Leviticus 23:1–43

"The LORD spoke to Moses." This is authoritative. In these days of many false teachers (2 Peter 2:1), God's people should take great care over what they listen to and whom they listen to. It must carry the authority of God Himself. "The LORD spoke." So let us make sure that what we accept as divine truth is what God Himself has spoken to us in His own word.

The children of Israel were not left to decide when they should gather in the presence of Jehovah. There were set feasts, fixed times which Jehovah appointed as holy convocations. These gatherings fitted the holy character of the God who had chosen Israel to be His people.

"Set times" are times He appoints. As the Eternal, all times belong to Him, and He can fit them to His purpose. They speak of almighty power and settled counsel, and that is what earns them their place here. They are also "holy convocations" — gathering times, when the voice of God stirs His people and brings them together. His voice unites those who listen to it in obedience, and calls them to Himself.

The idea of these feasts is the gathering of the people round Jehovah for some cause or other, a "holy convocation."

"Speak to the children of Israel." It is His own redeemed people to whom He is speaking. How many of them? All of them. It was not limited to the Priests or the Princes, no, it is a word to the whole congregation. There is always a tendency to leave these matters to the teachers or the older believers. God wants every one of His people to listen to what He has to say. He wants them to understand what He is doing, and so to learn what they can do in service for Him in relation to the divine centre.

"The feasts of Jehovah." This statement tells us what God is going to talk about with His people — His feasts, festive seasons when His people can gather round Him and bring Him something that delights His heart of love. Now He seeks to touch our hearts with a word like this — "my set feasts." Is there a desire in our hearts to answer to this? Not to be always taken up with what He has done for our blessing, but to find out what we can do for Him.

Yet all may be called feasts of the Lord, when we think of the pleasure the Lord would take in their proper keeping. Sadly, they sank into being no more than "feasts of the Jews," where no real honour was given to God (John 2:3; John 5:1; John 6:4; John 7:2; John 11:55).

The scripture we are entering on at this time brings before us the whole outline of the dealings of God with His people on earth. It is not of course in detail, but first is the original purpose as before God; next, the foundation which He laid in order to accomplish this purpose; then, again, the ways of God in the application which He made of the mighty work thus accomplished; and, finally, the direct and full result at Christ's appearing in glory, the heavenly things as well as the earthly.

Leviticus 23 sets out the Jewish calendar. As prophecy, it shows God's plan of salvation for His earthly people Israel, from the cross (passover) through to the millennium (feast of tabernacles). The first four feasts are already fulfilled (up to Pentecost). The last three refer to the future of Israel. Between the first four and the last three there is a long gap of unstated length... This prophetic gap... represents the Christian era, the time in which we live.

"The feasts of Jehovah." This statement tells us what God is going to talk about to His people — His feasts. They are festive seasons when His people can gather round Him and bring Him something that delights His loving heart. Now He seeks to touch our hearts with a word like this — "my set feasts." Is there a desire in our hearts to answer to this? Not to be forever occupied with what He has done for our blessing, but to find out what we can do for Him.

Clearly the Sabbath has a place of its own. It is the only feast named in the first announcement, "the set feasts of Jehovah" (v. 2). A footnote by J. N. Darby tells us that "set feasts" means "fixed times (for drawing near to God)." Another idea behind this word is appointment.

"Set times" are times He appoints. As the Eternal One, all times belong to Him, and He can fit them to His purpose. They speak of almighty power and settled purpose, and that is why they belong here. But they are "holy convocations" too — gathering times, when the voice of God stirs His people and brings them together. His voice unites those who obey it, and calls them to Himself.

"Holy Convocations." These suggest collective gatherings. It seems that our God delights to have His people together with one thought in their minds — to minister to Him together. He would guard them from any intrusion of the natural mind of man by reminding us that they are "HOLY"! However great the privilege is, we must remember this when we gather. We must be aware that He is there. We come together for His pleasure — quiet, dependent, with holy reverence in our souls. This would produce quality, even if it reduced quantity.

"Speak to the children of Israel." It is His own redeemed people to whom He is speaking. How many of them? All of them. It was not limited to the Priests or the Princes; no, it is a word to the whole congregation. There is always a tendency to leave these matters to the teachers or the older believers. God wants every one of His people to listen to what He says. He wants them to understand what He is doing, and so to learn what they can do in service for Him.

Most translations call these special times in Israel "feasts." Yet not all of them were feasts for Israel. The day of atonement (vv. 26-32) was a day of brokenness and humbling, not of feasting. Yet we may call them all feasts of the Lord, when we think how pleased the Lord would be if His people kept them properly. Sadly, these sank into mere "feasts of the Jews," where God received no real honour (John 2:3; John 5:1; John 6:4; John 7:2; John 11:55).

Leviticus 23 sets out the Jewish calendar. As prophecy, it shows God's plan of salvation for His people Israel on earth. It runs from the cross (passover) through to the millennium (feast of tabernacles). The first four feasts have already been fulfilled (up to Pentecost). The last three refer to the future of Israel. Between the first four and the last three feasts there is a long gap of unstated length. This prophetic gap represents the Christian era, the time in which we live.

