The Wide Path Dropout Mama
The Wide Path Dropout Mama
The 7 Feast Days of YHWH
Join me, Ginny, as I lay out the 7 biblical feast days of YHWH found in Leviticus 23. They all point to Jesus and his first and second coming to earth! The resources I mention in this episode is first and foremost, your Bible. Start in Exodus 12, then to Leviticus 23. Additional resources mentioned are the 2 books by author Christie Eisner (RuthsRoad on FB) Finding the Afikoman / Finding Jesus in the spring feasts & Watching and Waiting / Finding Jesus in the fall feasts. They can both be found on Amazon. As well as teacher Jim Staley on his Youtube channel Passion for Truth Ministries. I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I love talking about these feast days! You can reach me at widepathdropoutmama@gmail.com.
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Hi, my name is Jenny. I'm a wife, a mom, an entrepreneur and, most importantly, a disciple of Yeshua Jesus. I've been a Christian for over a decade, having studied the Bible for at least that long or better. Until about three years ago, I thought I knew Jesus pretty well. Then my world was rocked. I started studying the Bible from its Middle Eastern context and culture, and what I found has completely changed my and my family's lives forever. Join me as I share all that I've learned about our Jewish Messiah and listen to my conversations with other moms on their own journey with Jesus, as we discuss the practical ways that we walk out our faith in our everyday lives. This is a conversation for the Christian mom who wants more. This is the Wide Path Dropout Mama Podcast. Hey everybody, welcome back to the podcast.
Speaker 1:So today's episode is a very exciting one for me. I am going to geek out on you. I hope you don't mind. I realize that you could be doing anything else right now. You could be listening to anything else, but you are listening to me and I so appreciate that, and I promise you that today's episode will not disappoint.
Speaker 1:So we are going to be talking today about one of my favorite subjects. It's one of my favorite things to talk about, to read about, to study. We are going to be talking about the seven biblical feast days of Yahweh. They can be found in Leviticus 23, and they were actually established when the Lord had Moses take the Israelites out of Egypt and out of bondage. But before we get started there, I want to take you back to the story of creation, because there's something really interesting there that you might have never seen before, and it's going to be important to lay the foundation for what we're going to be talking about today. So let's go to Genesis 1 and we are going to look at verse 14. So it says this and God said Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years. And let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth. So that word seasons in Hebrew is moed or moedim and it means festivals, appointed times, meeting or set feasts. So, knowing that, let's reread it with that new word in mind. And God said Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night and let them serve as signs to mark appointed times, festivals, meeting or set feasts, and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth. So you see, there's a little bit more to it than what meets the eye at first glance. Right, which is almost always the case with our Lord in his word.
Speaker 1:So let's go back to Exodus 12, and we are going to look at what he instructs Moses. So forgive me, because you might hear me flipping through some pages of my Bible. Okay, so here we are in Exodus 12. He tells Moses From now on, this month will be the first month of the year for you. And I'll just read it. He says you always said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt this month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. So he goes on to explain the instructions for the first ever Passover. And once he gets them out of Egypt and out of harm's way, he'll later on go on to explain the rest of the feast days and the Sabbath. And he explains how he wants the Israelites, how to observe them and when. So let's recap we first learned that in the beginning, the stars and the moon were actually established to help us identify when those appointed feast days would be. And next we learned that in Exodus 12, the Lord established his own set-apart calendar. So before we get into the rest of the feast days, I just want to explain a few things to you.
Speaker 1:These seven biblical feast days are a foreshadow of Jesus's first and second coming to earth. They can be split up in three kind of groups. So you've got the three spring feasts, you've got one summer feast and then you've got three fall festivals. So the spring feast foreshadowed what happened during Jesus's first coming. The first time he came he was crucified, he went into the tomb for three days and then he resurrected. Those three feasts, those three spring feasts, tell that whole story. Then we've got this one feast that's in the summertime, it's kind of in the middle of these other set feasts, and that is a foreshadow of the Holy Spirit, or when the Holy Spirit was given to the disciples in the Book of Acts, 50 days after Jesus's resurrection. Then you have your fall feast days. Your fall feast days, those are going to be the prophetic ones, those are the ones that have yet to be fulfilled and they're the ones that we are all still waiting for. So here are the things that I want to share before jumping into each of these feasts.
