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Concerning the Old Testament, the types in Genesis may be considered as a series, from Christ as light and life to the producing of a complete person redeemed, called, and transformed by the Triune God to become a prince of God; the types in Exodus and Leviticus may be considered as another series, from the keeping of the passover and the exodus from Egypt by the people of God to their enjoyment of rest and keeping of the holy festivals with God and for the full mutual enjoyment of the jubilee foreordained by God for His people.
The Sabbath as the weekly season or feast signifies rest for God’s redeemed people to enjoy with God and with one another (Lev. 23:3). Every seven days there was a day for rest and enjoyment.
The principal denotation of all the annual seasons (feasts) is for God’s people to enjoy rest with God and with one another. Rest is thus the denotation of each of the seven annual seasons. Every annual feast, like the weekly rest, was a rest. The weekly rest lays the foundation for God’s people to keep the holy feasts with God annually.
The weekly Sabbath was a complete, solemn rest. It was not something light or common but something quite holy, sacred, and important for God’s enjoyment and His people’s enjoyment. This complete rest signifies a genuine and thorough rest of God and with God for God’s redeemed people to enjoy with Him and with one another.
Whenever a festival took place, it was a holy convocation. A holy convocation signifies a corporate enjoyment of rest, not by individual believers separately but by the church corporately. In such a gathering we have the enjoyment of God before God, with God, and with one another.
On the Sabbath no one was allowed to do any work. This signifies that man needs to enjoy rest, not to labor.
The Sabbath was “to Jehovah.” This signifies a rest for God’s enjoyment, participated in by His redeemed people. In all the convocations, in all the festivals, we are resting before God and with God and one another.
The seasons (feasts) appointed by God as holy convocations signify the gathering of God’s redeemed people to have a festival with God for His joy and enjoyment so that the redeemed may participate in it with Him and with one another. According to Leviticus 23, there were seven annual feasts. Seven is the number of fullness. The seven annual feasts were in the fullness of God’s riches. These seven feasts are in two groups. The first group consists of four festivals, which took place in the first half of the year; the second group consists of three festivals, which took place in the second half of the year. According to their dispensational fulfillment, the first four have taken place already, and the last three will take place in the future.
The Feast of the Passover is in the first month of the year (vv. 4-5), that is, the beginning of a course. This signifies Christ (1 Cor. 5:7b) as our redemption to begin our enjoyment of God’s salvation with God. The passover has the denotation of a passing over. It signifies that the judging God has passed over us, sinners who are in our sins, so that we may enjoy Him as our feast for rest and for joy.
The Feast of Unleavened Bread signifies Christ, who is without sin, for our enjoyment as a feast in a life apart from sin (Lev. 23:6-8; 2 Cor. 5:21). It closely followed the day of the Feast of the Passover. Hence, these two feasts—the Feast of the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread—should be considered together. The first feast is the beginning, and the second is the continuation. Whereas the first feast lasted for only one day, the fourteenth day of the first month, the second feast lasted for seven days, from the fifteenth day through the twenty-first day.
The Feast of Unleavened Bread lasting for seven days signifies the entire course of our Christian life. The course of our Christian life is a feast of unleavened bread, a feast without sin. We have been redeemed from sin, and now the Redeemer, who is without sin, is the feast for our entire life. We should be enjoying rest, enjoying God, and enjoying our Redeemer, apart from sin, for our entire life.
The main thing we enjoy in the Passover feast is Christ as our Lamb. In the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the main thing we enjoy is Christ as the unleavened bread, as our life supply without sin. For our whole Christian life we live on this bread which is without sin.
The third annual feast is the Feast of Firstfruits (Lev. 23:9-14). This feast signifies the resurrected Christ for our enjoyment as a feast in His resurrection (1 Cor. 15:20). This feast took place three days after the Passover feast. Christ was crucified at the time of the Passover feast, and on the third day He was resurrected. The day of His resurrection was the fulfilment of the Feast of Firstfruits. Christ in His resurrection is the firstfruits.
