The Feasts of Israel

Every feast that God implemented in Israel’s calendar year was set to when that year began; and for God, it began on a certain day, which constituted the first day of the first month. This month has come to be called Nisan. Yet that’s not what God called it, nor was that what it was called by Moses.      

• The Feast of Unleavened Bread you shall keep. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, in the appointed time of the month of Abib; for in the month of Abib you came out from Egypt. (Exodus 34:18)

Abib (‘aybib)—Abib is not properly a name of a month but part of a descriptive phrase, “the month of young ears of grain.” It refers specifically to fresh young ears of barley, the first crop of the Jewish year, and from which the first fruits must be offered to God immediately following Passover (this will become particularly important later).   

Abib became known as Nisan following the Jewish captivity in Babylon. In fact, every name on the modern Jewish calendar has its roots in the ancient Babylonian calendar. Therefore, you only find the name Nisan describing the first month in Nehemiah 2:1 and Esther 3:7. There is in fact no biblical reference to the names of any other month on the modern Jewish calendar anywhere other than in the story of Esther. Each month, throughout the rest of Scripture, is simply referred to as its number, whether 1, 4, 8, and so forth. This was in fact the pre-Moses pattern and remained throughout the biblical period.    

• In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. (Genesis 7:11)
• And they journeyed from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came to the Wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they departed from the land of Egypt. (Exodus 16:1)
• In the third month they began laying them in heaps, and they finished in the seventh month. (2 Chronicles 31:7)
• And when the seventh month had come, and the children of Israel were in the cities, the people gathered together as one man to Jerusalem. (Ezra 3:1)
• On one day in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar. (Esther 8:12)
• And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I sat in my house with the elders of Judah sitting before me, that the hand of the Lord God fell upon me there. (Ezekiel 8:1)

I think you get the point. The Bible did NOT have an established, systemized calendar with names for each month. No. That all came from Babylon. Israel had a system of approximated 30-day months that stayed in tune with the phases of the moon. A full phase of the moon takes about 29.5 days (about four weeks) to complete, so if ancient Israel had been systematically utilizing 30-day intervals, they would have become completely out of phase with the moon.   

This they clearly did not do. No, the new moons seemed to be an important part of their sacrificial offering system. Yet there is no indication that they just looked to the moon to set their calendar’s new year. In fact, we find that the Jewish definition of what constituted the completion of a year and the beginning of a new one was related to the new moon but NOT dependent upon it at all!   

The state of the barley harvest at the beginning of spring was the key designator for the nation of Israel in determining which new moon at the time of the vernal equinox would be the determining factor in declaring a new year. Thus, the new year was always in sync with the phases of the moon, the sun, and the harvest. It was the state of the harvest in connection with the phase of the new moon as a new spring was dawning on the earth that was the key factor for the close of a year and the beginning of the new year.   

Therefore, you find no reference to the equinox in Scripture, though there are those who argue for it being in Scripture, and there is no real emphasis on the moon as determining feast days. Rather, there is a declaration from the Lord as to what day will be called the “first day.” And from that moment through history, the leaders of Israel, most notably the priests, would declare when the first day of the new year was by looking at the state of the barley and determining when it was in the bud in connection with the two new moons that occur around the time of the spring equinox.   

In nature, because of changes in weather patterns, sometimes the season of spring can be early, meaning before the vernal equinox. At other times, winter can extend beyond the equinox, and spring is late. This affects harvests. When you note the importance of harvest not just to the daily life of ancient Israel but to the feasts and thus the prophetic time clock of the Lord, you readily see that the date of determination for what constitutes the first day of the year requires a person to determine!   

Who was that person? Well, at first it was Moses. The Bible makes that clear. Then, who knows. But he obviously taught someone what God showed him and passed it down from there. We do know, historically, that it was the high priest who determined when the barley was in the “ear” (‘aybib) for the First Temple period and later the Sanhedrin. However, after the destruction of the temple in AD 70, the rabbis saw that the dispersed Jewish communities were losing track of the exact date of the first day of the year because there was no authority to tell them when that day was, and many were thus celebrating the feast days on different days throughout the world. This was why they turned to mathematical calculations to determine which new moon of the new year would be used as their New Moon. These principles and rules were fully codified by Maimonides in the Mishnah Torah in the twelfth century, though they existed for centuries before.   