Here, among the feasts, God's first words tell what He is waiting for, what He would have His people waiting for, and what He will certainly do in due time — the rest of God. "He who calls you is faithful; He will surely do it." Man, whether Moses or anyone else, would have put it last, not first, since it is the end of all the work. But it is the first thing God presents to His people — the sabbath… It is the only one that came round at the end of every week. So Israel was taught, as a habit, to look beyond daily toil to the rest of God.

The Sabbath — this is in itself no feast, but a set time, a holy gathering after the six work days. God puts the Sabbath first here because of its prophetic meaning. "There remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God." The Sabbath is the type of that rest still to come, when redemption is complete. Faith can enjoy it even now. The Sabbath reveals the blessed outcome of everything.

This revelation begins with the sabbath, which is here grouped with the set feasts, moadim (appointed times), though people usually see it as separate from them… Like the set feasts it is called a holy convocation, and like the day of atonement it is called a sabbath of rest, shabbath shabbathon, because God required complete rest from all work through the whole day… On the main days of the other feasts, He required rest from ordinary work only.

"Set times" are times of His appointment, to whom, as the Eternal, all times belong, and who is able to adjust them to His purpose. They speak of almighty power and settled purpose… But they are "holy convocations" too — gathering times. At them the voice of God stirs His people and brings them together. His voice unites those who listen to it in obedience, and calls them also to Himself.

I say it again: the sabbath formed part of the law, and it was in a special way a sign between God and Israel. The sabbath was never given to the Gentile as such, whatever people may argue. If a Gentile came and put himself under Israel's protection, of course he kept the sabbath. But as a Gentile he had nothing to do with it… How could it be a sign to one people if it was the common duty of all? "Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the LORD, sanctify you."

It was to be a day of rest, with no work to be done. It teaches us that we are to rest on the value of God's work already accomplished, not daring to add any work of our own to this. Such a reminder was necessary for Israel, and is necessary for us.

We Christians are not under the law but under grace. The Sabbath, as the sign of the law covenant, has therefore lost its meaning for us, as we see in a Scripture like Colossians 2:16. Yet there can be no doubt that a rest of one day in every seven is the wise and kind intention of God for man. The resurrection of Christ is the seal of our faith. So the first day of the week, the day He rose from the dead, became the day Christians have from the very beginning given to His worship and service… Israel's week worked up to the day of rest. The Christian's week starts from the day of rest, based on the resurrection of Christ.

This is how the feasts open. But notice that the fourth verse begins again: "These are the appointed feasts of the LORD." So at the start of the chapter, where the feasts are introduced in general, the Sabbath is named in particular. Then, in verse 4, there is a fresh beginning which leaves the Sabbath out... The Sabbath has a character all its own. Every other feast was kept once a year; the Sabbath came every week. There is a clear dividing line, and so the second beginning is justified. Yet the Sabbath still has the character of a feast. It alone came round at the end of every week, a standing witness both to creation as God's work and to the great rest of God which His people are to enter at the end.

His feasts are the worth and effectiveness of the Person and work of Christ. That is why they are called feasts of Jehovah, not feasts of Israel. They were for Israel, who had the privilege of feasting, if they could even faintly discern their meaning. To call them feasts of Israel would have lowered their character. In them God had His own joy. They all refer to Him in whom God delights.

They had degenerated into formal and selfish routines. Later we read of "the Jews' Passover" (John 2:13) and "the Jews' feast of Tabernacles" (John 7:2) — yet God had called these "the feasts of the Lord" when He set them up in Leviticus 23:4.

"Set times" are times God Himself appoints. All times belong to Him as the Eternal One, and He is able to fit them to His purpose. They speak of almighty power and settled counsel, and so they earn their place here. But they are "holy convocations" too — gathering times. The voice of God rouses His people and assembles them. His voice unites those who listen to it in obedience, and calls them also to Himself.

For the third time in the chapter our attention is drawn to the feasts as holy convocations (see also verses 2 and 4)... How important it is for the saints to notice the place their gatherings have in the thoughts of God. The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews saw this. He wrote, "not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near" (Hebrews 10:25).

Notice a new phrase here: "In their seasons." Each feast has its proper time and proper order in the chapter, and we must take care to keep to this order. How could we know the blessing of the feast of Tabernacles if we did not begin with the cross of Christ? "In their seasons" shows a Divine order that God has worked out according to plan. The world is not like this: it would gladly take the Kingdom blessing, but ignore the great necessity of founding it all on the DEATH of Christ.

So, as the careful reader will notice, Israel's first great feast was the Passover, and their seventh was the feast of tabernacles. Strip away the picture language, and we have full redemption first; and, last of all, the millennial glory. The Passover lamb pictured the death of Christ (1 Cor. 5:7). The feast of tabernacles pictured "the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets long ago" (Acts 3:21).

His feasts are the value and power of the Person and work of Christ. That is why they are called feasts of Jehovah, not feasts of Israel. They were for Israel, who had the privilege of feasting, even if they saw their meaning only faintly. To call them feasts of Israel would have lowered their character. In them God had His own joy.