In the Feast of Firstfruits, “you shall bring the sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest” (Lev. 23:10). This signifies that the resurrected Christ, with some of the Old Testament saints (cf. Matt. 27:52-53), was brought to God and presented to God for His fresh enjoyment. The first sheaf of the offering was waved before Jehovah on the day after the Sabbath (Lev. 23:11). This signifies that Christ was resurrected so that we might be justified before God and accepted by God (Rom. 4:25b). “You shall eat no bread or parched grain or fresh ears until that same day, until you have brought the offering of your God” (Lev. 23:14). This signifies that the resurrected Christ ascended to the heavens and was offered first to God with all the fruit in His resurrection as God’s food for His satisfaction. Then He became man’s supply for man’s satisfaction.
The resurrected Christ, the fresh Christ in His resurrection, was enjoyed by God first. This is the firstfruits, and the firstfruits are for God’s enjoyment. Then the resurrected Christ becomes our enjoyment with God and with one another.
The Feast of Pentecost was the feast of the fiftieth day, counting from the day after the Sabbath, the day on which the sheaf of the wave offering was brought to God, until the day after the seventh Sabbath, being a total of fifty days (vv. 15-16a). This signifies the resurrection of Christ in its sevenfold fullness reaching the realm of the complete fullness, bearing the full responsibility (signified by the number fifty, which is ten times five, the number of responsibility) for the testimony of resurrection.
In the Feast of Pentecost, two loaves of bread of fine flour baked with leaven as firstfruits were brought and presented to Jehovah as a new meal offering (v. 16). The fine flour typifies Christ at the stage of the firstfruits; two loaves of bread baked with leaven typify the church in two sections at the stage of Pentecost, the section of the church composed of the Jewish believers and the section composed of the Gentile believers; both sections had sins (signified by leaven) within them, being offered to God as the new meal offering for God’s satisfaction.
According to Leviticus 2 there was to be no leaven in the meal offering, but here leaven was added to the meal offering because in each part of the church as the Body of Christ there is still sin, as seen in the book of Acts. There is the sin of Ananias and Sapphira in chapter 5 and the murmuring over the distribution of food in chapter 6, for example.
These loaves are the increase, the expansion, of the fine flour that came out of the firstfruits on the day of resurrection. In typology this indicates that Christ has become the church, that the church is the enlargement of Christ. As such an enlargement of Christ, the church with its two parts is offered to God for His satisfaction.
In reaping the harvest of the land, the people were not to completely reap the corners of their field and gather all the gleanings of their harvest. Instead, something was to be left for the poor and the sojourner (Lev. 23:22). This signifies that there is a remainder of the grace of Christ in His resurrection at the Feast of Pentecost in which the poor and the Gentiles may participate.
We are typified by the poor and the sojourner, and our portion is the gleanings of the harvest. This is the extraordinary portion of God’s grace. Such a portion is illustrated by the case of the Canaanite woman in Matthew 15. Now we may enjoy the Pentecost Triune God, the Pentecost Christ, and the Pentecost all-inclusive Spirit as our portion. This portion has made us part of Christ’s increase, enlargement, extension, and expansion.
The first four festivals—the Passover, the Unleavened Bread, the Firstfruits, and Pentecost—are all related to food and to the matter of eating for God’s satisfaction, yet God still remembers the poor and the sojourner. Hence, we, the Gentiles, are able to participate in the grace of Christ at the Feast of Pentecost, which was accomplished for the church.
The Feast of the Blowing of Trumpets (Lev. 23:23-25) signifies God calling together His scattered people (the dispersed Israelites) and His reminding them that He will issue such a call to them (Matt. 24:31; cf. Isa. 27:13; Psa. 81:3). This feast was on the first day of the seventh month, the beginning of the second half of the year. This signifies the second half of God’s redemption, which is to be accomplished on Israel, the first half having been accomplished on the church. Although the second half of God’s redemption will be applied to Israel, it will still be related to the church.
The interval from the day of Pentecost, when the church came into being, to the day God calls His scattered people to come back together, is the church age, which is called the age of mystery.
