[MARGIE LITTELL with COLLEEN TINKER]
God gave Israel a yearly schedule of sabbath feasts that they were to celebrate to remember God’s saving faithfulness among them. These feasts also functioned as prophecies foreshadowing the work of the Lord Jesus when He would one day come as the promised Messiah. Let’s look at the Old Testament descriptions of these sabbaths and see some New Testament texts that show their fulfillment.
- OLD COVENANT—The weekly Sabbath provided rest for the people and for the animals and foreshadowed rest from our works: There are six days when you may work, but the seventh day is a day of sabbath rest (Leviticus 3:3).
NEW COVENANT—The New Testament reality: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). - OLD COVENANT—The yearly Passover sabbath commemorated Israel’s deliverance from Egypt and foreshadowed deliverance from sin and the curse of death: The Lord’s Passover begins at twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month (Leviticus 23:5 ).
NEW COVENANT—The New Testament Reality: Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. (1 Corinthians 5:7). - OLD COVENANT—The yearly Feast of Unleavened Bread reminded Israel how God brought them out of Egypt in haste and foreshadowed the Lord’s provision and promise: On the fifteenth day of that month the Lord’s Festival of Unleavened Bread begins; for seven days you must eat bread made without yeast (Lev 23:6).
NEW COVENANT—The New Testament Reality: Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty (John 6:35). Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth (1 Corinthians 5:8). - OLD COVENANT—The Feast of Firstfruits reminded Israel of the Lord’s bounty in the land and also prefigured the sacrifice and resurrection of God’s Lamb: On the day you wave the sheaf, you must sacrifice as a burnt offering to the Lord, a lamb a year old without defect (Leviticus 23:12).
NEW COVENANT—The New Testament Reality: The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29) But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ (1 Corinthians 15:20–23). - OLD COVENANT—The Feast of Weeks or Pentecost was a celebration of thankfulness for the Lord’s blessing of the harvest. This feast was always celebrated on the first day of the week and foreshadowed the birth of the church on the Day of Pentecost: You shall count seven full weeks from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering. You shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath. Then you shall present a grain offering of new grain to the LORD…And you shall offer one male goat for a sin offering, and two male lambs a year old as a sacrifice of peace offerings (Leviticus 23:15–16, 19).
NEW COVENANT—The New Testament Reality: It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins…But when this Priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God, and since that time He waits for His enemies to be made His footstool. For by one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy (Hebrews 10:4, 12–14). When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance (Acts 2:1–4). - OLD COVENANT—The Feast of Trumpets (later called the Jewish New Year) was a day of rest commemorated with trumpet blasts and sacrifices. It also foreshadowed the coming of Christ in glory: Say to the Israelites: “On the first day of the seventh month you are to have a day of sabbath rest, a sacred assembly commemorated with trumpet blasts” (Leviticus 23:24).
NEW COVENANT—The New Testament Reality: For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first (1 Thessalonians 4:16). - OLD COVENANT—The Day of Atonement was a yearly sabbath of fasting and sacrifices to atone for the priests, the nation, the tabernacle, and the altar, and it foreshadowed the complete atonement on Calvary offered by the new High Priest of the order of Melchizedek: The tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 23:27).
NEW COVENANT—The New Testament Reality: God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance He had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished (Romans 3:25). For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself (Hebrews 9:24–26). - OLD COVENANT—The Feast of Booths reminded the Israelites of their journey from Egypt to Canaan and honored God for His provision for His people in the productivity of the Land of Promise. It also foreshadowed God’s provision for those who trust His Son. Live in temporary shelters for seven days: All native-born Israelites are to live in such shelters so your descendants will know that I had the Israelites live in temporary shelters when I brought them out of Egypt (Lev 23:42–43).
NEW COVENANT—The New Testament Reality: Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you (Matthew 6:31–33). Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever (Psalm 23:6).
It Is Finished!
God has fulfilled all the prophecies contained within Israel’s Sabbaths and feasts by sending His Son, the Lord Jesus, to die for our sin and to suffer God’s wrath against it in our place. Jesus has fully atoned for sin, and when He rose from the tomb He broke the curse of death that condemned all humanity.
The Sabbaths ordained in the Law have all been fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Now, as God prophesied through Hosea,
And I will put an end to all her mirth, her feasts, her new moons, her Sabbaths, and all her appointed feasts (Hosea 2:11).
Now, instead of celebrating sabbath days, we can enter Sabbath rest personally by trusting our risen Lord!
So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.
Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account(Hebrews 4:9–13).
Margie Littell is a retired Clinical Audiologist dual certified in the state of Tennessee as a Speech Therapist who moderates several online former Adventist discussion groups. Her brother and sister-in-law, David and Teresa Littell, have written a book about their experience walking through their son Jonathan’s illness and his death several years later from brain cancer, possibly precipitated by his earlier radiation treatments. For more information about obtaining their book, TRUST IN HIS GLORY, email them at delittell@gmail.com.
Latest posts by Margie Littell (see all)
- Jesus Broke the Sabbath and Declared Himself God - February 22, 2024
- God Told Daniel the Future - January 18, 2024
- A New Covenant Needs New Words - November 23, 2023