Here, then, we have the first of the seven regular feasts — the offering of that Passover lamb. Its blood shielded the Israel of God from the sword of the destroying angel, on that terrible night when Egypt's firstborn died. This is the recognised type of the death of Christ, and God placed it in this chapter exactly where it belongs. It forms the foundation of all. We can know nothing of rest, nothing of holiness, nothing of fellowship, except on the ground of the death of Christ. It is striking that the moment God speaks of His rest, the next thing in the chapter is the blood of the Passover lamb. It is as much as to say, "There is the rest, but here is your title to it." No doubt work makes us fit for the rest, but it is the blood that gives us the right to enjoy it.

God stepped in to deliver His people from the house of slavery. It was not because of any good in them. At that time the children of Israel were worshipping false gods and were completely indifferent to the glory of the true God. Next, if God delivers them, He must deliver them righteously. Pay particular attention to this. It is not simply a matter of mercy forgiving wicked people. He will have them stand before Him on a basis of right. He is a just God and a Saviour… But one thing held back the hand of the destroying angel — the blood of the killed lamb. Where that blood was missing from the doorposts and the beam above the door, death ruled… By that blood Jehovah declared that only the death of a fitting substitute could hold back judgment.

The passover was to be killed in the evening, at sunset. The daily evening sacrifice was also offered "between the evenings." So this phrase cannot mean, as some have said, the time between the evening of one day and the evening of the next… "Between the two evenings" was a set time on the fourteenth day of Nisan. Deuteronomy 16:6 defines it as sunset.

Notice first that He does not rush it. Many think it would have been better if God had given His Son to die for sinners at the very beginning. Instead He waited more than 4,000 years… "at the right time Christ died for the ungodly" (Rom. 5:6)… God set up the passover — the great standing type of Christ killed for sinners — not on the first day of the first month, but on the fourteenth.

Every year the Passover reminded Israel of the redemption and deliverance from Egypt. "Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed" (1 Cor. 5:7). The passover lamb was a type of Christ. Every time they killed it, it pointed forward to Him who was to come — the Lamb of God, "in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins" (Col. 1:14).

They kept this ordinance as a remembrance in the wilderness (Num. 9). They kept it again as a remembrance when they got into the land (Josh. 5). But only once did they sprinkle the blood on the doorposts and lintels. This tells us again of the once-for-all application of the blood of Christ. It never needs to be repeated… The death of Christ has brought us to God and brought us out. It keeps us as pilgrims passing through this world. And it brings us in to the land, the divine inheritance.

The feast of unleavened bread followed the Passover at once. Not a single day was allowed to come between. As a general rule there was a space between these different feasts, but here is a plain exception to the rule... one being on the fourteenth, the other on the fifteenth of the same month. The New Testament treats the feast of unleavened bread as beginning with the killing of the Passover lamb. So the Christian's immediate response to Christ's blood is to walk in holiness. From then on God will not have him claim a single day for himself.

All holiness is grounded on redemption, and on knowing it in the soul. Christ's precious work comes first and stands alone for salvation, and holiness is the fruit of it in the saved soul.

Leaven, as explained before, is a type of evil. It spreads, and it makes the whole mass take on its own character... To eat unleavened bread therefore means separation from evil — practical holiness... We are saved by the grace of God through the sprinkled blood of Christ. Our wretched hearts might then reason that we may indulge in sin so that grace may abound. "No!" says the Spirit of God. "As soon as you are under the value of the death of Christ, you are under the responsibility to be separate from evil."... To press this truth home, God told the Israelites to keep this feast "as a statute forever." It first reminded them that on this very day He had brought their armies out of the land of Egypt. It then taught them the duty that came with their new position.

These seven days, one week, speak of a period of time. Seven is the divine number of perfection and completion... "Let us celebrate the feast" is not to be understood as celebrating the feast of the Supper, as is sometimes said. No. The feast here is the feast of unleavened bread, the whole week that follows the Passover — the whole week, and week after week after week. It is a type of our entire lives, a life marked by unleavened bread. Leaven, taken as a picture, is always a type of sin — sin that a person allows in his life and does not judge.

Leaven had to go from the house as well as from the individual. You often find people who rightly watch their personal walk, yet stay completely lax about impurity in the church. The Lord calls us to beware of allowing leaven anywhere. But corporate purity is a worthless pretension without proper regard to personal holiness... The feast of unleavened bread covers the whole journey, our whole course, public as well as private.

No one who grasps the death of Christ in relation to sin would want to see worldly things in the house. But all this, important as it is, is negative... These things will not feed our souls. There is not only a putting off in Christianity, there is also a putting on... If we are to produce a feast of unleavened bread to Jehovah, we must take Christ daily as food for the soul. What a feast it must be to God to see Christ reproduced in a saint who hates what is evil and feeds on what is good.

"You shall not do any ordinary work. But you shall present a food offering to the LORD." What a contrast! The servile work of man's hands set against the sweet savour of Christ's sacrifice! The practical holiness of God's people is not servile labour. It is the living unfolding of Christ through them by the power of the Holy Spirit. "For to me to live is Christ." That is the true idea.

