“But the LORD hath taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be unto him a people of inheritance, as at this day.” (Deut 4:20, RV)
We have already written about how the Old Testament is to be read in terms of the New Testament, but would like to illustrate it for the sake of a specific theme. The next teachings will thus discuss the Jewish festivals as shadow texts and show how they have been fulfilled in Jesus.
The word ‘holiday’ comes from the word holyday. Webster’s defines it as: “A day set apart for commemorating some important event … devoted to religious solemnities …” We grew up in a society under the control of Satan (1 John 5:19), a society which formed our character, and which thus gave birth to everything which was not God (Deut 32:17). Our holy days often have a demonic, idolatrous origin. Our Christian holidays are almost all Christianized versions of heathen festivals. Easter is a celebration of Ishtar, the goddess of fertility, with the Egyptian ankh central as the representation of the cross, Christmas is the celebration of the idol Mithras.
Throughout Scripture Egypt is marked as the symbol of the ungodly world system from which God saves his people. It is inevitable that we, with the passing of time, came into the rhythm of the idolatrous feasts and celebrations. Without us knowing it, we were in Egypt’s fiery furnace (Deut 4:20). But through being born-again we are no longer strangers to the citizenship of Israel (Eph 2:12). Thus, according to Rom 9:4, we – “are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises” (which include the festivals).
Rom 14:5-6 explains the correct perspective on the feasts of God – “One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord; and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it. He who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks; and he who does not eat, to the Lord he does not eat, and gives God thanks.” With the passing of time one has noticed a certain Jewish acculturation by the children of the Lord, which unfortunately takes us back to square one, placing us back in the oven whilst being in the land of Promise, enslaving us to the law of the Torah, spiritualizing what has passed and legislating it as rules to live according to today. This is wrong. In Gal 4:9-11 Paul warns “But now after you have known God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage? You observe days and months and seasons and years. I am afraid for you, lest I have labored for you in vain.”
Col 2:16-17 makes it very clear – “So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or Sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.” The feasts are mere shadows, as Thayer suggests, “shade caused by the interception of light; an image cast by an object and representing the form of that object”. For this reason the moon is often presented as a symbol of the Bride (Song of Songs 6:10) – she has no light of her own, but merely reflects the light of the Sun of Righteousness (Mal 4:2), Christ, the Eternal Light. She is the moon which beautifully circles the son (Job 31:26)! As the sun’s shadows of light fall onto the moon there is within the Bride a similar experience of “the ordinances of the moon” (Jer 31:35; Ps 81:3). The lunar calendar of the Jews points to Christ’s completed dance of time with humanity – a dance of grace.
- Sela: Explain to someone how the feasts of Israel function as shadows of Christ.
- Read: Deut 14; Ezek 40; Micah 2
- Memorize: Micah 2:13
