In the preceding discussion of Biblical typology, we referred to the typical nature and predictive function of the annual feasts without attempting to prove that they constitute real types designed by God to foreshadow the unfolding of redemptive history. At this juncture, we wish to examine some of the indications of the typical character of the feasts before summarizing their antitypical fulfillments that we have examined in the two volumes of God’s Festivals in Scripture and History.
Biblical and Festival Typology 26 Importance of the Typical Nature of the Feasts. The determination of the typical nature of the annual feasts of Israel is most important for establishing their continuity or discontinuity in the New Testament. If the annual feasts were connected exclusively to the agricultural life and the ceremonial system of the Jews, then it is evident that their function terminated at the Cross. But, if the feasts foreshadow also the unfolding of salvation history, then their function continues in the Christian church, though with new meaning and relevance. This means that it is of fundamental importance to establish the typical and prefigurative nature of the feasts, before examining their antitypical fulfillments in the New Testament.
The determination of the typical nature of the annual feasts is of crucial importance for Seventh-day Adventist eschatology. The Adventist doctrines of the heavenly ministry of Jesus, the pre-Advent judgment, the close of probation, and the millennial binding of Satan, all derive largely from an understanding of the antitypical fulfillment of events associated with the Day of Atonement. The founders of the Adventist Church understood that the Spring Festivals were types (Passover, Wave Sheaf, and Pentecost) which were fulfilled in connection with the first coming of Christ. By analogy, they concluded that the Fall Festivals are also types that find their fulfillment in the events related to the Second Advent. “In like manner,” writes Ellen G. White,
“the types which relate to the second advent must be fulfilled at the time pointed out in the symbolic service.”16
The founders of Adventism, however, focused primarily on the typol-ogy of the Day of Atonement, largely ignoring the contribution of the Feasts of Trumpets and Tabernacles to the understanding of the consummation of the redemption. Their concern was to understand the antitypical fulfillment of the cleansing of the sanctuary as predicted in Daniel 8:14. Thus, they studied with great diligence the ritual of the Day of Atonement in order to establish its antitypical fulfillment.
The purpose of this study is not to expose the theological deficiencies of the Adventist pioneers, but rather to build upon the foundation of their work by expanding our understanding of how the typology of the Fall Feasts reveals the unfolding of events leading to the consummation of redemption. It would be unreasonable to expect the founders of Adventism to have fully grasped Biblical typology, in general and Festival typology, in particular, when only in recent times these areas have become the subject of scholarly inquiry.
The Prevailing View. The prevailing view among Christians today is that the annual feasts were strictly socio-ceremonial institutions given to Israel. Their function terminated at the Cross with all the sacrificial system of
Biblical and Festival Typology 27 the Old Testament. I must admit that I subscribed to this view until I became involved in this research. It came as a surprise to me to discover that the feasts were designed by God, not only to meet the socio-religious needs of the Jews, but also to foreshadow the unfolding of salvation history until its consumma-tion. This suggests that while the sacrificial, ceremonial aspects of the feasts terminated at the Cross, their typological function continues in the Christian church, though with a new meaning and relevance.
Some writers rule out the possibility that the annual feasts have relevance for Christians today, because they were so closely related to the history and agricultural life of ancient Israel.17 To support this view, they argue that there are no indications that the Israelites themselves attached some deeper predictive significance to the feasts. This argument is patently weak for two reasons: first, because the Israelites did attach prophetic significance to the feasts. We have found that the Feasts of Passover and Tabernacles, for example, were seen by the Jews not only as commemorative of their past deliverance and protection, but also as typical of future Messianic redemption and restoration.
Second, the typical nature of the feasts does not depend upon finding some indications to that effect at the time they were established. Rather it depends upon whether or not they were designed by God to fulfill a predictive function. The Passover lamb was typical of the crucifixion of the Lamb of God, not because this typical function was clearly stated to the Israelites or understood by them, but because God designed that the sacrifice of the Passover lamb was to prefigure Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross.
