EDAT BEIT SHALOM
The Feasts of the Lord 2017
Why do we celebrate the feasts?
The most compelling reason for celebrating God's feasts is because the Word of God leads us to do so. Careful examination of God's Word reveals that the feasts and what they symbolise are a foreshadow of the redeeming work of Yeshua and that participating in the feasts is a way for us to connect with, and build an intimate relationship with God at times that he has appointed for us. The belief that many believers share, that the feasts belong only to Jewish people, and therefore you have to be Jewish to celebrate God's feasts is misleading. The Hebrews were the first recipients of the instructions to keep these feasts because God had appointed them as a 'light to the Gentiles/nations’ (Isaiah 49:6) but God did not exclude anyone from keeping them and in fact he encouraged us to do so. A potter can only work with soft clay, it is not possible to mould and craft a piece of pottery with hard immovable clay. Once the soft clay yields to the hand of the potter a beautiful work can be achieved. So must our hearts be when examining the Word of God to establish the reasons for celebrating the feasts, so that when He gives us understanding and discernment we are open to accepting the truth of God's mercy and loving kindness in these feasts.
Purim
February 10, 2017
"Mordecai recorded these events, and he sent letters to all the Jews throughout the provinces of King Xerxes, near and far, to have them celebrate annually the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar as the time when the Jews to relief from their enemies, and as the month when their sorrow was turned to joy and their mourning into a day of celebration. He wrote them to observe the days as days of feasting and joy and giving presents of food to one another and gifts to the poor - Esther 9:20-22
Shavuot [Pentecost]
May 29, 2017
"The Lord said to Moses... From the day after the Sabbath, the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, count off seven full weeks. Count off fifty days up the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then present an offering of new grain to the Lord... On that same day you are to proclaim a sacred assembly and do no regular work. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live." - Leviticus 23:9, 15-16, 21
Rosh Hashanah [Feast of Trumpets]
September 19, 2017
"The Lord said to Moses, Say to the Israelites: On the first day of the seventh month you are to have a day of rest, a sacred assembly commemorated with trumpet blasts. Do no regular work, but present an offering made to the Lord by fire." - Leviticus 23:23-25
Yom Kippur [Day of Atonement]
September 28, 2017
"The Lord said to Moses, The tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. Hold a sacred assembly and deny yourselves, and present an offering made to the Lord by fire." - Leviticus 23:26-27
Sukkot [Tabernacles]
October 03, 2017
"The Lord said to Moses... Say to the Israelites: On the fifteenth day of the seventh month the Lord's Feast of Tabernacles begins, and it is to last seven days. THe first day is a sacred assebly; do no regular work. For seven days present offerings made to the Lord by fire, and on the eighth day hold a sacred assembly and present an offering made to the Lord by fire. It is the closing assembly; do no regular work." - Leviticus 23: 33-36
Hanukkah [Feast of Dedication]
December 11, 2017
Then came the Feast of Dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter and Yeshua was in the temple area walking in Solomon's Colonnade. - John 10:22-23
Understanding how God views time
Start times of feasts
The feasts of God follow the lunar cycle pattern in which the 'days' begin in the evening at sunset. Therefore the dates given mark the evening start of the feasts. From the first evening to the next evening at sunset is counted as 'Day 1' of the feast.
"God called the light 'day' and the darkness he called 'night'. And there was evening, and there was morning - the first day." - Genesis 1:5
"And God said: Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years..." - Genesis 1:14