This is important because using the modern-day Jewish calendar to correctly place when the new year begins is NOT accurate. Any Jewish rabbi would tell you this. However, it is the best they can do until either the Sanhedrin is reconvened, or the Messiah comes. That said, because we know which two new moons are used to determine the new year, you can always be within a month’s accuracy as to the start of every new year.   

No such problem was found when God established the “first month of the year” with Moses. They had the barley harvest to guide them, and when that happened, it determined which new moon would be the one to which they set their new year. Proof that the barley harvest was part of what God was using to establish His “beginning of months” is found not only in the name that was given to the month but in the context of what He told Moses. Egypt was in the start of the barley season when the plagues were beginning.    

• Now the flax and the barley were struck, for the barley was in the head and the flax was in bud. But the wheat and the spelt were not struck, for they are late crops. (Exodus 9:31,32)

It was the new moon FOLLOWING the barley being in “head” (‘aybib) that was declared the “first”! This was vitally important because of the connection between Israel’s daily living and the prophetic significance of each of the feasts. And everything began with the most important feast, Passover. It had to happen on the right day! Having it happen on the wrong day would be problematic because everything in the feast pointed to the Messiah and what He would do on that day. Passover signified the death of the lamb and had prophetic reference to the crucifixion of Jesus. The wave-sheaf offering signified resurrection from the dead, for on this day, Jesus was raised and was presented in heaven as the first fruits of all creation (1 Corinthians 15:20,23).   

The Bible tells us that Jesus came in “the fulness of time” under the law (Galatians 4:4,5). So, He obviously came on the right day, died on the predestined day, and rose when prophecy said He would and not a close approximation! It will be the same at His second coming. Though man’s clocks are all out of kilter, God knows exactly when His “first day of the month” is and when His Passover is to occur, and He knows exactly when He will return.   

How do we know Jesus came to Jerusalem on that tenth day? It was the day for setting aside the Passover lamb.    

• Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: “On the tenth of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household.” (Exodus 12:3)

Jesus was our Passover Lamb, and it was on the day for separation unto the slaughter that He presented Himself in Jerusalem. Upon entry, to fit with the requirement for the paschal sacrifice, the very first place He presented Himself was in the temple, where He proceeded to put a stop (temporarily) to the selling of all other sacrifices!    

• And when He had come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, “Who is this?” So, the multitudes said, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee.” Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. (Matthew 21:10–12)

It is the Passover that marks the pivotal moment in Israel’s history, and it is THE pivotal moment in all human history as it was the Day of the Cross. Why wouldn’t the Antichrist seek to mimic this, especially considering that he too will take away the sacrifices newly reestablished and declare himself to be Messiah? Therefore, it makes sense that Satan would seek to create the ultimate con and “fulfill” Bible prophecy to the “letter,” though it will be lacking the Spirit.   

The man of lawlessness will appear on Abib 10—the same day the lamb is presented, the same day Christ was presented the first time—and declare himself the redeemer of mankind.  

Just as Jesus presented Himself to the Jews on Abib (Nisan) 10, AD 33, when He rode into Jerusalem on a donkey and went to the temple, so the Antichrist will present himself to the world on Abib 10 in the year of his revealing on the Temple Mount. It follows from this that just as the death of Jesus occurred on Abib 14 that the “death” of the man of sin, whether staged (most likely) or real, will occur on that very day in the middle of the final week. And just as Jesus rose from the dead-on Abib 16, so too the Antichrist will “resurrect” on Abib 16.  

The Feasts of Israel & The Last Trumpet 

The key to understanding biblical prophecy, especially the chronology of end times events, is to understand their connection to the feasts of Israel, all of which point to Jesus. Almost every Christian understands and teaches that Christ literally fulfilled every Spring festival at His first Coming. This includes scholars and preachers who do not even believe in end time prophecy. Jesus was the Passover Lamb. He was the unleavened bread of Heaven who became leavened with the sin of mankind and was laid in the tomb on the first day of Unleavened Bread. He was the first fruits offering that was waved before the Lord. The Day of Pentecost, where Jesus sent the Holy Spirit upon the disciples, was a perfect representation of the first fruits of believers, reminiscent of the wheat harvest, which followed the barley. This happened at the Feast of Weeks. Thus, only the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles remain unfulfilled. If Christ literally fulfilled the first four at His first coming, then it stands to reason that the final three will in some way be fulfilled at His Second Coming.  

