The Feasts of YHVH: Understanding God's Appointed Times
Today I want to share my understanding regarding the Feasts of the Lord. My purpose is to focus on God’s divine timing, redemptive plan and how He decided to use appointed times to bring each step into fulfilment. When we grasp this concept, it becomes easier to align ourselves to His Godly timetable.
The Concept of Divine Timing
We tend to think in a linear fashion – from start to end. But God’s times work in cycles, in seasons of planting and harvesting, winter and summer. God has fixed appointments in heaven and on earth. The most important revelation in these fixed appointments is the revelation of Jesus Christ. He also has fixed appointments with His ecclesia as a whole, with smaller groups, with families and with individuals.
A lot of things happening on the world front also takes place on fixed times set by the heavenly clock. Scripture always refers us to the date or the season when a certain event or prophesy took place. Lots of times, these dates overlap with appointed feast dates. When we remember and celebrate YHVH’s feasts, we are not being Jewish. These are not Jewish feasts. These set appointments were made by the Creator of the Universe and He still uses these times and seasons for His purposes.
The Biblical Foundation of Mo’ed
We read as far back as Genesis 1:14 the following: “Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years”. The word seasons in Hebrew is the word mô‛êd (Strongs 4150).
Based on the material provided, here is a breakdown of the meaning of this term:
| Hebrew Term | Strongs Concordance | Definition and Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| mô‛êd | 4150 | An appointment, a fixed time or season, a festival, a set solemn feast, set appointed time, appointed due season. |
Worship Versus Religion
My journey to truth has been a long one, but also very short. When I first got introduced to the Feasts of the Lord and learnt that it’s still very applicable in the lives of believers, I immediately was drawn to it. However, I’m still on the journey towards complete brokenness before Him, and me honouring His times and seasons are not from a place of pride anymore, but from worship.
We don’t celebrate the feasts as an act of religion or to earn favour from God, but it’s an act of worship, led by the Spirit of the Living God. We wilfully align our timetables to the timetable of heaven. We are so accustomed to the Roman calendar. We think nothing of it to search God’s face for the new year starting on the 1st of January. Where I don’t find any fault with it, I’m struggling to understand the severe judgement coming to believers searching God’s face in the month of Adar to be ready for His change in season starting on the 1st of Nisan.
A Note of Warning and Adherence to Scripture
Once your grasp the fullness of these feasts, a person can get carried away and delf into Jewish practices. A lot of these practices are man-made traditions. The Bible is our source and if the Bible doesn’t say we have to blow the shofar a hundred times, then we don’t do it (even though Jewish customs prescribes it). Let’s take Pesach for example; the Jewish seder includes rituals based on the Roman symposium and you can end up with an egg on your table which is nothing else than the egg of the goddess Ishtar (Easter). We have to be careful how we judge and how we cut the truth.