There are eight Moadim (Festivals of God) which are commanded (see Leviticus 23closeLeviticus 23 23:1 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, These are the appointed feasts of the Lord that you shall proclaim as holy convocations; they are my appointed feasts. 3 “Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work. It is a Sabbath to the Lord in all your dwelling places. 4 “These are the appointed feasts of the Lord, the holy convocations, which you shall proclaim at the time appointed for them. 5 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight, is the Lord's Passover. 6 And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. 7 On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall not do any ordinary work. 8 But you shall present a food offering to the Lord for seven days. On the seventh day is a holy convocation; you shall not do any ordinary work.” 9 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 10 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land that I give you and reap its harvest, you shall bring the sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest, 11 and he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, so that you may be accepted. On the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. 12 And on the day when you wave the sheaf, you shall offer a male lamb a year old without blemish as a burnt offering to the Lord. 13 And the grain offering with it shall be two tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, a food offering to the Lord with a pleasing aroma, and the drink offering with it shall be of wine, a fourth of a hin. 14 And you shall eat neither bread nor grain parched or fresh until this same day, until you have brought the offering of your God: it is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. 15 “You shall count seven full weeks from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering. 16 You shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath. Then you shall present a grain offering of new grain to the Lord. 17 You shall bring from your dwelling places two loaves of bread to be waved, made of two tenths of an ephah. They shall be of fine flour, and they shall be baked with leaven, as firstfruits to the Lord. 18 And you shall present with the bread seven lambs a year old without blemish, and one bull from the herd and two rams. They shall be a burnt offering to the Lord, with their grain offering and their drink offerings, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord. 19 And you shall offer one male goat for a sin offering, and two male lambs a year old as a sacrifice of peace offerings. 20 And the priest shall wave them with the bread of the firstfruits as a wave offering before the Lord, with the two lambs. They shall be holy to the Lord for the priest. 21 And you shall make proclamation on the same day. You shall hold a holy convocation. You shall not do any ordinary work. It is a statute forever in all your dwelling places throughout your generations. 22 “And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, nor shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the Lord your God.” 23 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 24 “Speak to the people of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe a day of solemn rest, a memorial proclaimed with blast of trumpets, a holy convocation. 25 You shall not do any ordinary work, and you shall present a food offering to the Lord.” 26 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 27 “Now on the tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. It shall be for you a time of holy convocation, and you shall afflict yourselves and present a food offering to the Lord. 28 And you shall not do any work on that very day, for it is a Day of Atonement, to make atonement for you before the Lord your God. 29 For whoever is not afflicted on that very day shall be cut off from his people. 30 And whoever does any work on that very day, that person I will destroy from among his people. 31 You shall not do any work. It is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwelling places. 32 It shall be to you a Sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict yourselves. On the ninth day of the month beginning at evening, from evening to evening shall you keep your Sabbath.” 33 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 34 “Speak to the people of Israel, saying, On the fifteenth day of this seventh month and for seven days is the Feast of Booths to the Lord. 35 On the first day shall be a holy convocation; you shall not do any ordinary work. 36 For seven days you shall present food offerings to the Lord. On the eighth day you shall hold a holy convocation and present a food offering to the Lord. It is a solemn assembly; you shall not do any ordinary work. 37 “These are the appointed feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim as times of holy convocation, for presenting to the Lord food offerings, burnt offerings and grain offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings, each on its proper day, 38 besides the Lord's Sabbaths and besides your gifts and besides all your vow offerings and besides all your freewill offerings, which you give to the Lord. 39 “On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the produce of the land, you shall celebrate the feast of the Lord seven days. On the first day shall be a solemn rest, and on the eighth day shall be a solemn rest. 40 And you shall take on the first day the fruit of splendid trees, branches of palm trees and boughs of leafy trees and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days. 41 You shall celebrate it as a feast to the Lord for seven days in the year. It is a statute forever throughout your generations; you shall celebrate it in the seventh month. 42 You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All native Israelites shall dwell in booths, 43 that your generations may know that I made the people of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.” 44 Thus Moses declared to the people of Israel the appointed feasts of the Lord. (ESV) ) to be observed. One is repeated weekly, called Shabbat, while the other seven are annual.
During the course of the year beginning in spring and extending into fall we observe these Biblical feasts.
1. Pesach (Passover), which commemorates the final judgment upon Egypt and the beginning of our freedom from slavery. As New Covenant believers, we also see our Messiah Yeshua as the fulfillment of being the Passover Lamb, passing us from death to eternal life.
2. Hag HaMatzot (Unleavened bread) is, in conjunction with and following Passover, a seven-day Moadim, when we do NOT eat any leavened bread or leavened by-products, only unleavened bread. Leavening is a symbol for malice and wickedness. We are to remove leaven from our lives.
