Autumn Days and the Return of Christ

In Leviticus 23, we read about each of the Lord’s Appointed Festivals that God instituted with Israel as a reminder of what He had done for them and His promises to them. However, these Appointed Festivals also possess a deep prophetic significance to us today as they foreshadow Jesus Christ and God’s plan for ALL of mankind.Show more

The spring festivals include Passover, Days of Unleavened Bread and Pentecost. These spring biblical festivals were prophetically fulfilled at the first coming of Jesus through his death, resurrection and giving of the Holy Spirit. Today, we are going to focus on the next set of God’s festivals which occur in the autumn season. These exciting fall festivals are awaiting their fulfillment with the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

We begin these days with the Feast of Trumpets. In Leviticus 23, the Lord instructs the Israelites to commemorate the day with trumpet blasts. In ancient Israel, the people blew the trumpet, also know as the shofar, for several reasons: to warn of incoming danger, to announce the release of captives, to announce a victory, to announce the coronation of a king, and at celebratory events. The prophetic fulfillment of the Feast of Trumpets is the final trumpet call of God that will be sounded at the return of Jesus Christ as we read in I Thessalonians 4:16-17,

“For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.”

The next fall festival follows 10 days later, the Day of Atonement. On this day, the Israelites fasted and the high priest made atonement for the sins of all of Israel. The future fulfillment of this day concerns the repentance and redemption of ALL the nations when they will look upon the one they have pierced and recognize Jesus as the Messiah which we find in Zechariah 12:10.

God’s next festival is The Feast of Tabernacles, during which, the Israelites were instructed to live in temporary shelters to remind them of how God provided for all their needs during their wandering in the desert and God established this festival to be a time of rejoicing the ingathering of the year-end harvest. This parallels our earthly journey during which God provides for all our needs and in the end there will be great rejoicing when we too will enter the Promised Land.

And we will have company from ALL nations.

This is because Tabernacles is unique from the other festivals in that ALL nations were invited to join the Jewish people to worship the Lord in Jerusalem. When Solomon later dedicated the Temple during the Feast of Tabernacles, he also called on the Lord to hear the prayers of ALL the foreigners that would come there to pray. This foreshadows the promised Kingdom of God when ALL nations will flow to Jerusalem to worship the Lord as we read in Zechariah 14:16. It will be a time of great rejoicing as the Lord gathers in His great harvest.

Understanding the prophetic and spiritual meaning of God’s Appointed Times helps us to see God’s plan more clearly and it is exciting to know that plan! There is a reason why God included these festivals in His word.

II Timothy 3:16 tells us “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness”.

At the time that Apostle Paul wrote these words, he only had the Old Testament.

This tells us that EVERY word of the Bible is there for a purpose... to teach, to show God's plan, to lead us to Christ. Nothing should be ignored. Every book, every chapter, every verse has significance. God does nothing by accident.

While observing these days are not required for our salvation, having an understanding about their purpose, significance, and fulfillment is important for Christians so we can discover more about Jesus Christ and see the full depth and richness of God’s plan outlined in the bible.

So let us give special remembrance to the Appointed Festivals from our Heavenly Father as we dig into scripture. And as the fall festival season approaches, we can rejoice as we look forward to the day when all people will know Jesus Christ. In Revelation 1:7 we read: “Look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him” What a glorious day that will be!

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