“THESE ARE MY APPOINTED TIMES… The Lord God Almighty has been reaching out to us continuously during the last two months. Day by day, His perfect plan for the redemptive restoration of mankind has been brought to the forefront of our lives. We have literally been “counting the days”, looking forward to the mind-boggling events and revelations He has included in each one of these “appointed times” of Leviticus 23: “These are my appointed times, the times of the LORD that you will proclaim as sacred assemblies.”
Appointed by God Almighty on His calendar for mankind, these incredibly special festival times of sharing with His people are actually introductions to the ministry of Messiah Jesus, anointed as the Incarnation of God Himself, destined not only to dwell with mankind on earth and fulfill God’s appointments, but also to rule as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. What could be more important than this incredible calendar filled with earth-shattering events that only the Son of God could accomplish!
The Almighty’s very first “appointed time” was marked for all-time 3500 years ago under a full moon during the Spring season, when He made His presence known to a world power that had a stranglehold over the people who worshipped Him. God announced His intention to free them through a series of plagues which rearranged their daily lives, decimated their national economy, wracked them with disease, disrupted their weather patterns, devastated their food supply, increased insects to unbearable swarms, and plunged them into darkness for days. Finally, with the 10th plague of death, even people who didn’t worship Him were brought to their knees.
“On the 14th day of the month all the community of Israel must slaughter them (lambs) at twilight. Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs.…I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt…Exodus 12:6-7,12-13
Incredibly, the blood of the sacrificial lamb marked 600,000 households of our ancient ancestors who were to be “passed over” from certain death that very night in Egypt, the land of their bondage. The event called “Passover” was appointed by God to be celebrated forever on the 14th day of His first month as a reminder that He alone would always deliver His chosen people from their bondage. Those of us who believe in Jesus, our Passover Lamb, literally stand as the continuing generations of “passed-over” and “saved” children. The death angel cannot claim us. Paul says it so perfectly in 1 Corinthians 5:7 “…For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.”
The Day of Passover on the 14th gave birth to the week-long festival known as Unleavened Bread to begin on the 15th day, also the weekly Sabbath. Its unusual name is a timeless reminder of the first Passover when the firstborn of every family in Egypt died and Pharaoh came to the Israelites in the middle of the night, urging them to leave so quickly they didn’t have time to even properly prepare their bread, the mainstay of their diet. They just packed the lump of raw, unleavened dough and headed out into the desert, depending on God's promises and His provision! “Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt. Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come.” Exodus 12:17-18
From this scripture we understand why this festival to the Almighty came to be known as Passover and the following 7 days as Unleavened Bread, collectively recognized as the Passover season. “Christ, our Passover Lamb has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”1 Corinthians 5:7-8
God’s appointed festivals of Passover and Unleavened Bread also begat the Almighty’s next festival of “Firstfruits”, a “wave-offering” unto Him forever in Leviticus 23:10,14: "...When you come into the land which I give to you, and reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest. He shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted on your behalf; ... it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings."
Incredibly, when Jesus was raised from the dead on the 16th, the day after the Sabbath following the Passover feast, but had not yet ascended to the Father, He was on His way to God's Throne as the “Firstfruit” of the resurrection of mankind, an event also marked by God on His calendar 1500 years before. “…Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those those have fallen asleep.” 1 Corinthians 15:20 https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=273181765032064&set=pb.100070207268018.-2207520000
“‘From the day after the Sabbath, the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, count off seven full weeks. Count off fifty days up to the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then present an offering of new grain to the Lord. From wherever you live, bring two loaves made of two-tenths of an ephah of the finest flour, baked with yeast, as a wave offering of firstfruits to the Lord...This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live.” Leviticus 23:15-17, 21
The beginning counting of Weeks in the New Testament was initiated by Jesus when He was raised from the dead, “the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:20) The gifting of the Holy Spirit to Christians 50 days later, known today as Pentecost, empowered His followers to not only keep God’s Commandments, but to understand them in different languages, enabling them to teach them to ALL nations, greatly increasing their numbers and influence.
“When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”—Acts 2:1-4
The Hebrew translation of verse 1 says “Shavuot” since this appointed day came to be known as Pentecost following the gift of the Holy Spirit on those gathered. “Shavuot”, the spoken and written Word of the Almighty on Mount Sinai, was exponentially enlarged to “Pentecost”. God's spoken word was fulfilled through His Incarnate Word on Mount Zion, destined to reach the ends of the earth as Jesus prophesied in Matthew 24:14. “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.” https://www.facebook.com/fontanacommunitychurch/posts/pfbid0bPzdmaJ11EjtqiorpLrsEHXEEJf5rm5W4oG7PXFwbaUezLM4Gki2kfjt2nex7bFol
Jesus was the plan all along. And He has been spiritually right beside us all this time, even during the Exodus. “For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.” 1 Corinthians 10:1-2
GOD'S APPOINTED FALL HOLY DAYS HAVE YET TO BE FULFILLED BY JESUS! We look forward to at least 3 additional out-of-this-world appointments on God’s calendar. Yes, when Jesus returns to this earth, it will be by Divine Appointment to fulfill the remaining Holy convocation days scheduled on God's calendar. The first of these, the anointed Day of Trumpets, is appointed by the rising of the new moon, beginning God's 7th month, as appointed in Leviticus 23. In ages past, as soon as the sliver of the new moon was observed by two witnesses, they blew the trumpet 100 times: 11 series of nine brief blasts followed by one long powerful blast, known as "the last trumpet.”
On the 10th day of the same month, the Almighty appropriated a blood sacrifice to cover the sins of His people: the Day of Atonement. Appointed by God during the wilderness Exodus of the Israelites, the covering or atonement was the blood sacrifice of an innocent animal. “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement (covering) for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.” Leviticus 17:11.
Hebrews 9 binds the “Old” together with the “New”, pointing us straight to Jesus as the Perfect Blood Sacrifice. He did away with the need for atonement for our sins. His precious blood blotted them out entirely! “That first plan contained directions for worship, and a specially designed place of worship. A large outer tent was set up…Then a curtain was stretched, and behind it a smaller, inside tent set up. This was called "the Holy of Holies…Only the high priest entered the smaller, inside tent, and then only once a year, offering a blood sacrifice for his own sins and the people's accumulated sins…But when the Messiah arrived, high priest of the superior things of this new covenant, he bypassed the old tent and its trappings in this created world and went straight into heaven's "tent"—the true Holy Place—once and for all. He also bypassed the sacrifices consisting of goat and calf blood, instead using his own blood as the price to set us free once and for all.”
The last holy day to be fulfilled by Jesus is appointed to begin on the 15th day of the same 7th month. That evening marks the beginning of God’s 7-day Feast of Tabernacles, culminating in the 8th Last Great Day. The future physical fulfillment of the Festival of Tabernacles will occur when ALL nations on Planet Earth will come together in peace to worship Jesus Christ as Lord! "The Lord will be King over the whole earth. On that day, there will be one Lord and His name the only name…Then the survivors from all the nations that have attacked Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the King, the LORD Almighty, and to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles." Zechariah 14:9,16.
Finally, in Revelation 21:3, John the Revelator adds the crowning touch to this final glorious festival appointed by God Almighty for all humanity. “And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God.’”
“THESE ARE MY APPOINTED TIMES…”
