Jewish Fall Feasts Reflected in Revelation

The seven traditional Jewish feasts have been held every year, since fifteen hundred years before Christ. The feasts' traditions foretell the major redemptive works of the Messiah; some having already been completed in Christ’s first coming.

Some of those works foretold in the Jewish feasts, however, are yet to be fulfilled.

Spring Feasts

Four of the feasts are held each year in the spring. These four foretold, by the foreshadowing of traditions, the events of the Messiah’s first coming, and these were fulfilled literally and right on schedule. The four Spring Feasts and the redemptive works they represent are:

1. Passover → Christ’s death
2. Unleavened Bread → Christ’s burial; His body would not decay in the grave
3. First Fruits → Christ’s resurrection
4. Pentecost (Weeks) → Holy Spirit given by Christ, thus beginning the Church

The three remaining yearly feasts are held in the fall. These three are yet to be fulfilled in the events associated with Christ’s second coming. These form the basis for what Titus 2:13 calls, "the blessed hope."

These three Fall Feasts are this “shadow of things to come” (Col 2:16-17; Heb 10:1).

A look at what these Fall Feasts foretell about the events for Christ’s second coming will now be summarized for each feast;

• first, in a few factual bullets,
• then in a chart.

Noted in the Timing column is Tishri, which is the seventh month on the Jewish calendar, and it falls on the Gregorian calendar in September/October.

Here is what are basically involved in each feast are the following Jewish traditions.

The Feast of Trumpets:

• Start a new year for the counting of the reign of kings and the months on the Jewish calendar. It can be thought of as the beginning of the civil year.
• An offering is made by fire.
• An accounting of who is and is not in the Books of Life
• Blowing of the trumpets, or shofar , is to call Jews to repentance.

“The days of awe" after this feast is a chance for repentance before judgment is exacted.

This chart summarizes the timing each year of this first fall feast and the traditions that are a part of it. The column marked with the bolder outline, column #4, suggests what tribulation events in Revelation the traditions of this feast foreshadows.

Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement:

• Presentation of a fire offering
• Sacrificial blood is put on the mercy seat and the ground in front of it
• Sacrificial remains are burned outside the city

This next chart summarizes the timing of the feast of Yom Kippur and the traditions that are a part of this, the second fall feast. The traditions of this feast foreshadow some of the events surrounding the reaping in Revelation 14-15, shown in the column marked with the bolder outline, column #4.

The Feast of Tabernacles:

• Huts or "booths" are erected
• Samples of the fall crop are hung
• On the final day, the high priest leads a processional and invokes God's provision of life-giving water

This final chart summarizes the timing each year of this third fall feast and the traditions that are a part of it. Again, the column marked with the bolder outline, column #4, suggests the traditions of this feast foreshadow events at the end of Revelation when the Lamb and His bride dwell together eternally.

The Jewish Fall Feasts help me see that the Trumpets in Revelation are a final call of repentance to be among those whose names are written in the book of life. Repent and come out as a victor from the coming judgment!

The feast of Yom Kippur relates to Revelation 13-15 where God carries out the dividing between those who have received mercy and those who have not. Those who have not are removed and destroyed.

The Feast of Tabernacles foreshadows Revelation 21 when God's dwelling will be on earth in his eternal kingdom.