What Is God's Plan?

Why did God create you and billions of other people? What is God doing? Does He have a plan?

For thousands of years this world has had war, famine, disease, and suffering. People can’t understand why there are so many problems. If God has unlimited power, why doesn’t He fix all of these problems? Some people conclude that God doesn’t have a plan, or that His plan has failed. Others think there is no God because they see so much suffering.

God does exist, and He has an amazing plan for humans. How can we know God’s plan? Actually, God created special festivals to show us what He is doing now and what He will do in the future. But most Christians do not know about God’s festivals, so they don’t understand God’s purpose and plan!

Most Bible teachers say that we should not keep God’s festivals. They think God’s festivals have no value for Christians. But in Colossians chapter 2 the apostle Paul taught that you should not “subject yourselves to regulations” (verse 20) and follow “the commandments and teachings of men” (verse 22, NASB) which prevent you from properly celebrating God’s festivals. Paul wrote, “let no one judge you…regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come” (verses 16, 17). Paul said the festivals are a shadow of the future. God’s festivals teach us His plan!

God describes all of His festivals in Leviticus chapter 23. This chapter begins, “The Lord said to Moses, ‘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 23:1, 2, NIV). God’s festivals are “sacred assemblies”—holy meetings. During every festival people meet together to learn about God’s plan.

Some people believe that God gave the festivals only to Israel. But Jesus taught everyone to keep God’s laws (Matthew 5:17-19). Paul, John, and the other apostles also taught everyone to keep God’s laws, including God’s festival laws (1 Corinthians 5:8; 1 John 5:3). Jesus kept the festivals (John 2:23; 7:10, 14, 37). The early Christians also kept the festivals (Acts 2:1; 18:21; 20:6, 16). And in the future everyone will celebrate God’s festivals: “And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles” (Zechariah 14:16). God made His festivals for everyone.

The first festival that God gave to people is the Sabbath: “There are six days when you may work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of rest, a day of sacred assembly. You are not to do any work; wherever you live, it is a Sabbath to the Lord” (Leviticus 23:3, NIV). Every week God gives six days to humans to do their own work. The seventh day is a day for people to learn God’s way.

The Sabbath shows us the main outline of God’s plan. God has given humans several thousand years to try their own way. After that, Jesus Christ will come to the earth for one thousand years and teach people God’s way. The Sabbath, at the end of each week, represents the one thousand years when Christ will rule the earth.

The Sabbath is the only festival that happens every week. The other seven festivals happen one time every year. These annual festivals show how God is accomplishing His plan.

What is God’s goal?

God is preparing to give people eternal life in a new world. The Bible says that in the future world, “There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Revelation 21:4, NIV). The only way to have a world without problems is for everyone to be perfect. If anyone ever did something that caused suffering, the world would not be perfect anymore.

God will not allow people who cause suffering—people who break God’s law and sin—to be in His future world. So the penalty for sin is death (Romans 6:23). However, everyone has sinned (Romans 3:23), so everyone must die forever!

The first annual festival is the Passover (Leviticus 23:5). The Passover teaches us how God overcomes the problem of death. God does not want people to die forever. He wants them to change: “‘For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies,’ says the Lord God. ‘Therefore turn and live!’” (Ezekiel 18:32). People who change and do what is right must still pay the penalty for the evil they have done in the past. If we had to pay the penalty for sin by ourselves, we would die forever. But God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to pay the death penalty for us. This is the meaning of the Passover: “Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us” (1 Corinthians 5:7). God will accept Christ’s death to pay for our past sins if we change our wrong way of life.

Immediately after the Passover comes the second annual festival. “And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord; seven days you must eat unleavened bread” (Leviticus 23:6). The Feast of Unleavened Bread teaches us the second step in God’s plan: after God has forgiven our past sins, we must overcome sinful habits with God’s help. During the Feast of Unleavened Bread, God tells us to remove all of the leaven from our homes and stop eating leaven for seven days (Exodus 12:15). The actions that God tells us to perform during His festivals help us learn spiritual lessons. Leaven is a symbol of sin during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Paul taught Christians that they should focus on removing sin from their lives during this festival. He wrote, “Therefore let us keep the feast, not with the old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (1 Corinthians 5:8).

