God's Sacred Occasions
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Chapter 1 The Jewish Year And the LORD spoke unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying: ”This month shall be unto you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you.” —Exodus 12:1–2 (JPS) It had been 215 years since Jacob brought his family to Egypt. The Children of Israel had been slaves for many years. Moses, who had been rescued from his ark in the bulrushes by Pharaoh’s daughter, was eighty years old. Nine plagues had occurred, and Moses had just finished informing Pharaoh of the tenth and final plague. The entire chapter of Exodus 11 details that encounter between Moses and Pharaoh: every firstborn male in Egypt was going to die. Chapter 12 begins with God informing Moses and Aaron that “this month shall be unto you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you” (Exodus 12:2). At first, this transition from a plague of unspeakable horror to something as seemingly mundane as a date on the calendar seems very strange. However, this should demonstrate to us the importance of time to God. “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1). In Exodus 12:2, God was establishing the starting point for determining His appointed times, or “feasts of the LORD,” as they are called in the King James Version of the Bible. The first event on that calendar would be Passover in just two weeks. The importance of Exodus 12:2 did not escape the Jews. God had promised to make of Abraham a great nation, and in Exodus 12:2 we see His first commandment given to that nation. Further evidence of the importance of time to God can be found in the Sabbath. The Sabbath is as old as the earth. “And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it” (Genesis 2:3). The Sabbath was not just another day. God made it a holy day. By the same token, God attached importance to the feast days in Leviticus 23. He even designated some of these days as “Sabbath” days. Why were these feast days so important? They were important for several reasons. First, some of these feasts were tied to the agricultural seasons in Israel. Offerings given by the Hebrews at these feasts were an acknowledgment that God provided for all their needs. Second, the feasts were memorials. A perfect example of this is Passover, which is a memorial of God’s deliverance of the Children of Israel from their Egyptian slavery. “And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the LORD throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever” (Exodus 12:14). Probably the most important reason for these feast days is that they were also prophetic. The 2,300-day prophecy of Daniel 8:14 clearly speaks of the Day of Atonement: “And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” At the time of this prophecy, about six centuries before the time of Christ, the Temple lay in ruins. No Day of Atonement was celebrated there. There would still be no Temple 2,300 days from when this prophecy began. Applying the year-day principle means that this prophecy was referring to an event at least 2,300 years into the future. By this time Herod’s Temple had been destroyed. However, we know that once the Temple was rebuilt and completed in 515 BCE, the Day of Atonement was observed once again. This text could not merely have been referring to the resumption of the annual Day of Atonement in the earthly sanctuary. Clearly this reference to the Day of Atonement is prophetic. Paul made this prophetic aspect of the feasts very clear when he wrote, “For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us” (1 Corinthians 5:7). The Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread were memorials of God’s deliverance of the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt. They were also prophetic of the plan of salvation and Christ’s great sacrifice as the Lamb of God to deliver us from our slavery to sin. Now that we understand the importance of the feasts, the abrupt transition from the tenth plague in Exodus 11 to the beginning of the calendar in Exodus 12 does not seem so strange. If the feasts of the LORD are prophetic of the plan of salvation, then they are prophetic of some events that have not yet been fulfilled. If all the types had met the antitypes, then Jesus would have already returned, and we would already be in heaven. Since this is not the case, studying the feasts can give us insight into the prophecies that are yet to be fulfilled. The first month of the Jewish calendar is Nisan or Abib. It began with the new moon. The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Dictionary states, “The Hebrew month was lunar, beginning with the evening on which the crescent moon appeared.” Dr. Nehemia Gordon, a PhD in biblical studies and a prominent Karaite Jewish scholar, states on his website The Karait Korner, “The Biblical month begins with the crescent new moon, also called First Visible Sliver. The Hebrew word for month (Hodesh) literally means new moon and only by extension the period between one new moon and the next.” Therefore, when God told Moses and Aaron, “This month shall be unto you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you,” He was speaking to them on the day of the new moon.
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The Feasts of the Lord, or God’s Appointed Times, first appear in the Bible during the Exodus. There are three aspects to the Feasts of the Lord: 1. Agricultural, 2. Memorial, and 3. Prophetic. They are prophetic about both the First Advent and the Second Advent which means that some events prophesied have not happened yet. The Jewish calendar was to be determined by the New Moons and the ripening of barley in Israel and consisted of twelve or thirteen months. The first of the Appointed Times was Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Unfortunately, the Hebrews rarely observed the Feasts of the Lord and this ultimately led to their division and the Babylonian captivity. In Babylon they began to rely upon the Babylonians astronomical calculations as well as observations to try to determine when the Feasts of the Lord would occur. Finally in the fourth century, they began to rely solely on calculations to determine the dates of the Feasts of the Lord. The Feasts of the Lord played an important role during Christ’s time on earth. There were four Passovers during His ministry culminating in His crucifixion at the time of the fourth Passover. After His resurrection, the Holy Spirit was poured out upon His followers in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. The early Christian Church continued observance of the Feasts of the Lord. Paul observed Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread in Philippi. He was arrested at the time of Pentecost. The first breaks from the Feasts of the Lord began in the second century CE. The Feasts of the Lord are still important today because they were part of an oath from God, and He never breaks His oaths. Furthermore, we will be observing Feasts of the Lord in the New Earth.
About the Author
John Oliver is a physician living in Wasilla, Alaska. His entire education was in Christian schools culminating in his graduation from Loma Linda University School of Medicine in 1986. After completing his residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology he did Pelvic Surgery Fellowship in Maryland and Georgia before establishing his office in Pasadena, California in 1991. He has lived in Alaska since 2002. He has taught Sabbath School classes at the Palmer Seventh-Day Adventist Church where he is a member. He has also preached sermons at several of the Seventh-Day Adventist Churches in Alaska when they are without a pastor. Some might wonder how a physician is qualified to write about the Feasts of the Lord. Dr. Oliver has studied this topic in detail for more than fifteen years. He has relied upon both Christian and Jewish sources in writing this book. Even though Dr. Oliver does not have a degree in Theology he has relied upon experts on this topic including fishermen, shepherds, a carpenter, tax collector, tent maker and even another physician as his sources for this book. Dr. Oliver has been married to Tracey who has a Doctorate in Nursing Practice for twenty-eight years. They have two children. Their son Keoni has a master’s degree in counterterrorism and homeland security. Their daughter Kiana is getting her master’s degree in counselling.