Does God Have A Plan?

Most of the world assumes the answer is no — that things unfold by accident, or that if there is a plan, it is locked away where no one can reach it. Scripture says otherwise. And it says the plan has a center.

God “made known to us the mysteryGreek mystērion — not a riddle cracked by cleverness, but something God keeps hidden and then reveals to those he calls and grants his Spirit. The New Testament names its mystery plainly — Christ, "in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Colossians 2:2-3); but Scripture sets a counterfeit against it, the "mystery of iniquity" (2 Thessalonians 2:7), named also Babylon (Revelation 17:5). Synonyms: mystērion, secret. See From Puzzle Pieces to The Picture of Jesus Christ More of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in ChristNot a surname but a title: the Greek Christos, rendering the Hebrew Mashiach (Messiah) — "the Anointed." The anointing that set apart Israel's kings, priests, and prophets all converges on the one person it was pointing to. Synonyms: Messiah, Anointed, the Anointed One, Mashiach, Christos. See also: Logos More, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment (see The Law Was Always Pointing) — to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.” (Ephesians 1:9-10, NIV)

The plan has a schedule — the appointed times are exactly that. But the schedule is not the point of it. At the center is a Person: everything in heaven and on earth gathered together under Christ. That is the plan, stated plainly. The timing is real — it comes to fruition “when the times reach their fulfillment,” marked out in advance — but the appointments were never the destination. They were always pointing past themselves, to him.

And it is not keptFrom the Hebrew shamar — to watch over, guard, protect, give attentive care to. A shepherd shamar the flock. The keeping the feasts and sabbath requires is the attentive, protective engagement that creates the conditions for seeing what they reveal — not external compliance with a schedule. Synonyms: shamar, observe, guard, watch over. More from us.

“I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.” (John 15:15, NIV)

Not servants left in the dark — friends, told what the Father is doing. So if there is a plan, and it is meant to be shared, where do we go to see it?

Where the Plan Was Drawn

Let no one judge you in regard to a festival or a new moon or a sabbathThe seventh day of the week, set apart for rest (Ex 20:8-11) — sunset Friday to sunset Saturday. Scripture also calls certain annual holy days "sabbaths," which is why "the day after the Sabbath" (Lev 23:11) can be read two ways and the Wave Sheaf's timing is debated. Synonyms: Shabbat. See also: Sabbatical year. See Where Does the Week Come From? More, which are a shadow(Greek skia) — the feasts, the tabernacle, the priesthood: a 2D projection of a 3D reality, cast by the substance. Not a copy (which implies reproduction), but an outline — same shape, no color or depth. The shadow isn't set aside when the substance arrives; it becomes legible. You can finally see what it was the shape of. See: Through What Lens Do We View the Feasts?; The Law Was Always Pointing More of things to come; but the body is of Christ. (Colossians 2:16-17, paraphrased from AKJV)

A shadow has a shape because something solid is casting it. Paul says the festivals are exactly that — a shadow, and the body throwing it is Christ. They are not the reality; they are the outline the reality casts ahead of itself. Which makes the feasts the place the plan was sketched before it arrived — given not as a burden to carry or a verdict to fear, but as the shape of what was coming.

That changes what they are. These are not, first of all, Israel’s customs.

“These are my appointed festivals, the appointed festivals of the Lord, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies.” (Leviticus 23:2, NIV)

The appointed festivals of the Lord — his appointments, set on the calendar before the reality came to fill them.

The Plan in Motion

If the feasts are the shadow, we should expect to watch the body step into them — to see an appointed timeIn Leviticus 23, a feast is a designated period — not a single day but a span of time with its own structure and sequence. The Feast of Weeks spans seven weeks. The Feast of Tabernacles spans seven days. A feast may contain one or more annual holy days, but the feast itself is the full period, not any single day within it. Synonyms: festival, appointed time, moed. More actually fulfilled. We do.

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting… All of them were filled with the Holy SpiritFrom the Greek pneuma and Hebrew ruach — both meaning breath or wind: invisible in itself, known by its movement and effects. The theological debates surrounding personhood and the Trinity are later developments; the original words are grounded in something physical and immediate. Synonyms: Holy Ghost, pneuma, ruach, Spirit of God, breath, wind. More. (Acts 2:1-4, NIV)

Pentecost was one of those appointed times. On that day it was not merely observedIn plain English, to observe means to see attentively — to give careful, focused attention to something. This is precisely what the Hebrew shamar points at: watchful, protective attention toward something valued. In religious usage, particularly in the Church of God tradition, "observe" has been reduced to performing an external requirement. The original sense — attentive seeing that allows something to reveal itself — is what the feasts and sabbath are actually asking for. Synonyms: shamar, keep, watch, guard. More — it was fulfilled. The Spirit poured out on the appointed day is the plan moving from shadow into substance, right on schedule. The appointment kept its appointment (See Why Pentecost Has No Fixed Date).

The Shape of It

Here is the scaffolding — the seven appointed times laid out in Leviticus 23:

• The PassoverThe LORD's Passover, kept on Nisan 14 (Lev 23:5): the lamb slain and its blood marking the houses spared in Egypt (Ex 12). The New Testament presents Christ as the Passover lamb (1 Cor 5:7), making it the opening act of the feast year. Synonyms: Pesach. See Was the Passover a Sin Offering? — at the Cross More
• The Feast of Unleavened BreadThe seven days following Passover — Nisan 15 through 21 — when leaven is put out and only unleavened bread is eaten (Lev 23:6). Scripture calls that bread the "bread of affliction," tied to leaving Egypt in haste (Deut 16:3) — a fuller sense than leaven simply standing for sin. Synonyms: Feast of Unleavened Bread, Unleavened Bread, ULB. See Does Leaven Really Mean Sin? More
• The Feast of WeeksThe longest feast in the Leviticus 23 calendar — seven full weeks of counting from the wave sheaf to the fiftieth day, Pentecost. Beginning with the unleavened first of the firstfruits and culminating in two leavened loaves offered as firstfruits. An alternative name for this feast is demonstrated by its contents: the Feast of Leavened Bread. Synonyms: Pentecost, Shavuot, Feast of Firstfruits, Feast of Harvest. More (Pentecost)
• The Feast of Blowing (Trumpets)
• The Day of AtonementAn English construction — at-one-ment — coined by Tyndale, not a direct translation. The Hebrew behind it, kaphar, means to cover, sharing its root with kapporeth — the cover of the ark, the mercy seat. The Day of Atonement centers on the High Priest bringing blood to that cover. The act and the object are the same word pointing at the same reality. Synonyms: Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, kaphar, kapporeth. More (Covering)
• The Feast of Tabernacles
• The Eighth (Last Great) Day

Each casts its own shadow; each has its body in Christ. Read them that way — not as a checklist to perform, but as the drawing of a plan already underway — and they begin to show us what God is doing, and where it is going.

That is worth looking at for ourselves.

See also: Does Leaven Really Mean Sin?