Types and Shadows

The Apostle Paul says that the festivals, new moons, holy days, and Sabbaths were shadows of the reality to come, symbols of the unfolding eternal plan of God. Sometimes I think we lose sight of the fact that there is a higher meaning to days we celebrate. We get so wrapped up in the trappings that we forget about the realities. It wasn't much different 2000 years ago in Israel.

From its inception, Passover was intended by God to be a celebration of His deliverance of His people from Egyptian bondage and slavery. On the 10th day of the month of Nisan, each family was to take a spotless lamb and tie it to the doorpost of their house so that they would come into contact with it upon every entrance to and egress from their home. For four days, it was like a special pet to the family, hand fed and coddled, hugged by the children, patted by the adults. And then on the 14th day of the month, the father was to kill the lamb, catching it's blood in a bowl. While the lamb was being roasted for dinner that night, the blood was brushed down the doorposts and over the lintel of the household. In this way, the angel of death would identify the houses of the righteous and "pass over" them while ministering judgment to the houses of the unrighteous. Ever after, on the 14th day of the month of Nisan, lambs were to be sacrificed, roasted and consumed as a memorial to that day of deliverance. So it had been for 1500 years.

On the 10th of Nisan, April 21, 31 AD, Jesus entered the temple on the Sabbath and threw the money changers and their ways out, exclaiming, "This is a house of prayer, and you've turned it into a den of thieves!" This was the day after his triumphal entry, and also the day on which he was marked for death by the Jewish leaders. Over the course of the next three days, Jesus was on their doorstep, teaching and preaching the kingdom of God, and they became very familiar with his message, but on the fourth day they arrested him in the Garden of Gethsemane, tried him before all the legal courts of the land, and condemned him to death. At 3 PM on 14th Nisan, April 25, as the spotless lambs were being brought to the temple mount for the Passover slaughter, Jesus Christ died on Calvary's cross. He was our Passover lamb.

The 14th of Nisan was also the Day of Preparation for the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which would be celebrated for eight days. Many traditions had sprung up around this festival, but the heart of it went all the way back to the first Passover in Egypt. The Jewish house was to be cleansed from all leaven (or yeast), and the bread eaten during the festival was to be unleavened bread. Leaven was a symbol of sin and guilt, the reason for judgment, and it was to be purged from the household to represent the purging of sin under the blood of the Passover lamb and a reminder of the bondage and slavery out of which God brought His people. It became the custom for families to make a final sweep of their home at midday on the 14th of Nisan, and at midday on that particular day 2000 years ago, the sky was darkened over Jerusalem as all the sin of the world was placed upon the person of Jesus Christ.

The 15th of Nisan began at sunset, and the Passover meal was eaten by all the families in Jerusalem. One ritual practice of the meal was to take one of three pieces of unleavened bread from a special bread pouch and break it in half. One half was placed back with the other pieces of bread, the other was wrapped in a napkin and hidden. Late in the meal, the children of the household would search for the hidden half, called afikomen, and it was eaten as a "dessert" morsel. Consider Christ, having cleansed the world of sin through His sacrifice and Himself being delivered from the leaven of sin through His death, being wrapped in linen and hidden away in the borrowed tomb. While the Jews celebrated the festival of Unleavened Bread, the true unleavened bread lay resting, awaiting the next great day of Firstfruits.

First Fruits was a celebration of harvest celebrated on the First Day of the Week following Passover. Sheaves of newly reaped barley were brought to the temple and presented as a wave offering before the Lord. It was on the First Day of the Week, Sunday, April 29th, 31 AD, the 18th day of Nisan, that Jesus rose from the dead and emptied the holding place of righteous departed. In this and so many other ways, Jesus was the First Fruits!

1. Jesus is the firstborn of Mary (Matthew 1:23-25)
2. Jesus is the first-begotten of God the Father (Hebrews 1:6)
3. Jesus is the firstborn of every creature (Colossians 1:15)
4. Jesus is the first-begotten from the dead (Revelation 1:5)
5. Jesus is the firstborn of many brethren (Romans 8:29)
6. Jesus is the first fruits of the resurrected ones (1 Corinthians 15:20,23)
7. Jesus is the beginning of the creation of God (Revelation 3:14)
8. Jesus is the preeminent One (Colossians 1:18)

the above list was taken from http://bibleprophesy.org/feasts4.htm
So Jesus Christ Himself was the reality and fulfillment of those three Spring harvest festivals--Passover, Unleavened Bread, and Firstfruits--which were types and shadows of the things to come!