In Colossians 2:16-17, we have the Apostle Paul telling the brethren that they were to no longer allow some people to tell them that they must - to be good Christians - observe the various ordinances and statutes of the old Mosaic Law.
Paul explains that the various parts of the Mosaic Law have already fulfilled their purpose. What was that purpose? He says that they were a mere shadow of things to come. A shadow of Whom or what? A shadow of Christ and the religion that Christ would establish. When you see someone’s shadow, you get a rough idea of some of the features of that person. It is a crude picture of that person. Paul is saying that some elements of the old Mosaic Law provided a shadowing image of the coming Christ - His Person, His Work and His Religion.
In verse 16, Paul mentions that the old Festivals or Feasts served as a shadow of things to come with Christ. I thought that, today, it may be interesting to see how those Feasts actually were shadows of things that came with Christ.
The Israelites were required to observe three major Feasts during their calander year. We read of those Feasts in Deuteronomy 16:16, "Three times in a year all your males shall appear before the LORD your God in the place which He chooses, at the Feast of Unleavened Bread and at the Feast of Weeks and at the Feast of Booths, and they shall not appear before the LORD empty-handed.”
We note from this verse that the three major Feasts were:
Feast of Unleavened Bread.
Feast of Weeks.
Feast of Booths or Tabernacles.
1. FEAST OF UNLEAVENED BREAD.
First of the three great festivals was the Feast of Unleavened Bread. We find it detailed in Leviticus 23:5-6, “In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight is the Lord’s Passover. Then on the fifteenth day of the same month there is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread.”
The Feast of Unleavened Bread began the day after the observance of the Passover. The Passover brought to remembrance that the blood of a lamb secured the Israelites’ salvation from death in Egypt. The Feast of Unleavened Bread originally meant to call to the memory of the Israelites how that their exodus from Egypt was done in such a haste that they did not have time to prepare leavened dough to use for their initial journey.
Of what did the Feast of Unleavened Bread shadow? Paul tells us, in 1 Corinthians 5:7-8, that the Feast shadowed the purity of the Christian life - “Clean out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”
As the Passover shadowed the deliverance from spiritual death by the spilled blood of the sacrificed Lamb of God - Christ. The Feast of Unleavened Bread shadowed the Christian’s partaking of a life of sincerity and truth rather than partaking of a life of malice and wickedness.
Just as the Israelites had to purge or cleanse their houses of any leavening agent, so we are commanded to purge or cleanse our lives of sin and rebellion.
2. FEAST OF WEEKS.
The second major feast observed by the Israelites was called the Feast of Weeks. The basis for the name of the Feast is found in Levitucus 23:15-16, where Moses said that the Feast was to begin seven complete Sabbaths or weeks after the start of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Or, in other words, they could count 50 days after the Passover. We, today, know the Feast of Weeks by its Greek name - Pentecost. Pentecost is derived from the Greek word for fifty.
The Feast of Weeks or Pentecost was instituted in commemoration of the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai - from the day that Israel went out from Egypt to the day that they received the Law were fifty days.
The Feast of Weeks had the additional name, according to Exodus 23:16; 34:22, Feast of Harvest of the First Fruits. "Also you shall observe the Feast of the Harvest of the first fruits of your labors from what you sow in the field…And you shall celebrate the Feast of Weeks, that is, the first fruits of the wheat harvest.” Thus, the Feast also celebrated the beginning of the wheat harvest in Israel.
What Christ-related or Christian realities did this Feast shadow?
We know that one of the most important days in Christianity fell on the first day of the Feast of Pentecost after the crucixion of Christ Jesus as related to us in Acts Chapter Two. The Christian religion and the Church began on this Day.
