⛺ The Feasts of the Lᴏʀᴅ

Leviticus 23 does not call them the feasts of Israel. It calls them the appointed times of the Lᴏʀᴅ. Four in the spring. Three in the fall. The spring ones were fulfilled to the day at the first coming. The fall ones still sit on the calendar as rehearsal for what is coming.

After the Reformation we treated the whole set as discarded Jewish custom. That was throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

Paul still said, “Let us keep the feast.”

“Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”

1 Corinthians 5:8

The early church in Acts was still on the calendar. Zechariah 14 says the nations will keep Tabernacles in the Millennial Kingdom. You are going to keep them then. You can keep them now—not as law that saves you, but as a yearly reminder of the Blessed Hope.

The seven appointments

Leviticus 23 lays them out in order.

Spring (already fulfilled)

Passover — 14th day of the first month, at twilight
Unleavened Bread — 15th through 21st
Firstfruits — the day after the Sabbath during Unleavened Bread
Weeks / Pentecost — fifty days after Firstfruits

Fall (still ahead)

Trumpets — 1st day of the seventh month
Day of Atonement — 10th day of the seventh month
Tabernacles — 15th through 21st, plus the eighth day

Between Pentecost and Trumpets there is a long summer gap. That gap is the age we are in.

How the spring feasts landed on the hour

Passover. “Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed” (1 Corinthians 5:7). The lambs were being slain as Jesus hung on the cross (John 19:14). Not a bone broken (Exodus 12:46; John 19:36). The blood on the doorpost became the blood on the wood.

Unleavened Bread. Leaven is a picture of sin. His body, without sin, lay in the tomb while Israel ate bread without yeast. Paul turns the symbol onto us: purge the old leaven, keep the feast with sincerity and truth (1 Corinthians 5:8).

Firstfruits. “Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:20). He rose on the morning after the Sabbath of that week—the exact day the priest waved the first sheaf. The harvest of resurrection started with one sheaf. Ours follows.

Pentecost. Fifty days later the Spirit fell (Acts 2:1–4). At Sinai, three thousand died when the law was given (Exodus 32:28). At Pentecost, three thousand lived when the Spirit was given (Acts 2:41). Two loaves baked with leaven were waved that day—Jew and Gentile in one body, still containing the old nature, yet accepted.

Four rehearsals. Four fulfillments. Same week, same hours, same calendar God wrote in Leviticus.

The fall feasts are not leftovers

The church kept the spring pattern and then walked away from the rest. Colossians 2:16–17 is usually quoted as the warrant. Read it again. The festivals, new moons, and Sabbaths are “a shadow of the things to come.” The body casting the shadow is Christ—including the Christ who has not yet appeared a second time.

These days are appointed forever. Nowhere does the New Testament say stop. Righteous kings in Chronicles are commended when they restore the feasts. In the thousand-year reign, the survivors of the nations go up to Jerusalem to keep Tabernacles every year (Zechariah 14:16) and are punished if they do not. Isaiah 66 still has new moon and Sabbath in the new heavens and the new earth.

So the fall cluster is not optional decoration. It is an invitation. It is how you remember that the story is unfinished.

Trumpets — a memorial of blasting. The shout, the last trumpet, the gathering (1 Thessalonians 4:16–17; 1 Corinthians 15:52). You do not lock the rapture to this date and kill imminency. You use the day to look up. I have written about that.
Day of Atonement — afflict the soul, no work, holy convocation. Israel’s national turning (Zechariah 12:10). For the church it is a fast that says: we are not appointed to wrath, but only because His blood already went behind the veil.
Tabernacles — dwell in booths seven days. God with us. The Kingdom. Rejoice.

How to keep them without becoming a Judaizer

Grace first. You are not under the Sinai covenant. You do not slay a lamb. You do not earn anything. The Holy Spirit convicts; He does not put you back under tutors.

You do not keep the observances to be saved; rather, you are saved and get to keep the observances. What a privilege, what a joy!

Trumpets. Gather. Make a noise—a shofar if you have one, voices if you don’t. No ordinary work if you can arrange it. Talk about the Blessed Hope. Encourage one another, “and all the more as you see the Day drawing near” (Hebrews 10:25). Titus 2:13 calls it the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour.

Day of Atonement. Fast from sundown to sundown. Confess. Remember that the atonement is finished in Him, and that the world is still heading toward a day when accounts are settled. No commercial work. A holy convocation—even if that is your living room.

Tabernacles. Build something that counts as a booth: tarp, branches, balcony, garden hut. Eat in it. Sleep in it if the weather allows. First day and eighth day are convocations. Rejoice. The point is not camping technique. The point is “the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us” (John 1:14)—and will again.

Do this with your household. Teach the children why. If your church will not touch it, do it anyway. You are not reconstructing the Temple. You are refusing to forget the appointments.

2026 dates (evening to evening)

Biblical days begin at sundown.

Spring 2026

Passover: evening of 31 March into 1 April
Unleavened Bread: 1–8 April
Pentecost / Weeks: 21–24 May (depending on how you count the omer from Firstfruits)

Fall 2026

Trumpets: evening of 11 September into 12 September (Diaspora often keeps a second day)
Day of Atonement: evening of 20 September into 21 September
Tabernacles: evening of 25 September through 2 October
Eighth day: evening of 2 October into 3 October

Sighted-moon groups may shift Trumpets by a day. Do not fight about the sliver. Fight to stay awake.

The spring feasts proved that God keeps His calendar to the hour. The fall feasts are how we tell each other He will do it again. Keep the feast. Look up. The Blessed Hope is not a theory. It is the next appointment.