Are the festival days Sabbaths?

Greetings,

Recently, I read a post on Facebook that the only festival day that is a Sabbath is Day of Atonement/Yom Kippur. I tried correcting them by posting the verses that they were sabbaths. Then someone else said, they were holy convocations but not Sabbaths. I then posted screen shots showing they WERE sabbaths.

So, in this week's article, we're going to look at each festival day & determine if it's a sabbath or not a sabbath. Grab your favorite bible & open it to Lev. 23, we're going to start in verse 5.

The first of annual festivals is Passover.

Lev. 23:5-On the 14th day of the month at evening is the Lord's Passover. No mention of it being a Sabbath or doing regular work. Preparing a Passover meal is a LOT of work. The same in Ex. 12 & Deut. 16.

Lev. 23:6-8-On the 15th day of the first month of the same month is the feast of Unleavened bread to the Lord. For 7 days you must eat unleavened bread. On the first & last day shall be holy convocations & do no manner of work therein. Work is Hebrews concordance #4399, m'la'kah, meaning Workmanship or occupation. So, don't work your regular job & moms get a break from cleaning the home that day. Not a paid occupation but still a full time job. The same is said in Ex. 12.

Lev. 23:9-14-This the Wave Sheaf day. No mention of this being a Sabbath. We are to give an offering before we start eating any type of grain that day. In 2025, the Wave Sheaf Day & the last day of Unleavened Bread fell on the same day, so it was a sabbath that year.

Lev. 23:15-21-This is Shavuot. In verse 21 On that same day you are to proclaim a sacred assembly and do no regular work. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live. Again, work is #4399, no regular job & moms get a break from cleaning.

Lev. 23:24-25-This is the Feast of Trumpets/Day of Shouting, This is a day of rest & do no manner of work. Again, work is #4399. But this is a day to make sure you go out & look for the new moon as the new moon starts the beginning of the scriptural month. If you see that new moon, blow the shofar.

Lev. 23:27-32-This is Day Of Atonement/Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year. This is a day of a holy convocation and absolutely no work. In verse 30, it says whatever person that does any work on this day, God will destroy from among his people. In verse 32, it is the Sabbath of Sabbaths. Work in these verses are also #4399, no occupation work & definitely work around the home. It is a day of complete rest. A day of fasting, prayer & drawing close to God.

Lev. 23:34-42-This is the Feast of Tabernacles/Sukkot, the most joyous festival of the year. Verse 35-The first day shall be a holy convocation & you shall do no manner of work. (#4399) Verse 36-Holy convocation & no matter of work. Verse 39-Says the 8th day is a Solemn rest. Rest in this verse is Hebrew #7677-Shabbathown-Special holiday, rest, sabbath.

The 8th day of the feast or the Last Great Day isn't a day to be packing up your temporary dwelling or packing up your car to head home. That can all wait until after sunset & maybe even the next day. God is more important than hitting the road to head home.

As you can see, with the exception of Passover & Wave Sheaf and days between the first & last day of Unleavened Bread & the days between the first day of the Feast & the Last Great day, these are sabbaths. We should be looking forward to these days, the weekly Sabbath & the annual Sabbaths shouldn't be days to dread as days that you can't do regular work or your job. My husband & I looked forward to double sabbaths. These are sabbaths where the weekly sabbath & annual sabbath fell back to back. A full 48 hours of R & R.

I hope this clears up any confusion about the annual festivals & whethey they are sabbaths or not.

Until next week,

Lori

3 days & 3 nights is 3 days & 3 nights.....period.

Disclaimer- 2 Peter 2:21-Verily if would have been better for them not have known the way of righteousness than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment that was delivered to them.

Greetings,

If you're on Facebook, you see the memes, posts, etc about when Yeshua was crucified & resurrected. Nominal Christianity believes in a Friday crucifixion & Sunday Resurrection. Many Messianics believe in a Wednesday crucifixion & Saturday afternoon resurrection.