Speaker 1:Number one I want you, as you're reading these in Leviticus, I want you to pay close attention to the words that Yahweh uses pertaining to the feasts. He uses words like forever, and this is a day to remember every year, from generation to generation. This is a law for all time. This festival will be a permanent law for you. Celebrate this day from generation to generation. So do you think that God knows what these words mean? Well, of course he does. There's nothing arbitrary in God's word, meaning whether we understand what he's saying or what there is purpose and meaning in every single jot and tittle of his word. He means exactly what he says. So when he says things like forever in generation to generation, that's exactly what he means.
Speaker 1:Okay, my next point that I wanted to make is a common belief is that these feast days or festivals are only for the Jews, and while it's true that these feast days are mainly only celebrated and observed by the Jewish people, today, when these feast days were established, there were no quote unquote Jews. Let that sink in for a minute. There were no Jewish people in that day the Jews didn't exist. They didn't exist until after the second 70 year exile to Babylon. See, at that time the nation of Israel was split up into two separate kingdoms. After King Solomon, the nation split into two separate kingdoms. So there was the northern kingdom of Israel, also called the House of Israel, and then you had the southern kingdom of Israel, which was known as the House of Judah. That's where Jerusalem is and where the temple was. And, if you don't know, there are 12 tribes that make up the nation of Israel. So the northern kingdom, or the House of Israel, was made up of 10 of those tribes. The southern kingdom, or the House of Judah, was made up of two tribes. So after King Solomon, the nation splits.
Speaker 1:In his punishment or judgment for their idolatry and disobedience to Yahweh, they were exiled into Babylon and during the Babylonian exile the people of Israel were assimilated into the nation, meaning they kind of blended into their new culture and they lost their identity. So all of those customs that they had grown up with kind of got lost in translation as they were assimilated into this new kingdom and many of them, most of the northern kingdom tribes, were lost and they never came back. So when the Babylonian Empire was taken over by Persia, the Persian Empire allowed the House of Judah, or the southern tribes, to go back to Judah and Jerusalem to rebuild their city and their temple. And there were mainly only two tribes that went back, and those were the tribes of Benjamin and the tribes of Judah. And I'm sure that there were people from other tribes that went back, but the majority were the tribes of Benjamin and the tribes of Judah, hence House of Judah, and Jesus being the lion from the tribe of Judah.
Speaker 1:And something very interesting to point out is in Matthew Matthew 10 and 15, yeshua refers to these lost tribes. He says he came for the lost sheep of Israel. And so, to bring it back to my original point, jews is short for Judah, so that's where the word Jews came from. So what I'm saying is that Jews didn't even exist for many generations after Yahweh established his feast days. So I don't really refer to these feast days as Jewish, because, even though our Jewish brethren today are the ones that observed these feast days and they steward them, the feast days are the festivals of Yahweh, established by Yahweh for the people of Israel, the commonwealth of Israel. So anybody, any eunuch, any sojourner, any foreigner that would choose to join themselves to the Lord would be under his protection and under the banner of his name, which means that you would observe all of his commandments and those feast days. They are your inheritance If you call yourself a follower of Jesus which I know you do or you wouldn't be listening to this podcast. In Romans, paul tells us that we are grafted into the commonwealth of Israel. So if we're grafted into the commonwealth of Israel, that means that these commandments and these festivals are our inheritance. They are our heritage, they are our God-given right to observe and, unfortunately, the enemy has done a fantastic job of making us feel like these are not for us. These are just some Jewish holidays that only they observe. They have nothing to do with Christians. Guys, this is not true. It's just not true, and we are missing out on the amazing blessing of these festivals.