When we look at the final feasts that have yet to be fulfilled, we find something very interesting respecting what has already been established regarding Trumpets. They play a prominent role in the first two and usher in the memorialization of the third. On the first day of the seventh month begins the Feast of Trumpets. This is a ten-day period in which trumpets are blown on the first day, calling the people of Israel together. The Bible has precious little to say about it, other than that it was a holy day of rest. Many believe it was ushered in by the blowing of silver trumpets, but the Bible does not say this.  

• And in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work. For you it is a day of blowing the trumpets. (Numbers 29:1)   

This feast is marked by specific sacrifices being offered for sin. It is a sort of prelude to the coming Day of Atonement, on the tenth day of the seventh month. The tenth day is when a final call for repentance is issued, after which anyone who has not repented is to be “cut off” from the people. That is, they are spiritually to be condemned to death, and it is God who will do the destroying!     

• And you shall do no work on that same day, for it is the Day of Atonement, to make atonement for you before the Lord your God. For any person who is not afflicted in soul on that same day shall be cut off from his people. And any person who does any work on that same day, that person I will destroy from among his people. (Leviticus 23:28–30)    

Most Bible prophecy teachers confuse the Feast of Trumpets with the Rapture of the Church, and thus they place it before Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles, the latter of which they claim represents Christ tabernacling with man in the Millenium. The Bible simply doesn’t support this view at all. The Feast of Trumpets is merely a festival that prophetically speaks to a preparation for what is to come, with its culmination being the Day of Atonement. It is the Day of Atonement that has a specific connection to the Rapture of the Church, with those who have refused to repent being cut off from salvation. The reason this connection is missed is because most years the Day of Atonement has nothing to do with trumpets!  

The Feast of Trumpets began on the first day of the seventh month and set the stage for the Day of Atonement on the tenth day of that same month. However, for most years, those trumpets blown on the first day of the feast were the only horns to blow for the feast period. This changed at the close of the forty-ninth year when, on the Day of Atonement, a single horn blast would sound to usher in the Jubilee year that would start the next cycle. This was letting everyone know that the coming year was to be a time of divine rest and that God Himself would provide for the people. No longer were they to engage in sowing and reaping. This blast represented the last trumpet of the feast cycles and occurred every fifty years!    

• Then you shall cause the trumpet of the Jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement, you shall make the trumpet to sound throughout all your land. (Leviticus 25:9)   

This is a staggering thought when overlaid onto the things we have already learned about what the Bible says regarding the LAST trumpet and what follows that trumpet in the outpouring of the bowl judgments of Revelation. It tells us that the LAST trumpet commanded by God can be placed on the tenth day of the seventh month in God’s prophetic calendar on the year ushering in a Jubilee. It will signal the coming millennial rest, and it will signal the last chance for the unbelieving to turn before the wrath of God destroys them.   

In the book, the prophetic timeline places the seventh trumpet at the time of the Feast of Tabernacles. It sounds on the tenth day of the seventh month, which is the Day of Atonement on the prophetic feast timeline. This IS NOT in exact alignment with the Jewish calendar and when the feasts are currently celebrated, because they are OFF. The day after where this date falls on the Gregorian calendar (10/17/2032 on the prophetic timeline) is the full moon of the Feast of Tabernacles. There is an obscure passage in Scripture that indicates this would be the LAST trumpet of any given year. It is always sounded at the new moon of the Feast of Tabernacles and is referred to by Asaph in the Psalms.   

• Blow the trumpet at the time of the New Moon, at the full moon, on our solemn feast day. (Psalm 81:3) 

On the earthly feast calendar, this horn is blown to usher in the Feast of Tabernacles. However, it is connected to the solemn feast day. There was only one such day in Israel, and that was the Day of Atonement! This trumpet then is referencing the very last trumpet in a Jubilee cycle, that is sounded at the Day of Atonement. Such a Jubilee blast would be the last trumpet in a Jubilee, feast cycle.  

If we overlay the prophetic time scale onto the feast schedule. At the Feast of Tabernacles, the nation of Israel remembers that they were but temporary sojourners in the land of Egypt when the Lord redeemed them. This was in fact its purpose. It has nothing to do with God tabernacling with His people. Israel is commanded to live in temporary shelters to signify their soon-coming deliverance!   