The Israelites had a limited understanding of the deeper meaning of many things God commanded them to do. The deeper meaning of the annual feasts was veiled, since they had significance and use for the time then present, apart from their prefiguration of God’s future redemptive plan. A type always involves God’s design, but does not necessarily include making known immediately its predictive purpose. Thus, the identification of the annual feasts as types does not depend on finding internal indicators to that effect at the time they were appointed. It is an unacceptable method of Biblical interpretation to make the knowledge which the ancient Israelites possessed regarding the prospective import of particular types, the measure by which we establish their meaning for us today.
The feasts could serve as annual celebration in Israel and as types foreshadowing the future unfolding of the plan of salvation, though the latter was dimly understood by the participants. Joseph Seiss remarks that “There are three general aspects in which these remarkable festivals may be
consid-Biblical and Festival Typology 28 ered. They had important relations to the peace and prosperity of the Jews as a nation; they embodied a great religious idea; and they presented chronologi-cal prefiguration of the great facts of our redemption.”18 The latter is understood especially through the witness of the New Testament.
The Typical View of the Feasts in the New Testament. The typical nature and meaning of the feasts or of any other Old Testament institution is ultimately determined by their antitypical fulfillment in the New Testament.
It is the witness of the New Testament that sheds light on the typological meaning of the Flood, the Exodus, Moses, the sacrificial system, the Sabbath, and the annual feasts. Without the interpretation given them by the New Testament it would be nearly impossible for us to realize, for example, that the Flood was a prefiguration of the Christian baptism (1 Pet 3:31), or that the Passover lamb was a type of Christ’s sacrifice (1 Cor 5:7).
The typical nature of the annual feasts is attested in the New Testament explicitly and implicitly. We have found that the typical significance of the first four feasts of Passover, First Fruits (Wave Barley Sheaf), Unleavened Bread, and Pentecost, is explicitly recognized in the New Testament by those references which explain their antitypical fulfillment. The typical signifi-cance of the last three feasts of Trumpets, Atonement, and Tabernacles, is implicitly acknowledged by the use of the themes of these feasts to depict events leading to the consummation of redemption. We shortly shall mention both the explicit references and implicit New Testament allusions to the feasts in our summary of their typological meaning.
The Sabbath and the Feasts. The typical nature of the annual feasts is also indicated by their parallel with the Sabbath in Leviticus 23. The chapter begins by introducing the “appointed feasts” (mo‘ed) to be observed. These consisted of the weekly Sabbath and the annual feasts, both of which are ordained as mo‘ed, “appointed feasts.” The term mo‘ed stresses the time set for the Sabbath and the feasts and is thus translated as “appointed feasts,” “set times,” or “set feasts.”
In his doctoral dissertation Terry Hulbert notes that “The occurrence of the weekly Sabbath and [annual] feasts together in Leviticus 23 was not accidental. The common term mo‘ed used to designate them was likewise not accidental. What it implied for one, it implied for the other, and this implication is very important.”19 The implication in Hubert’s view is that both the weekly Sabbath and the annual feasts had a commemorative and typical function.
In Old Testament times, the weekly Sabbath rest served, on the one hand, to commemorate God’s creation (Ex 20:11) and the deliverance from
Biblical and Festival Typology 29 Egyptian bondage (Deut 5:15), and on the other hand, to typify the future Messianic redemption and restoration. In Divine Rest for Human Restless-ness, I have examined at considerable length the Sabbatical typologies of Messianic redemption that are present in numerous texts of the Old Testament and of Jewish literature.20 We find the same typical meaning in Hebrews 3 and 4 where the Sabbath typifies both the rest of the land of Canaan, which the Israelites never experienced because of unbelief, and the rest of salvation into which believers are entering today.