Speaker 1:I get really passionate about this because for years I always felt like there was something missing. I felt like I mean, I would see all of these different cultures and their devotion to their heritage and to their people and their celebrations and their food, and it was all just so rich and they told a story of their history and I always felt like that was something missing from my life, and I always kind of looked at American culture as like, well, what do we have? French fries and hot dogs, and for the July, you know, like, yeah, that's cool and all, but it just didn't seem as rich as a lot of the other customs that I was seeing in other places. So whenever I found out about these feast days and these festivals of Yahweh, I was like, oh my gosh, I knew it. I knew it. I knew there was something missing. I just knew it in my soul and I found what's been missing and I'm telling you that I will never go back. So with that, I am going to just jump right in and explain to you each of these seven feast days and I'm going to tell you what they are and I'm going to show you how they point to Jesus in his first and second comings. Okay Feast day number one Passover. All right.
Speaker 1:So Passover, or Pesach in Hebrew, in Exodus 12, when the Lord tells Moses okay, this is going to be the first Okay month for you. And then he goes on to say that on the tenth of this month I want you to get a lamb, and then on the fourteenth, you're going to slaughter that lamb. You're going to put the blood in the doorposts and whoever goes into the home, whoever's in the homes that are covered with the blood in the doorposts, will be saved from the angel of death that went over the land of Egypt and took all of the firstborn. So at Passover they took a lamb. They took a one-year-old lamb without any blemish and they kept it in their homes for four days. So what do you think would happen during that time? You've got this super cute little lamb that you brought into your home for four days. What's going to happen? You're going to fall in love with that little baby lamb. You're going to think it's so cute, it's so sweet, they're so gentle. Your kids are probably going to fall in love with it. And then they had to slaughter it.
Speaker 1:So Passover, obviously, is a representation of what Jesus did for us on the cross. We got to know Jesus, we got to love him and then he was killed. He was that lamb without blemish, that blood on the cross for our sins, and saved us from death. So the next feast day is the Festival of Unleavened Bread. So the first three feasts happened all within this one weekend and over the course of this seven-day period. So you've got, passover is going to start this whole week of the Festival of Unleavened Bread. The next day after Passover starts the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
Speaker 1:So they were to take all of the leaven or the yeast out of their homes and they could not make any bread with yeast or leaven, because the yeast or leaven is what made the bread rise. And first of all they didn't have time to let the bread rise because the Lord was rescuing them out of Egypt pretty quickly. So they had to slaughter the lamb at Passover, stay in their home so the angel of death could pass over all the firstborn out of Egypt and kill them, and then you would be saved by that blood from the Passover lamb. And then they were to make this bread without leaven so they could hurry up and get out and they would have that to go with them. But leaven and yeast also represent sin. So when you go and read about these feast days in Leviticus 23, the Lord is going to lay out to you exactly how he wants you to observe or celebrate these feast days, and he has a reason for every single thing he tells you to do and every single bit of it represents Jesus in some way, shape or form and it represents what he did for us and what he's going to do for us. So the second feast is the Festival of Unleavened Bread, which means for the whole week during Passover you are not allowed to have any bread with yeast or leaven. So you're just going to have that unleavened bread for all of that week, and the third spring feast is all in that same weekend.
Speaker 1:So the first day you're going to have Passover, the next day starts the Festival of Unleavened Bread, and on that third day is the feast of first fruits. So what is first fruits? First fruits. They were commanded to take the first fruits of their first spring harvest and present it as a wave offering. And I'm going to go to Leviticus 23 and read it to you because it'll kind of paint a picture of what it of the prophetic meaning. So, yahweh this is in Leviticus 23, starting in verse nine. Yahweh said to Moses speak to the Israelites and say to them when you enter the land I am going to give you and you reap its harvest, bring to the priest a sheaf of the first grain you harvest. He is to wave the sheaf before Yahweh, so it will be accepted on your behalf. The priest is to wave it on the day after the Sabbath. So now I'm going to break it down to you as it pertains to Jesus. So Passover is when Jesus was killed on the cross, the feast of unleavened bread is when he went into the tomb, and then the feast of first fruits is when he rose on the third day and he became the first fruits of everyone that would rise at the end of days, at resurrection. How amazing is that. If you didn't know before, oh my goodness, you are going to go on the biggest rabbit trail and I hope that you have the best time looking into this. So those are the spring feasts.
