All the people in the land benefited from the Sabbath day for they were able to rest from their labours one day a week when they had freedom to worship the LORD. Even slaves were blessed in this way and received this regular refreshment unknown in other nations who required their people to work ceaselessly throughout the year. The Sabbath was Saturday, not Sunday as is often mistakenly believed, and being the seventh day of the week represents the seventh period of one thousand years to follow the six thousand years of toil and trouble which mankind has endured. All the indications are that we are very near to the end of the six thousand years, and so the faithful are alert and watchful for the coming of Christ to inaugurate the rest which God has promised.
The first feast was the Passover at which a lamb without blemish was sacrificed to represent the sacrifice of Jesus. He was the Lamb of God and was crucified on the fourteenth day of the first month for “Christ our passover is sacrificed for us” 1 Corinthians 5:7.Waiting for response for 1 Corinthians 5:7 On the Sunday after the Passover the priest waved a single sheaf of their harvest before the LORD, and this represented the resurrection of Christ who was raised from the dead on the first Sunday after the Passover. Israel were then to count fifty days to the feast of Pentecost when they were to wave two loaves before the LORD. While Jesus was represented by the single sheaf of barley, his disciples were represented by the loaves, and it was on the day of Pentecost fifty days after Jesus rose from the dead that the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples to demonstrate that they were accepted by God. This was foreshadowed by Israel each year when they waved the loaves, and there were two loaves to represent the two classes of people from which the disciples of Christ would come: the Jews and Gentiles.
Israel then had a long wait during the year before the next feast which represents the coming of Jesus and the establishment of the kingdom of God. On the first day of the seventh month the priests were to blow the trumpet to gather the people to the LORD. This represents the blowing of the trumpet when Jesus comes. He will gather the saints together, most of whom will be sleeping in the grave, and they will all come together to be with Jesus 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17.Waiting for response for 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17
The tenth day of the seventh month (the same as the Feast of Trumpets) is for the High Priest to go into the Most Holy and came out again to pronounce God’s judgment on the people to remove their sins by placing them on the scapegoat. This represents the coming of Christ out of Heaven to pronounce God’s judgment on his people and to give eternal life to the faithful Hebrews 9:28.Waiting for response for Hebrews 9:28
Then the reign of Christ will begin and last for a thousand years which will be a time of rest and refreshing for the world after six thousand years of toil. This is represented by the final feast, the feast of tabernacles, which Israel commenced on the seventeenth day of the same month as the Feast of Trumpets & the Day of Atonement - the seventh month. This feast will also be kept throughout the millennium because people of all the nations of the world will be required to come up to Jerusalem each year to keep it Zechariah 14:16.Waiting for response for Zechariah 14:16
The people of Israel were required to keep the seventh day of each week holy to the LORD, and to celebrate three feasts of the LORD during the year. These were “holidays” or “holy days” which were a great benefit to the people as they provided refreshment and rest from toil. However the feasts, like the rest of the Law of Moses, were intended also to illustrate God’s work of salvation in Christ.