The feasts are for rest and enjoyment, both of which are types of Christ as our rest and enjoyment. The mentioning of the feasts in this book, a book of God’s priesthood for God’s service in the fellowship of God, indicates that our priestly service to God issues in Christ as the rest and enjoyment that we have with God and with one another. God ordained the feasts that His people might rest with Him and be joyful with Him, that they might enjoy with Him and with one another all that He has provided for His redeemed people. The rest and enjoyment were not individual but corporate.

The feasts appointed by Jehovah were holy convocations, special assemblies of God’s people called for a special and particular purpose. These signify the gathering of the believers as the church (see note Eph. 1:22^4c) to have a corporate rest and enjoyment of Christ before God, with God, and with one another.

The weekly feast, the Sabbath, signifies the rest that God’s redeemed people enjoy with God and with one another. This Sabbath, this rest, was “to Jehovah,” signifying a rest for God’s joy and enjoyment, participated in by His redeemed people. This is also the principal denotation of each of the seven annual feasts (vv. 7-8, 21, 25, 28, 31-32, 35-36, 39).

There were seven annual feasts. Seven is the number of fullness, signifying that the seven annual feasts were in the fullness of God’s riches. Christ is the reality of the Sabbath (v. 3) and of all the annual feasts (Col. 2:16-17).

Lit., between the two evenings; referring to the time interval between sunset and darkness.

For the Feast of Passover (v. 5) and the Feast of Unleavened Bread (vv. 6-8), see notes in Exo. 12.

Having a holy convocation on the first day and on the last day (v. 8) of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, with no work of labor, signifies that we enjoy Christ corporately, without our human labor, from the first day until the last day of the course of our Christian life.

The presenting of an offering by fire to Jehovah for seven days (a full course of time) signifies that we offer Christ as food to God continually through the full course of our Christian life. At the Lord’s table we make a display to the entire universe that each day of the week we take Christ as our unleavened food, as our life supply apart from sin (1 Cor. 5:7-8), and that we come to the table with Him. Then we offer to God for His satisfaction the One whom we have been enjoying as our food.

The third annual feast, the Feast of Firstfruits, signifies the resurrected Christ as the firstfruits (1 Cor. 15:20) for our enjoyment as a feast in His resurrection (see note 1 Cor. 15:20^2b and note Matt. 27:53¹). Christ was crucified at the time of the Feast of the Passover (Mark 14:12 and note Mark 14:12²), and then on the third day (1 Cor. 15:4), the day after the Sabbath (v. 11; John 20:1), He was resurrected. Christ’s resurrection was the fulfillment of the Feast of Firstfruits and is the reality of that feast.

The waving of the sheaf of firstfruits before Jehovah for acceptance signifies that Christ was resurrected that we might be justified before God and accepted by God (Rom. 4:25b).

The offering of a male lamb a year old without blemish as a burnt offering on the day of the wave offering 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 offering implies not only Christ Himself but also all His believers, who were resurrected in Him and with Him (Eph. 2:6). Having been offered to God as a burnt offering in Christ and with Christ, the believers may live a life that is absolutely for God.

The meal offering here signifies the resurrected Christ as our meal offering mingled with the anointing Spirit, offered to God as food in Christ’s resurrection as a fragrance for God’s satisfaction.

The five basic offerings in 1:1—6:7 are types of various aspects of what Christ is to God on our behalf. The drink offering was in addition to the basic offerings and was poured out on one of the basic offerings (Num. 15:1-10; 28:7-10). The drink offering offered with the burnt offering (v. 12) and the meal offering at the Feast of Firstfruits signifies the resurrected Christ in His human life (in His living absolutely for God and His being poured out on the cross — Isa. 53:12b; Phil. 2:5-8), offered to God in His resurrection for God’s enjoyment. Cf. Phil. 2:17 and note Phil. 2:17^1b; 2 Tim. 4:6 and note 2 Tim. 4:6^1a.

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 (John 20:17 and note John 20:17¹); then, He became man’s supply for man’s satisfaction.

Or, weeks. The Feast of Firstfruits was followed by the Feast of Pentecost, also called the Feast of Weeks (Deut. 16:10) and the Feast of Harvest (Exo. 23:16).

See Acts 2:1 and note. 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 (v. 11), to the day after the seventh Sabbath (v. 15). 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 (composed of ten times five, ten signifying fullness and five, responsibility), for the testimony of resurrection.

On the day of Pentecost in the New Testament, the consummation of the Triune God — the all-inclusive, life-giving, compound Spirit of the processed Triune God, who is the totality of the Triune God — was poured out upon the one hundred twenty disciples as representatives of the Body of Christ. As a result of such an outpouring of the economical Spirit of God, the Body of Christ came into existence as the increase, the enlargement, of the unlimited, individual Christ, making Him the universal, corporate Christ (1 Cor. 12:12-13), the mingling of the processed and consummated Triune God with His chosen and redeemed people, which will ultimately consummate in the New Jerusalem.

The offering of a new meal offering to Jehovah (v. 16) of two loaves of bread baked with leaven as firstfruits to Jehovah signifies that Christ at the stage of the firstfruits (the unleavened fine flour) has become the church as the Body of Christ in two sections at the stage of Pentecost (the two loaves — 1 Cor. 10:17), offered to God as the new meal offering for God’s satisfaction. One of the sections is composed of the Jewish believers (Acts 2:1-4) and the other, of the Gentile believers (Acts 10:34-48). Both sections had sins (signified by the leaven) within them (cf. Acts 5:1-11; 6:1).

