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For the past six years, Houston’s First has participated in a church wide Daniel Fast in early January to deepen our relationship with God and to consecrate the new year. January 2023 would be the seventh year of this annual focus. In keeping with biblical examples of releasing debts or allowing land to lie fallow every seven years, Houston’s First will FEAST instead of fast in this seventh year. We will explore the Festivals of God found in Leviticus 23 and celebrate all that God has done — and will continue to do — in us and through us.
Nothing in this life is by accident nor chance. All throughout the scriptures we can see that there are seasons for everything.
During the week of January 8-14, we will look at one of the seven Festivals of God each day and celebrate each one through prayer and feasting. In the Old Testament, there are seven feasts found in Leviticus 23. The Hebrew word for “feasts” (moadim) literally means "appointed times." God has carefully planned and orchestrated the timing and sequence of each of these seven feasts to reveal to us a special story. The seven annual feasts of Israel were spread over seven months of the Jewish calendar, at set times appointed by God.
The Festivals of God serve as a remembrance and a memorial to honor all that God has done for His people. Each of the Old Testament Jewish Festivals teaches us and reveals to us our relationship with God. The story of redemption is being told throughout the Festivals of God!
Click on a date below to reveal a devotional video and a variety of resources about that day's focus.
The Feast of Passover occurs in the Spring, in the Jewish month of Nisan. The name of the festival, Pesach in Hebrew, “passing over, or protection” over something. The Passover is a holy day celebrating God’s deliverance of Israel from slavery in Egypt. The Passover takes place during the last plague in Egypt, when the angel of death “passed over” the people of Israel who obeyed God to put blood on their doorposts from the lamb that was slain. The Passover is foundational in how we can understand God’s redemptive plan.
You must have an unblemished animal, a year-old male; you may take it from either the sheep or the goats. You are to keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembly of the community of Israel will slaughter the animals at twilight.
“I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night and strike every firstborn male in the land of Egypt, both people and animals. I am the LORD; I will execute judgments against all the gods of Egypt. The blood on the houses where you are staying will be a distinguishing mark for you; when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No plague will be among you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.“ This day is to be a memorial for you, and you must celebrate it as a festival to the LORD. You are to celebrate it throughout your generations as a permanent statute. — Exodus 12: 5,6,12-14
The Passover points to Jesus “Yeshua” as our Passover lamb whose blood was shed for our sins. Jesus “Yeshua” was crucified on the day of preparation for the Passover at the same hour that the lambs were being slaughtered for the Passover meal that evening.
Slaying the lamb at Passover foreshadowed the greater redemption found in God’s appointed lamb, the Messiah. What an honor and a privilege that we get to celebrate God’s redemptive plan in our lives for those who have been redeemed by Jesus our Passover Lamb.
John the Baptist understood that Jesus the Christ was the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29). Instead, those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Therefore, when Christ came into the world, He said:
“Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You prepared for Me. In burnt offerings and sin offerings You took no delight. Then I said, ‘Here I am, it is written about Me in the scroll: I have come to do Your will, O God.” — Hebrews 10:1-7
The prophetic fulfillment of this holy day can be summed up in one word, “redemption. “The Apostle Paul articulates this so beautifully in his first letter to the believers at Corinth.
Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little leaven[a] leavens the whole batch of dough? Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new unleavened batch, as indeed you are. For Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us observe the feast, not with old leaven or with the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. — 1 Corinthians 5:6-8
The Feast of Unleavened Bread starts the next day after the Passover and lasts for seven days. This is the second feast that occurs during Spring. This begun when the Israelites fled from Egypt, they took the dough before it had time to leaven. The Feast of Unleavened Bread is to be celebrated and points us to the time in Exodus when the Israelites were freed as slaves from Egypt.
As it’s so closely related to Passover, the names of the two holidays are often interchanged. During Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Jewish people remove all leaven from their homes and eat unleavened bread, or matzah. Leaven in Scripture is sometimes a symbol for sin because of the way it spreads, perpetuates itself, and puffs things up. Because of Jesus, we can be released from the self-perpetuating sin cycle.
