Message 54
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Scripture Reading: Lev. 23:23-44
After living on earth as a God-man for thirty-three and a half years, the Lord Jesus died on the cross as the fulfillment and reality of the type of the Passover. By His death on the cross He accomplished redemption and terminated all the negative things in the universe. The outcome of such a death was resurrection with the issue of the divine life, which is the reality of the consummated Triune God to be our portion. In Christ’s resurrection we all have a portion in this consummated Triune God.
After His resurrection, the Lord Jesus ascended to the heavens. In His ascension He poured out Himself as the consummation of the processed Triune God in the form of the economical Spirit.
Although our God is eternally perfect. He still needed a consummation. Before His incarnation, He was merely God without a consummation. But as the result of the processes through which He passed, He has been consummated. The consummation of the processed Triune God is the all-inclusive, life-giving, compound Spirit. As such a consummation. He poured out Himself upon us, making us a part of His enlargement. This is the significance of Pentecost.
Pentecost is the issue of Christ’s resurrection, and His resurrection is the issue of His all-inclusive death. All this has become a wonderful feast for God and for us.
The ultimate issue of the processed Triune God is Pentecost. By the time we come to the feast of Pentecost, all the negative things have been cleared away, and all the positive things have been released. The processed Triune God as the consummated One has been poured upon us to bring us into Himself so that we may be His extension, enlargement, increase, and expansion. Now we are Christ’s Body, and in this Body we have the mingling of the consummated, processed Triune God with the chosen, redeemed, regenerated, and transformed tripartite man. The entire universe is for this, and it will remain forever. Eventually, it will become the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth as the complete, eternal testimony of the consummated Triune God with His redeemed ones.
Having covered the first four feasts, we shall go on in this message to cover the last three — the feast of the blowing of trumpets, the feast of propitiation, and the feast of tabernacles.
The first group of four feasts took place in the first half of the year. The second group of three feasts took place in the second half of the year. The first four feasts point to the past and to the present. These feasts have been fulfilled in Christ, yet we are still experiencing and enjoying them. We are enjoying the feast of Passover, and we are still in the feast of unleavened bread and the feast of the first-fruits. Furthermore, we are still in the feast of Pentecost, which is actually a feast of the church.
The second group of feasts points to the future, to the coming days, to the time of the Lord’s coming back. When the Lord Jesus comes back, these three feasts will be fulfilled.
Leviticus 23:23-25 tells us of the feast of the blowing of trumpets. This feast signifies God’s calling together of 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).
“Speak to the sons of Israel and say. In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a solemn rest, a memorial proclaimed by blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation” (Lev. 23:24). Here we see that the feast of the blowing of trumpets 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 us.
Between the fourth feast, Pentecost, and the fifth feast, the blowing of trumpets, there appears to be nothing. Actually, this interval is the church age, which is called the age of mystery. The church age lasts from the day of Pentecost, when the church came into being, until the day God calls His scattered people to come back together.
The feasts of Pentecost and the blowing of trumpets may be compared to two distant mountain peaks which appear to be close together but actually are very far apart. We may liken the distance between these two peaks to the time span between the feast of Pentecost and the feast of the blowing of trumpets. The time span has already been more than nineteen hundred years. This long period of time is the age of the church, the age of mystery.
The feast of the blowing of trumpets was a solemn rest (v. 24b). This signifies causing God’s gathered people to enter into God’s genuine and thorough rest.
During the twenty-seven 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. Only a part of the homeland has been recovered, and the Jews today are still struggling, for they are a people without 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, that will be a real feast.
This feast was a memorial proclaimed by the blowing of trumpets (v. 24c). This signifies that from the time the children of Israel slew the Lord Jesus and were scattered, there has been nothing among them that could be a memorial before God. But at the Lord’s coming back, God’s calling them together from their dispersion back to their fathers’ land will be a real memorial to them.
The solemn rest proclaimed by the blowing of trumpets was a holy convocation. Having such a holy convocation signifies returning to God and becoming a corporate people.
“You shall not do any laborious work; you shall bring an offering by fire to Jehovah” (v. 25). This signifies that without the need of any human labor, God’s gathered people will be able to offer Christ to God as food for the satisfaction of both God and man.
The sixth feast is the feast of propitiation, the day of propitiation 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.
The feast of propitiation was a holy convocation (v. 27b). This signifies that it is not a festival for individuals but for a congregation.
On the day of propitiation, the people were to afflict their souls and bring an offering by fire to Jehovah (vv. 27c, 29). This signifies mourning, repenting, and feeling sorrowful 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.
On the day of propitiation, the people were not to do any work but were to have a sabbath of rest (vv. 28, 30-32a). This signifies that God’s redeemed people do not need to do any work for their redemption but should rest in the redemption God has accomplished for them, that God too may rest in His redeemed.
“On the ninth day of the month at evening, from evening to evening you shall keep your sabbath” (v. 32b). This signifies that the rest of God’s redeemed people is a full and complete rest.
On the first day of the seventh month was the festival of the blowing of trumpets, and the feast of propitiation was on the tenth day of that month. The festival of the blowing of trumpets will be fulfilled when the Lord Jesus comes back, and the trumpet sounds to call together God’s dispersed people, to call back the scattered Jews to their fathers’ land. After the Lord Jesus has descended 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 propitiation.
However, the typology of this feast has already been fulfilled spiritually with us. On the cross, Christ accomplished propitiation. 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 propitiation has a double application. Spiritually this feast has been applied to us, and literally it will be applied in the future to the Jews.
