Israel's Celebration of the Feasts of the Lord
How else is Israel's experience an example for us, or a pattern by which to better understand our own relationship with God?
Israel continued to celebrate the feast of Passover on their journey through the wilderness, just as we daily celebrate our being saved. The Lord said to them, "This day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord through your generations." 19 In addition, the Lord said, "Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year." 20 Leviticus 23:2,3 shows that feasts are sabbaths, and God has commanded, "Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you." 21
The feasts are separate, individual celebrations in Israel's history as well as experientially in our lives. "But when the people of the land shall come before the Lord in the solemn feasts, he that entereth in...shall not return by the way of the gate whereby he came in." 22 Each time we meet with the Lord, we are changed and "leave by another gate" which illustrates that the feasts are unique but celebrated in the context of the believers' spiritual lives "three times a year."
You see, then, that there is a continuity in the feasts. There is a progression between Passover and Pentecost in our spiritual lives just as Israel journeyed between Egypt and Mt. Sinal. The progression is fulfilled by observing to "keep the feast of unleavened bread" 23 and then the "feast of harvest." 24 Also, "Thou shalt keep the feast of weeks." 25