Fall Feasts (Moedim)
By Eric Carlson in October-1 on September 1, 2022
The seven feasts of the annual Feast Day cycle are primarily covered in Leviticus 23 and Numbers 28-29. Seven, Sheva is a supernatural Hebrew number. The Feast Days cycle follows a pattern of seven and begins with Pesach. Seven in Hebrew is represented by the letter Zain. Seven (Sheva) is the central key to God’s creation and design. Sheva is the building blocks of the universe. The world was created in Sheva (seven) days. There are Sheva (seven) feasts of the Lord in the annual feast day cycle. There are Sheva festival days when work is forbidden in Torah. Sheva days of Matzah! Sheva days of Sukkot. Sheva (seven) is the number of creation and is the numbers of perfection. There are Sheva (seven) days in the week. Sheva Messianic Congregations in Revelation, seven stars, sheva Menorahs! There is the shenat ha-sheva, the seventh year or Sabbatical year in which the ground is to lay fallow. Sheva shabtot shanim-seven sabbatical years are counted (49 years) which bring in the Yovel, the Jubilee on the 50th year! All of creation streams towards the Sheva Millennia, the seventh thousand year which heralds the Messianic age. Sheva, seven is the DNA of the Kingdom of God. The Spring Feasts have been fulfilled in Yeshua! Yeshua was born on the First of Nisan, He was crucified on Passover, then was resurrected on the First Fruits offering, and we received the Holy Spirit on Shavuot (Pentecost). The fall feasts have not yet been fulfilled, they are:
- Yom Teruah (Feast of Trumpets) Num 29:1-6.
- Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement or Purge) Lev 16:2-34, Num 29:7-11.
- Sukkot (Tabernacles) Num 29:12-39, Deut. 16:13-17
Leviticus 23:1-2. (CJB) ADONAI said to Moshe, 2 “Tell the people of Isra’el: ‘The designated times of ADONAI which you are to proclaim as holy convocations are my designated times.
We observed and celebrated Yom Teruah at sunset, September 25th 2022:
Leviticus 23:23-25. (CJB) ADONAI said to Moshe, 24 “Tell the people of Isra’el, ‘In the seventh month, the first of the month is to be for you a day of complete rest for remembering, a holy convocation announced with blasts on the shofar. 25 Do not do any kind of ordinary work, and bring an offering made by fire to ADONAI.'”
We are told this is a day of complete rest for remembering and sounding the Shofar! The day that we Remember the soon return of Messiah and His Kingship as He’ll rule this world from His throne in Jerusalem and as we look toward the Glorious Wedding Feast with Yeshua. Yom Teruah is peculiar in that it doesn’t give us specific instructions of what hour to sound the Shofar and the day it falls on changes every year, sometimes Monday, or Tuesday, etc. We know what the season is, but not the hour. This I believe is a direct correlation to Yeshua’s return.
Matthew 24:31-36. (CJB) He will send out his angels with a great Shofar blast and they will gather together his chosen people from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. 32 “Now let the fig tree teach you its lesson: when its branches begin to sprout and leaves appear, you know that summer is approaching. 33 In the same way, when you see all these things, you are to know that the time is near, right at the door. 34 Yes! I tell you that this people will certainly not pass away before all these things happen. 35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. 36 “But when that day and hour will come, no one knows — not the angels in heaven, not the Son, only the Father.
We know the season of His return-just not which one or what hour just like Yom Teruah. Yom Teruah also begins the 10 days of Awe between Yom Teruah and Yom Kippur. In the Hebrew its Yamim Noraim, Awesome days or days of Awe. These are days of anxiety, trepidation, humility, and soul searching and repentance. A period of self-examination, self-reflection, and self-judgment to bring awareness of our failures, how we’ve failed ourselves, failed other people, and failed Adonai! It is a time of regret and remorse for the harm we have inflicted on others and within the Kingdom of God! It is not a time of selfishness, rather is it a time of crying out to God, it’s the awakening of your soul, a stirring in oneself for the greater Kingdom of God! This is the preparation for Yom Kippur, the Day of Purging which begins Tuesday, October 4th 2022 at Sunset. Our Yom Kippur service begins at 7:00PM. So the Shofar we sound on Yom Teruah is a rehearsal of Yeshua’s return who comes back to judge during the 10 Days of Awe.
Matthew 25:31-33. (CJB) “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, accompanied by all the angels, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be assembled before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates sheep from goats. 33 The `sheep’ he will place at his right hand and the `goats’ at his left.