Leviticus 23:33-43 speaks of the feast of tabernacles. 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. This will take place not in the new heaven and new earth but on the restored earth.
“Speak to the sons of Israel and say, 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 festival of tabernacles is not for one day only but for a complete course of days. This complete course will be a thousand years.
“On the first day there shall be a holy convocation; you shall not do any laborious work” (v. 35). This signifies that from the first day it is not a festival for individuals but for a congregation to enjoy rest without the need of any human labor.
“For seven days you shall bring an offering by fire to Jehovah” (v. 36a). This signifies the offering of Christ day after 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 offered to God for His satisfaction so that we and God may enjoy mutual rest.
“On the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation, and you shall bring an offering by fire to Jehovah; it is a sacred assembly; you shall not do any laborious work” (v. 36b). This signifies that in the resurrection of Christ God’s people as a sacred congregation offer Christ as food to God for the satisfaction of both God and man, not needing to do any work but resting. This indicates that the entire thousand years of the millennium will be a rest for God and for God’s redeemed people.
“These are the appointed seasons of Jehovah which you shall proclaim as holy convocations, to bring an offering by fire to Jehovah — a burnt offering and a meal offering, a sacrifice and drink offerings, each on its own day — besides the sabbaths of Jehovah, besides your gifts, besides all your vows, and besides all your freewill offerings which you give to Jehovah” (vv. 37-38). This signifies offering Christ to God as different offerings, each on its own day, for God to enjoy with His people. Here we see that in God’s heart for His enjoyment and satisfaction is Christ as everything. In different aspects Christ is God’s satisfaction and enjoyment.
“Then, on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered 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.
After the creation of the earth, God will go through four main dispensations. The first is the dispensation of the fathers, also called the dispensation before law or without law, from Adam to Moses. The second is the dispensation of law, from Moses to Christ’s first coming. The third is the dispensation of the church, from Pentecost to Christ’s second coming. The fourth is the dispensation of the millennium, the kingdom of the thousand years. In these four dispensations, God has been doing much for His new creation. In His old creation God created the universe. The center of this old creation is the man created by God. 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.
During the four dispensations, God is working with man in the old creation. God is dispensing Himself into man to make him a new creation. Eventually, after the four dispensations, this new creation will consummate in the New Jerusalem, which will be the totality of the result of God’s work of the new creation among the old creation. Today, we are in the third dispensation, the dispensation of the church. In the coming age we shall be in the fourth dispensation, the dispensation of the kingdom, either as the overcomers or as those being disciplined.
The millennial kingdom will be a full harvest of what God has been doing in the last three dispensations. Hence, the millennial kingdom will be a feast both to God and to His redeemed. If we read the New Testament carefully, we shall realize that in the millennium God’s redeemed will include two peoples — the church and the kingdom of Israel. Both peoples will enjoy this feast.
“On the first day you shall take the fruit of beautiful trees, branches of palm trees, 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.
“You shall rejoice before Jehovah your God for seven days” (v. 40b). This signifies the humanity of Christ being lived out of God’s redeemed people in the millennium. Even today, as we are living in the church life, our relatives may be able to see something upon us that is green, beautiful, and overcoming. Some parents have testified of seeing such an expression in their children. In the millennium all the overcomers will live out the evergreen, nourishing, beautiful, and rich scenery of the humanity of Christ.
“You shall keep it as a feast to Jehovah for seven days in the year; it shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations; you shall keep it in the seventh month. You shall dwell in booths for seven days; all who are native in Israel shall dwell in booths” (vv. 41-42). This signifies that the coming millennium will be a conclusion of all that God has done with His redeemed people in the full course of the ages, the dispensations, in His old creation.
In the four dispensations man cannot have a solid dwelling place. Even today we are still dwelling in tabernacles, in booths. Eventually, the present, portable tabernacles will become a solid one — the New Jerusalem with a foundation of twelve layers.
Now that we have covered the seven festivals, I would like to say a word concerning the dispensational fulfillment of the seven festivals as types.
The feast of the Passover was fulfilled on the day of Christ’s death (Matt. 26:2, 17-19, 26-28; 1 Cor. 5:7).
The feast of unleavened bread is being fulfilled in the church age (1 Cor. 5:7-8).
The feast of the firstfruits was fulfilled on the day of Christ’s resurrection (1 Cor. 15:20).
The feast of Pentecost was fulfilled fifty days after Christ’s resurrection, on the day of the pouring out of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1-4; cf. Acts 1:3).
The above four feasts were dispensationally fulfilled in the same year, even in the first half of the year, when Christ died, resurrected, and ascended to pour out the Holy Spirit. This is all related to God’s redemption and has been applied to us as Christians.
The feast of the blowing of trumpets will be fulfilled at Christ’s second coming (Matt. 24:31).
The feast of propitiation will be fulfilled on the day of Israel’s return to God, after they have been gathered back to their fathers’ land (Rom. 11:26-27; Zech. 12:10-14). Israel’s return to God will be not only a physical return to the land of their fathers but also a spiritual return to God Himself.
The feast of tabernacles will be fulfilled in the coming millennium for a thousand years (Rev. 20:4-6) as a conclusion of all the ages of God’s old creation, for the coming of the new heaven and the new earth with the New Jerusalem as their center (Rev. 21:1-2). The millennium will usher the new creation of God into the new heaven and new earth, where it will remain for eternity as the New Jerusalem, which will be the totality of God’s new creation produced out of His old creation.
The last three feasts will be fulfilled in the “seventh month” of the year, when Christ will come back.