It is worth noting that this feast springs out of the feast of the Passover and is joined to it. The usual introduction to a new subject — "the LORD spoke to Moses, saying" — is not mentioned here. This feast, then, is the corollary of the Passover. It is the putting away of all evil because Christ has died to sin once. It is the answer in us to the work of Christ on the cross. If He has died to sin, then we must die to it in a practical way in our Christian pathway. "For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth."

Chapter 23 opens with God's desire to have the people He had redeemed assembled before Him. A "convocation" is a "calling together," and this was to mark the feasts of the Lord.

"Holy convocations." These suggest collective gatherings. It seems that our God delights to have His people together with a single thought in their minds — to minister to Him together. He would guard them from any intrusion of the fleshly mind of man by reminding us that they are "HOLY"! We have to remember this, wonderful as the privilege may be. In our gatherings together we must always be conscious that He is there. We come together for His pleasure, subdued, dependent, with holy reverence in our souls.

No work and no leaven were the divine rules for the Passover week. No work, because the great Calvary work of Christ was in view, and no human efforts must be placed alongside it. Christ is not a mere helper of sinners, making up for what they lack; He is Saviour, doing everything needed to save us from eternal ruin… No leaven, because leaven suggests evil all through the Scriptures.

The people are here assembled around the Lord, in that practical holiness which rests on accomplished redemption. While they are assembled, the fragrance of the sacrifice rises from the altar of Israel to the throne of Israel's God… "You shall not do any ordinary work. But you shall present a food offering to the LORD." What a contrast! The servile work of man's hands, and the sweet savour of Christ's sacrifice! The practical holiness of God's people is not slavish labour. It is the living unfolding of Christ through them, by the power of the Holy Spirit. "For to me to live is Christ." That is the true idea.

Leaven was to be banished from the house as well as from the individual. People are often rightly watchful about their own walk, yet completely careless about impurity in the assembly. The Lord calls us to beware of allowing leaven anywhere. But purity in the assembly is a worthless claim without proper care for personal holiness… The feast of unleavened bread takes in the entire pilgrimage, our whole course, public as well as private. To keep this feast is always our calling while we are here.

These negative things, important as they undoubtedly are, will not feed our souls. In Christianity there is not only a putting off, there is also a putting on… They were to eat unleavened bread. If we are to produce a feast to the Lord of unleavened bread, Christ must be taken as food for the soul daily. Only as we feed on Him will we grow to be like Him, and so the features seen in Him will be reproduced in us.

Along with the instruction to eat unleavened bread for seven days comes the direction to offer an offering by fire for seven days. This is a presentation of Christ to God. Why do we only think of offering once a week? Our God desires to have Christ presented every day. Not only in what we may be able to say, but also in what we are, as we show Him in this dark world. If we feed on Christ daily, something of His perfection is sure to come to light in us. That becomes "to Jehovah an offering by fire seven days."

The practical holiness of God's people is not servile labour. It is the living unfolding of Christ through them, by the power of the Holy Spirit. We need to think deeply about the contrast between "servile work" and the outflow of the life of Christ. The picture is vivid. All manual labour stopped throughout the whole assembly, but the sweet savour of the burnt offering went up to God. These were the two great marks of the feast of unleavened bread, and they picture a believer's life of practical holiness. What a triumphant answer this gives to the legalist on one side, and to the one who despises law on the other! The first is silenced by the words "no servile work." The second is confounded by the words "You shall offer an offering made by fire." The most elaborate works of man's hands are "servile." But the smallest cluster of "the fruits of righteousness" is to the glory and praise of God.

God wanted His people to understand that their rest and blessing did not come from their own efforts. So He commanded them to do no servile work on the days of holy convocation, the first and last days of the feast. They were to rest before Jehovah, knowing that all their blessings stood on the sacrifice of fire which they were to present to Him on the seven days of the feast. Israel will yet learn this great truth; they will know that their every blessing depends on the sacrifice of Christ, who gave Himself for them.

The Lord calls us to beware of allowing leaven anywhere. But corporate purity is a worthless pretension without due regard to personal holiness... In short, what God has here at heart is that we should please Him in every relation, in what is collective as well as in our individual walk. ... The feast of "unleavened bread" takes in the entire pilgrimage, our whole course public as well as private. The feast was to begin the first day after the Passover, and the greatest care is taken to show that it was to continue right through our stay on earth. To keep this feast is always our calling while here.

You begin next Lord's day morning with Christ for God; go to work on Monday, but don't take off your first-day suit on Monday morning. In the history of your soul, you have every day to go over the same ground. It is to be Christ on the first day, and Christ all the week, and Christ on the seventh... How much of Christ do we bring to God in private, in our homes, and in the assembly? That is the question. The week begins with the liberty of Christ, and it closes with the liberty of Christ. It is feeding on Christ, and nothing but Christ.

This is on purpose — in fact a new word from Jehovah to Moses. Not exactly a new feast, but at any rate the opening of a new feast, and indeed the whole pivot on which it turns. We can take it for granted that the reader believes every word of God has a meaning, and a most important meaning.

They had no land in Egypt, nor in the wilderness, but this feast views them as over the Jordan and in the inheritance which God gave to them… The resurrection of Christ has opened out to us the vast heavenly inheritance beyond the power of death… "The land that I give you" would show that we did not earn it or deserve it. It is the sovereign gift of God for the blessing of our souls.

