Message 52
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Scripture Reading: Lev. 23:1-14
In this message we come to a wonderful matter in the book of Leviticus — the festivals.
According to the sequence of this book, by the end of chapter twenty-two we have been brought from our uncleanness to the priesthood with its enjoyment. The next item is the festivals, which are for rest and enjoyment, both of which are types of Christ as our rest and enjoyment. This indicates that in Leviticus, a book of God’s priesthood for God’s service in the fellowship of God, our service results, issues, in Christ as the rest and enjoyment we have with God and with one another. In other words, the issue of this service is the festivals.
These festivals did not take place occasionally at certain times. On the contrary, they were appointed by God, ordained by Him. God ordained the festivals that His people might rest with Him and be joyful with Him, that they might enjoy all that He has provided for His redeemed people. They were to enjoy all these things with God and with one another.
Leviticus 23:2 says, “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, The appointed seasons of Jehovah which you shall proclaim as holy convocations — My appointed seasons are these.” The word “convocation” denotes something larger and more serious than a meeting. A convocation is a special assembly called for a special and particular purpose. The seasons appointed by Jehovah 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. A festival, therefore, was for nothing except rest and enjoyment. This rest and enjoyment were not individual but corporate.
“Six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there shall be a sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation; you shall not do any work; it is a sabbath to Jehovah wherever you dwell” (v. 3). The weekly season — the sabbath — signifies rest for God’s redeemed people to enjoy with God and with one another. Every seven days there was to be a day for rest and enjoyment. On that day there was to be an assembly, a holy convocation. This indicates that on the sabbath God’s redeemed people were to gather together. If they did not come together, they would have been able to enjoy rest with God, but they could not have enjoyed rest with God and with one another in a corporate way.
The principal denotation of all the annual seasons (feasts) is for God’s people to enjoy rest with God and with one another. The weekly rest is thus the denotation of each of the seven annual seasons. Every annual feast, like the weekly rest, was a rest.
The weekly sabbath was a 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 solemn 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 having no need of human 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 doing one thing — resting before God and with God and one another.
There were seven annual seasons (feasts). Seven is the number of fullness. The seven annual feasts were in the fullness of God’s riches.
In the Bible the number seven is composed two ways: four plus three and one plus six. The seven festivals in Leviticus 23 are in two groups, with four in the first group and three in the second. The four festivals in the first group all took place in the first month of the year. The three festivals in the second group took place in the seventh month 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.
“These are the appointed seasons of Jehovah, the holy convocations, which you shall proclaim at their appointed times. In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month in the evening is the passover to Jehovah” (vv. 4-5). The feast of the Passover signifies Christ (1 Cor. 5:7b) as our redemption to begin our enjoyment of God’s salvation with God.
The Passover is in the first month of the year. This signifies the beginning of a course.
The Passover is in the denotation of a passing over. This signifies that the judging God has passed over us, the sinners who are in our sins, so that we may enjoy Him as our feast. Today we have a feast, which is the redeeming God Himself, and we are enjoying Him for rest and for joy.
“And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread to Jehovah; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall not do any laborious work. For seven days you shall offer an offering by fire to Jehovah. On the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation; you shall not do any laborious work” (Lev. 23:6-8). The feast of unleavened bread signifies the Christ who is without sin (2 Cor. 5:21) for our enjoyment as a feast in a life apart from sin.
The feast of unleavened bread, the second feast, begins immediately after the first feast, the Passover. The first feast is on the fourteenth day of the first month, and the second feast begins on the next day. Actually, these two feasts — the feast of Passover and the feast of unleavened bread — are put together. The first feast is the beginning, and the second is the continuation. Whereas the first feast is for just one day, the fourteenth day of the first month, the second feast lasts for seven days, from the fifteenth day through the twenty-first day.
