Shorashim - Hebrew for "Roots"

Festivals, Fasts and Holy Days

God’s Timing Is Always Perfect

Celebrating Sukkot at the Kotel

There are three great 'peaks' of salvation, reflected in the cycle of Biblical feasts, fasts and holy days:

1) Passover (Pesach)
2) Pentecost (Shavuot)
3) Tabernacles (Sukkot)

The Feast of Tabernacles is the only great feast whose main fulfilment is yet to come and can be seen as the prophetic foreshadowing of:

The gathering of Israel from the ends of the earth as a precursor to their national acknowledgement of Yeshua as their Messiah – and the final outpouring of the Holy Spirit:

The Second coming of the Messiah
The advent of the Millennial Kingdom

Tabernacles falls in Tishri, the seventh month in the Jewish calendar, but the first month of the civil year, (September/October). The month of Tishri is often associated with creation, and many believe that Yeshua was most likely to have been born at this time.

Tabernacles itself is part of a group of three feasts, which are all stages in the return of Messiah:

Rosh Hashanah - Feast of Trumpets/ The Blowing of Trumpets (Tishri 1)
Day of Atonement - Tishri 10 (preceded by 10 days of awe)
Tabernacles - Tishri 15-21

Why Bother with the ‘Old Testament’ Biblical Holidays?

Are the Bible's holy days still relevant?

Well, partly because – and as provocative / radical as this may sound – if you are a Bible-believing evangelical, there aren’t any New Testament holidays!

The bottom line is that there is more evidence to justify adopting the Biblical (God-given) holidays than there is for any of those in the Christian Calendar! That doesn’t mean that the Christian ones can’t be useful for outreach, etc as they are an accepted and recognised part of our culture.

BUT, if what you are looking for is a sense of authenticity and God-given instruction, then you can’t go wrong by following Him and His Word.

Didn't Jesus bring an end to the Old Testament holy days?

Is this what Jesus would have wanted?

Well, he actually said that he hadn't come to abolish the Torah (Law) but to bring it to its fullness (Matthew 5:17). This is not fullness as in “bring to an end”, more “to complete, hit the target, show how it should be done”, which when understood within a correct view of Torah makes perfect sense and liberates our understanding of the Hebrew Scriptures (‘Old Testament’).

Remember:

Before Yeshua came, the festivals were a foreshadowing of what was to come. Now that Yeshua has been, they can be a wonderful reminder to us and celebration of what he has done… just like Christmas, Easter, etc are reminders.

What about the Temple and the inability to perform sacrifices?

Yes, the sacrificial system has come to an end (since 70AD when the Romans sacked Jerusalem). This, however, doesn't mean that we can't still benefit from the deep and rich symbolism given to us in the Hebrew Scriptures for our benefit. If you say that we can't use the symbolism, then our Communion Services must be rejected as well as they are laden with unmistakable symbolism from the Passover Celebration.

We would also have to rewrite almost every hymn, song and chorus ever written as they all draw on OT biblical symbolism, e.g. "As the deer pants for the water, so my soul longs after you", "Lift up your heads, ye gates", etc.

Won’t this just lead us into legalism?

No, because we would only recommend you investigate and celebrate the Biblical Feasts if they bring you life! Our position is that if God mandated it; if God recommends it; and if His Son had no problem with it, it must be good for us and certainly won't be harmful.

Don't forget that there is a far stronger Biblical mandate for all of these feasts than there is for Christmas, Easter, All Hallows Eve, Pentecost (as we know it), etc.
We should also not forget that our "received" definition of God's Law (torah) has been influenced by centuries of Christian teaching based on a misunderstanding of what the Torah (teaching, instruction and guidance) of our loving Heavenly Father is really about!

God's Timing Is Perfect

Sir Robert Anderson

"From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven 'sevens', and sixty-two 'sevens'. It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. After the sixty-two 'sevens', the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing."

~ Daniel 9: 25 ~

Note:

Great care is given to the actions of Nehemiah when gave wine to the king, and care was given to note the specific day the events in Nehemiah 2 began. Why was it so important for God to tell the date these things happened?

First, to show that Nehemiah prayed and waited for four months with the kind of heart described previously in Nehemiah 1. During those four months, Nehemiah's prayer was likely "LORD, either take this burden from my heart or show me how to be the man to answer this burden."

The date is also important, because it establishes the date given to restore Jerusalem and its walls. Daniel 9:25 says that exactly 173,880 days from this day - which was March 14, 445 B.C. - Messiah the prince would be presented to Israel.

Sir Robert Anderson, the eminent British astronomer and mathematician, makes a strong case that Yeshua fulfilled this prophecy exactly, to the day, entering Jerusalem on April 6, 32 A.D., precisely 173,880 days from Nehemiah 2:1.

In summary:

The Decree occurred in Nisan (March) 445BC, Yeshua died at Passover in Iyar (April) 33AD, which is exactly 173,880 days (7x7 and 62x7 years)