The Feasts of God
To give His people blessings, God established the feasts of God. Through the feasts, we also have the opportunity to get to know God and His plan to give us salvation.
Zion, the City of God’s Festivals
For the Lord has chosen Zion, he has desired it for his dwelling: “This is my resting place for ever and ever; here I will sit enthroned, for I have desired it. I will bless her with abundant provisions… I will clothe her priests with salvation, and her saints will ever sing for joy.”
Psalms 132:13-16
God has chosen Zion as His dwelling place forever and ever. And this is the place where God will give eternal life to His people. So what exactly is Zion?
Look at Zion, the city where we celebrate our religious festivals.
Isaiah 33:20 (GNB)
The Bible describes Zion as the place that celebrates the religious feasts of God. That is why God promised to dwell forever in Zion, the place that keeps the feasts of God.
Feasts of God
The Bible outlines the seven feasts of God.
“Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘These are my appointed feasts, the appointed feasts of the LORD, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies.’”
Leviticus 23:2
In the book of Leviticus, God provides detailed instructions for keeping the seven feasts of God:
- Passover
- Feast of Unleavened Bread
- Feast of Firstfruits (Resurrection Day)
- Feast of Weeks (Pentecost)
- Feast of Trumpets
- Day of Atonement
- Feast of Tabernacles
These seven annual feasts are grouped into three.
Three times a year all your men must appear before the Lord your God at the place he will choose: at the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Weeks and the Festival of Tabernacles.
Deuteronomy 16:16
The feasts of God were not only for the Israelites who lived in the time of the Old Testament, but Jesus Christ and the Early Church kept the feasts in the New Testament times as well.
However, Jesus did not keep the feasts as they were kept in the Old Testament. Instead, He established the New Covenant and showed the disciples the new way of keeping the feasts of God (Mt 26:17-28; Lk 22:7-20; Ac 2:1-4; Jn 7:2, 37-39). Through these feasts of the New Covenant, Christ established Zion, the place where God dwells and where we can receive eternal life.
The World Mission Society Church of God celebrates all the feasts of God outlined in the Bible according to the teachings of Christ. Visit your local Church of God for a more in-depth study of Zion and the Feasts of God, and learn how you, too, can keep them.