The Feast of the Blowing of Trumpets was a complete rest (Lev. 23:24b). This signifies the gathering of God’s people to enter into God’s genuine and thorough rest.
During the twenty-six hundred years since the carrying away to Babylon, the Jews have been a people without rest. They lost their homeland because they rejected the God of rest. When the trumpet sounds, God will call His scattered people, who have so long been without rest, back to the land of their fathers. Then they will have rest with God. They will enjoy Christ as the absolute and thorough rest. For the Jews, this will be a real feast.
The sixth feast is the Feast of Expiation, the Day of Expiation, closely following Israel’s repentance unto God (vv. 26-32). This signifies that the day of man’s redemption follows our trumpeting of the gospel and man’s repentance as a reaction to it.
On the Day of Expiation, the people were to afflict their souls and present an offering by fire to Jehovah (vv. 27c, 29). This signifies mourning, repentance, and sorrow for sin, and offering Christ as food to God for the satisfaction of both God and man. According to Zechariah 12, this is what the Jews will do when the Lord Jesus comes back.
The Feast of the Blowing of Trumpets was on the first day of the seventh month; the Feast of Expiation was on the tenth day of that month. The Feast of the Blowing of Trumpets will be fulfilled when the Lord Jesus comes back, and the trumpet sounds to call God’s dispersed people together to their fathers’ land. After the Lord Jesus descends from the air to the earth, the Jews will repent, mourn, and return to God, receiving Christ as their Savior. This will be a literal fulfillment of the Feast of Expiation.
The type of this feast has been fulfilled spiritually with the New Testament believers. On the cross Christ accomplished expiation. Using the New Testament term, He accomplished redemption. When we repented, believed, and received Christ as our Savior, we experienced this feast. Therefore, the Feast of Expiation has a double application. Spiritually this feast has been applied to the New Testament believers, and it will be applied literally to the Jews.
The seventh feast, which is the last feast, is the Feast of Tabernacles (Lev. 23:33-44). This feast signifies the coming millennium as a dispensational, joyful blessing for God’s redeemed people to enjoy with God for a full period of time in God’s old creation.
“On the fifteenth day of this seventh month is the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days to Jehovah” (v. 34). These seven days signify that the Feast of Tabernacles is for a complete course of days, which will be a thousand years. “Seven days you shall present an offering by fire to Jehovah” (v. 36a). This signifies that during this festival, Christ is offered day by day as food to God for the satisfaction of both God and man. According to this type, in the millennium every day an offering will be presented to God to signify that Christ is God’s food in our experiences, which is offered to God for His satisfaction so that we and God may enjoy mutual rest.
“On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the produce of the land, you shall keep the feast of Jehovah seven days” (v. 39a). This signifies that the millennium will come after the harvest of what God desires to obtain on earth. In His eternal plan God has a purpose with man, and this purpose is to produce a people for His expression, which will consummate in the New Jerusalem. For this reason, God uses four dispensations to do His work of the new creation on man in the old creation. The first is the dispensation of the fathers; the second is the dispensation of the law; and the third is the dispensation of the church. In the fourth dispensation, the dispensation of the millennial kingdom, there will be a full harvest of what God has been doing in the first three dispensations. Hence, the millennial kingdom will be a feast both to God and to His redeemed. In the millennium God’s redeemed people—including both the church and the kingdom of Israel—will enjoy this feast.
“On the first day you shall take for yourselves the product of stately trees, branches of palm trees and boughs of leafy trees and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before Jehovah your God for seven days” (v. 40). This signifies the evergreen, nourishing, beautiful, and rich scenery of the humanity of Christ being lived out from God’s redeemed people.
Trees are of the plant life, and in typology plants signify Christ’s humanity. The trees in verse 40 signify different aspects of Christ’s humanity. Christ is not only full of fruit but also full of leaves, which in a particular way show the beauty of His humanity. In the millennium all the overcomers will live out the evergreen, nourishing, beautiful, and rich scenery of the humanity of Christ.