The Passover points forward to the death of Christ. The waving of the sheaf of the firstfruits is the blessed type of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. It was just one sheaf waved before Jehovah, the pledge of the harvest that was to follow. "But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep" (1 Cor. 15:20)… And it was waved before Jehovah "on the day after the Sabbath." The day after the Sabbath is the first day of the week, the glorious resurrection morning.

It is the resurrection of the Lord which brings out the acceptance of the believer without question before God. In His death our evil was dealt with by atonement. That is the only righteous basis on which sinful man can be forgiven. But Christ's resurrection declares that the sins are gone for ever for those who believe. "Who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification."

Then this sheaf was brought to the priest. This is the first mention of a priest in the chapter. A priest is one who has been sanctified to draw near into the presence of God. Why bring the priest in here? Is it not to show that in the resurrection of Christ the way has been opened out for approach into the presence of God?

The sample of the harvest in the land He had given to Israel was offered to Him; then by the act of waving it was taken back from Him as a returned gift. By virtue of the wave sheaf, the harvest could be gathered in; without it, the harvest could not be touched. The firstfruits were holy, and so the whole was holy.

When it was offered, you will observe that there was a lamb without blemish for a burnt offering, and a grain offering of two tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, an offering made by fire to Jehovah for a sweet savour, with its drink offering — but nothing more: there was no sin offering. Whenever Christ appears in what is brought before us, no sin offering is required, He Himself being in fact the true sin offering for others. So the sheaf of firstfruits became a type of Him who knew no sin.

All of this required being in Canaan and reaping the produce of the land. Only then could Israel offer the firstfruits to Jehovah. He had pledged Himself to Moses in Exodus 3 not only to deliver them from slavery in Egypt, but to bring them "to a land flowing with milk and honey."... Whether grain, fruit, or any produce of the land they had just been given, He who gave it was to have the firstfruits. This should always keep their hearts conscious of the Divine Giver, and thankful toward Him.

The Passover feast foreshadows the death of Christ. The waving of the sheaf of the firstfruits is the blessed type of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. It was just one sheaf waved before Jehovah, the pledge of the harvest that was to follow. "But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep" (1 Cor. 15:20)... The grain of wheat had fallen into the ground and died. But He lives; the full ear of the sheaf waved before Jehovah pictures the abundant fruit which He brings to God. And it was waved before Jehovah on the day after the Sabbath. The day after the Sabbath is the first day of the week, the glorious resurrection morning.

What then is the Wave Sheaf? Christ, risen and accepted before God for us — it could not be anything else... The full harvest was coming on, but God gets the firstfruits of it. God gets a great deal more out of the death and resurrection of Christ than we do. We get a great deal, but God has infinitely more.

In the sheaf of firstfruits waved before Jehovah (Lev. 23:10-11) we have the definite character of Christ without sin, for in the ears of grain there could be no leaven. But when the church is offered, leaven is to be used (Lev. 23:17).

The Feast of the Firstfruits took place at the early barley harvest, on the day after the Passover. They picked enough early ears to make a sheaf, and this was the sheaf of the firstfruits. It was brought before Jehovah, presented to Him, and waved before Him. Israel offered Him this sample of the harvest from the land He had given them. Then, by the act of waving, they received it back from Him as a returned gift. By virtue of the wave sheaf, the harvest could be gathered in; without it, the harvest could not be touched (Lev. 23:14). The firstfruits were holy, and so the whole was holy.

How blessed it is to see the type of the waving of the sheaf of firstfruits fulfilled in the resurrection of our Lord! It is the proof that God accepts our Lord as the One who satisfied Him about the question of sin at the cross. And by that act God pledges Himself that the whole harvest of precious souls — every believer on the Lord Jesus Christ — shall be raised on the day of His coming. If they fail to be accepted, it must be because He failed to be accepted. But we know He was accepted, and we, believers, are accepted in the Beloved.

In fact the priest waved the sheaf on the first day of the week that followed the Passover. So the Lord was crucified on Friday, lay in the grave on the sabbath or last day of the week, and rose on the first day. He was raised from the dead on the very day the priest waved that sheaf before Jehovah. Little did the priest who waved it realise the power and character of the truth set out in the first-fruits he was presenting before the God of Israel. So the type of the wave sheaf begins a new order of things, as fits Him who is the Beginning, the First-born from the dead. The church depends on Christ's resurrection.

The day after the Sabbath speaks of life out of death. It speaks of a vast harvest for God out of death itself. For Christ is the Firstfruits, and afterwards those who are Christ's at His coming. It is the beginning of a new creation, and all who believe the good news have their part in it. In that new creation they begin with rest and peace they could never have won by their own work.

The sheaf was waved "to be accepted for you," as verse 11 says. In keeping with this, Jesus our Lord was delivered up for our trespasses and "raised for our justification" (Rom. 4:25). The believer today stands before God in the acceptance of the risen Christ; and indeed for any saint at any time no other acceptance is possible.

