THE CYCLE
Doctors begin the countdown to birth from the first day of a mother's last menstrual cycle. The unborn baby spends around 38 weeks in the womb, but the average length of gestation is calculated at 40 weeks or 280 days. The reason the gestation is calculated for a longer period of time is because pregnancy is counted from the first day of the woman's last period, not the date of conception, which generally occurs two weeks later. In a normal woman's cycle it is during this time of the second week, where the egg appears and is ready to become a new life. This is where our story begins with the first feast called Passover.

 

Passover (1st Feast)
This is the first feast and occurs on the 14th day of the first month. It commemorates the Israelites freedom from the bondage in Egypt.

Leviticus 23:5
The LORD's Passover begins at twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month.

Passover is the time when the Israelites were commanded by Yahweh to put blood over their doorpost so that they would be spared from the tenth plague, the plague of the death of the first born.

Exodus 12:12-14
"On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn-- both men and animals-- and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD. The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt. This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD-- a lasting ordinance.

The modern day celebration of Passover always includes an egg. The egg is a poignant reminder of the freewill offering that accompanied the Passover (paschal) lamb. It also symbolizes the new life that was granted through Yeshua (Jesus) our sacrificial Lamb of God (John 1:29).

If the mother's egg is not fertilized at this time, it results in 'death'. The egg is ready to be brought into life and it has approximately 24-hours to become fertilized, this leads us to the second feast.

 

Unleavened Bread (2nd Feast)
This is the second feast and occurs the day after Passover, on the 15th day of the first month. The feast of Unleavened Bread commemorates the bitterness of the bondage of Egypt, lasting for seven days.

Leviticus 23:6
On the fifteenth day of that month the LORD's Feast of Unleavened Bread begins; for seven days you must eat bread made without yeast.

Just as the mother's egg must be fertilized within 24 hours to bring forth life, thus the feast of Unleavened Bread happens the day (24 hours) after Passover.

Exodus 12:17
"Celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt. Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come."

Yahweh says that this Feast was to be celebrated because it was the day in which He brought his people out of Egypt; he brought them from the death of slavery into the life of freedom!

The mother's egg and father's sperm now become what is known as a 'Zygote'. A zygote (pictured at the left) contains all the necessary DNA for life. This zygote travels down the mother's fallopian tube towards the uterus for the next two to six days. Then the zygote will implant itself into the mother's womb, this leads us to the Feast of First Fruits, also known as the Feast of Planting!

 

First Fruits (3rd Feast)
The Feast of First Fruits is the third feast and always falls on a Sunday, after the Sabbath of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. It commemorates the spring planting and was a thanksgiving offering to Yahweh.

Leviticus 23:10-11
"Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'When you enter the land I am going to give you and you reap its harvest, bring to the priest a sheaf of the first grain you harvest. He is to wave the sheaf before YHVH so it will be accepted on your behalf; the priest is to wave it on the day after the Sabbath.

In the time of human development in comparison to feast days, this is when the zygote breaks forth from its hard shell on the sixth day to transform itself into an embryo. By the seventh day the embryo is now firmly implanted in its mother's womb, and begins the immediate growing process of life and blood, for the life of any living being is in the blood! (Leviticus 17:14)

The next feast will take place exactly fifty-days from the Sunday of the Feast of First Fruits.

 

Pentecost (4th Feast)
Pentecost, also known as the Feast of Weeks or Shavuot, comes exactly fifty days after First Fruits. Pentecost marks the giving of the law (Torah) at Mt. Sinai. It is the transition from being slaves of Egypt to being the children of God.

Leviticus 23:15-16
"'From the day after the Sabbath, the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, count off seven full weeks. Count off fifty days up to the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then present an offering of new grain to the LORD.

Pentecost is marked as the 'birth of the church' with the Holy Spirit being poured out upon individuals with the evidence of speaking in tongues.

Acts 2:2-4
Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

In comparison to Pentecost, it is at this specific time where the rapidly growing life is no longer considered an embryo by the scientific community, but rather a fetus. Fetus is Latin for "young one" or "offspring."

Fetus

Fetus at Eight Weeks About half an inch long

The fetus at this time can now make sound as the vocal cords form in the larynx! At ten weeks, fingerprints are already evident in the skin. The young one will curve his fingers around objects placed in its hand. Consider the connection- Moses carried The Ten Commandments down from Mt. Sinai with his hands, at Pentecost.

At three months of pregnancy, the baby's fingers and toes have separated and he has begun swallowing and kicking. The basic structures of all his organs are in place and beginning to function.

 

Psalms 139:13
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.

There is a period of growth in the mother's womb until the next feast, which begins in the seventh month, or third trimester. There are three remaining feasts, each occurring in the seventh month; Trumpets, Atonement, and Tabernacles.

