“Three times a year you shall celebrate a feast to Me. You shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread; for seven days you are to eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the appointed time in the month Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt. And none shall appear before Me empty-handed. Also you shall observe the Feast of the Harvest of the first fruits of your labors from what you sow in the field; also the Feast of the Ingathering at the end of the year when you gather in the fruit of your labors from the field. Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord God.” Exodus 23:14–17. Technically, this passage outlines three feasts, but seven are included: three at the beginning of the year, three toward the end of the year, and one near the middle of the year. The book of Exodus brings a revelation of instructions for the feasts; these instructions are included also in Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
The Feast of Passover is not named here as such, but is called the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Passover was observed first, followed by seven days of Unleavened Bread. The Feast of Pentecost is called the Feast of the Harvest. The Feast of Tabernacles was also called the Feast of Ingathering because it came at the end of the harvest season.
It is always interesting to see the origin of these feasts. The Feast of Unleavened Bread, the first feast of the Jewish year, came on the fifteenth day of the first month and was observed for seven days. Passover first took place in the land of Egypt. The angel of judgment passed over all of Egypt, and wherever a Passover lamb had not been slain and the blood put on the doorpost, the death angel destroyed the firstborn in that home. This massacre of the firstborn was the final judgment, the last of all the plagues of Egypt.
The Israelites were told to eat the Passover lamb with their loins girded about, a staff in their hand and sandals on their feet—not relaxing barefoot in the house as was the custom, but ready to walk, ready to march. The lamb was to be eaten at the midnight hour, and none of it was to be left until morning. After midnight the wail came up throughout Egypt as the slain firstborn were discovered and the families mourned. It was then that the children of Israel began to move out with all their herds and flocks. They had eaten the lamb and had gained strength for the march to the sea, which would last many long hours.
The Lord delivered them and the Word says that the Israelites were entreated to go out (Exodus 12:33). The Egyptians were so glad to see them leave that they gave them gold, jewels, and other valuables, which were used later in the building of the tabernacle in the wilderness. Because they left Egypt in haste, the Israelites carried along their mixing bowls of dough. There was not enough time for the dough to rise, and therefore they prepared the dough without leavening. They stopped along the way to make little fires and bake the bread, and for seven days they ate unleavened bread.
Leaven is a symbol of sin or of that which is unclean. (There is an exception, found in Matthew 13:33: “The Kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman hid in three measures of meal until all was leavened.” This shows that the message of the Kingdom works in a clever and subtle way. Anyone who receives a living Word from the Lord may think to pass it by, but that Word will keep working on him.) Other references to leaven in the Scriptures refer to the flesh. “A little leaven leavens the whole lump,” Paul wrote in I Corinthians 5:6, speaking of the sin in the church at Corinth. Just a little wickedness has the power to permeate and corrupt the entire church. Hebrews 12:15 tells us, “Beware lest a root of bitterness rise up, and thereby many be defiled.” Just one bad spirit in the church seems to infect many people. Just one wrong thing in your life is like one fly in the oil of the apothecary, causing the perfume to send forth a stinking savor (Ecclesiastes 10:1).
Even to this day, Jews take a broom and sweep out the corners of their homes at the time of Passover, symbolically sweeping out all leaven, leaving no trace of anything wrong. For the Church, the unleavened bread is symbolic of the way the believers partake of the Lord. When the Israelites kept the feast, they served a large flagon of wine with the unleavened bread. To this day, their descendants serve wine with the unleavened bread. It is significant that this is what Jesus did on the night of the Passover when He lifted the cup of wine and said, “Take and drink, for this is a new covenant in My blood” (Luke 22:20). The former covenant of blood had been issued in the wilderness after the Israelites came out of Egypt. Jesus said, “Now you are going to partake of the Feast of Passover. You are going to drink of My blood and eat of My flesh.”
