The Importance of the Feast Days

 

 

Don K Preston and his followers rely on the Jewish traditions in their explanations of the Jewish Feast Days of Leviticus 23. Preston has been on Sukkot, Feast of Tabernacles, for months now. Preston goes on and on about Sukkot being about "Harvest" and "Joy of the Nations".

Leviticus 23:33-44 tells us what Sukkot is for and "Harvest" is not mentioned except in verse 39 when they had gathered the fruit of the land. That would be like a second crop because the Feast of Weeks were to celebrate the Harvest. It gets confusing, but it says what it says. Leviticus 23:15-22 and Exodus 24: 22-23 tells us what Feast of Weeks is for and it is to celebrate Harvest at the end of the year. Don conflates the two, Feast of Weeks and Feast of Tabernacles, even though God doesn't.

These Feasts were a shadow of the new and better covenant, but we don't have the authority to change them and make them all one celebration. I'll admit I haven't studied a great deal on these Jewish Feasts, but the covenant I'm under doesn't ask me to live in a tent or a booth for a week either

If you look at Exodus 34 and Leviticus 23 the Feast of Weeks is at the end of the year but it is different from the Feast of Tabernacles. We can all do Google searches and read about later traditions, but there is only one place that mentions the nations and Feast of Tabernacles and that in Zechariah 14 where he's prophesying Christ fulfilling the Feast of Tabernacles. And we as Christians now are living the true Tabernacles. This is our tent until we go to be with the Father.

Remember these Feasts are types, they're not ours to observe literally. If we are living as Christians we are observing the True Feasts. Don wants to put the last 4 into A.D. 70 and claim the Harvest, the Judgment, the Resurrection, and the New Creation are all fulfilled literally through Titus and his army coming as Christ Himself.

But these hyper preterists have gotten on this schtick about the Feasts and if we don't understand what they meant to the Jews then we'll never understand the scriptures. In that sense the hyper preterists are the new Gnostics and they have the real spiritual meaning.

Also, we are the anti-type of the planters of the harvest. Matthew 13:30 Jesus says "‘Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.” In fulfilling Matthew 28_18-20, the Great Commision, He commanded His disciples to go into all nations baptizing and making disciples and teaching everyone obedience to His commands. Mark 4:29 tells there will come an end and time for harvest. Christ will separate the wheat from the weeds. That's not our job.

Anyway, some of you know a lot more about the type and anti-type of the Leviticus 23 Feast Days, but I don't want to learn about the traditions of the unbelieving Jews. Yet that's exactly where Don K Preston gets his feast days series of videos from because the Bible doesn't say 90 percent of what Preston and the hyper preterists claim about them.

Just remember 2nd Timothy 3:16-17 that the scriptures make us complete and not Jewish traditions. If the Jewish Feast Days have a deeper meaning for us than we already know, we will find the answers in the scriptures and not an unnamed world renown Jewish Rabbi Preston's imagination made up.

 

  Just looking at The Feast of Tabernacles we see in Exodus 23 called Feast of Ingathering comes right after the feast of Harvest. It's the last of three feasts.

It's also talked about in Deuteronomy 16:13-17, and Numbers 29:12-40 lists the daily sacrifices and the Bible doesn't say this but Preston claims the total of 70 bulls represents the "Nations". Various other books and passages mention the Feast of Tabernacles and not one says the Jews were to celebrate the "Nations".

Zechariah 14 prophesies what I believe is Christ's fulfillment, (The Day of the Lord) of the Feasts and any nation that doesn't not come up to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles will get no rain.

And I guess from there is where the unscriptural idea that the Feast of Tabernacles is called the "Joy of the Nations" comes from. Preston goes on and on about world renown "Jewish scholars" teaching the Feast of Tabernacles has always been about the "Joy of the Nations".

Well, I don't care what they put in their Talmud or what they claim Tabernacles was about. The Nations were not part of it under the Old Covenant. Zechariah 14 gives us a hint at what the anti-type would look like, but Leviticus 23:43 tells us who it was for and why;

‘"You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All who are native Israelites shall dwell in booths,

‘that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.’ "”

No where in the Old or New Testaments do we read that the Feast of Tabernacles had anything to do with the "Nations". Christ fulfilled ALL of the Feasts, that's what He came to do, but the children of Israel were not told to celebrate the Feast because it was the "Joy of the Nations". Whatever other name is given to the Feast of Tabernacles in the Old Testament or New Testament, "Joy of the Nations" is not one of them.

If you want to listen to Don K Preston 'splain Sukkot he'll be doing it probably for the next 5 years on "Morning Musings". His YouTube channel is like a soap opera. if you miss a day don't worry. He'll repeat it every day for the next 4 years. But pay close attention to what is actually scripture and what is his literal bloviating. He'll tell you all about what "world renown scholars say..." but he doesn't have the scriptures to back it up.

And that's really what hyper preterism is about. To them 2nd Timothy 3:15-17 is not complete without the "Complete Works of Josephus" and "world renown scholars".

I'll admit looking into the Feast Days is kind of new. I have had a class or two that went over the OT books and the Feasts were covered. But I find Preston literally fascinating on just what can be thrown out there as doctrine. When anyone says "Jewish Rabbis and Scholars say...", at least ask for Biblical backup to what they say before simply soaking it in like a sponge.