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Why
Keep the Annual Festivals?
For those of you who do not see the necessity to keep the annual High Days, you might want
to consider these things.
>They were set in motion when Yahweh created the heavenly bodies and appointed them for "signs and seasons."
>Gen 1:14 And Elohim said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night;
and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:
This word, "seasons," is the Hebrew word, "Moed," that means , according to Strong's:
4150. mow'ed, mo-ade'; or mo'ed mo-ade'; or (fem.) mow'adah - an appointment, i.e. a fixed time or season; spec.
a festival; conventionally a year; by implication, an assembly (as convened for a definite purpose (solemn) feast,
(appointed, due) season, (set) time (appointed).
So we see that the Creator Himself set up signs to mark the Annual Holy Days He intended us to observe, and He
inspired Moses to list all the Holy Days in Leviticus 23, the weekly Sabbath and all the annual Days.
Zechariah was inspired by Yahweh to record that, during the 1,000 year reign of Yahshua, all nations will be required
to go to Jerusalem to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.
Yahshua kept all these Festivals. See Luke 2:41-42, John 7:2-10. He is our example that we should walk as He
walked.
The apostles and other believers continued to keep (and teach) observance of these days long after Yahshua had
ascended into the heavens. See 1 Cor. 5:7-8, the Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread;
Acts 2:1, Acts 20:16, 1 Cor. 16:8, Pentecost;
Acts 27:9, the Day of Atonement [the "fast" day];
An unidentified Feast in Acts 18:21, "But bade them farewell, saying, I must by all means keep this feast
that cometh in Jerusalem:" [this is thought by some scholars to have been the Feast of Tabernacles in 52 CE].
Colossians 2:16-17, Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the
new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of the Messiah.
When properly understood, these two verses are the strongest proof in the entire Bible that we should now be observing
the Clean Meats law, the Holy Days, the New Moons, and the weekly Sabbath. Paul said they are "shadows of
things to come." They portray Yahweh's plan of Salvation, and remind us annually of each step in His plan,
so we can always be on guard against falling away.
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