1. Feast of Passover
The first three feasts - Passover, Unleavened Bread, and First Fruits occur in rapid succession in the spring of the year over a period of eight days. They are sometime referred to collectively as “Passover”
The Passover is the first feast and it’s celebrated on the fourteenth day of the first month. On the Jewish calendar, this is the month of Nissan which is usually around March-April in the Gregorian calendar. When the Passover is complete, the feast of Unleavened Bread starts the following day on the 15th day of the month of Nissan and continues for seven days. The feast of Passover was instituted when God instructs the Israelite’s to sacrifice a pure and spotless lamb and use its blood to mark their doorposts as
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Feast of First fruits
This feast begins on the day after the weekly Sabbath during the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which would be the first day of the week, or Sunday. It is done as an expression of gratitude to God for His provision in the harvest. In this feast a sheaf of the first fruits of the barley harvest is waved before the Lord.
“The LORD said to Moses, ‘Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you enter the land I am going to give you and you reap its harvest, bring to the priest a sheaf of the first grain you harvest. He is to wave the sheaf before the LORD so it will be accepted on your behalf; the priest is to wave it on the day after the Sabbath” Lev 23: 9-11 NIV
Christ fulfilled the feast of first fruits by being the first fruit of the resurrection – he was raised from the dead ‘on the day after the Sabbath’ which is Sunday. Jesus was the first to be raised into a new resurrection body, never to die again. So He is the 'sheaf ', the first of the harvest that is waved before the Lord in celebration and with thanksgiving. And just as the sheaf was waved to represent the entire harvest to the left and the right, so the resurrection of Jesus was not just for Himself. He represented the many that shall come to put their faith in