to the bread and wine, and He knew what day and hour He wanted it to occur. Therefore He told the Israelites to slay the lamb in the evening, put its blood on the doorposts, roast and eat it and stay indoors till morning (Ex. 12:6-8, 22). Why? Because only those firstborn humans who were within such already marked and protected houses would be spared at midnight. Yahweh would “Passover” that house – at midnight, still in the first and dark half of the 24-hour day – and that “passing over” was to give that day – the 14th – its name, Passover (verses 12, 23, 29).
Lev 23:5 In the first month, on the fourteenth of the month, between the evenings is the Passover to Yahweh.
If the death angel (representing Yahweh Himself) had not “passed over” until the midnight of the 15th, that day – the 15th – would have been the Passover, and not the 14th. There may be some confusion because a day has two evenings, a beginning and an ending evening, but a day only has one midnight, and clearly Passover was named for the death Angel passing over the Israelite homes on midnight of the 14th day of the first month Aviv.
The great symbolism of the Passover is this; that our lives, just as the beginning night of the 14th are dark, due to the sin in our lives. It also shows that our lives only get darker just as the darkness of midnight without Yahweh’s spirit, but that spirit can only come by the blood of Yahshua on the doorpost of our hearts. Then and only then after accepting this (the blood of the Son of Yahweh for forgiveness of sins) can there be the morning light of the next day and the celebration of life that comes with our sins forgiven. If they had slain and eaten the Passover lamb at the same time of day as the Jews later came to do, their firstborn would not have been spared, just as our sins would not have been forgiven.
AND THE SPIRIT AND THE BRIDE SAY COME!
Shalom,
