The Period of Time Between Feasts
We now come to quite a long period from Pentecost until the first day of the seventh month. It takes in the whole church period, on to the time when Israel is gathered back in its land. In the period that passed between these two feasts they were instructed not to reap the corners of their fields, but to leave them for the poor and the stranger. No doubt this shows us that through the glorious work of Christ on the cross there will be blessing to many called “poor” and “strangers.”
We know that after the rapture, the coming of Christ for His own (1 Thess. 4:16-18), there will be many Gentiles and poor of the flock of Israel (Zech. 11:7) who had not rejected the gospel of the grace of God who, hearing the gospel of the kingdom preached during the tribulation period, will be gathered in (saved) and brought into blessing. We read of these (some martyrs) in Revelation 6:9, chapters 14-15 and chapter 20:4. The ones who are martyred have a heavenly portion, as we learn from Revelation 6:9, chapter 14:13, chapter 15 and chapter 20:4.
The Feast of Trumpets
This brings us to the feast of trumpets (Lev. 23:23-25). We read in Matthew 24:31 how this will be fulfilled in regard to the nation of Israel in a future day, after the church and all who have died in faith have been raptured to glory at the Lord’s coming (1 Thess. 4:16-18). In Matthew 24:31 we read, “He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” It is also prophesied in Ezekiel 37 under the figure of the valley of dry bones when a remnant from all the twelve tribes will be brought back to their land. They will then possess the land of Israel promised to them by Jehovah their God in Genesis 15:18-21.
The Feast of the Day of Atonement
The next feast is called the “day of atonement.” Even though the glorious work that secured their blessing and their possession of the promised land in peace had been accomplished, typified in the passover, they have to be brought to repentance and to the acknowledgment of their guilt in the rejection and crucifying of their Messiah, the true Passover Lamb (1 Cor. 5:7). This is foretold in Zechariah 12:10-14 and chapter 13:6-9. There will be true repentance for that awful act, and then, but not till then, will they possess their land in peace.
It says in Leviticus 23:29 that any of that nation, and particularly the two tribes who were in the land when Christ came, who do not truly repent will be cut off from their people. They would be lost souls. Also, on this day of atonement, they were not to do any work, for if they did, they would be cut off. Salvation is “not of works” (Eph. 2:9).
When it is a question of doing anything, any work at all, to add to Christ’s finished atoning work, it would only spoil it, for “whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever: nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before Him” (Eccl. 3:14).
The Feast of Tabernacles
Then there is the last feast, the seventh, the feast of tabernacles (Lev. 23:34). This will be a celebration of the final blessing of possessing the good land God had given to them. In it they called to mind their journey through the wilderness, dwelling in tents (booths), and how God had delivered them from the bondage of Egypt, brought them safely through the wilderness and given them the land of Canaan.
The previous six feasts we have been considering show us His ways with them as a nation and the means by which the blessing was secured to them. This feast had an eighth day, for it introduces us, in figure, into the new creation. In that wonderful verse in Ephesians 1:10, the key verse of all God’s ways with man, there will be two circles of blessing. Israel will be the center of all the earthly blessing, and the nations on earth will recognize Jerusalem as the city of the great King and will come up there year by year to worship (Zech. 14:16).
Then there is the heavenly Jerusalem (Heb. 12:22-23) where will be the church, the bride of Christ, and all who have died in faith in the Old Testament. These last, with the martyrs of the tribulation, will be there as the friends of the Bridegroom. We are told in Revelation 21:24 that the earthly Jerusalem will walk in the light of the heavenly Jerusalem in that glorious millennial day.
The Eighth Day
We have noticed that there was an eighth day for this feast of tabernacles, and this points on to the eternal state (Rev. 21:17) called “the day of God” (2 Peter 3:12-13) when there will not be “nations,” as such, any longer, but we read, “The tabernacle of God is with men.” Nations came about as the result of sin, and therefore in the eternal state there will be eternal blessing for redeemed men on the earth, and in heaven the church will be there as the bride of Christ, with the friends of the bridegroom. The Lord Jesus Christ will remain a Man forever to have the company of His bride. This is the eternal state. What a miracle of God’s grace, when God in trinity (the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit) will be all in all (1 Cor. 15:28). The sad, eternal doom of the lost is given in Revelation 21:8.
These seven feasts of Jehovah, given to us in Leviticus 23, give us an outline of the ways of God in connection with the earth, of which Israel is the center. Only the last one, the feast of tabernacles, carries us on to the eighth day, to eternity and the fulfillment of all God’s purposes in regard to the blessing of man (1 Cor. 15:24-28) in heaven and earth. “And we shall dwell with God’s Beloved through God’s eternal day.”
G. H. Hayhoe