Does it really matter when we celebrate the Hebrew Festivals or Memorialize Significant Biblical Events? Let's consider what the Scriptures have to say...
"And you shall guard The Sabbath, for it is Set Apart to you. Everyone who profanes it shall certainly be put to death, for anyone who does work on it, that being shall be cut off from among his people. Six days work is done, and on the seventh is a Sabbath of rest, Set Apart to יהוה. Everyone doing work on the Sabbath day shall certainly be put to death. And the Children of Yasharal shall guard the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as an everlasting Covenant."-Exodus 31:14-15
"You shall therefore guard this ordinance in His appointed time from year to year."
-Exodus 13:10
"But the man that is clean, and is not in a journey, and forbears to keep the Passover,
even the same soul shall be cut off from among his people: because he brought not the offering of Yahuah in His appointed season, that man shall bear his sin."-Numbers 9:13
"Seven days shall ye eat matstsah; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whosoever eats chamets from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Yasharal."-Exodus 12:15
"Seven days shall there be no chamets found in your houses: for whosoever eats that which is with chamets, even that soul shall be cut off from the assembly of Yasharal, whether he be a stranger, or born in the land."-Exodus 12:19
"You shall guard the Feast of Unleavened Bread: you shall eat matstsah seven days, as I commanded you, in the time appointed of the month Abyb; for in it you came out from Egypt: and none shall appear before me empty. "-Exodus 23:15
"These are the appointed times of יהוה, Set Apart Gatherings which you are to proclaim at their appointed times."-Leviticus 23:4
"Let the Children of Yasharal also keep the Passover at His appointed time. In the fourteenth day of this month, at evening, ye shall keep it in His appointed time: according to all the rites of it, and according to all the ceremonies thereof, shall ye keep it."
-Numbers 9:2-3
"Command the Children of Yasharal, and say unto them, My offering,
and my bread for my sacrifices made by fire, for a sweet savour unto me,
shall ye guard to offer unto me in their appointed time."
-Numbers 28:2
"The Yahudym ordained, and took upon them, and upon their seed, and upon all such as joined themselves unto them, so as it should not fail, that they would keep these two days according to their writing, and according to their appointed time every year; And that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city; and that these Days of Purym should not fail from among the Yahudym, nor the memorial of them perish from their seed." -Esther 9:27-28
"For we who have Believed do enter into that Rest, as He has said,
“As I swore in My wrath, if they shall enter into My Rest...”
And yet His works have come into being from the foundation of the world.
For somewhere He has said thus about the Seventh Day,
“And Alahym rested on the Seventh Day from all His works,” and in this again,
“If they shall enter into My Rest...” Since then it remains for some to enter into it,
and those who formerly received the Good News did not enter in because of Disobedience,
He again defines a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so much later, as it has been said, “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.” For if Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that. So there remains a Sabbath-keeping for the people of Alahym. For the one, having entered into His rest, has himself also rested from his works, as Alahym rested from His own. Let us therefore do our utmost to enter into that Rest, lest anyone fall after the same example of Disobedience."
-Hebrews 4:3-11
"In the Name of our Master יהושע Messiah, when you are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Master יהושע Messiah, deliver such a one to Satan for destruction of the flesh, in order that his spirit be saved in the day of the Master יהושע. Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the entire lump? Therefore cleanse out the old leaven, so that you are a new lump, as you are unleavened. For also Messiah our Passover was offered for us. So then let us observe the Festival, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of evil and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of Sincerity and Truth."
-1 Corinthians 5:4-8
"Yea, the stork in the heavens knows her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but My People know not the Judgment of Yahuah. How do ye say, We are wise, and the Torah of Yahuah is with us? Lo, certainly the lying pen of the scribes has made it a lie. The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken: lo, they have rejected the Word of Yahuah; and what Wisdom is in them?"-Jeremiah 8:7-9
"For him who does whatever by mistake there is one Torah, both for him who is native among the children of Yasharal and for the stranger who sojourns in their midst. But the being who does whatever defiantly, whether he is native or a stranger, he reviles יהוה, and that being shall be cut off from among his people. Because he has despised the Word of יהוה, and has broken His Command, that being shall certainly be cut off, his crookedness is upon him."
-Numbers 15:29-31
"Truly, then, having overlooked these times of ignorance, Alahym now commands all men everywhere to repent; because He has set a Day on which He is going to judge the world in Righteousness by a Man Whom He has appointed, having given proof of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”-Acts 17:30-31
According to the Word, yes it matters a great deal that we observe the Hebrew Festivals outlined in Scripture at the exact appointed times the Father asks us to in His Word. However, as we can see He has grace for those in ignorance, He explains the call for all people is to learn to obey Him in "Spirit and in Truth" and not intentionally observe Festivals on what we have been revealed is incorrect.
For more information on when to celebrate the Festivals according to the Calendar Torah found in the Scriptures, check out our Calendar Reckoning Study here!
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