What is true for the Sabbath is also true for the annual feasts. The weekly Sabbath and the annual feasts are grouped together in Leviticus 23 presum-ably because they both were moadim, that is, divinely “appointed times” with a prophetic significance. Terry Hulbert emphasizes this point, saying, “The reason for the introduction of the Sabbath [in Leviticus 23] was that both the feasts and the Sabbath were moadim. Both were appointed times. The feasts had been discussed elsewhere (e. g. Exodus 12 and Leviticus 16) and the Sabbath often had been mentioned before. But in Leviticus 23, they are specially and specifically treated as moadim. This phenomemon can only be explained as revealing a special characteristic common to both feasts and Sabbath. This characteristic is that, although each had real historical import for Israel, they also had real prophetic significance.”21
Just as the Sabbath served to remind Israel, not only of the past divine creation, but also of the future Messianic redemption and restoration, so the annual feasts served to remind Israel, not only of the past exodus, wilderness protection, the need for cleansing, etc., but also of the future Messianic redemption and restoration. We would conclude then that the weekly Sabbath and the annual feasts are presented together in Leviticus 23 as moedim, because both of them are divinely designed types which prefigure the unfolding of important events of the plan of salvation.
The Unity of the Festal Cycle. Another indication of the typical nature of the annual feasts is the fact that they form a unified cycle with a beginning, progression, and completion. They move from the Feast of Passover, the celebration of Exodus deliverance, to the Feast of Tabernacles, the rejoicing for the safe arrival to the Promised Land. By reenacting the journey of Israel from the bondage of Egypt to the freedom of the Promised Land, the feasts could serve to foreshadow fittingly also the spiritual pilgrimage of God’s people from the bondage of sin to the freedom and rejoicing of the new earth.
Though the feasts differed in the time, place, and circumstances of their origin, they were all brought them together by God in Leviticus 23, who ordained their proper sequence and times of their celebration. This was done
Biblical and Festival Typology 30 obviously for a reason. Joseph Seiss rightly suggests that the reason the annual feasts were brought together under one view in Leviticus 23, is ‘that their relations to each other, and their general significance, might be the more clearly perceived.” 22
When we look at the sequential order of the feasts, we note an internal symmetry, interdependence, and progression. The symmetry can be seen, for example, in the cycle which begins with three feasts (Passover, Wave Barley Sheaf and Unleavened Bread), and closes with three feasts (Trumpets, Atonement, and Tabernacles). The cycle opens with an eight-day celebration of Passover followed by the seven-day Feast of Unleavened Bread and closes with an eight-day celebration of the seven-day Feast of Tabernacles which is followed by an eighth day, known as Atzeret (Lev 23:39). The middle feast, Pentecost, serves as a divider between the first three and the last three.
The interdependence among the feasts is evident in the fact that the purpose and meaning of each feast depends upon the preceding one and, consequently, upon all the others. Terry Hulbert remarks that “If each feast stood alone in its significance, and involved no prerequisites, as for example the cleansing of the Day of Atonement before the joy of the Feast of Tabernacles, it might be argued that they did not form an organic whole, but were isolated rituals. But such is not the case, as proven in Chapter II. The purpose and meaning of each feast rest upon the one preceding it and, in effect, upon all of the others.”23
Interdependence implies progression, for as each feast builds upon the preceding one, it contributes to unfold the theme of God’s redemptive activity. Progression presupposes a planned sequence. The historic events commemorated by the feasts would be completely confused if they occurred in any other order. The Feast of Tabernacles which commemorates the divine sheltering of the Israelites during their journeying from Egypt to the Promised Land, could not have been observed before Passover, which commemorates the deliverance from Egypt.
The order of the feasts is significant not only in terms of their linkage to the past historical events, but also in terms of their prefiguration of the future unfolding of God’s redemptive acts. David Baron notes that not only the feasts were full of meaning, “but the very order in which they stand in the sacred calendar, is, I believe, significant as setting forth the order of sequence in which the various stages of God’s great redemption scheme were to unfold themselves in the course of the ages.”24 Later in this chapter, I summarize the interdependence and progression that is evident in the antitypical fulfillment of the feasts in the New Testament.
