Yeshua - Fulfiller of ALL the Feasts

Yeshua said, "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life" (John 5:39-40).

Though even His Disciples did not understand the full implication of this statement of His during His walk on earth, He opened their minds to these Scriptures after His resurrection:

"These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and He said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem..." (Luke 24:44-47).

There are many Christian writers who say that Jesus, in His First Coming fulfilled only the Spring Feasts of the Lord and in His Second Coming will fulfill the Fall Feasts. I disagree--I believe He fulfilled ALL the "Appointed Times" ("Moadim" - Leviticus 23) in His First Coming, either literally or in type, and that He will completely fulfill ALL the Moadim in His Second Coming.

Fulfillment of Yom Kippur

The fact that the writer of the book of Hebrews alludes to Yeshua's fulfilling the Fall Moed of Yom Kippur (Hebrews 8-10) demonstrates that this is true. He fulfilled that Moed in His First Coming--yet there are other aspects of that Moed that have yet to be fulfilled for the "closing of the Books" will not occur until Revelation 20 at the "Great White Throne Judgment."

Fulfillment of Yom Teruah

He also fulfilled the typology of Isaac--as reflected in the traditional Torah Readings in the synagogue for the services of this Feast. Genesis 21, read on the first day of the Feast speaks of the miraculous birth of Isaac, which typifies the future miraculous birth of Yeshua. Furthermore, the traditional reading of Genesis 22, the Binding of Isaac, points to the sacrifice, death, and resurrection of Messiah Yeshua on exactly that same mountain centuries later!

Trumpets also points to His future Coming, at the sound of the trump (Matthew 24:31; 1 Corinthians 15:51-52; 1 Thessalonians 4:16-5:2).

Fulfillment of Sukkot

The Feast of Sukkot (Tabernacles) points toward His tabernacling (John 1:14) among us when He came as a baby to the world.

Sukkot also points toward His future reign in Zechariah 14.

In short, ALL the Feasts of the Lord have dual fulfillments in both typology and in literal fulfillment!

Due to lack of space here to fully develop this, I would like to recommend you read my book, The Feasts of the Lord (Moedim) and their Fulfillment in Messiah Yeshua, where you could fully study this out.

Keeping the Feasts

In keeping the feasts, we do not derive our righteousness from keeping them; yet in keeping them, we DO reach out to embrace the One who fulfilled them. The shadow does not satisfy, only the reality does. Yeshua IS the reality!

If we observe the feasts out of a sense of religious duty, we have missed the whole point in their keeping. They were meant to be a time of fellowship, a time of communion, between God and His people--an "appointed time." They were expressions of our love for Him and our desire to personally have a relationship with Him. In them, we can express our desire to join with Him on His holy days, similarly to our joining with our loved ones on their special days, such as birthdays, etc.

The whole point is to join together in a community of believers to express our love to and to revere our Lord!

Are the Moadim for the Body of Messiah today? Emphatically, YES!

The words of Yeshua to His Disciples,

"Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 5:17-19), appear not to give the impression of the doing away of the Torah, but rather support the validity of the Torah in those who believed in Him.

The Moadim (an essential part of the Torah) literally support Yeshua's claims to be who He would claim to be. As Yeshua speaks to the Torah Teachers and Pharisees, "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me..." (John 5:39).

It is the TANAKH (Hebrew Scriptures) that speak of Yeshua and His missions (First and Second Comings) on this earth. In fact, it would behoove the Body of Messiah to keep these Feasts to understand the earthly missions of Yeshua even better! Furthermore, observing these Feasts will help the believer in Yeshua understand where all this fits in with their lives