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Spring Feasts

What are the Spring Feasts?

These are four of the Mo’edim talked about in Leviticus 23 – Pesakh, Matzot, First Omer, & Shavuot

The Spring Feasts start fourteen days after the crescent moon is first spotted with the barley ripe in the field. These feasts celebrate the harvest of grains for bread. See “Reckoning Pesakh” for more details.

On the 14th day of the first month (the month of new moon and “the aviv”/ripened barley), we keep the Pesakh (Pesach), or “Passover.” This begins the counting of the seven days of eating unleavened bread. The next day begins what is called Matzot, or ‘Unleavened Bread,’ commemorating the bread they ate on the day the Jews left Mitzrayim (Egypt), though they also ate this bread on the night of Pesakh, they cooked it again on the 14th ‘day’ in preparation for leaving on the 15th. They left on the 15th, ‘hidden’ from Paroh for 3 days in the wilderness. The next feast in the Spring Mo’edim is Reysheet Omer, or The First Omer/Firstfruits. This occurs on the day after the regular sabbath that falls within the week of Pesakh/Matzot. This day is always on the first day of the week (Sunday), because it is the day after the Sabbath, the Shabbat that follows Pesakh. This day, First Omer, is the beginning of counting the days of the Omer (an omer is a sheaf of barley). The fiftieth day of counting is called “Shavuot”, because seven “Weeks” have been counted. This is the conclusion of the ‘Spring Mo’edim.’

So, in the Spring, along with our weekly Sabbaths, we celebrate these feasts:

Pesakh, Matzot, First Omer, Shavuot

During Pesakh/Matzot, there are seven days counted, days of eating Matzah, and the first day, Pesakh, is a “High Sabbath,” and the seventh day of Pesakh is a “High Sabbath.” Also, the 50th day of counting the Omer, Shavuot, is a “High Sabbath.” These days are treated very much like a regular Shabbat, though they may fall on any day of the week. We rest, we do no work, we worship, we assemble with the brethren.

Yeshua kept the Pesakh with His Talmidim at the beginning of the 14th, at dusk, as instructed in Torah, washing their feet, sharing the four cups of the ‘Seder,’ most notably the cup after supper, the third cup, “The Cup of Redemption,” giving us the anniversary to celebrate His shed blood, since He IS our “Pesakh,” (Passover Lamb), as Sha’ul teaches us in 1 Cor 5. He was executed on the 14th day (Biblical days start at night, so the ‘day’ of the 14th comes after the ‘night’ of the 14th, according to scripture). He was put in the grave at sundown, just before the 15th day began. So, He spent three days and three nights in the grave, starting on a Wednesday night, being ‘hidden’ from Rome much like Israel was hidden from Egypt during the same three days 2000 years before Yeshua. When the three nights and three days had passed, Sat. night arrived, called “Motza’eh Shabbat”, or ‘The Sabbath is Leaving,” in Hebrew, seen in the book of Luke, (though Greek translators did not know what they were reading, so their rendering is clunky). He, therefore, got up out of the grave at the end of the Regular/Weekly Shabbat. That day is the day of the First Omer, the “First-Fruits,” a ‘wave offering’ lifted up to יהוה. Yeshua ascended into Heaven on this day after visiting Miryam in the garden before ascending, commemorating Yisra’el rising out of the Red Sea, leaving Mitzrayim behind, on the same day 2000 years before. His ascent on that first day of the week was Him being presented as the “First-fruits,” and Sha’ul calls Him, “The First-fruits from among the dead.” Again, this is also the selfsame day that the Jews came up out of the ‘Red Sea’ 2000 years before.

Just as Israel wandered in the wilderness, the Talmidim of Yeshua felt a mite lost. But, he wandered with them for 40 days. Then He permanently ascended before their eyes, promising to send them the Ruakh HaKodesh, or the very Breath and power of Elohim, so that they could declare His truth with boldness. This happened on the 50th day of counting, on ‘Shavuot.’ This was an exciting day, when they saw fire come down and rest on them, and it gave them power to declare His Torah/Truth of Messiah to those around them. That day, 3000 people obtained life eternal. This happened on the selfsame day when the Torah descended from the fiery mountain, and 3000 people died, those 2000 years before Yeshua sent the Ruakh to His Talmidim. The Spring feasts had ended. These are the “Former/Early Rain.” Their prophetic significance has been fulfilled perfectly by Messiah Yeshua.