Speaker 1:So, after the feast of first fruits, our next feast is called the Feast of Weeks, or Shabuot in Hebrew, which means weeks. So they were to count from that day, the day of first fruits. They were to count seven weeks until the barley harvest, and you would count seven weeks from that day and it would end up being 50 days and that would be the day of Pentecost, because Pentecost is Greek for 50. So it's called the Feast of Weeks, or Shabuot, and it's also called Pentecost, which represents those 50 days in between first fruits and Shabuot, or the Feast of Weeks. It's the day that the Lord gave the Ten Commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai, and it's also the same day that the Holy Spirit was given to the disciples in the Book of Acts. Are you blown away yet? Are you excited yet? Okay, so that concludes the spring feasts and the summer feasts.
Speaker 1:Now we are going to get into our fall feasts, or the prophetic feast days. These are the ones that we are still waiting to be fulfilled. So the next feast day is our fifth feast day, and it's going to be the Feast of Trumpets, or Yom Teruah, and Yom Teruah in Hebrew means day of blowing. So this is getting into our prophetic fall feasts that are the foreshadowing of the second coming of Yeshua. So the Feasts of Trumpets, that is what they call the day of blowing.
Speaker 1:And the interesting thing about the Feasts of Trumpets is it was a day to be observed at the new month, or the new moon, which, again, that's how they know when the new month was. This is where that verse in Genesis that we went over in the beginning regarding the moon for the seasons is going to come into play, because back in those days. The only way to know that there was a new month starting would be from the sighting of the new moon. So whenever the Israelites would see that first sliver of that new moon, that's when they knew it was the new month or it was the appointed time for the Feasts of Trumpets. And it would happen over the course of two days. So there's a two day period that the new moon would show itself and you didn't really know when it was going to show itself during that time. So there would be a watchman appointed to keep a lookout to keep their eyes open for that first sliver of that new moon, and as soon as they saw that new moon they would blow the trumpets.
Speaker 1:So there is an idiom in Jewish culture and it said no one knows the day or the hour. Does that sound familiar? That idiom is actually speaking about the Feast of Trumpets, because you didn't really know the day or the hour that it was going to be, because you had to wait to see the first sight of the new moon. That's why they would say that no one knows the day or the hour. So they knew the season, but they didn't know the actual day or the hour that that new moon was going to appear. So that's why they would say that. So the Feast of Trumpets is a foreshadowing of when the angels will blow the trumpets to announce the second coming of Yeshua. And that leads us to our next Feast Day. So our next Feast Day is the day of Atonement.
Speaker 1:So the day of Atonement is a very solemn Feast Day. Most of these Feast Days are very celebratory in nature. There are festivals, they're full of feasting, dancing, singing. They're very joyous, very happy. But the Feast of the Day of Atonement is not like that at all. It is very somber, it's very solemn. It's a day to afflict yourself, to kind of reflect on your relationship with God, to reflect on where you are in your relationship with God. And it's kind of a time that you want to take stock of where you are in your walk. Are you where you should be? Are you in right standing with God? Because we know, you know, we know in our hearts when we're doing what's right and when we're not. And the day of Atonement is a day for kind of processing over that. And it's also going to be the day that we are going to stand in judgment. That's when the Lord is going to get in His seat of judgment and we're going to have to answer for our lives here on earth. And that brings us to our final, seventh Feast Day. Guys, this is where it all culminates.
Speaker 1:This is the day that we are all looking forward to, and this is the Feast of Tabernacles, or, in Hebrew, the Feast of Secote. That was, or it is. They were. That was a feast day that the Israelites were commanded to live in booths or temporary shelters, referred to as a sukkah, for seven days to commemorate their time in the wilderness when they lived in temporary dwellings for 40 years. So, after the trumpet's been sounded, jesus comes back. We've gone through the seat of judgment. It's time for the wedding supper of the Lamb. That's where we get to dwell with Jesus in his sukkah forever.
