The Three Major Old Testament Feasts • Deshen Daily

Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year. (Exodus 23:14 KJV)

Since the Old Testament is a shadow of the New, it is understandable that the feasts of the Old Testament foreshadowed things that will be accomplished in the times of Christ. And three major feasts involved a national gathering at Jerusalem. We will see what these feasts were and how they apply to us.

Before we proceed, remember that though these feasts were a shadow of the things to come, God has not commanded us in the New Testament (especially the Gentile believers) to keep these feasts. With this in mind, let us begin with the first feast—the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

The Feast of Unleavened Bread (Exodus 23:15) followed Passover. It spanned seven days of eating bread without yeast, followed by a national assembly. Christ’s death is unmistakably the reality of the sacrifice of the Passover lamb. We are currently in a moment of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, a time we should live without the leaven of sin (1 Corinthians 5:8).

The second major feast was Pentecost or the Feast of Harvest or Weeks (Exodus 23:16). God showed us what this feast represented when He gave the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost.

The third major feast, possibly the most intriguing of the three, is the Feast of Tabernacles (Exodus 23:16), also called the Feast of Ingathering or Booths. This feast was held at the end of the year and was meant to coincide with the time the Israelites gathered the harvest. This is the only major feast of the three that has nothing yet correlated in the New Testament.

And as you probably can tell, one of these days, there will be a gathering of God’s people, a time that God will gather the earth’s harvest. Be prepared for the Feast of Tabernacles, the real one! Jesus is coming.