3. Bikkurim (Feast of First Fruits) is the first day of the week (Sunday) following the first weekly Sabbath after the Passover. It commemorates the resurrection of life from the ground (both seeds that are planted, and The Messiah Yeshua). Yeshua was the first fruit of many brethren.
4. Shavuot (Feast of Weeks) is the day following seventh weekly Sabbaths from the Feast of First Friuts, and on this day we observe Shavuot (also called Pentecost).
5. Rosh HaShanah (Feast of Trumpets – also called Yom Teruah) is in late summer. This is the day we blow shofars (trumpets). It is a day of reminding and warning us that judgment is coming, and that we must prepare ourselves. The first day of the Hebrew month Tishrei is considered to be the agricultural new year.
6. Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) falls ten Days after Rosh HaShananh. This is a day that the Lord commanded for fasting, humbling oneself, and praying.
7. Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles) is an eight-day Moadim. This is a time of joy and celebration. Spiritually, we are reminded of Yeshua and the coming harvest at the end of the age!
This final festival concludes the annual teaching cycle of the Torah and is observed by dwelling in temporary booths (or tents, or campers.)
We also observe two nationalistic festivals, which also have deep meaning and reference pointing to Yeshua HaMashiach:
Hannukah (Feast of Dedication, Festival of Lights)
Mentioned in John 10:22-23closeJohn 10:22-23
22 At that time the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was winter, 23 and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the colonnade of Solomon. (ESV)
, Psalm 30:1-12closePsalm 30
A Psalm of David. A song at the dedication of the temple.
30:1 I will extol you, O Lord, for you have drawn me up
and have not let my foes rejoice over me.
2 O Lord my God, I cried to you for help,
and you have healed me.
3 O Lord, you have brought up my soul from Sheol;
you restored me to life from among those who go down to the pit.
4 Sing praises to the Lord, O you his saints,
and give thanks to his holy name.
5 For his anger is but for a moment,
and his favor is for a lifetime.
Weeping may tarry for the night,
but joy comes with the morning.
6 As for me, I said in my prosperity,
“I shall never be moved.”
7 By your favor, O Lord,
you made my mountain stand strong;
you hid your face;
I was dismayed.
8 To you, O Lord, I cry,
and to the Lord I plead for mercy:
9 “What profit is there in my death,
if I go down to the pit?
Will the dust praise you?
Will it tell of your faithfulness?
10 Hear, O Lord, and be merciful to me!
O Lord, be my helper!”
11 You have turned for me my mourning into dancing;
you have loosed my sackcloth
and clothed me with gladness,
12 that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent.
O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever! (ESV)
. Also, the Apocrapha – I Maccabees chapter 4; II Maccabees chapter 10.
The Feast of Dedication is a Hebrew/ Jewish festival observed for eight days from the 25th of the Hebrew month Kislev (about mid December) in commemoration of the reconsecration (165 BC) of the Temple in Jerusalem. We are also reminded that Yeshua the ‘greater light’ has come and will return.
Purim (Feast of Lots), observed in early Spring, is about Queen Esther who saved the Jews from annihilation in Persia by fasting and intercession for her people. Like Esther, people from every nation have been hidden, now their true identity is being revealed. We are Ephraim, we are a part of Israel. Yeshua Messiah, our King, has extended his scepter to us … ‘for such a time as this’. See the Book of Esther; and the Apocrapha – Esther chapters 14,15,16.
SHABBAT
Our Shabbat services start at 11:00 am Saturday a.m. with Psalms, Praise and Prayer. We enthusastically sing unto the Lord with Messianic songs of worship, davidic praise dance, culminating in hearing our Saviour’s voice from His Word, the Torah.
We bless each other at the beginning of each Hebrew/Jewish month with blessings and thanks for the new month.
We welcome you to join us as we celebrate the Lords weekly rest.
A basic outline of our Shabbat services are:
- Welcome
- Shabbat Shalom Medley {music}
- Praise & worship music
- Barchu (Calls us to formalize our worship)
- Mechamocha (the song of Moses – the song of Deliverance)
- The blessing of the Messiah (reminds us to thank Him for our Salvation)
- VeShamroo (reminds us to keep Sabbath and the sign of the covenant with the God of Israel)
- Shema (the watchword confession of our faith)
- Teaching(s)
- Aaronic blessing (Numbers 6:22-26closeNumbers 6:22-26 22 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 23 “Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them, 24 The Lord bless you and keep you;
25 the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
26 the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.” (ESV) – Ours is given in the name of the High Priest after the order of Melchizedek, the Prince of Peace)- Oneg (Celebration – an after services time of fellowship and sharing)
Lew Didn’t Answer Earthly Authority
Jacob Lew is appointed by President Obama as White House Chief of Staff.
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/l/jacob_j_lew/index.html
NBC
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/07/13/4668525-lew-didnt-answer-earthly-authority