Speaker 1:This is the Feast of Tabernacles. It's when Jesus came and tabernacled among us. Yes, that is when he is said to have been born, and that is actually going to be our grand wedding feast. It's where we get to celebrate being with Jesus forever. It's what we will have waited our entire lives for. So just imagine the most fun, joyous, loving wedding that you've ever been to, and magnify that by I don't even know how much. It's going to be the best wedding you've ever been to. It's going to be the best party you've ever been to. You want to be at the Feast of Tabernacles. It's just the best time ever.
Speaker 1:But one of the things that I want to draw your attention to is, if you'll notice well, you won't notice yet, but when you go into because I would love for you to go to Leviticus 23 and read about these Feast days and where they are on God's Set-Apart calendar you'll see that the first spring feasts are done very close. You know, they're all within that one seven day period and they're kind of done all in the same cluster of this one weekend during this week-long feast. And then you have this kind of seemingly stand-alone festival in the middle of summer or right there at summertime. It's not stand-alone because it's very connected to the spring feast because, remember, I told you that at the end of the third feast, the Feast of First Fruits, they had to count seven weeks and during that time, that seven weeks it's referred to as the counting of the omer, and they would every day they would count the omer, which would kind of tell them what their fall harvest was going to look like. And that time is a very kind of sacred time, and we'll get into that more in further episodes down the line.
Speaker 1:So I just want to point out that there are times, there are seasons, that you will be in the wilderness as you're waiting for these biblical Feast days to return, and life is a lot like that, isn't it? We have these seasons, we have seasons of rest, we have seasons of grief, we have seasons of joy, we have seasons of waiting and we have seasons of wilderness. And I'll tell you, my family and I have been celebrating these Feast days for three full years. So we've been through three full cycles of celebrating these seven biblical Feast days, and I can tell you that your life starts to line up with these seasons and you will sometimes find that when you're in between these Feast days that you'll find yourself, you'll find your life kind of being in a season of wilderness as you're waiting for that next Feast day to come up. So that's something that if you get into this and you begin to observe that, you'll start to notice as time goes by. So, guys, I know this is a lot to take in. It's probably like drinking water from a fire hose, but that's just.
Speaker 1:This is just an introduction for you to go on your own and do your own digging and to do your own studying and kind of look into these Feast days and see what the Lord reveals to you, because he wants you to know about these things. He wants to reveal these things to you and he will reveal them to you. It's funny each time I've celebrated these Feast he reveals something new to me about the Feast. There are just so many layers of meaning in each biblical Feast that goes even beyond it, shadowing the first and second coming of Jesus. There are layers to the meanings and it's just an exciting adventure for you to go on as you begin to observe these, and He'll start to reveal this to you as you go along.
Speaker 1:Another interesting point that I want, that I didn't want to leave without sharing with you, is that Moses and the Israelites actually they unknowingly walk out the pattern of the Feast days in the wilderness, and Jesus does that as well, starting from His birth, going into the beginning and throughout His ministry. And you'll begin to see that as you start learning about these Feast days and as you start becoming a daily reader of the Word and, in turn, every time you cycle through the Bible. You're going to pick it up Every time. You're going to pick up new layers of information and revelation, especially in regards to these Feast days. You'll also begin to pick up many idioms in the New Testament that refer to these Feast days that before knowing about these, you'd never pick up on. So that is going to wrap it up for today's episode.
Speaker 1:I know that was a lot. I've given you a lot to look into, a lot to pray about, a lot to study, but I hope that you will find excitement and joy and digging into these Feast days and learning about them and learning how they relate to Jesus in His first and second comings, and my hope is that it will just give you a burning desire to know Jesus on a deeper level and just to open your eyes to the reality that there has been so much of our inheritance as Christians that's been kept from us because of people who didn't really understand the Feast days and people who didn't understand that Jew and Gentile were all meant to live under the same commandments, under the same festivals. We were all meant to live as one. We're still all meant to live as one, both Jew and Gentile, under the banner of the name of Yahweh and everything that he stands for, all of His commandments, all of His rules, all of His mandates. They were all meant for all of us and unfortunately we've been made to kind of be segregated and we've been kind of taught to think that the Jews despise Jesus and they hate Him and they killed Him.