In that the feast of unleavened bread lasts for seven days, it typifies, or signifies, the entire course of our Christian life. The course of our entire 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 our feast for our entire Christian life. Today we are in a feast enjoying rest, enjoying God, and enjoying our Redeemer, apart from sin. As those who are enjoying this feast, we have nothing to do with sin.
Eating unleavened bread for seven days (v. 6b) signifies that we live a sinless life daily by enjoying Christ for the full course of our Christian life. In their teaching, the Brethren did not have much to say about Christ being our life apart from sin for our entire Christian life. Therefore, we need to emphasize this matter today. Having passed through the Passover, we are now enjoying the feast of unleavened bread. In this feast we enjoy one bread — the unleavened bread — which signifies the Christ who is unleavened, the Christ who is apart from sin.
When did we have our Passover? It is not easy to answer this question. Corporately as God’s New Testament people, we passed through the Passover on the day the Lord Jesus established His table. The Lord’s table is the replacement of the Old Testament Passover. The Lord Jesus, the very Lamb of the Passover, after being examined for some days, was put to death on the Passover. In the evening before He was crucified, He established the table (Matt. 26:26-30). First He “took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is My body” (v. 26). Then He gave them the cup, saying, “Drink of it, all of you; for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins” (vv. 27b-28). This is the Lord’s table becoming the replacement of the Passover. Although we have passed through this feast, we still keep it. Every week, on the first day of the week, we have the New Testament Passover. Hence, we are still enjoying this feast.
Individually we passed through the feast of Passover at the time we were saved. This means that, individually, we passed through the Passover at different times. Immediately after that feast, we were put into another feast, the feast of unleavened bread. 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. Now for our whole Christian life we live day by day on this bread that is without sin.
On the first day of the feast of unleavened bread the people were to have a holy convocation and not do any laborious work (v. 7). This signifies that from the very beginning of the course of our Christian life we enjoy Christ corporately as our feast, without our human labor.
For seven days the people were to offer an offering by fire to God (v. 8a). This signifies that we offer Christ as food to God continually through the full course of our Christian life. Christ is our food. After we enjoy Him as food, He becomes our offering to God to be food for God. At the Lord’s table we make a display to the entire universe that during the week we take Christ as our unleavened food, as our life supply apart from sin, and that we come to the table with Him. Then we offer to God for His satisfaction the One we have been enjoying as our food. In so doing, we experience Him as our enjoyment.
On the seventh day also the people were to have a holy convocation and not do any laborious work (v. 8b). This signifies that we continue to enjoy Christ corporately, without our human labor, until the last day of the course of our Christian life.
The third annual feast is the feast of the firstfruits (vv. 9-14). This feast signifies the resurrected Christ (1 Cor. 15:20) for our enjoyment as a feast in His resurrection.
This feast took place less than three days after the Passover feast. Christ was crucified at the time of the Passover feast, and then on the third day He was resurrected. The day of His resurrection was the feast of the firstfruits. This is Christ in His resurrection as the firstfruits.
“Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, When you enter into the land which I give to you and reap its harvest, you shall bring the sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest” (v. 10). This signifies that the resurrected Christ, with some of the Old Testament saints (cf. Matt. 27:52-53), was brought to God. When Christ was resurrected, some of the Old Testament saints were resurrected with Him. “Coming out of the tombs after His rising, they entered into the holy city and appeared to many” (Matt. 27:53). With Christ, these resurrected saints became not a “stalk” but a “sheaf that was brought to God, just as in the type the firstfruits were brought into the sanctuary and presented to God for His fresh enjoyment.
“And he shall wave the sheaf before Jehovah that you may be accepted; on the day after the sabbath the priest shall wave it” (Lev. 23:11). This signifies that Christ was resurrected that we might be justified before God and accepted by God (Rom. 4:25b).
“On the day that you wave the sheaf, you shall offer a male lamb a year old without blemish as a burnt offering to Jehovah” (v. 12). This signifies that the resurrected Christ, being fresh, tender, meek, strong, and without blemish, is offered to God as a burnt offering that is absolutely for God.