• “You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All who are native Israelites shall dwell in booths, that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.” (Leviticus 23:42,43)  

What a blessed reminder of the hope we have in Christ. Christians will need to cling to that hope in this time because the persecution from the Antichrist will be more intense than ever before. Yet it is at just such a time, as ancient Israel in Egypt, we are to remind ourselves that the earth is only temporary. The tribulation of the Antichrist, though great, is temporary, and indeed, our Redeemer draws nigh. In the case of the Jews, when they left the Feast of Tabernacles it was to return home, wait for the rains, and then begin planting. However, if they had just celebrated a Jubilee, there was no work to go home to. It was time to rest. The harvest would be finished being gathered in, and then they were to live off the land in the coming year.  

If you look at the timeline that was chosen for this final day in the book, it places the harvest times extremely late! This tracks though with what the Scripture says. The word xērainō (ksa-ri’-no) used for ripe in this passage indicates that the harvest is late. This word literally means “to become dry, to be dry, be withered,” and is used of harvests to describe something that is overripe, indicating it has been left in the field or on the vine much longer than it normally would have been. This is a perfect description of God’s grace being extended as long as possible to mankind to get every solitary person who will be saved, saved.  

In the timeline presented in the book, the 1260-day Great Tribulation period begins in the Spring of 2029. 1260 prophetic days later it ends on the Day of Atonement in the Fall of 2032. Even more noteworthy regarding the timeline presented, is that it places the end of the 1,290-day period as presented in Daniel 12, which is specific to Daniel’s people, the Jews, at the time of olive harvest—something not associated with the feast cycle of Moses. This harvest usually occurs between October and November, in the eighth and ninth months of the Jewish year. The olive tree is ALWAYS used to refer to the Jewish nation in Bible prophecy. The olive harvest is an important harvest, though seemingly disconnected from the major feasts.   

• When you reap your harvest in your field, and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. When you beat your olive trees, you shall not go over the boughs again; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow. When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not glean it afterward; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow. (Deuteronomy 24:19–21) 

Significantly, the prophet Isaiah indicates that the nation of Israel will suffer an incredible slaughter of its people at the time of the end, a slaughter leaving little grapes and olives on the trees to be gleaned.   

• “In that day it shall come to pass that the glory of Jacob will wane, and the fatness of his flesh grow lean. It shall be as when the harvester gathers the grain and reaps the heads with his arm; it shall be as he who gathers heads of grain in the Valley of Rephaim. Yet gleaning grapes will be left in it, like the shaking of an olive tree, two or three olives at the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in its most fruitful branches,” says the Lord God of Israel. (Isaiah 17:4–6)

This harvest theme is clearly evident in Revelation 14, when the seventh trumpet is sounded. There, the coming harvest of the Lord showcases both those to be saved and those to be destroyed. The imagery used here is the most explicit anywhere in Scripture. In other words, those who repented before the trumpet of the Jubilee, and those who would be cut-off. But they are harvested together.  

• Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and on the cloud sat One like the Son of Man, having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to Him who sat on the cloud, “Thrust in Your sickle and reap, for the time has come for You to reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.” So, He who sat on the cloud thrust in His sickle on the earth, and the earth was reaped. Then another angel came out of the temple, which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle. And another angel came out from the altar, who had power over fire, and he cried with a loud cry to him who had the sharp sickle, saying, “Thrust in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, for her grapes are fully ripe.” So, the angel thrust his sickle into the earth and gathered the vine of the earth and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trampled outside the city, and blood came out of the winepress, up to the horses’ bridles, for one thousand six hundred furlongs. (Revelation 14:14–20) 

This is truly remarkable, and when you consider that the full moon that year in Israel, in which a horn on earth would normally be sounded, will be a blood moon, it is screaming at people to pay attention. The first harvests, which corresponded with the early feasts, are that of barley and wheat. The final feast cycles correspond with the later summer fruits, such as flax, figs, and grapes, with the grape harvest usually being completed by the Feast of Tabernacles but sometimes extending beyond the feast. This feast is significant considering the imagery given concerning the final harvest in Revelation 14. It is the time of the final major harvesting season in Israel, and when it occurs at the end of a Jubilee cycle, it marks a time of corporate reflection and preparation for a coming time of rest.