Will that sacrifice be enough to take away our sins? Will that sacrifice be accepted before God? Yes, the Feast of Firstfruits answers these questions. The resurrection is the proof that God has accepted that sacrifice for sin. The resurrection is the receipt that proves that all my debt is paid, and that I am free.

How wonderful it is to see the waving of the sheaf of firstfruits fulfilled in the resurrection of our Lord! His resurrection proves that God accepts our Lord as the One who satisfied Him about the question of sin at the cross. And by that same act God pledges Himself that the whole harvest of precious souls — every believer on the Lord Jesus Christ — will be made alive in the day of His coming. If they fail to be accepted, it must be because He failed to be accepted. But we know He was accepted, and we believers are accepted in the Beloved. There can be no breakdown in this.

You will see (v. 19) that with the first-fruits of the feast of weeks a sin offering was also offered, and a peace offering. But no such offering went with the sheaf of first-fruits. That sheaf pictures Christ's resurrection, on which the church and Jews rest for acceptance, as it is written (v. 11), "to be accepted for you."

What then is the wave sheaf? Christ, risen and accepted before God for us — it could not be anything else… The full harvest was coming on, but God gets the first-fruits of it. God gets a great deal more out of the death and resurrection of Christ than we do. We get a great deal, but God has infinitely more.

So the Lord was crucified on Friday. He lay in the grave on the sabbath, the last day of the week. He rose on the first day, or Sunday as the Gentiles called it. He was raised from the dead on the very day the wave sheaf was waved before Jehovah. The priest who waved it little imagined the power and character of the truth set out in the firstfruits he was presenting before the God of Israel. … So the type of the wave sheaf begins a new order of things, marked off from all that went before, as suits Him who is the Beginning, the Firstborn from the dead.

The burnt offering shows us the sacrifice of Christ. It pictures Him who gave Himself in death to do God's will: "a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God" (Eph. 5:2). This sacrifice was wholly for the pleasure of Jehovah. Yet it also made atonement for the offerer, and was for his acceptance (Lev. 1:4). The male usually has to do with the position of the offerer, the female with the state. So the male lamb would emphasise the blessedness of the place the death of Christ has brought us into.

A lamb speaks to us of His submission to the will of God, as Isaiah 53 so clearly teaches. This becomes a divine title of our Lord, as we know so well: "Behold, the Lamb of God." How often we have delighted to take this title on our lips in adoring worship. Yet have we ever considered why it was not the Bullock of God, or the Goat of God, but the Lamb of God? … We believe the reason is, as we have said before, that it presents the submission and obedience of our Lord to the will of His Father.

A spot is something which is there and ought not to be there. A blemish is something not there which ought to be there. In the first, it is something extra. In the second, it is something lacking. Here we notice it is to be without blemish. Nothing is said about a spot. Instead, it sets out that every right quality to be found in man was found in Christ.

Christ's perfection and holiness are pictured in the victim being without blemish, and His life of beauty and freshness in the age of the lamb.

When it was offered, there was a lamb without blemish for a burnt offering. With it came a grain offering of two tenth parts of fine flour mixed with oil, an offering made by fire to Jehovah for a sweet savour. There was a matching drink offering too. But nothing more: there was no sin offering. Whenever Christ appears in what is brought before us, no sin offering is required. He Himself is in fact the true sin offering for others.

These offerings had to be brought and accepted with the wave sheaf before Israel could eat of the grain of the land. That declared beyond mistake Jehovah's claim and portion first… To whom should the Lord present Himself, but to His God and Father who gave Him? … Who could measure all His devotion expressed in the burnt offering and the grain offering, to the One to whom it was rendered? And the drink offering, in the joy and delight He had in doing it?

Christ was as much the waved sheaf as the paschal lamb. In this case notice what went with the sheaf when it was offered. There was a lamb without blemish for a burnt offering. There was a grain offering of two tenths of fine flour mixed with oil, an offering made by fire to the LORD with a pleasing aroma. There was its proper drink offering — but nothing more: there was no sin offering. Whenever Christ appears in what is set before us, no sin offering is required. He Himself is in fact the true sin offering for others.

"The oblation." In this we have the life of Christ. The meaning of oblation is a food offering. We may see this in John 6. There the Lord speaks of Himself as bread, and as bread with three distinct characters. "The bread of God." This is what He is to the heart of God. "Living bread." This is what He is in Himself. "Bread of Life." This is what He is to us… The oblation was to be "mixed with oil." Here, the conception of our Lord by the Holy Spirit is pictured. We may know from other parts that "anointed with oil" pointed to the banks of the Jordan, where our Lord was anointed in public. If so, "mixed with oil" pointed to His holy conception by the Spirit and His virgin birth. So the oblation here reminds us of the Son of God in His perfect Manhood in this world under the eye of God.

God fixed its measure: two tenths of fine flour with a fourth of a hin of oil. That was the usual amount of oil for a grain offering brought with a lamb. But it was double the measure of flour normally appointed where a lamb alone was offered. Why was this?… The measure of flour for this grain offering was the measure appointed for the two wave loaves at the feast of weeks (v. 17). The Lord Jesus Christ is the life of His people, and He alone, as risen, is that… Christ, and He only, is just as truly the sole life of those pictured by the two loaves.