The seven festivals portray our Christian life from our salvation as sinners to our entrance into the millennial kingdom, which God has prepared as the peak of His consummation of the new creation in the old creation, so that God and man may gladly enjoy all the blessings that God’s work of new creation accomplished in the age of the old creation.
In Leviticus 25, verses 2 through 7 and verses 18 through 22 speak of the Sabbath year. This Sabbath was not a day of rest but a year of rest. The Sabbath year was a rest not only for man but also for the land.
The Sabbath day refers to Christ, and the Sabbath year also refers to Christ. Christ is our Sabbath not merely for one day but for a full year. Hence, the Sabbath year denotes Christ in His fullness as our rest. We need to enjoy Him not only as our Sabbath day but also as our Sabbath year, that is, not only as our rest in part but as our rest in full. The Sabbath year is for us to enjoy Christ in full as our rest with God.
In the Sabbath year “the land shall observe a Sabbath to Jehovah” (v. 2). This signifies that Christ is the realm of the full rest that we may enjoy Him as our rest to the fullest. “You shall not sow your field nor prune your vineyard. The aftergrowth of your harvest you shall not reap, and the grapes of your unpruned vine you shall not gather” (vv. 4b-5). This signifies that rest is purely and wholly of grace and that all human labor should cease absolutely. Furthermore, the Sabbath produce of the land was to be food for all kinds of people and for the cattle and the animals (vv. 6-7). This signifies that there is grace toward everyone regardless of his status. In this common enjoyment of the produce of the land, there is real freedom. For this purpose, God commanded His blessing on the people in the sixth year so that the land would yield a sufficient crop for three years. This signifies that the sufficient grace in Christ surpasses our need threefold. The practice of keeping the Sabbath year ushers us into the jubilee.
The fifty years that consummated in the jubilee comprised eight Sabbath years, being Sabbath upon Sabbath to be an eightfold Sabbath (cf. v. 8), signifying the superabundance of the fullness of God’s rest with satisfaction to us.
For the fifty years, the first and last years were eighth years, and in between there were six eighth years. Hence, there was a total of eight eighth years. Since the number eight signifies resurrection, this indicates that the jubilee is something that is altogether from resurrection, to resurrection, in resurrection, and with resurrection.
God brought His redeemed people out of Egypt, through the wandering in the wilderness, and eventually into Canaan, the good land. Then according to God’s ordination, every tribe was allotted a portion of the land, and the allotment was divided and given to each family within the tribe; everyone received an allotted portion of the land as an inheritance. God charged them saying that the land which they possessed belonged to God and was not to be sold in perpetuity (v. 23). When an Israelite became poor and sold some of his possession, his nearest relative was to be his redeemer and redeem what he had sold. If he did not have someone to redeem his possession but acquired the means for its redemption, he could redeem it by himself. If a man did not have sufficient means to redeem his possession, it remained until the year of jubilee, at which time it was released to him (vv. 24-28).
There were three ways for an Israelite to recover his lost possession. First, it could be redeemed by his nearest relative. This is a matter of grace. Second, if he had the means, he could redeem it himself. Third, if he did not have a relative to redeem it and he could not redeem it himself, he could wait for the year of jubilee when the sold possession would spontaneously be restored to him. This also is a matter of grace. The jubilee is a very good type of God’s grace.
If an Israelite was still poor after he sold his land, he could sell himself as a slave. In Leviticus 25, verses 39 to 41 and 54 show that if a brother became poor and sold himself to another brother, he and his sons would go back to his own family and return to the possession of his fathers at the jubilee. When the jubilee came, everyone was released to return to his possession and go back to his family. No one needed to spend any money to redeem his possession; everyone freely regained his possession and liberty.
Hence, in the fiftieth year no one was without a piece of land and no one was in slavery; everyone had his own possession and liberty. This is grace. Hence, Isaiah 61:2 speaks of the year of jubilee as “the acceptable year of Jehovah.”