So, which is it? Simple, which follows Yeshua's statement in Matt. 12:38-40. It was a Wednesday crucifixion, late Saturday afternoon resurrection.

38 Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.” 39 He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

Yeshua said himself 3 days & 3 nights. Not the partial days to be counted as full days nonsense. What does God constitute to be a day? Let's look at Gen. 1:5-God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day. The day begins at sunset & ends at sunset the the next tday. To say that Yeshua didn't mean 3 days & 3 nights is calling Yeshua a liar. We don't want to do that.

The problem with modern Christianity is that they've forgotten how to count to 3 (crucifixion-resurrection), they've forgotten how to count to 7 (weekly sabbath) & they've forgotten how to count to 50 (the count to Pentecost).

Yeshua was crucified on a Wednesday & then resurrected just before sunset on Sabbath. This is 3 days & 3 nights as you can see in the image below.

Many get hung on the third day concept.

But throughout the new testament, the phrase three days is used many times.

In Matt. 26:61-Destroy the temple of God and rebuild it in three days.

Mark 8:31-Son of Man must be killed and after three days, he will rise again.

Mark 9:31-Son of Man will be delivered into the hands of men & after 3 days will rise again.

Mark 14:58-Destroy the temple with human hands and in three days, another will be built without human hands.

John 2:19-Destroy this temple and I will raise it again in three days.

We are told in Genesis 1:5 what consitutues a day. We need to stop being misled by the wishes of those who want to deceive us from the true crucifixion/resurrection day. Modern Christianity wants an excuse to keep a pagan holiday that existed LONG before Yeshua walked on this earth. In John 20, Mary went to the tomb while it was still dark & the stone had already rolled away. He already risen from the dead. This does NOT indicate a Sunday resurrection. Again, Wednesday to Saturday afternoon is 3 days & 3 nights. Nominal christianity want an excuse to keep what some call as the "Lord's Day." The sabbath is a sign between God & his people. (Ex. 31:13)

Hold fast to God's word. Don't be misled by nominal Christianity.

Have a great Wave Sheaf Day & Last day of Unleavened Bread.

Lori

What is the Wave Sheaf Day & when is it?

Greetings,

I hope everyone is having a great week of Unleavened bread. It's hard to believe it will be over Sunday at sunset.

Sunday also marks another day, the Wave Sheaf day. This can be found in Lev. 23:9-14. I happened to find this by accident one evening when I was doing a bible study. My husband came in & sat by me. I set my bible down between us & I asked him "What's this?" (pointing to the verses I just mentioned. His reply was "That's Pentecost." I said "No, this is Pentecost, pointing to the next set of verses." His reply was after looking at how the sections were marked, "I'm not sure what that is." This led to a long bible study after the Feast of Tabernacles leading up to the Spring festivals. The next Spring, we observed our first Wave Sheaf Day.

First off, let's read what Lev. 23:9-14 says -

Offering the Firstfruits

9 The Lord said to Moses, 10 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you enter the land I am going to give you and you reap its harvest, bring to the priest a sheaf of the first grain you harvest. 11 He is to wave the sheaf before the Lord so it will be accepted on your behalf; the priest is to wave it on the day after the Sabbath. 12 On the day you wave the sheaf, you must sacrifice as a burnt offering to the Lord a lamb a year old without defect, 13 together with its grain offering of two-tenths of an ephah[a] of the finest flour mixed with olive oil—a food offering presented to the Lord, a pleasing aroma—and its drink offering of a quarter of a hin[b] of wine. 14 You must not eat any bread, or roasted or new grain, until the very day you bring this offering to your God. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live.

The barley was the first of the first fruits in the Spring. So, we aren't to eat of the grain until we give an offering the morning of the Wave Sheaf day. This day falls on the Sunday during the week of Unleavened Bread. And 95% of the time, the Wave Sheaf day falls on Easter. Once you've made an offering, then you can eat of the grain. I know one group makes a loaf of bread with the two-tenths of an ephah & olive oil. The loaf barely fits in an oven. They wave it before the load in the great outdoors & then eat of it.