This is the first time in the book of Leviticus we have mention of a drink offering… Wherever Scripture speaks of it, the drink offering seems to carry the idea of joy… Its coming in at this point would suggest the divine joy now established in Christ at the right hand of God in glory. It seems this joy waited for the resurrection of Christ.

But no drink offering was commanded apart from the sacrifice. A whole Christ, as it were, must be before the worshipper before a drink offering would be in place. When that was before the eye and the heart, the drink offering was not to be held back. The wine which cheers God and man could then be poured out. It was a sign that in the Lord Jesus Christ, who lived and died, there was something that gave joy to God — joy that those who brought the offering could share.

So in this risen Man, head of the new creation, we are accepted. In Him we have all the pleasing aroma of His work finished on the cross (the burnt offering). We have all the pleasing aroma of His life on earth, seen in its general, not its Jewish character (the grain offering). And we have all that He is as He now stands before God in heaven (the wave offering).

This day, the day after the Sabbath, becomes the starting point for the count... And then comes another picture of great significance. It is a beautiful picture — not of Christ, but of those who are Christ's. They are called by the name given to Him, the true sheaf of firstfruits.

This is the feast of Pentecost. It pictures God's people, gathered by the Holy Spirit and presented before Him, in connection with all the preciousness of Christ. In the Passover, we have the death of Christ. In the sheaf of firstfruits, we have the resurrection of Christ. In the feast of Pentecost, we have the coming of the Holy Spirit to form the Church. All this is perfect, God's own work. Christ had to die and rise before the Church could be formed. First came the offering of the sheaf, then the baking of the loaves.

Verse 15 names a period of seven weeks (or sabbaths) in plain terms. Yet the text now speaks of fifty days. The reason the people had to wait one more day before bringing the wave loaves is very clear. They had to bring the offering on "the day after the Sabbath," the first day of the week. Again, this marks out the sphere of resurrection.

Pentecost is the Greek word for "fiftieth." Strikingly, Israel held this feast on "the day after the seventh Sabbath." That is, they held it on the first day of a new week. It tells of a new order of things coming in, based on resurrection.

Israel had to count seven weeks from the day after the Passover Sabbath. Then came the feast of Weeks, or Pentecost, as the New Testament calls it. Nothing of any great importance in the Jewish religious year happened in between. In the year of the crucifixion and the resurrection, however, an important event fell between these feasts. It divided the seven weeks into two unequal periods: forty days and ten days.

But seven sabbaths had to be complete before this next feast could take place. Our God's timing was exact, just as He sent forth His Son when the fullness of time had come. So here too: when the fiftieth day arrived, the Holy Spirit came to make good the new grain offering of two wave-loaves.

The loaves came out of human homes, so they spoke of humanity, and the leaven in them pictured sin in man. Still, they too were "firstfruits." The sheaf is the result of life out of death. The loaves are the result of that same life, drawn from the sheaf. Bread is the finished outcome of the harvest.

The priest waved these two loaves, baked with leaven, before the Lord — presented to Him and accepted by Him... The sin offering made it possible for God to accept loaves that were baked with leaven. That sin offering spoke of atonement for the sin the leaven pictured. There was no leaven in the wave sheaf, so no sin offering was needed there. But notice: the leaven in the wave loaves was baked, and so had lost its power.

Verse 15 names the period of seven weeks (or Sabbaths) plainly, yet here it speaks of fifty days. The reason why the people had to wait one extra day before bringing the wave loaves is very clear. The offering had to come on "the day after the Sabbath," the first day of the week. Again, this points to the sphere of resurrection.

Turning on to Acts 2:1-4, we come to the day of Pentecost, a word which means fifty days. We read that the Lord walked with them forty days after His resurrection, Acts 1:3. Then, ten days after He was taken up to heaven, we have the day of Pentecost, fifty days, a reference to Lev. 23:16. On this day, as we read, the Holy Spirit came down with force and filled each one gathered in that upper room. This great event marked the beginning of Christianity in this world.

Further, it had to be a "new" grain offering (or meal offering). It was new, not because the people could change the rules laid down for the meal offering in Leviticus 2, but because the harvest was new. If the wave sheaf was the "firstling" or first fruit of the barley harvest, the "new" meal offering was "the firstfruits of wheat harvest" (Ex. 34:22). The first harvest speaks of the Lord's resurrection. The wheat harvest is the new harvest that marks out these wave loaves.

Exactly fifty days after the waving of the firstfruits, on the day after the Sabbath, when Christ rose, the Holy Spirit came down out of heaven to form the church on earth. Here is a new meal offering. It does not picture Christ, but those who are one with Him, His believing people. The oil, the Holy Spirit, came on the day of Pentecost upon them, as the oil was poured upon the meal offering.

The meal offering of Leviticus 2 is a picture of Christ in His perfect life down here, brought to its end in His death and so pleasing to God. The new meal offering of Leviticus 23 is a picture of the church of God, the fruit of the death of Christ, being presented to God. The meal offering was to be baked WITHOUT leaven. The new meal offering was to be baked WITH leaven. The meal offering pictured Christ, and had to be without leaven, for leaven is always a symbol of evil, and there could be no thought of evil in connection with Him. The new meal offering pictured the Church presented to God. It was baked with leaven, an admission that sin attaches to the believer.

