Many non-Jewish Bible believers wonder why they should study or observe the feasts. I feel that most Bible believers do not have an in-depth understanding of the Bible and do not understand the deep depth of the personal relationship that God desires with us. Most people only accept what they have grown up with, believing in the Bible through what they have been told. However, this is not enough, we need more. We need a personal relationship with our Creator, as Our Father, through Yeshua Messiah (Jesus Christ).
To begin to improve our personal relationship with our creator we should study, understand and obey (keep), the festivals. If you are a Bible believer and you desire to understand God in a greater way than you do today, the festivals will reveal to you the deeper things concerning your personal relationship with Him.
Also, the festivals are YHVH's ** (the Lord’s) feasts and His appointed times that we are to observe [Leviticus 23:1-2,4] New King James throughout unless noted.
God gave the festivals to teach:
Although there are a total of seven feasts, God divided the seven festivals into three major festival seasons.
1) The spring feasts of Passover (Hebrew, Pesach), Unleavened Bread (Hebrew, Hag HaMatzah), and First Fruits (Hebrew, Bikkurim), are in the Hebrew month of Nisan (usually falls in April), which is the first month of God's religious calendar in the spring of the year.
2) The Feast of Weeks, (Hebrew, Shavuot), or Pentecost, is observed in the third month (usually falls in June), which is the Hebrew month of Sivan.
3) The fall Feasts of Trumpets (Hebrew, Rosh HaShanah), Atonement (Hebrew, Yom Kippur), and Tabernacles (Hebrew, Sukkot) are observed in the seventh month, Tishrei (usually falls in September or October).
But aren’t those feasts given to Israel?
Traditionally, non-Jewish Bible believers feel the festivals are exclusively Jewish feasts. However, [Leviticus 23:1-2,4] tells us very clearly that these are festivals of YHVH. In reality, these festivals are for both Jew and non-Jew, and are to be celebrated jointly with each other [Deuteronomy 16:10-11] and [Deuteronomy 16:14-16] in Deuteronomy 16:11, 14, the word translated in English as stranger is the Hebrew word ger, which means the non-Jew who has joined himself to the Jewish people. The feasts were given to the people of YHVH and this includes also non-Israeli people who have accepted Him and His Messiah and have been grafted into Israel.
It is important to remember that as an entire unit, the festivals teach about the complete plan of God; however, each festival centers on a particular theme in the plan of God.
The festivals as a whole teach us that…
All of the festivals are, at the same time, both historical and prophetic.
All of the festivals teach about Yeshua.
All of the festivals are agricultural in context.
All of the festivals teach about our personal relationship with God and how we are to walk with Him as we grow in the knowledge of Him, from a new believer to a mature believer.
Now let’s begin our study of the seven feasts with an addition of a study of the Sabbath.
These articles are a summary from the Book:
The Seven Festivals of the Messiah
by Eddie Chumney
** YHVH (spelled as Yod Hey Vav (or Wah) Hey) is Strongs number 03068 "Pronounced" Yahovah yeh-ho-vaw’
from 01961; TWOT-484a; n pr dei
AV-LORD 6510, GOD 4, JEHOVAH 4, variant 1; 6519