The Ten Days of Awe culminate on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement or in its deepest Hebrew meaning the Day of Purging. The Sefer HaChaim, the Book of Life is opened on Yom Teruah and closes on Yom Kippur. Your name is in the book when your born:
Psalms 139:16. (CJB) Your eyes could see me as an embryo, but in your book all my days were already written; my days had been shaped before any of them existed.
Your crimes are held against you if there is no redemption, no sacrifice, no blood. David prayed to God regarding the evil and wicked:
Psalms 69:28. (NLT) Erase them from the book of life, let them not be written with the righteous
Accepting Yeshua as your sacrifice allows your name to remain in the book of life. As the prophet Jeremiah stated in Jeremiah 31:34 by accepting the Messiah God knows your sins “No More”! Yeshua blots out your transgressions and sins and your name stays in the book:
Revelation 3:5 (CJB) He who wins the victory will, like them, be dressed in white clothing; and I will not blot his name out of the Book of Life; in fact, I will acknowledge him individually before my Father and before his angels.
Yeshua returns on that final Shofar Trump (Yom Teruah) to judge the nations during the Ten Days of Awe:
Revelation 20:12. (CJB) And I saw the dead, both great and small, standing in front of the throne. Books were opened; and another book was opened, the Book of Life; and the dead were judged from what was written in the books, according to what they had done.
Revelation 20:15. (CJB) Anyone whose name was not found written in the Book of Life was hurled into the lake of fire.
Those who don’t receive Yeshua as their substitute sacrifice will have their names purged from the Book of Life on Yom Kippur.
Leviticus 23:27-32. (CJB) “The tenth day of this seventh month is Yom-Kippur; you are to have a holy convocation (Mikra: convocation, a calling together, sacred assembly, Two root words 1. Kaw’ra: Rehearsal. 2. Tehoor which means pure hearted; to clear of guilt: to free from moral or ceremonial defilement: to make free of something unwanted: the removal of elements or members regarded as undesirable and especially as treacherous or disloyal), you are to deny (ta’anit: Deny, fast) yourselves, and you are to bring an offering made by fire to ADONAI. 28 You are not to do any kind of work on that day, because it is Yom-Kippur, to make atonement for you before ADONAI your God. 29 Anyone who does not deny himself on that day is to be cut off from his people; 30 and anyone who does any kind of work on that day, I will destroy from among his people. 31 You are not to do any kind of work; it is a permanent regulation through all your generations, no matter where you live. 32 It will be for you a Shabbat of complete rest, and you are to deny yourselves; you are to rest on your Shabbat from evening the ninth day of the month until the following evening.”
Tehoor is also the root word for Teruah, or Teruah Gadola, the great trump of the Shofar that announces the Kings arrival or return! Another word with Tehoor is Tsarfam, refine: to be free from impurities or unwanted material: to free from moral imperfection: to improve or perfect by pruning or polishing: to free from what is coarse, vulgar, or uncouth: to become pure or perfected. Impurities are what cause your name to be blotted out the book of life. Purging the impurities allows your name to remain in the Sefer HaChaim, the book of life:
Book is Sefer in Hebrew, Book, indictment, legal document, commission, written decree. Your crimes are held against you if there is no redemption, no sacrifice, no blood, no purging of the sin. Yom Kippur is a day of fasting. A fast is where one willingly abstains from all food and drink to focus on the presence of God through prayer, worship, and supplication. Fasting is a means of supplication and ministering unto God. To fast without supplication is dieting. An interesting root word of Ta’anit is Ta’aneh which is answer or reply. So we Ta’anit, fast in order to receive a Ta’aneh and answer or reply from God as we willingly abstain from the things of the world in supplication and worship of Him. There is only one biblically fast prescribed in all of Torah and it is for Yom Kippur.
Yom Kippur actually means the day of purging. It is the rehearsal day (convocation) of the day to come in the near future when we all shall stand before the Judge, and you either remain in the book of Life through the blood of Yeshua or your name will be blotted out, hence day of purging. Those whose names remain the Book of Life are the ones who go to the wedding feast which is Sukkot just four days away from the end of Yom Kippur. Sukkot begins Sunday October 9th, 2022, at sunset. In the Temple times it was the only time of the year that the High Priest actually went into the Holy of Holies as recorded in Leviticus 16. The Falls Feasts culminate with the celebration of Sukkot!