The third annual festival teaches us the third step in God’s plan: God is giving the Holy Spirit to a small group of people. Fifty days after Christ was resurrected, the early Christians met together to keep the feast of Pentecost. “When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind…. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:1-4, ESV).

God gives His Spirit to those who repent and are baptized. Repentance means change—to stop doing wrong and start doing right. Complete repentance includes an ongoing commitment to abandon our wrong way of life and follow God’s way. We make this commitment when we are baptized. The Bible tells us, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (verse 38, ESV).

God’s Spirit helps us overcome sin (Romans 8:13) and it gives us spiritual understanding. God gave humans amazing minds, so we can understand physical things. But He did not give us the ability to understand spiritual things. The Bible explains that “no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God” (1 Corinthians 2:11). We cannot fully understand God’s plan and His way of life without the Holy Spirit. The Bible says, “The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned” (verse 14, NIV).

God is not giving spiritual understanding to all people at this time. When Jesus’ disciples asked Him why He spoke to people in parables, He told them, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them” (Matthew 13:11, NIV). God is only teaching a few people now. He is waiting until a future time to teach everyone else who has ever lived.

The fourth annual festival is the Feast of Trumpets (Leviticus 23:24). This festival represents the time when Jesus Christ will come back to be the King of the earth. The Feast of Trumpets also teaches us about the first group of people who will live again. “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first” (1 Thessalonians 4:16). At that time the people who truly followed God will suddenly live again and they will have new, spirit-composed bodies that will never die.

The fifth annual festival, the Day of Atonement, represents the time when God will remove the barriers that prevent people from having a relationship with Him. One of the greatest barriers is Satan, who deceives people and leads them to rebel against God. God will throw Satan into a prison where He can’t deceive people anymore (Revelation 20:1-3).

Pride is another barrier between humans and God. God will humble all people so they will learn that they need to rely on God. The Bible tells us not to eat or drink anything on the Day of Atonement. When we don’t eat we become weak, and it is easier for us to realize that we need God’s help. When Christ is the King over all nations, He will use blessings and punishment to teach and humble people. “And it shall be that whichever of the families of the earth do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, on them there will be no rain. If the family of Egypt will not come up and enter in, they shall have no rain; they shall receive the plague with which the Lord strikes the nations who do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles” (Zechariah 14:17, 18).

The Feast of Tabernacles represents the one thousand years when Christ will rule the earth and teach all people the way of life that leads to happiness. The people who follow God now will help Christ teach the true way of life (Revelation 20:6). It will be a wonderful time of peace and happiness. Everyone will learn the way to live together in peace, so there will be no war (Isaiah 2:2-4). Also, there will be no more famine or terrible diseases (Isaiah 35:5-7; Amos 9:13).

After the seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles there is one more festival on the Eighth Day (Leviticus 23:36). The Eighth Day represents the time after the one thousand years of peace. At that time all people who have ever lived and died will be resurrected to live again (Revelation 20:5; Matthew 12:41, 42). They will have a second physical life on earth and for the first time they will learn and understand God’s way of life (Ezekiel 37:11-14). Those who choose to follow God will live forever, but those who reject God will die again and have no more life forever (Revelation 21:7, 8). After God has given everyone a chance to learn His way, everyone will live with God in perfect peace forever (Revelation 21).

Now you know the basic details of God’s amazing plan. To fully understand God’s plan you must keep God’s festivals. The Bible says, “A good understanding have all those who do His commandments” (Psalm 111:10). When will you start keeping God’s festivals?

Scriptures in this article were quoted from the New King James Version unless noted as follows: ESV (English Standard Version), NASB (New American Standard Bible), NIV (New International Version).

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