What does this have to do with Yeshua?

John 20:17-Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

This was after Yeshua had risen from the dead the night before just before sunset. He was perfect. He needed to ascend to the father in his perfect state. Once he ascended to heaven & then returned again, then he allowed his followers to touch him. (John 20:27) Yeshua was the first of the first fruits.

Sometimes, the Wave Sheaf day & one of the high sabbaths during the week of unleavened bread will fall on the same day. But it always falls on the Sunday during the week of unleavened bread.

This day also starts the 50 day count to Pentecost which falls on June 8th this year.

I hope you have a great rest of the week of Unleavened bread & Wave Sheaf day.

Until next time,

Lori

Could Yeshua change Passover?

Disclaimer- 2 Peter 2:21-Verily if would have been better for them not have known the way of righteousness than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment that was delivered to them.

Greetings,

It's hard to believe that Passover is next weekend. Where did the time go?

My husband & I came from a Church of God background. This means that we kept "Passover" as the Lord's Supper. Unleavened bread, wine & doing a foot washing. It never made sense to me that we ate unleavened bread at this "Lord's Supper" and then when we got home that night & the next day before sunset we could eat leavened bread. I would ask my husband every year why this was. He couldn't answer my question.

So, what kind of bread was used at the last supper? In Matt. 26:26, Mark 14:22, Luke 22:19 & John 13:18, Yeshua took break, Greek Strong's #740, Artos-bread, raised loaf. Yeshua is the bread of life not the bread of affliction. Unleavened bread is the bread of afflication, haste, this was eatened by the Israelites when they left Egypt. (Deut. 16:3)

The disciples were sent ahead of time to prepare for the Passover. If you've ever prepared for a full Passover, butchering a lamb, unleavened bread, finger foods, etc. To clean our homes of leavening & remove all the foods that have leavening. It takes awhile. When my husband was first butchering a lamb for Passover, it would take him a few hours, the last year (2021) we did it, it took just under 90 min to prep & then start cooking. It was up to me to get a fire going for the parts of the lamb we weren't going to each.

I can hear you now......We aren't to sacrifice a lamb/goat for Passover. It can only be done in a place that God chooses. We chose to come out of the world observe Passover & the Days of Unleavened Bread. God chose us to follow him & we chose to remain faithful to him. (Ps. 111:10) We need to leave our western gentile mentality behind. So you see, we did go to a place God chose.

So, could Yeshua change Passover? Could he create a new commandment for Passover? We are told several times to not add to God's law or take away from it so we can do God's law. Yeshua came to do the will of the father. (John 6:38) Jesus was there was there at the beginning of time. (John 1:1)

The answer is a resounding NO! Yeshua couldn't change Passover. He didn't even keep Passover the year he was killed. He met with disciples in the garden Gethsemane after the last supper. The soldiers took him into custody & then he was bounced between Caiphas & Pontius Pilate to determine his fate. The Jews and others kept Passover as laid out in Torah. Remember, the Torah was the only scriptures being used, the new testament hadn't been written yet.

Yeshua said at the Last Supper, I will not partake of the fruit of the vine until I drink of it in the kingdom. (Matt. 26:29) And the Jewish leaders wanted the bodies taken down before the high sabbath (1st Day of Unleavened Bread) started, so the legs were broken to hasten the death of those who were crucified that day. Yeshua was already dead but his side was pierced with a sword. Joseph of Ramtha took away his body to be put in the tomb before sunset. He was crucified on Passover & then put into the tomb just before sunset on Wednesday afternoon.

My husband wrote an article Cold Jesus Change Passover? I'm barely scraping the surface on this topic but he goes into more depth.

If you choose to get a lamb/goat, Wednesday is the 10th day of the month, so the it's the day to pick out lamb or goat. (Ex. 12:3) I'm going to be heading to the local meat market to get a small lamb roast. My son in law is going to smoke it for me.

Have a great preparation week,

Lori