The next festival given was Pesach (Passover) along with Chag Hamatzot (Feast of Un-Leavened Bread). Our Heavenly Father determines in Exodus 12:2, that this is the beginning of a new year. Every time that the LORD marks time in His teachings, he counts Pesach as the first month of the year. When man marks time, he characteristically remains true to when man wants the beginning of the year... mankind still does not get it.
Can you see the enormous spiritual significance of this first divine appointment of the year? Egypt was the cultural, technological and spiritual center of the known world at the time of the Exodus. God’s people rejected the ways of the known world and came out of Egypt to find a place that God would make for them—the Promised Land. In a very similar way, we embark on a journey out the world as we know it when we first came to believe.
On the journey to the Promised Land, at the Mountain of God, He reiterates the commands of Pesach and Yom Chag Hamatzot and then He gives us Yom Habikkurim (Feast of First Fruits), Shavuot (Feast of Weeks), Yom Teruah (Feast of Trumpets), Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles or Ingathering), and Shemini Atzeret (The Eighth Day). All the instructions of YHVH are worth remembering, keeping and guarding at all times and forever. However, it would appear that the Passover was not kept during the journey and was permanently instituted along with Yom Habikkurim upon entering the Promised Land after the circumcision of the generations born in the wilderness. (Exodus 12:48, “…for no uncircumcised person shall eat thereof.”) The Festival of Purim was instituted in the Book of Esther as a remembrance for all of YHVH’s people for all generations. Chanukah (Festival of Light) is a remembrance based on tradition from when the temple was recaptured during the time of the Maccabees and even Yeshua honored it (see our Chanukah page).
These appointed times are gifts. They demonstrate a spiritual journey that we can use to measure ourselves. We can also be blessed by spiritual growth to study, enjoy, and treasure!
The following table shows the order of YHVH's Feasts and other remembrances in the progression of the Hebrew calendar.. It is important to understand the order in which the festivals were given by YHVH to man - for we are to build after the pattern of scripture.
