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There are seven festivals listed in Leviticus 23 in the following order. Most of the events in the Old Testament has an equivalent signicance in Jesus life.
1. Passover
It is a family meal that is eaten and the food eaten symbolizes different aspects of slavery in Egypt and of the escape. It repeats the story of Gods angel passing over the houses of the Israelites. It represents Jesus death for us. (1 Cor 5:7. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.
1 Corinthians 5:7
Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast--as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.
2. Unleavened Bread
Unleavened bread was eaten during these seven days immediately following Passover (Exodus 12:15-20; 13:6-8; Deuteronomy 16:3-8). (John 6:35 Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.
Exodus 12:15-20
15 For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast. On the first day remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel.
16 On the first day hold a sacred assembly, and another one on the seventh day. Do no work at all on these days, except to prepare food for everyone to eat--that is all you may do.
17 "Celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt. Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come.
18 In the first month you are to eat bread made without yeast, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day.
19 For seven days no yeast is to be found in your houses. And whoever eats anything with yeast in it must be cut off from the community of Israel, whether he is an alien or native-born.
20 Eat nothing made with yeast. Wherever you live, you must eat unleavened bread."
Exodus 13:6-8
6 For seven days eat bread made without yeast and on the seventh day hold a festival to the LORD.
7 Eat unleavened bread during those seven days; nothing with yeast in it is to be seen among you, nor shall any yeast be seen anywhere within your borders.
8 On that day tell your son, 'I do this because of what the LORD did for me when I came out of Egypt.'
Deuteronomy 16:3-8
3 Do not eat it with bread made with yeast, but for seven days eat unleavened bread, the bread of affliction, because you left Egypt in haste--so that all the days of your life you may remember the time of your departure from Egypt.
4 Let no yeast be found in your possession in all your land for seven days. Do not let any of the meat you sacrifice on the evening of the first day remain until morning.
5 You must not sacrifice the Passover in any town the LORD your God gives you
6 except in the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name. There you must sacrifice the Passover in the evening, when the sun goes down, on the anniversary of your departure from Egypt.
7 Roast it and eat it at the place the LORD your God will choose. Then in the morning return to your tents.
8 For six days eat unleavened bread and on the seventh day hold an assembly to the LORD your God and do no work.
John 6:35
Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.
3. First Fruits
The first sheaf or firstfruits of the harvest is subsequently cut, and, in a carefully prescribed and meticulous ceremony, is presented to the Lord. The Lord's acceptance of the firstfruits is a pledge on His part of a full harvest to come. This represents Jesus resurrection. "But now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept" (I Corinthians 15:20). When God accepted the firstfruits, they became the guarantee that the rest of the crop would indeed be harvested, for Jesus (Yeshua) himself is the "first fruits" (I Corinthians 15:23).
1 Corinthians 15:20,23
20 But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
23 But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him.
4. Pentecost
This was a festival of joy and thanksgiving celebrating the completion of the harvest season. This represents the coming of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2). Jesus told His disciples that they would not be left abandoned and comfortless. He would then send them His Holy Spirit who would come alongside to help in His absence (John 14:16-17).
John 14:16-17
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever--
17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.
5. Trumpets
Leviticus 23:23-24
23 The LORD said to Moses,
24 "Say to the Israelites: 'On the first day of the seventh month you are to have a day of rest, a sacred assembly commemorated with trumpet blasts.
25 Do no regular work, but present an offering made to the LORD by fire.'"
The Feast of Trumpets depicts the Coming of Christ. "Watch, therefore; for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come." (Matthew 24:42). The outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost started the Church Age; and Trumpets, which will signal Christ's coming and judge the wicked. "Therefore, let us not sleep, as do others, but let us watch and be sober-minded." I Thessalonians 5:6
Matthew 24:42
"Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.
1 Thessalonians 5:6
So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled.
6. Day of Atonement
This was a time when the whole nation confessed their sins and asked God for forgiveness. They fasted on this day and did not do any work. This happened on 10th day of seventh month of every year. (Heb 2:17 For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.
Hebrews 2:17
For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.
7. Tabernacles
This feast is also called the Feast of Ingathering (Exodus 23:16; 34:22), the Feast to the Lord (Leviticus 23:39; Judges 21:9), the Feast of Booths, or simply "the feast" (Leviticus 23:36; Deuteronomy 16:13; I Kings 8:2; II Chronicles 5:3, 7:8; Nehemiah 8:14; Isaiah 30:29; Ezekiel 45:23,25). The Feast of Tabernacles tells of the day when the Son of God himself with dwell (tabernacle) among men, wipe away every tear, and bring in the "golden age" which men have dreamed of since time began.
Exodus 23:16
"Celebrate the Feast of Harvest with the firstfruits of the crops you sow in your field. "Celebrate the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in your crops from the field.
Exodus 34:22
"Celebrate the Feast of Weeks with the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the turn of the year.
Leviticus 23:39
"'So beginning with the fifteenth day of the seventh month, after you have gathered the crops of the land, celebrate the festival to the LORD for seven days; the first day is a day of rest, and the eighth day also is a day of rest.
Judges 21:9
For when they counted the people, they found that none of the people of Jabesh Gilead were there.
Leviticus 23:36
For seven days present offerings made to the LORD by fire, and on the eighth day hold a sacred assembly and present an offering made to the LORD by fire. It is the closing assembly; do no regular work.
Deuteronomy 16:13
Celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days after you have gathered the produce of your threshing floor and your winepress.
1 Kings 8:2
All the men of Israel came together to King Solomon at the time of the festival in the month of Ethanim, the seventh month.
2 Chronicles 5:3
And all the men of Israel came together to the king at the time of the festival in the seventh month.
2 Chronicles 7:8
So Solomon observed the festival at that time for seven days, and all Israel with him--a vast assembly, people from Lebo Hamath to the Wadi of Egypt.
Nehemiah 8:14
They found written in the Law, which the LORD had commanded through Moses, that the Israelites were to live in booths during the feast of the seventh month
Isaiah 30:29
And you will sing as on the night you celebrate a holy festival; your hearts will rejoice as when people go up with flutes to the mountain of the LORD, to the Rock of Israel.
Ezekial 45:23,25
23 Every day during the seven days of the Feast he is to provide seven bulls and seven rams without defect as a burnt offering to the LORD, and a male goat for a sin offering.
25 "'During the seven days of the Feast, which begins in the seventh month on the fifteenth day, he is to make the same provision for sin offerings, burnt offerings, grain offerings and oil.
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