In Luke 4:14-30 the Lord Jesus began His ministry by proclaiming the jubilee of grace. On the Sabbath day in the synagogue at Nazareth, He read from the book of Isaiah and proclaimed the acceptable year of the Lord. This acceptable year is the New Testament age of grace, typified by the year of jubilee, the fiftieth year, in which all the slaves were liberated and every man’s inheritance was restored.
God created man with the intention that man would take God as his possession. After creating man, God placed him in a garden and in front of the tree of life. The garden is for lodging, and the tree of life is for eating. However, instead of eating of the tree of life, Adam ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Thus, he became fallen and lost God. When he lost God, he lost his possession. Therefore, all his descendants living on earth are without God (Eph. 2:12), without a possession.
Colossians 1:12 says that the Father has qualified us for a share of the allotted portion of the saints in the light, and Ephesians 1:14 speaks of the pledge of our inheritance. Now that we have been returned to God as our portion, we have God in Christ as our inheritance. In Acts 26:18 Paul speaks of fallen people being brought back to God as their inheritance: “To open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to light and from the authority of Satan to God, that they may receive...an inheritance among those who have been sanctified.” The divine inheritance here is the Triune God Himself with all that He has, all that He has done, and all that He will do. This Triune God is embodied in the all-inclusive Christ (Col. 2:9), who is the portion allotted to the saints as their inheritance. The Holy Spirit, who has been given to the saints, is the foretaste, the pledge, and the guarantee of this divine inheritance (Rom. 8:23; Eph. 1:14), which we are sharing and enjoying today in God’s New Testament jubilee and will share and enjoy in full in the coming age and for eternity.
The second blessing of the jubilee is that those who have sold themselves as slaves are freed from their slavery (Lev. 25:39-41, 54).
The New Testament reveals that fallen man has sold himself as a slave, in particular as a slave of sin. In Romans 7:14 Paul declares, “I am fleshy, sold under sin.” In John 8:34 the Lord Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin.” However, God’s jubilee frees fallen man from the slavery of sin. For this reason, the Lord then said, “If therefore the Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed” (v. 36). Furthermore, Paul declares, “Knowing this, that our old man has been crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be annulled, that we should no longer serve sin as slaves; for he who has died is justified from sin” (Rom. 6:6-7). Then he says, “The law of the Spirit of life has freed me in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and of death” (8:2). According to Galatians 5:1, God’s jubilee frees us also from the bondage of the law.
When God created Adam, He gave man dominion over the whole earth (Gen. 1:26) to recover the earth usurped by Satan so that God’s kingdom could come to this earth and God’s will would be done on this earth (Matt. 6:10). However, because of his fall, Adam lost his God-given authority over the earth. When the jubilee of the millennium comes, the earth will become the kingdom of God (Rev. 11:15), Satan will be cast from the earth to the abyss (20:2-3), and the overcomers will inherit the world (Rom. 4:13), the earth lost by Adam, and reign with Christ on earth.
After the fall of Adam, the whole creation was made subject to vanity and was enslaved under the law of decay and corruption (8:20-21). Although we have the divine Spirit as the firstfruits in our spirit, our body has not yet been saturated with the divine life. Our body is still the flesh, linked to the old creation. Hence, we groan together with the creation (vv. 19, 22). When the jubilee in the millennium comes, we will obtain the full sonship, the redemption and transfiguration of our body, and we will be freed from the slavery of the old creation.
The ultimate fulfillment of the jubilee is in the new heaven and new earth as the jubilee for all the God-redeemed and fully perfected saints throughout the generations.
In eternity the New Jerusalem will descend from heaven to the earth (Rev. 21:1-2). Satan will be cast into the lake of fire (20:10), and all the filthy things will be cleared away. All God’s redeemed will reign as kings on the new earth to fully occupy and possess it (22:5), that is, to inherit it as their eternal inheritance and to rule over it for eternity.
