Feast Days

It is true only if Yahshua were a lawbreaker. The law says that nothing leavened is to be eaten with the Passover, Exodus 12:8; 23:18; 34:25; Deuteronomy 16:2-3. To say that leavened bread is acceptable for the Passover memorial emblem is tantamount to blasphemy because leavening in relation to the Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread represents several kinds of corruption that lead to sin. (Matt. 16:12; Luke 12:1; 1Cor. 5:8). If Yahshua's body is represented by leavening then His perfect and sinless life is corrupted.

Some look at the word "sop" in the New Testament and think of a soft, leavened slice of bread. "Sop" derives from the Greek psomion, and means "a morsel," "a bit," "a fragment." Thus, it signifies a piece of food. At the "last supper" the text says the sop was dipped, which does not necessarily suggest that the sop was used for soaking up liquid. It could also be used like a potato chip or tortilla chip for dipping in a sauce or for scooping up another food.

Now let's examine another word. The Greek artos is used in the New Testament for the bread eaten during the last supper. The New Testament Greek Lexicon defines artos as "food composed of flour mixed with water and baked." It goes on to say, "The Israelites made it in the form of an oblong or round cake, as thick as one's thumb, and as large as a plate or platter, hence it was not to be cut but broken." Obviously, this is a hard, unleavened bread.

The Greek also has a word for "unleavened," azumos, which means literally "without yeast." Some have assumed that because azumos does not appear in the Evangel accounts of the last supper that the Passover bread was leavened.

This assumption is invalidated by Kittle's Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, which says about azumos: "P. Fiebig . . . shows that the term artos does not exclude azumos, but that in certain circumstances, e.g., in description of the Passover, it may mean this. Hence the occurrence of artos at the Last Supper is no proof that this was not really the Passover."

In addition, both early Jewish writers Josephus and Philo use artos in their description of the matzo of the Passover meal.

I know a group who believe in the weekly Sabbath but teach that Zechariah 14:16-17 says that only the Feast of Tabernacles will be observed in the Millennium. Furthermore, they state that these things were fulfilled in the Messiah and therefore all feast keeping is symbolic, for He was offered as the "final sacrifice."

Zechariah 14:16-17 does teach that Tabernacles will be kept in the Millennium. Isaiah 66:23 also says of the Millennium, "And it shall come to pass that from one new moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before Me, says Yahweh."

Notice, this passage speaks of not only the new moons, but also includes more than the weekly Sabbath, because the Hebrew for Sabbath is in the plural. The other annual Sabbaths will be observed in the Millennium as well as Tabernacles.

Leviticus 23 lists the seven annual Holy Days and we read that these "shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings" (verses 14, 21, 31, 41).

If as some wrongly assume, the Feasts were given only to Jews, then the Jews were misled by His assumed abolishing of them because Yahshua's death and the New Covenant He instituted apply to Jews as well, Galatians 3:28.

If these days were abolished or set aside by Yahshua, then why did Paul say in 1Corinthians 5:7-8, "For even Messiah our passover is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth"?

Here Paul was also addressing Gentiles. The Corinthians were not Jews. Yet he plainly described the Savior as "our" Passover sacrifice, adding that we should keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread! Obviously, the Corinthians had been taught about Passover and the seven days of Unleavened Bread that follow.

All this was after the death and resurrection of the Savior, and Paul was still teaching the annual Holy Days! Why? Because the Bible calls them "Yahweh's Feasts," not Jewish Feasts.

The Feast of Tabernacles is unique from all other Feasts. Yahweh commands that we stay in "booths" during this time...

In summary, the Bible does not permit us staying in our homes during Tabernacles. As believers, we are commanded to observe the entire Feast, not just a few days.

Shavuot, Feast of Weeks, and Pentecost, are all names for the same Feast...