This life that is absolutely for God implies not only Christ Himself but also all of us who were resurrected with Him. When Christ was resurrected, we all were resurrected in Him and with Him (Eph. 2:6). This means that we were resurrected before we were born, a fact that is clearly revealed in 1 Peter 1:3. We all were offered to God with Christ as a burnt offering on the day of His resurrection. Now in Christ and with Christ as a burnt offering for God, we may live a life that is absolutely for God.
“Its meal offering shall be two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mingled with oil as an offering by fire to Jehovah for a satisfying fragrance” (Lev. 23:13a). This signifies the resurrected Christ as our meal offering mingled with the anointing Spirit, offered to God as food in His resurrection as a fragrance for God’s satisfaction.
The resurrected Christ is first our burnt offering and then our meal offering. As the burnt offering, Christ is for us to live a life that is absolutely for God. As the meal offering, Christ supplies us, supports us, and strengthens us to live such an absolute life for God.
Christ was crucified and buried, and then on the third day He rose from among the dead. With this resurrected One some Old Testament saints were resurrected. I believe that this is a sign indicating that all who believe in Him will one day be resurrected. The resurrected Christ has become a burnt offering that includes all His believers, who may now live a life that is absolutely for God. Christ has also become a meal offering mingled with oil, which signifies the Holy Spirit. Actually, in His resurrection Christ Himself became this Spirit. The fine flour in the meal offering is also Christ Himself. He was a grain (John 12:24), but He was finely ground into fine flour which is mingled with oil to become the meal offering, which is the life supply to support us to live a life that is absolutely for God.
With the burnt offering and the meal offering there was the drink offering of wine (Lev. 23:13b). This signifies the resurrected Christ in His human life who lived absolutely for God and was poured out on the cross, offered to God in His resurrection for God’s enjoyment.
On the cross Christ was not only crucified; He was also poured out. He was crucified as the sin offering, the trespass offering, the burnt offering, and the peace offering, but He was poured out as the drink offering, as the wine poured out before God for His satisfaction. Christ included us when He was crucified and also when He was poured out. In Christ we all were poured out to God as a drink offering. Today we have to live a life as a burnt offering that is absolutely for God. This life is supported by the meal offering as our daily food. Meanwhile, since God is One who enjoys drinking, we should also be a drink offering poured out for God’s drinking. Such a drink offering is altogether for God’s enjoyment to be our enjoyment with Him and with one another.
“And you shall eat neither bread nor roasted grain nor fresh ears until that same day, until you have brought the offering of your God; it shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations wherever you dwell” (v. 14). This signifies that the resurrected Christ ascended to the heavens and was offered to God with all the fruit in His resurrection as God’s food for God’s satisfaction first. Then He became man’s supply for man’s satisfaction.
The resurrected Christ, the fresh Christ in His resurrection, was first to be enjoyed by God. 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 the Passover, the feast of unleavened bread, and the feast of firstfruits all took place within about three days. Christ was crucified on the Passover, and, within three days, He was resurrected on the day of the feast of firstfruits. Between the feast of the Passover and the feast of firstfruits, the feast of unleavened bread began. Therefore, all three of these feasts took place within the time of the Lord’s death and resurrection. Through His death and resurrection we now enjoy the feast of Passover, the feast of unleavened bread, and the feast of firstfruits. As we shall see in the next message, we still need the feast of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was poured out from the heavens for the completion of our New Testament Christian feast. We enjoy Christ in His death, we enjoy Christ in His resurrection, and we enjoy Christ in His being poured out from the heavens as the economical Spirit of God.
These four feasts are constituted of Christ’s death, Christ’s resurrection, and Christ’s being poured out as the economical Spirit of God. These feasts have become our enjoyment, and we are keeping them continually. We Christians are always having festivals for the enjoyment of Christ in His death, in His resurrection, and in His being poured out from the heavens as the economical Spirit.