Now the Egyptians pressured the people in order to send them quickly out of the country, for they said, “We’re all going to die!” 34 So the people took their dough before it was leavened, with their kneading bowls wrapped up in their clothes on their shoulders — Exodus 12:33-34
The Feast of Unleavened Bread was celebrated in New Testament also. It has been said that the bread broken during the Lord’s Supper at Passover was most likely the unleavened bread Jesus “Yeshua” broke with his disciples. He was revealing to them that it was His body, and that they should partake in it as a remembrance of Him. The Scripture says, “A little leaven leavens the whole batch of dough” (Gal 5:9). The Matzah (unleavened bread) is a wonderful picture that symbolizes the nature of the Messiah. The bread is without leaven like Jesus is without sin. As leaven is a representation of sin in the scriptures, the unleavened bread represents the physical body of Christ being without sin (2 Cor 5:21). The Apostle John recorded the words of Jesus when He stated that, “I Am the Bread of Life” (John 6:33,35). This statement is supposed to call to mind how God provided manna from Heaven during the wilderness.
Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, Moses didn’t give you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. — John 6:32-33”
The Apostle Paul used the Passover Lamb as an illustration to compare unleavened bread to Christ’s sacrifice and our salvation. Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new unleavened batch, as indeed you are. For Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us observe the feast, not with old leaven or with the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth (1 Cor 5:7-8).
The reason why it is called Firstfruits is that it is the first harvest of spring. Firstfruits is defined as “a promise to come.” The very first part of the harvest is dedicated to the Lord, and is to be waved before Him, to acknowledge the land He gave the Israelites just as He promised He would.
The first Firstfruits occurs the day following the Passover. The owner of the offerings brought their firstfruits to the Temple as a special sacrifice. In ancient times, on this day a sheaf (omer) of barley (the first grain crop to ripen) was waved before the LORD in a prescribed ceremony to mark the start of the counting of the omer, thereby initiating the forty-nine-day countdown to the jubilee harvest festival of Shavuot.
The LORD spoke to Moses: “Speak to the Israelites and tell them: When you enter the land, I am giving you and reap its harvest, you are to bring the first sheaf of your harvest to the priest. He will present the sheaf before the LORD so that you may be accepted; the priest is to present it on the day after the Sabbath. On the day you present the sheaf, you are to offer a year-old male lamb[b] without blemish as a burnt offering to the LORD. — Leviticus 23:9-12
The Firstfruits feast points to the resurrection of the Messiah. This feast is a harvest festival, and the grain (barley sheaves) are waved before the Lord. If we stop and think the symbolism of the grain from the earth was to be lifted high for all to see. Jesus had said this about Himself pointing His followers back to this Festival of Firstfruits in Leviticus 23.
Jesus replied to them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Truly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains by itself. But if it dies, it produces much fruit. As for me, if I am lifted up[a] from the earth I will draw all people to myself (John 12:23-24, 32)
There are two schools of thought that developed from the early rabbis over the phrase “after the Sabbath.” The Sadducees held to the seventh-day Sabbath view while the Pharisees though Leviticus 23:11 alluded to the Sabbath of Passover. We may wonder which of the two is correct and how it relates to the resurrection of Jesus “Yeshua.”
Jesus was raised on the third day of Passover (16 Nisan), which fulfilled the Pharisaic interpretation of the Torah. Amazingly, he also fulfilled the Sadducean interpretation at the same time. In the particular year of his death, Firstfruits would have started on the Sunday after Passover. Consequently, the year of Jesus’s death and resurrection was one of the few in which both rabbinical theories could be correct at the same time.
