Feasts of the Lord

Feasts of the Lord Written by Bill Bradford

"Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread...for whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel....On the first day there shall be a holy convocation, and on the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation for you....So shall you observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this day, I have brought your armies out of the land of Egypt."

(Exodus12:15-17).

Today is the last and seventh day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread which God commanded Ancient Israel to observe as He commands us to keep also. 

One excuse people use to not keep the annual Holy Days of God is that they are inconvenient or there are too many of them. After all, they conflict with my work, my holidays, and my other commitments and one of the early departures from the observance of God’s Feast of Unleavened Bread is relaxing the command to remove leaven from our homes.

God’s commands for His people will always be in conflict with the way of life the world demands. What would your commitments be that God’s commands can be ignored?

There is an extensive theology within the Christian Church that says you don’t have to keep the Holy Days and Feasts. The Feasts of God are deliberately underrated, being referred to as Jewish Feasts. The Bible calls them for what they are: “The Feasts of the Lord” (Leviticus 23:2).

It is inconceivable that God, One who is eternal, can institute an observance for His people and later (it doesn’t matter how much later) He changes it. It is as if God couldn’t see that far down the line that at some point in time they would not be needed. No wonder men don’t take God seriously on anything -- if they hold such a belief about Him.

The Holy Days and Feasts are for us today. In Exodus He was establishing His own people in the world to be a nation that would be recognized as God’s nation. He gave them his Sabbath and his annual observances to declare in various ways to the other nations that God was the author and sustainer of His own nation. Their God is the Creator God and any other gods manufactured from the imaginations of other cultures don’t even come close. God’s close relationship with them and the blessings God bestow would declare the glory of God for all to see.

God is with His people today. He sent Jesus Christ to establish God’s own church, and the church would be considered to be Christ’s body. Those in the church would also observe the Passover, remembering that we were released from the bondage of the devil as the Israelites were released from the bondage of Pharaoh. We go on to eat unleavened bread for seven days and revere his “high days” as a permanent observance that the Bread of Life is in us. The unleavened bread we eat represents the flesh of Christ required to sustain us.

Jesus said, “For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in Him” (John 6:55). This is symbolic of course, but we must live by the life of Jesus Christ who says He will dwell in us. You cannot be sustained in this world without taking in the words and spirit of Christ on a continual basis. People who knew better tried it and the world’s lure consumed them.

God has a reason for us to observe his Feasts. “Do not labour for the food which perishes, but for the food that endures to everlasting life....” (John 6:27).

Let's keep God's Feasts, starting with today -- eating unleavened bread, seeking those things which are above, where Christ is -- so we may fulfil the rich meaning of all of God's Holy Days.

 

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About the Author

Bill Bradford

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