A Timeline of the Resurrection
The festival of the Passover or Pesach was fulfilled by the death of Messiah.
The festival of Unleavened Bread was fulfilled by the sinlessness of His sacrifice.
The festival of First Fruits or Rasheet was fulfilled by Yeshua’s resurrection to life.
The festival of Pentecost or Shavu’ot was fulfilled by the birth of the Church.
Between the first four feasts and the last three feasts, there is a four-month interval mentioned in passing. During the pause between the two sets of festivals, life is to continue as normal. When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and for the foreigner residing among you. I am ADONAI Your God (Leviticus 23:22). This interval is pictured as a summertime of labor in the fields in preparation for the final harvest of the summer and before the fall harvest. This verse is not related to any feast. Unless one understands what is really happening, it almost seems like an unnecessary interruption. However, it is the pause between the festivals that fulfilled the program of the First Coming as opposed to the festivals to be fulfilled by the program of the Second Coming. This internal of four months does have a messianic implication.
The messianic implication is the insertion of the Dispensation of Grace, interrupting the program of feasts of Isra’el. Indeed, the gleanings for the poor and the foreigner residing among you is a very good picture of the mission of the Church itself in gospel evangelism. For example, Jesus states: Look to the fields! They are ripe for harvest (John 4:35)! Thus, it becomes a fitting symbol of the obligation of the Church to do the work of gospel evangelism. Leviticus 23:22, being a parenthetical verse interrupting the discussion of the feasts of Isra’el, is significant in that it symbolizes the present age in which we now live and in which the program of the feasts of Israel has been temporarily interrupted.
The last three fests in the second cycle of fests also come close together, even closer than those of the first cycle of feasts. In fact, they all come within two weeks of each other. The last three feasts of the second cycle are to be fulfilled by the program of the Second Coming.
The festival of Trumpets or Rosh ha’Shanah (see the commentary on Leviticus, to see link click Ei – Rosh ha’Shanah) will be fulfilled by the Rapture of the Church. At the rapture, all true believers in Yeshua will be gathered together. The dead in Messiah will rise first, to be followed immediately by those believers alive at that time. Not surprisingly, the signal of the gathering will be the sound of the last shofar (First Corinthians 15:52; First Thessalonians 4:16).
Paul equates being absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (Second Corinthians 5:1-10; Philippians 1:19-26). Therefore, upon death or rapture, believers immediately go to an intermediate, or disembodied state, a place and condition of blessedness, while unbelievers at death go to a place of misery, torment, and punishment. It is likely these are the very places to which believers (see the commentary on Revelation Ff – Blessed and Holy are Those Who Have Part in the First Resurrection) and unbelievers (see Revelation Fn – The Second Resurrection) will ultimately end up. Yet, while the place of the intermediate and final states may be the same for the saved and the lost, the experiences of paradise and sh’ol are undoubtedly not as intense as what will ultimately be, since the person is in a somewhat incomplete condition.
Humans are capable of existing in either a physical bodily condition or a spiritual condition. We may think of these two conditions in terms of dualism in which the soul (our personality traits) or spirit (our spiritual qualities) can exist independently of the body. Like a chemical compound, the body and the soul/spirit can be broken down at death, but otherwise is a definite unity. Just like matter and energy, the material and immaterial conditions of humans is not contradictory. In both this life and the life to come, we can be comforted with the knowledge that the basis of our relationship with God is grace, not works. Since we can do no works to gain our salvation, we can do no works to lose our salvation. So we need not fear that all our imperfections will require some type of post-death purging before we can enter God’s presence.514
The Day of Atonement or Yom Kippur (see the commentary on Leviticus Ef – Yom Kippur) will be fulfilled by the future affliction of the Jews during the Great Tribulation (see the commentary on Isaiah Eu – The Rapture and the Great Tribulation). During the last three days of the Great Tribulation, the Jewish leadership realizes that Yeshua really is their long awaited Messiah and leads a national prayer for the Lord to come back (see the commentary on Revelation Ev – The Basis of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ). As a result of their pleading, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah returns (see the commentary on Isaiah Kg – The Second Coming of Jesus Christ to Bozrah).
At the Second Coming there will be a resurrection for believers with a transformed heavenly body which will be reunited with the soul (see Dv – Our Resurrection Bodies). The First Resurrection happens in five distinct stages. The first stage was the resurrection of Messiah (First Corinthians 15:23). The second stage is the resurrection of the believers at the Rapture during the Dispensation of Grace (First Thessalonians 4:16). The third stage will be the resurrection of the two witnesses in the middle of the Great Tribulation (see the commentary on Revelation Dm – The Resurrection of the Two Witnesses). The fourth and fifth stages will be the resurrection of the righteous ones (see the commentary on Revelation Fd – The Resurrection of the Righteous of the Righteous of the TaNaKh) and the Tribulation martyrs (see the commentary on Revelation Fe – I Saw Those Who Had Been Beheaded for the Testimony for Jesus) during the seventy-five day interval (see the commentary on Revelation Ey – The Seventy-Five Day Interval). There will be no need for a resurrection during the Messianic Kingdom (see the commentary on Isaiah Kq – The Wolf and the Lamb Will Feed Together, and the Lion Will Eat Straw Like the Ox).
The festival of Booths or Sukkot (see the commentary on Leviticus Ek – Sukkot) will be fulfilled by the thousand-year Messianic Kingdom. Just as Sukkot was a time of rejoicing following the affliction of Yom Kippur, even so the Messianic Kingdom will be a time of rejoicing following the afflictions of the Great Tribulation. After a thousand years the Second Resurrection will occur (see above), followed by the ultimate judgment of the lost. At that time the sea will give up the dead in them; and they will be judged, each according to what they had done (see the commentary on Revelation Fo – The Great White Throne Judgment). Then Death and sh’ol were hurled into the lake of fire. This is the second death – the lake of fire (see the commentary on Revelation Fr – The Lake of Fire). Anyone whose name was not found written in the Book of Life was hurled into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:13-15).
After all evil has been punished for all eternity, believers will enter the Eternal State (see the commentary on Revelation Fq – The Eternal State). And just as our bodies will be renewed, so will the heavens and the earth. John said: Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old had passed away, and the sea was no longer there (see the commentary on Revelation Fr – New Heavens and New Earth). Also he saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband (see the commentary on Revelation Fs – The Eternal New Jerusalem). He then heard a loud voice from the throne say, “See! God’s sh’khinah glory is with mankind, and He will live with them. They will be His people, and He Himself, God-with-them, will be their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes . There will no longer be any death; and there will no longer be any mourning, crying or pain; because the old order has passed away (Revelation 21: 1-4).
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