Feast of Weeks is an appointed time of thanksgiving to celebrate God’s faithfulness to provide the early harvest. This feast (Exodus 34:22) has numerous names, such as Feast of Harvest (Exodus 23:16). It is also referred to as the Latter Firstfruits. In Hebrew, the name for Feast of Weeks is Shavuot. In Greek, it is referred to as Pentecost (Acts 2:1). Feast of Weeks marks the end of the barley harvest and the start of the wheat harvest. The celebration of the feast is done by giving thanks for God’s faithfulness to provide, which builds the faith of God’s people to continue to trust in God’s promises for the future.
You are to count seven complete weeks starting from the day after the Sabbath, the day you brought the sheaf of the presentation offering. You are to count fifty days until the day after the seventh Sabbath and then present an offering of new grain to the LORD — Leviticus 23:15-16
The theme of Shavout/Pentecost can be summed up in a single word revival. The Israelites were commanded to praise God for His provision of the firstfruits of the ground, knowing that these early fruits assured the latter harvest. This promise is also applicable to the spiritual Kingdom of God. The first fruits at Shavuot guarantee a revival in the latter-day spiritual harvest for the Messiah.
When God gave us the law back in the book Exodus (Ten Commandments) it was on Pentecost. The giving of the Holy Spirit, when the law of God is written in the heart of the believer in Christ also occurred on the same day (Pentecost).
The Commandments Given ... The Holy Spirit Given
Fifty days from the crossing of the Red Sea ... Fifty days from the resurrection of Christ
Law of Yahweh written in stone ... Law of Yahweh written on our hearts
Three thousand slain ... Three thousand receive salvation
The letter of the Law ... The Spirit of the Law
When the day of Pentecost had arrived, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like that of a violent rushing wind came from heaven, and it filled the whole house where they were staying. They saw tongues like flames of fire that separated and rested on each one of them. Then they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them. — Acts 2:1-4
The Feast of Trumpets marked the beginning of ten days of consecration and repentance before God. The Feast of Trumpets is also known as Rosh Hashanah. Rosh in Hebrew means “head” or “beginning," and the word Hashanah means “the year.” Rosh Hashanah is defined as “Head of the Year” because it marks the beginning of the Jewish civil calendar. During this celebration, no kind of work was to be performed, but burnt offerings and a sin offering were to be brought before the Lord. Its name comes from the command to blow trumpets.
The Feast of Trumpets can be summed up in one word — “regathering.” The Fall Festivals serve as a way of remembering to regather or return to a pure faith in God, and Rosh Hashanah has come to represent the day of repentance. This is when the people of God take an examination of their inward spiritual condition and make any changes necessary to insure the upcoming new year will be honoring to God.
The LORD spoke to Moses: “Tell the Israelites: In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you are to have a day of complete rest, commemoration, and trumpet blasts—a sacred assembly. You must not do any daily work, but you must present a food offering to the LORD" — Leviticus 23:23-25
The Feast of Trumpets has a prophetic element to its fulfillment in the latter days. This feast characterizes a specific time of ingathering and spiritual preparation, a future fulfillment of it. The Apostle Paul also alludes to the connection in the scriptures below:
“For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout,[a] with the archangel’s voice, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are still alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage[b] one another with these words.” — 1 Thess4:16-18
This is a beautiful picture of the regathering as described in this passage Paul is referring to. The dead in Christ will rise first, and then to be preceded by those alive during that time. This will be fulfilled during the Rapture and or Second Coming of Christ Jesus.
Day of Atonement is also known as Yom Kippur. This day is to be considered the most holy day in the Jewish calendar as it is when the High Priest would enter the Holy of Holies in the Temple to make atonement for the nation. Day of Atonement required ceremonial purification made according to detailed prescriptions, which made it possible for the High Priest to ask for forgiveness, first for his own sins, then for the sins of the people (nation).
Leviticus 16 goes into detail about the ceremony centered on the sacrifices of two goats. One goat, called Chatat, was to be slain as a blood sacrifice to symbolically cover the sins of Israel. The other goat, called Azazel, or Scapegoat, would be brought before the priest. The priest would lay hands on the head of the Scapegoat as he confessed the sins of the people. But instead of slaying the animal, the goat would be set free in the wilderness — symbolically taking the sins of the nation out from their midst. This day is about fasting, cleansing, and reflection and is to be observed once a year.