 

Trumpets (5th Feast)
The Feast of Trumpets is a special feast also known as Yom Teruach, Day of Blowing, for it was the time of blowing the trumpet or the shofar. As the shofar blew the different blasts, people heard the shofar and ended their work. The focus became an awareness of repentance and change.

 

Leviticus 23:24
"Say to the Israelites: 'On the first day of the seventh month you are to have a day of rest, a sacred assembly commemorated with trumpet blasts.

A total of 100 notes are sounded each day. There are four different types of shofar notes: tekiah- a 3 second sustained note; shevarim- three 1-second notes rising in tone, teruah- a series of short, staccato notes extending over a period of about 3 seconds; and tekiah gedolah ("big blast"), the final blast in a set, which lasts (I think) 10 seconds minimum. The shofar's sound is a call to repentance a call to get ready. The trumpet blowing continues throughout the 'Ten Days of Awe' until the next feast which is called the Day of Atonement.

We now enter the third trimester of human development. The baby at this time has gone through a process of change and weighs over two pounds and actually looks like a newborn. The baby has nearly all of its senses fully developed. By the seventh month, the baby uses vision, hearing, taste, and touch.

As the Feast of Trumpets centers on hearing the 'trumpet blasts' at the beginning of the seventh month, the baby's hearing is completely developed and it recognizes its mother's voice and can distinguish other sounds as well.

John 10:27
My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.

 

Day of Atonement (6th Feast)
The importance of the Feast called The Day of Atonement always centers around blood. This particular feast, honored the tenth day of the seventh month, was when the High Priest of Israel would offer blood for the atonement of himself and the nation.

Leviticus 23:27-28
The tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. Hold a sacred assembly and deny yourselves, and present an offering made to the LORD by fire. Do no work on that day, because it is the Day of Atonement, when atonement is made for you before the LORD your God.

Hebrews 9:7
But only the high priest entered the inner room, and that only once a year, and never without blood, which he offered for himself and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance.

The tenth day of the seventh month in the cycle of the growth of a baby is extremely important. The blood in the development of life is constantly changing from one form of blood to another; changing from embryonic hemoglobin (blood) to fetal hemoglobin and then to adult hemoglobin. Why is this important? It is important because the baby must make the transition from being dependent upon its mother's oxygen to being able to breathe on its own. The last stages of this miraculous change, begins on the second week of the seventh month!

 

Tabernacles (7th Feast)
The seventh feast is the Feast of Tabernacles, occurring on the fifteenth day of the seventh month. It is a memorial to the time that Israel lived in booths after their deliverance from the bondage of Egypt.

Leviticus 23:39
So beginning with the fifteenth day of the seventh month, after you have gathered the crops of the land, celebrate the festival to the LORD for seven days; the first day is a day of rest, and the eighth day also is a day of rest.

Since the Feast of Tabernacles was honored by the people living in booths, this festival is also known as the Feast of Booths or Sukkot (sue-coat). The people would move out of their homes and live in a 'booth' for the set period of time.

Leviticus 23:42-43
Live in booths for seven days: All native-born Israelites are to live in booths so your descendants will know that I had the Israelites live in booths when I brought them out of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.'"

Interestingly enough, most scholars agree that this is the time of the year that Yeshua (Jesus) was born, God became flesh and dwelt 'tabernacled' among us.

The picture at the right is of a baby in the womb at seven months. The word 'sukkot' actually means 'woven' as the shelters or booths were woven together. It is God who knits us together in the womb (Psalms 139:13)

Job explains how it is God who clothed him with skin and flesh and knit him together with bone and sinew!

Job 10:11-12
...clothe me with skin and flesh and knit me together with bones and sinews? You gave me life and showed me kindness, and in your providence watched over my spirit.

Just as the Feast of Tabernacles is about living outside, this time for a baby marks the 'safe' period. Even though the birth would definitely be premature, at this point in the seventh month, the baby is usually capable of living outside the womb.

It is exciting to see the parallel between the feast days and the baby's cycle of life. God truly has a set time for all things and knows the beginning from the end as He creates each and every individual life.

Psalms 139:14-16
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

Isaiah 64:8
Yet, O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.

 

FOOD FOR THOUGHT
In closing, there is another way of looking at growth in terms of a believer in Yeshua (Jesus). There is the seed of the Word of God, and if accepted and takes good root this leads to growth of a baby believer. There are stages of growth and development when we are infilled with the Spirit, when we learn to listen to His voice, and so on.

1 Peter 1:23
For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.

Each stage of growth takes us closer to the time where we will be birthed into our new bodies to live a new life in the One who created us!

1 Corinthians15:42-43,49
So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power... And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven.

 

 

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