Just as Pentecost looked backed on the giving of the old Mosaic Law, it was on Pentecost (in Acts 2) that Christ’s new Law was first preached in Jerusalem by Peter and the other Apostles. This was prophesied back in Isaiah 2:3, “For the law will go forth from Zion, And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.” Jesus also prophesied this, in saying to His Apostles in Luke 24:46-47, "Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and rise again from the dead the third day; and that repentance for forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.” Thus, the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost was a shadow of the giving of the law of Christ.
Secondly, we saw that the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost was also the Feast of Harvest of the Firstfruits. It celebrated the beginning of the wheat harvest in Israel but this foreshadowed the beginning of the harvest of lost souls with the first preaching of the Gospel on Pentecost in Acts 2. Indeed, Acts 2:41 reads, “So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and there were added that day about three thousand souls.” The first fruits of the Church were reaped and offered to God on that Day.
3. FEAST OF BOOTHS or TABERNACLES.
The third and final major Feast that the Israelites observed was the Feast of Booths. We read the details of this Feast in Leviticus 23:34, 39-43, "Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ’On the fifteenth of this seventh month is the Feast of Booths for seven days to the Lord…On exactly the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the crops of the land, you shall celebrate the feast of the Lord for seven days, with a rest on the first day and a rest on the eighth day. Now on the first day you shall take for yourselves the foliage of beautiful trees, palm branches and boughs of leafy trees and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days. You shall thus celebrate it as a feast to the Lord for seven days in the year. It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations; you shall celebrate it in the seventh month. You shall live in booths for seven days; all the native-born in Israel shall live in booths, so that your generations may know that I had the sons of Israel live in booths when I brought them out from the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God."
The Feast of Booths or Tabernacles was not a Feast but was THE Feast. By far, it was the most popular of the Feasts as it was one of great joy. It came in October as everyone was celebrating the fact that the harvest was finally gathered in. For this reason, in Exodus 23:16, it is referred to as the “Feast of the Ingathering.”
We see that the primary feature of this Feast was that the Israelites would build temporary shelters of tree branches and live in them, rather than in their houses, for one week. They camped-out in the open to bring into remembrance the forty years in which the Israelites lived in make-shift shelters during their pilgrimage from Egypt to Canaan and how that they had to depend upon God for all their daily needs.
What did this Feast shadow?
During the forty years that the Israelites trekked across the desert wilderness of Sinai, they were pilgrims seeking the Promise Land. They lived in make-shift tents or branch shelters rather than houses because they were journeying to their true and permanent home in Canaan. They were a nation seeking their Homeland.
Peter tells us, in 1 Peter 2:9, that the Church is “a holy nation.” Yet, in verse 11, Peter says we are “aliens and strangers.” Even though we are a nation, we are aliens and strangers because our homeland is not on this earth. We are on a life-long pilgrimage to our true and permanent home. We are seeking the heavenly Promise Land.
Philippians 3:20-21, “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.”
Paul says, in Romans 12:2, that we are to think and live as pilgrims in this world, rather than settle-down and settle-in, by exhorting - “do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
1 John 2:15-17, “Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God abides forever.”
A true pilgrim’s focus and affection is not directed toward the land that he/she is traveling in but is directed upon the land to which they are going….their home. As Christians, our deepest desire should be, what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:8, “to be at home with the Lord.” To this end, he encourages us in Colossians 3:1-2, “keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.”
The Lord does not even want us to get bogged-down in worrying about our most basic daily needs, such as our food, clothing and shelter. He teaches us, in Matthew 6, that all we need be concerned about is seeking the heavenly kingdom and fulfilling its righteous demands and our needs will always be met - "For this reason I say to you, do not be anxious for your life, as to what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor for your body, as to what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body than clothing? …Do not be anxious then, saying, ’What shall we eat?’ or ’What shall we drink?’ or ’With what shall we clothe ourselves?’ For all these things the Gentiles eagerly seek; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you.”
This reality, this lifestyle of the true Christian pilgrim, was foreshadowed by the Feast of Booths or Tabernacles.
There is much we can learn from the symbolism of the three great Feasts of the Old Testament - the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Booths.
