Recently, I’ve been struggling to understand why my family observes the Feasts of the Lord while the rest of the Christian world continues to ignore these High Holy Days, claiming them to be irrelevant or stuck in the Law which Jesus apparently took us out of. Fed up with following the crowd, I dedicated Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) to searching the Scriptures for answers. As I sat down with my Bible, I gave God an ultimatum, praying, “Lord, show me the significance of Your feasts and reveal to me whether or not believers should be celebrating them today! I don’t want to operate in a place of religion, tradition, or bondage, so please open my eyes to the relevance of these set-apart days. Mute the teachings and theologies of man and pour Your Spirit over me as I dive into Your Word and seek truth.”
My quest began with two purposes: finding out what the feasts are and when they were commanded and searching for their significance in the New Testament. We have all heard that Yeshua/Jesus was a Jew, but it’s always been strange to me that as soon as He is crucified and raised from the dead, all of a sudden, He’s no longer a Jew and has somehow created an entirely new religion?! 🤷🏻♀️ It doesn’t make sense, especially when Yeshua was constantly coming against the religious leaders (Pharisees) and their man-made traditions (Mark 7:8) and always pointing His followers toward the Father rather than religion, which was created by man and NOT God!
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” ~ John 14:6-7
Christians also like to teach that Jesus preached a new gospel that separates us from the damning commands found in the Old Testament. Yet, everything Yeshua spoke came directly from the Torah (He followed the Law; otherwise, He couldn’t have been the Messiah) and highlighted the relationship God desired to have with the Israelites when He made the covenant with them on Mount Sinai (Matthew 5:17-20). These words might shake some of you, but please bear with me. Yeshua did not come to create more segregation. He came to bring UNITY, and His sacrifice on the cross tore the veil that was separating us from God so that we could be reunited and come BACK into covenant with Him! Moreover, the Law is not as restricting as most think (believe it or not, it’s actually there for our protection – like our laws today), nor is God only the God of the Jews (or are the Feasts the Feast of the “Jews”) but the God of the ISRAELITES (there were 12 tribes that came out of Egypt, remember?)! And guess what else? You become a part of Israel, God’s chosen people, when you come to know Yeshua. The promise and covenant are not between Yeshua and the church but between Yeshua and ISRAEL!
Phew! That was a packed paragraph! Here are some Scriptures to study if you want to go through what was written above:
Ezekiel 37:21-22, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will take the Israelites out of the nations where they have gone. I will gather them from all around and bring them back into their own land. I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. There will be one king over all of them and they will never again be two nations or be divided into two kingdoms.”
Matthew 15:24, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
Romans 9:6-8, “It is not as though God’s word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham’s children. On the contrary, ‘It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.’ In other words, it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring.”
So, what did I find as I studied the feasts? Beauty. While most holidays are soaked in pagan origins and unbiblical traditions, reading about the feasts and God’s desire to commune with His people was beautiful. The significance of each Holy Day became even more astounding as I sought what Yeshua said and learned how the feasts lined up with His life and second coming!
Though I’m still not sure how I will celebrate these festivals in the future, there is one thing I do know for sure — I love Yeshua and have dedicated my life to obeying His Word, glorifying His name, and drawing closer to Him until my last breath! I want to be clear, though: I do NOT believe that observing the feasts or obeying the Torah will in any way grant me salvation (Ephesians 2:8-9) or make me any more saved than those who do not. The feasts are all a SHADOW of our Messiah, and we observe these set-apart days to place Yeshua at the center of our lives and remember the promises He spoke throughout the Bible. (Colossians 2:16-17) However, I believe there is life and joy to be found in returning to our roots and observing these God-ordained days rather than celebrating holidays that have no Biblical standing and are saturated in traditions that take the focus OFF God and place it back on ourselves!
Through this new series, I pray you will be inspired to dig into the Word for yourselves, allowing the Holy Spirit to open your eyes to things you have never heard or understood before! I also want to encourage you to do your own study after reading these seven upcoming articles. There will be a lot of new thoughts and perspectives coming up; however, please be careful because the further you dive into this topic, the easier it can be for the current of religion and tradition to sweep you away. There is freedom in the name of Yeshua, so let’s break the chains of religion and man’s theologies and step into a life of faith, promise, obedience, and new horizons with Yeshua as our captain!
Join me on this journey as I navigate through the Scriptures, learning the significance of each feast and understanding what they have to do with the Messiah and our lives today! Get ready because this is going to be a crazy ride! 🤗
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