Leviticus 23:40. (CJB) On the first day you are to take choice fruit, palm fronds, thick branches and river-willows, and celebrate in the presence of ADONAI your God for seven days.”
On Sukkot, we bind all the branches together – willows, palm branch, and myrtles. We hold this bundle in our right hand, and then lift them together with the Esrog. We then shake them all together, three times in each direction: front, right, back, left, up and before waving the four species, we say the following blessing:
“Baruch ata Adonoy, Elo-heinu Melech ha’olam, asher kid’shanu bi’mitzvo-sav, vi’tzivanu al ni-tilas lulav.”
Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the Universe, who sanctified us with His mitzvot, and instructed us to raise up the Lulav.
Leviticus 23:33-36. (CJB) ADONAI said to Moshe, 34 “Tell the people of Isra’el, ‘On the fifteenth day of this seventh month is the feast of Sukkot for seven days to ADONAI. 35 On the first day there is to be a holy convocation; do not do any kind of ordinary work. 36 For seven days you are to bring an offering made by fire to ADONAI; on the eighth day you are to have a holy convocation and bring an offering made by fire to ADONAI; it is a day of public assembly; do not do any kind of ordinary work.
In keeping with the Feast Days theme of Sheva or Seven, Numbers 29:12-38 shares about the sacrifices that were done for Sukkot. Each consecutive day had a decreasing number of bulls sacrificed. Day one of the feast had 13 bulls sacrificed, day 2; 12 bulls, through the seventh day when seven bulls were sacrificed then on the eighth day one single bull was sacrificed. All together seventy oxen were to be sacrificed through the course of the eight-day festival. These seventy oxen correspond to the seventy original nations of the world who descended from the sons of Noach, who were the ancestors of all the nations till this day. Israel brought these sacrifices as atonement for the nations of the world and in prayer for their wellbeing as well as for universal peace and harmony between them. Israel’s destiny is to be the Light to the Nations and Yeshua is that LIGHT!
Seventy is the traditional number of Gentile nations, and the seventy bullocks are offered to make atonement for them. The last Ox on the last day is for Israel. This feast is for the Nations and the Harvest! There is a spiritual significance to the number 70.
70 is the Hebrew letter Ayin: This letter represents perception and insight. Ayin means eye: The eye reveals more to man than any other of the senses. Ayin also means a spring of water. Through the narrow eye the world is brought into focus. Spiritually without vision, we perish! Sukkot is the global ingathering of the Nations, the Harvest, it represents the Wedding Feast of the Bride and the Lamb!
Look at when Sukkot occurs regarding the other Fall Feast Days. The Feast of Sukkot starts a mere four days after the completion of the Days of Awe, after that intense period of inward reflection and t’shuvah (repentance) capped by Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. We enter Sukkot spiritually clean and pure, sins and transgressions removed by the Blood of Yeshua. We are then summoned to REJOICE with GREAT JOY before Him on the Festival of Sukkot. Sukkot is a rehearsal of the wedding feast to come between the Bride and the Lamb! What greater joy is there than being “reborn” anew, pure, and cleansed? Remember, the major theme of Sukkot is JOY! Whenever Sukkot is mentioned in the Talmud it is referred to as “The Festival” with Great Joy and Rejoicing.
Still there are many who ask why we should celebrate these feasts and festivals. Isn’t studying them enough? As one who keeps the feast, I assure you that there are certain lessons that you can only learn “in the camp.” If you celebrate the feast with others, you learn just what it was like to live in fellowship with other Children of Adonai in His presence. The prophet Zechariah tells us that we will be keeping this feast during the Millennial Reign after Yeshua returns.
Zechariah 14:16. (CJB) Finally, everyone remaining from all the nations that came to attack Yerushalayim will go up every year to worship the king, ADONAI-Tzva’ot, and to keep the festival of Sukkot!
Yeshua Himself celebrated Sukkot and we will be celebrating Sukkot in the Kingdom to come, so why isn’t the entire Body Of Messiah celebrating it now as well? If we want to have an intimate relationship with God and Yeshua we must arise from our place of Comfort and meet the King who has risen from the throne to meet us on His appointed Times.
Everyone is invited to the wedding feast, but only those who have prepared and are in their wedding clothes will be allowed to remain. Many will respond to the invitation, but only the few who are ready will be able to attend, for many are called, but few are chosen. Rehearsals prepare one for the final performance; Are you ready for His return? Chag Sukkot Sameach! Have a Happy Sukkot Celebration!