That the two loaves also were firstfruits to Jehovah indicates that not only Christ but also the church are the firstfruits. Christ the firstfruits, as the fine flour, was the firstfruits on the day of resurrection (1 Cor. 15:20; John 20:17). Eventually, this fine flour became the two loaves on the day of Pentecost. In type, this indicates that Christ has become the church, that the church is the enlargement of Christ (John 3:29-30; 1 Cor. 12:12; Col. 3:10-11).

The presenting of the burnt offering, the meal offering, and the drink offering with the bread signifies that the church on the day of Pentecost was a corporate man offered to God as a burnt offering to live absolutely for God, with a living as a meal offering mixed with leaven — sins — and as a drink offering (pouring out its life for God by being martyred — Phil. 2:17; 2 Tim. 4:6) to be an offering by fire accepted by God by being consumed for the satisfaction of both God and man.

The offering of the sin offering and the peace offering as a wave offering (v. 20) with the bread signifies that because of its sins (cf. Acts 5:1-11), the church on the day of Pentecost needed Christ as its sin offering, and for the sake of the fellowship of man with God and man with man, it needed Christ as its peace offering. At the same time, it enjoyed Christ as its wave offering, as the One resurrected (waved) to God for the church’s enjoyment.

This signifies God’s redeemed people as the church enjoying Christ with God without any need of human labor to add anything.

The harvest remaining at the corners of the fields and the gleanings being left for the poor and the sojourners signify that the grace of Christ in His resurrection at the Feast of Pentecost has a remainder in which the Gentiles may participate. See Ruth 2:2-3 and notes; cf. Matt. 15:21-28 and notes.

The seven feasts in this chapter are in two groups, with four in the first group and three in the second. The four feasts in the first group all took place in the first half of the year, signifying the time when Christ died, resurrected, and ascended to pour out the Holy Spirit. The three feasts in the second group took place in the seventh month of the year, signifying the time of Christ’s second coming. 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 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 Firstfruits was fulfilled on the day of Christ’s resurrection (1 Cor. 15:20), when the members of Christ were produced for the formation of the church (1 Pet. 1:3; Eph. 2:6). 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), when the resurrected and ascended Christ as the consummated, all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit poured Himself out on His members to form the church. The Feast of the Blowing of Trumpets will be fulfilled at Christ’s second coming (Matt. 24:31). The Feast of Expiation 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). 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).

Lit., generations.

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. The people dwelling in booths indicates that in the four dispensations of the old creation man cannot have a solid dwelling place. Eventually, for God’s redeemed people the present, portable tabernacles will become a solid one — the New Jerusalem with twelve foundations (Heb. 11:8-10; Rev. 21:2-3, 14). See note John 7:2^1a, par. 3.

See note Rev. 7:9^4d.

Or, fruit. Trees signify Christ’s humanity (see note 1 Kings 6:15¹). The trees in this verse portray the evergreen, nourishing, beautiful, and rich scenery of the different aspects of Christ’s humanity being lived out from the overcomers among God’s redeemed people in the millennium.

This signifies that the millennium will come after the harvest of what God desires to obtain on earth through the three dispensations before the millennium — the dispensation before the law (from Adam to Moses — Rom. 5:14), the dispensation of the law (from Moses to Christ’s first coming — John 1:17), and the dispensation of the church (from Pentecost to Christ’s second coming — Acts 1:11). The millennium, the age of the kingdom (Rev. 20:4, 6), will be the fourth and final dispensation of the old heaven and the old earth. It will usher in the new heaven and new earth with the New Jerusalem for eternity (Rev. 21:1-3).

This signifies that God’s people as a sacred congregation offer Christ in resurrection (signified by the eighth day — John 20:1) 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 one thousand years of the millennium will be a rest for God and for God’s redeemed people. See note Heb. 4:9¹.

The presenting of an offering by fire to Jehovah for seven days 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, which is offered to God for His satisfaction so that we and God may enjoy mutual rest.

The seven days here signify a complete course of days, the one thousand years of the millennium.

Lit., Booths.

The Feast of Ingathering (Exo. 23:16b). See note Exo. 23:16^2b.

That the people were not to do any work but were to have a Sabbath of complete rest (vv. 28, 30-32a) 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.

The people’s afflicting their souls and bringing an offering by fire to Jehovah (vv. 27, 29) signify their mourning, repenting, and feeling sorrowful for sin, and offering Christ as food to God for the satisfaction of both God and man. This is what the Jews will do when the Lord Jesus comes back (Zech. 12:10-14; Matt. 24:30; Rev. 1:7).

Spiritually, the blowing of the trumpets signifies the proclaiming of the gospel to call sinners to repentance and salvation (cf. note Lev. 25:9^1a), and the expiation signifies Christ’s redemption (see note Lev. 16:1¹). The Feast of Expiation closely followed the Feast of the Blowing of Trumpets, which involves Israel’s repentance and return to God. This signifies that the day of man’s redemption follows the trumpeting of the gospel and man’s repentance as a reaction to it. The Feast of Expiation has a double application. Spiritually, this feast has been applied to the New Testament believers, and literally it will be applied in the future to the Jews.

The Feast of the Blowing of Trumpets 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). This feast was on the first day of the seventh month, the beginning of the second half of the year, signifying the second half of God’s redemption, which is to be accomplished on Israel, the first half having been accomplished on the church. The interval between the Feast of Pentecost and the Feast of the Blowing of Trumpets signifies the church age, the age of mystery, which lasts from the day of Pentecost, when the church came into being, until the Lord’s coming back, when God will call the scattered Jews to come back to the land of their fathers. God’s calling His people back together from their dispersion will cause them to have a holy convocation, signifying their returning to God (repentance) and becoming a corporate people. This will be a memorial and a rest to God’s gathered people, in which they will be able to offer Christ to God as food for the satisfaction of both God and man (v. 25).