In eternity future all enslavement will be eliminated. There will no longer be a curse, and night will be no more (vv. 3, 5). All the negative things, including death and Hades, will be cast into the lake of fire (20:14). All God’s redeemed, regenerated, transformed, and glorified people will be freed from all slavery. This is the highest peak which God’s work of grace in His new creation will attain fully and completely by ascending step by step, from the New Testament age to the millennium and then from the millennium to the new heaven and new earth. Then all His chosen, redeemed, and transformed people will enjoy for eternity what He as the Divine Trinity is and does, as manifested in His work of the new creation.
After God’s people were cleansed, they could enjoy their rest and keep the holy festivals with God in the full enjoyment of the jubilee foreordained by God for His people. The Sabbath as the weekly feast signifies rest for God’s redeemed people to enjoy with God and with one another, and it is the principal denotation of all the annual feasts.
The feasts, appointed by God as holy convocations, signify the gathering of God’s redeemed people to have a festival with God for His joy and enjoyment that the redeemed may participate in it with Him and with one another. The Feast of the Passover in the first month of the year, signifying that Christ as our redemption causes the judgment of God to pass over us and enables us to enjoy God as our feast, begins our enjoyment of God’s salvation with God. The Feast of Unleavened Bread signifies Christ, who is without sin for our enjoyment, as a feast in a life apart from sin. Our Redeemer, who is without sin, is the feast for our entire life as believers. We should enjoy rest, enjoy God, and enjoy our Redeemer, apart from sin, for our entire life. The Feast of Firstfruits signifies the resurrected Christ for our enjoyment as a feast in His resurrection. The resurrected Christ, the fresh Christ in His resurrection, was enjoyed first by God and then became our enjoyment with God and with one another. The Feast of Pentecost signifies the resurrection of Christ in its sevenfold fullness reaching the realm of complete fullness and bearing the full responsibility for the testimony of resurrection. The two loaves of bread presented in this feast typify the church in two sections, the Jewish believers and the Gentile believers, at the stage of Pentecost. These loaves are the increase, the expansion, of the fine flour that came out of the firstfruits on the day of resurrection, typifying the church as the enlargement of Christ. As such an enlargement of Christ, the church with its two sections is offered to God for His satisfaction. The Feast of the Blowing of Trumpets signifies God’s calling His scattered people together so that they, who have so long been without rest, can come back to the land of their fathers. Then they will have rest with God and will enjoy Christ as the absolute and thorough rest. On the Day of Expiation, the people were to afflict their souls and present an offering by fire to Jehovah, signifying their mourning, repentance, and sorrow for sin, and their offering of Christ as food to God for the satisfaction of both God and man. This is what the children of Israel will do when the Lord Jesus comes back. After the Lord Jesus descends from the air to the earth, the Israelites will repent, mourn, and return to God, receiving Christ as their Savior. This will be a literal fulfillment of the Feast of Expiation. The Feast of Tabernacles signifies the coming millennium as a dispensation, a joyful blessing for God’s redeemed people to enjoy with God for a full period of time in God’s old creation.
The Sabbath year as a year of rest typifies Christ in His fullness as our rest with God in full. It is also a rest for the land, signifying that Christ is the realm of the full rest. In the Sabbath year, all human labor should cease absolutely; this is a matter purely and wholly of grace toward everyone, regardless of his status. Furthermore, the sufficient grace in Christ surpasses our need threefold. This practice of keeping the Sabbath year ushers us into the jubilee.
The jubilee came out of eight consecutive sabbath years, being an eightfold sabbath. It signifies the superabundance of the fullness of God’s rest with satisfaction to us. The jubilee was also the Pentecostal year that came out of eight eighth years, indicating that the jubilee is something altogether from resurrection, to resurrection, in resurrection, and with resurrection. In the year of jubilee, those who lost their possession returned to it, and those who were in slavery were released. This signifies that the God-redeemed believers return to the possession lost in Adam and are set free from the slavery of sin. It also signifies that in the millennium, the overcomers will inherit the land lost through Adam and will be freed from the slavery of the old creation. Its ultimate fulfillment is in the new heaven and new earth, in which all the redeemed and fully perfected saints throughout the centuries will inherit the new earth as their eternal inheritance and be freed from all slavery.