Speaker 1:But remember the only reason that the Jews' eyes have been closed to Jesus as the Messiah is for the sole purpose of us Gentiles being able to come in. That's why God has blinded their eyes Right now. It's so the fullness of the Gentiles could come in. And when we're all in he's going to drop those scales off of the Jews' eyes. He's going to reveal to them that Jesus is in fact their Messiah and that these festivals that they've been celebrating their whole lives have all been about Him. But because Jesus has been whitewashed I'm doing air quotes he's been whitewashed and all of those Jewish customs have kind of been erased off of Him through the years and as time goes by we have really taken away a lot of that culture and that heritage that was actually meant for us to take on.
Speaker 1:So when we see it that way, I really hope that you would kind of gain a compassion for the Jews who don't know who Jesus is. And you know, the Bible says that the Jews will become jealous, they will become envious, and that's what's going to make them realize that Jesus was their Messiah. And do you know what's going to make them jealous? I'm telling you, friends, I know now, I know what's going to make them jealous. It's seeing us Christians, us Westernized Christians, who they think, oh, these people have no idea. They're so lost. They have no idea that Jesus is not the Messiah.
Speaker 1:They are going to see us begin to observe their Sabbath day. They're going to see us begin to observe all of their festivals and their feast days and they're going to say wait a minute, these are your. I mean, these are ours, what are you doing? And that's what's going to open their eyes. And, guys, we will be celebrating these feast days in heaven, with Jesus forever. So why not start now on earth, as it will be in heaven? I'm telling you, there is so much joy and gratification that comes from celebrating these feast days I can't even tell you what it's done for myself and for my family. We will never go back. We will never not observe these feast days and the Sabbath day. The Sabbath has become a day that we look forward to every single week, where we get to come under the banner of his name and just take a rest, take that gift of rest that's been given to us as a commandment. He's commanded us to do it. That is actually. That is one of the feast days that you'll find in Leviticus 23. And in fact, it's actually the first one that he talks about and he commands them to observe. On the seventh day, he commands them to rest.
Speaker 1:So, if you will, if this is intrigued, you just pray about it. Start out by praying and ask the Lord. Say Lord, this sounds really interesting. Do you want me to know about this? And if you want me to know about this and show it to me, I'm here to listen. You guys? I promise you he is going to show you and you are going to be blown away, and that my friends is going to wrap up our episode for today.
Speaker 1:I do have some resources. If you're interested in digging in more, I do recommend that you start out in the Bible, start out in Exodus 12 and see how he establishes his calendar, and then go over to Leviticus 23. Read about his feast days and go from there, and once you've done that, then you can dig into these other resources that I'm about to share. There are these two books by a woman named Christi Eisner. I will put this information in the show notes. It's about these feast days, and one is called Finding the Ephecoman Finding Jesus in the Spring Feasts and the other book is called Watching and Waiting Finding Jesus in the Fall Feasts and you can find both of those on Amazon. Those books have really changed mine and my family's life like no joke.
Speaker 1:There's also an extremely gifted teacher. His name is Jim Staley, his ministry is called Passion for Truth and you can find him on YouTube. He has some really great teachings that you can learn a lot about the feast days, about the Sabbath and about a lot of other things. And as we progress in this podcast and these feast days come up, I will be doing individual episodes on each feast day, because there is so much depth and layers to these feast days and too much to go into on one podcast. So as they come up over this year, I will do an individual podcast episode for each of these feast days.
Speaker 1:So that is it for today. I hope that you enjoyed it. I hope that this gives you something to look into and I can't wait to see you back here for the next episode of the podcast. And, as always, I pray that God will keep you in his perfect peace today as you go about the rest of your day and the rest of your week. So may God bless you and keep you, and I'll see you next time on the Wide Path. Dropout Mama Podcast.