As you partake of the unleavened bread and the wine of Communion, you leave the bondage of Egypt far behind you. On the first Passover, the Israelites stood still and believed God for a deliverance; but during the days of unleavened bread they were marching out. Every hour, every minute, they were walking further away from Egypt. We, too, are living in the days of unleavened bread. We are walking away from the old bondage, the old taskmasters, the old associations. We are leaving it all behind. Everything must be made new for us.
In the provision of God, there is no room for anything of the flesh. After partaking of the Passover Lamb, we go day after day partaking of unleavened bread to sustain us on the journey. After the experience of deliverance comes the process of deliverance. First salvation becomes a definite experience, and then we begin to walk in it, as we learn how to leave the bondage of sin behind and move forward into God.
Two interesting customs connected Passover with Pentecost. On the day following the Sabbath of the Feast of Passover, the Israelites would cut down the first grain of the harvest, tie it together into a sheaf, and wave it before the Lord while they sacrificed one lamb without any blemish or defect. This was the only sacrifice they were supposed to make at that time. It was a type of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb without spot or blemish who was offered up as our Passover Lamb. While they offered the lamb, a priest stood and waved the sheaf (a wave offering), proclaiming to the Lord, “Here is the very first of the grain, the firstfruits.”
Fifty days later, they took some of that grain and ground it into fine meal to make two loaves of bread, but this time the bread contained leaven. The two loaves of bread were a type of Christ and the Church. The leaven was a type: just as now, the Church was not yet pure. When Christ waves you before the Lord, He is going to wave some leaven too. You are not yet perfect. You are not yet completely delivered from the leaven within you.
What did the Feast of Harvest of the firstfruits symbolize? How was it fulfilled in the New Testament? On the day of Pentecost, the first gathering of the harvest was presented to the Lord. Thousands of people came rushing together when the Holy Spirit was outpoured; they were repenting and believing the Lord. They were the first loaves to be waved before the Lord. First the grain is offered, and then the loaves. Christ was the Firstfruit, and now the Lord is bringing forth firstfruits of the harvest. We are a product of what Christ did. Fifty days after He provided for our salvation on the cross, He poured out His Spirit and the firstfruits of the Church came forth unto the Lord. This was a picture of what God was to do for us.
The Feast of Tabernacles came later in the year. This Feast represents something else entirely—a perfection. Leaven is in the loaves of bread waved before the Lord at Pentecost, but at the Feast of Ingathering and the completion of the harvest, everything is to speak of perfection. The Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles all symbolize that God is completing the work. We rejoice in the Feast of Pentecost because the Holy Spirit comes to baptize us with fire and to deliver us from the chaff of our lives, but we also rejoice in the Feast of Tabernacles when the Lord shall have removed all the filthiness of the daughters of Zion by the spirit of burning. Then the glory will return, of which the Feast of Tabernacles is a type.
These three feasts, when every man had to appear before the Lord, represent three successive stages of your absolute, perfect redemption before the Lord. All aspects and experiences of it are included. It is amazing what deep symbolism is hidden away in the feasts. All believers are experiencing all three feasts simultaneously, but one more than another. Many have long since known the Passover of salvation. We have known the Pentecost of the Holy Spirit’s anointing, and in a measure we are coming into Tabernacles, when the glory is to rest upon us. Some are living in one feast more than another. Some are saying, “Well, I’m saved, but the Lord is doing a good job of saving me a little more every day.” That is what He said He would do. The Lord ever lives to make intercession for you, so that He can save you to the uttermost (Hebrews 7:25). He wants you to do more than just get out of Egypt; He wants to get Egypt out of you. He wants to bring you forth as a whole new creature before the face of the Lord, thoroughly released from all your problems. Then you go on to the experience of Pentecost in which you receive the Holy Spirit and then find that every day the experience is expanding.
In this hour, a remnant of believers is entering into the Feast of Tabernacles experience. The Feast of Trumpets, or the sounding of Shofar, symbolizes prophecy coming forth everywhere. The trumpets are sounding! God is calling His people together to do a great work. However God is dealing with you, in one phase of your spiritual experience or another, He intends to work until you experience the return of the glory of God upon your life.