Biblical and Festival Typology 31 The fact that all three Fall Feasts fell in the seventh month, may well reflect the importance that Scripture attaches to the septenary cycle as the symbol of the perfection and completion of God’s creative and redemptive accomplishments. The number seven also is woven into the Biblical calendar.
The Sabbath is observed every seventh day, the sabbatical year every seven years, the jubilee year every seven weeks of years. Passover opens the religious calendar with a seven-day observance of the Feast of the Unleav-ened Bread. Seven weeks after Passover comes the celebration of the Feast of Pentecost. The seventh month, Tishri, contains the most holy days of the Hebrew calendar, with the feasts of Trumpet, Atonement, and Tabernacles.
The religious calendar closes with the Feast of Tabernacle which lasts for seven days. It appears that just as the seventh day marks the completion and culmination of creation, so the three Fall Feasts of the seventh month point to the consummation and culmination of redemption
Feasts and Seasons. The typical nature of the feasts is also suggested by their relation to the Spring and Fall harvests. The religious calendar of ancient Israel was divided into two cycles of feasts which coincided respec-tively with the Spring grain harvest and the Fall fruit harvest. The Spring Feasts celebrated how God brought Israel into existence as a nation by liberating the people from physical oppression. The Fall Feasts challenged the people to reach to God for moral and spiritual freedom in order to experience the ultimate blessedness.
For Israel, the religious year began on Nisan with the celebration of Passover on the 14th day of that month (Ex 12:1), and closed seven months later on Tishri with the observance of the Feasts of Trumpets, Atonement, and Tabernacles, all of which fell on the seventh month. Within the compass of these seven months, the entire harvest that sustained life was gathered in and all the annual feasts were celebrated. The feasts were not scattered over the whole twelve months, but only over the first seven months. Their occurrence within these seven months paralleled the Spring harvest of the grain (barley and wheat) and the Fall harvest of the fruits. Thus, the unity of the cycle of the feasts is reflected by the unity of the harvest season in Palestine.
Why did God place the celebration of the annual Feasts in conjunction with the Spring and Fall harvests? Presumably because these seasons pro-vided the ideal setting to help the people appreciate the great spiritual truths typified by the feasts. In his commentary on The Book of Leviticus, S. H.
Kellog notes that it was most fitting that the celebration of the annual Holy Days “should be so arranged and timed, in all its parts, as that in each returning sacred season, visible nature should present itself to Israel as a manifest parable and eloquent suggestion of those spiritual verities.”25
Biblical and Festival Typology 32 Physical experiences are used by God to help us conceptualize and internalize spiritual realities. The reviving of the earth at springtime provides the ideal setting to celebrate Passover, which commemorates the Springtime of Israel’s history, when God delivered the people from Egyptian oppression, and the Springtime of grace, when Christ was sacrificed to deliver us from the bondage of sin. Similarly, the completion of the harvest season in the Fall provides a fitting occasion to celebrate the Feasts of Trumpets, Atonement, and Tabernacles, all of which point to the future spiritual harvest of the redeemed that Christ will gather in their harvest home. We can say that the Spring and Fall harvests provide an ideal setting to celebrate the inauguration and completion of Christ’s redemptive ministry.
Today, most people no longer live in an agrarian society like that of the ancient Israelites, yet all are still responsive to seasonal changes. Spring is still the time of new beginnings which can remind us through Passover and Pentecost of the new life that has come to us through the redemptive accomplishments of Christ’s first Advent. Similarly, the Fall is still the completion of the harvest season which can remind us through the Fall Feasts of the consummation of redemption to be accomplished by Christ’s second
Today, most people no longer live in an agrarian society like that of the ancient Israelites, yet all are still responsive to seasonal changes. Spring is still the time of new beginnings which can remind us through Passover and Pentecost of the new life that has come to us through the redemptive accomplishments of Christ’s first Advent. Similarly, the Fall is still the completion of the harvest season which can remind us through the Fall Feasts of the consummation of redemption to be accomplished by Christ’s second