“The LORD again spoke to Moses: “The tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. You are to hold a sacred assembly and practice self-denial; you are to present a food offering to the LORD. On this particular day you are not to do any work, for it is a Day of Atonement to make atonement for yourselves before the LORD your God. If any person does not practice self-denial on this day, he is to be cut off from his people. I will destroy among his people anyone who does any work on this same day. You are not to do any work. This is a permanent statute throughout your generations wherever you live. It will be a Sabbath of complete rest for you, and you must practice self-denial. You are to observe your Sabbath from the evening of the ninth day of the month until the following evening.” — Leviticus 23:26-32
The prophetic fulfillment of Day of Atonement occurs when the generation of Jews living during the second coming of Christ realize and believe in Jesus as Messiah. On that day a fountain will be opened for the house of David and for the residents of Jerusalem, to wash away sin and impurity (Zechariah 13:1).
Christ has appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come. In the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands (that is, not of this creation), he entered the most holy place once for all time, not by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption (Hebrews 9:11-12).
“For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with hands (only a model of the true one) but into heaven itself, so that he might now appear in the presence of God for us. He did not do this to offer himself many times, as the high priest enters the sanctuary yearly with the blood of another. Otherwise, he would have had to suffer many times since the foundation of the world. But now he has appeared one time, at the end of the ages, for the removal of sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for people to die once—and after this, judgment— so also Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but[g] to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.” — Hebrews 9:24-28
Jesus is the Lamb of God who took away the sins of the world (John 1:29). The scriptures say, “for our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21).”
The Feast of Tabernacles is a week-long harvest festival. It was originally celebrated so that the children of God – the Nation of Israel – would remember that Yahweh brought them out of bondage in Egypt and delivered them into the Promised Land. While they were on the journey (sojourners) from Egypt to the Promised Land, they lived in tents (tabernacles/booths). The Lord created the Feast of Tabernacles (Leviticus 23) for the Nation of Israel to travel back to Jerusalem each year celebrating and teaching their children how the Lord provided for them and dwelt among them in the desert.
In biblical times, Sukkot was considered the most important of all the holidays, referred to simply as “the festival” (1 Kings 12:32). It was a time of many sacrifices (Numbers 29:12-40) and a time when (on Sabbatical years) the Torah would be read aloud to the people (Deuteronomy 31:10-13). It is one of the three required festivals of the LORD (Exodus 23:14; Deuteronomy 16:16).
The ultimate goal for God’s redemptive plan is the establishment of His Kingdom on earth. The Feast of Tabernacles still has a future element remaining to be fulfilled. In one of John the Apostle’s visions, he reveals that the reality of Sukkot will be plain to all:
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. I also saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband. Then I heard a loud voice from the throne: Look, God’s dwelling[b] is with humanity, and he will live with them. They will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them and will be their God." — Revelation 21:1-3
The entire Houston's First family is asked to sign up for one (or more) 15-minute time slots during the week of the Daniel FEAST. Guidance on how to pray and what to pray for will be provided before the week begins. For now, click below to sign up.
We'll send daily email reminders at 8a the week of Jan 8-14 with information about about each Festival of God. Emails will include a brief overview of the festival, with a link to this page where you can access a video devotional, the prayer guide, recipes, and more. (You can directly access the content on this page at any time. The email is simply a reminder!)
NOTE: Kids' activities will only be included in the daily emails. They will not be available on this page.
To receive these daily reminders, click below to join the distribution list.
That’s a good question. The Bible does not tell us that Daniel feasted, only that he fasted. We’re calling this week our “Daniel Feast” since the “Daniel Fast” name is a familiar one to the Houston’s First family and we knew it would get your attention!
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