Seven Sabbaths are now complete. Perfect rest as to all the past is found, and the first day has come again. It is the start of a new condition, the unveiling of a new creation — a fiftieth day (5 x 10), in which man begins with Almighty God indeed. The "new meal offering" speaks of a new measure of capacity in devotion to the Lord.

Two great facts stamp their character on the first day of the week. One is the resurrection of the Lord from the dead (John 20). The other is the founding of the Church at Pentecost (Lev. 23:16, with Acts 2). So "the Lord's day" is no ordinary day, and "the Lord's supper" is no ordinary meal. Both the "day" and the "supper" belong to Him in a special way.

In the two loaves waved before the Lord, baked with leaven, we have a clear picture of the Church presented to God. It is made up of Jew and Gentile, and in both of them the leaven of the old nature is there. Yet they are presented to God not in themselves, but in connection with that perfect sacrifice pictured by the seven lambs, one bull, and two rams offered to God as a burnt offering.

The priest waved these sacrifices with the loaves, but he waved the sheaf by itself. The Lord Jesus was acceptable to God in Himself, apart from any question of sacrifice… With the wave loaves it was completely different. The appointed sacrifices were waved with them. The loaves could not be waved without them… There are saints whose standing before God is in resurrection, for the loaves were the firstfruits of the new harvest. God can receive them, and they are to be for God — but only in the closest connection with the sacrificial death of the Holy Son of God. Apart from Him and His death they would not be presented to God.

So here, right alongside the leavened loaves, stands an unblemished sacrifice. It pictures the great and all-important truth that it is Christ's perfectness, and not our sinfulness, that is always before the view of God. Notice the words, "you shall present with the bread seven lambs… without blemish." Precious truth!… May the reader enter into it, make it his own, rest his conscience on it, feed and refresh his heart with it, and delight his whole soul in it. Not I, but Christ.

In the feast of firstfruits the focus is on Christ alone, so only one lamb was sacrificed (v. 12). But Pentecost involves the large number who are identified with Christ. So seven lambs — the complete number — were offered, besides a bull and two rams. The bull speaks of the strength of the offering and its power to atone for large numbers. The two rams stand for the witness that redemption is accomplished.

All the offerings in this verse are said to be "of a pleasing aroma." This sets before our hearts what Christ always was in His pathway of obedience to death, in submission to His Father's will. The bull speaks of His patient endurance. He never once turned aside, but went on till the will of God was done at the cross… The two rams speak of His devotion to the will of God. The bull sets out His power to do that will, and the ram His desire to do it. "With their grain offering" speaks again of His perfect Manhood, which made everything He did effective… The drink offering again shows the joy God has received as the fruit of what Christ has done. We, dear friends, stand linked with all of this, for they were presented "with the bread."

Perfect acceptance is emphasized very strongly here, but so is the presence of sin in the accepted ones. That sin does not touch their acceptance, since God's grace puts it away according to perfect righteousness.

So Jesus rose, and He was waved before the Lord. Then, fifty days later, matching Pentecost, the two wave-loaves, baked with leaven, were brought to God as the firstfruits. Notice this. A burnt offering and a meal offering went with the wave-sheaf, but no sin offering. In verse 19, though, you will find a sin offering going with the wave-loaves, to meet the leaven in them. The sin offering is what counteracts the evil of the church, or it could not be accepted.

It is quite true that a burnt offering would not have been enough where "leaven" was in question. And so we read, "And you shall offer one male goat for a sin offering, and two male lambs a year old as a sacrifice of peace offerings." (Verse 19) The "sin offering" was the answer to the "leaven" in the loaves. "Peace" was made, so that communion could be enjoyed. And everything went up to the Lord in immediate connection with the "sweet savour" of the "burnt offering".

God recognises that evil is in the believer. But it is not supposed to be at work, and the blood of the sin offering meets its presence. No sin at all is charged against you. You stand before God in all the value of the work of Christ.

The sin offering was there to speak of atonement for the sin that the leaven pictured. But notice: the leaven in the Wave Loaves was baked, and so had lost its power.

The sin-offering fully met the baked leaven. The peace-offering laid the basis for the blessed privilege of communion. Acceptance, the joy of communion, and divine testimony too — all of them waited for the Holy Spirit to come down, to be made good in the reality that the wave-loaves pictured. Acts 2 displayed this on a wide scale, in both communion and testimony, when the bonds of unity and oneness gave witness to its precious fruit.

At the offering of the wave sheaf, as we said, no sin offering was required. The wave loaves could not be presented to God without one. The wave sheaf was also waved alone, without the sacrifices that went with it. The wave loaves were waved together with the sacrifices. The Lord Jesus needed no sacrifice beside Him to make Him acceptable to God. We could not be presented to God, or be owned as devoted to His service, apart from the sacrifice of His well-beloved Son on the cross. Saints now are to be for God as those risen with Christ.

The priest waved these sacrifices with the loaves, but he waved the sheaf by itself. The Lord Jesus was in Himself acceptable to God, apart from any question of sacrifice. So the priest waved the sheaf before he dealt at all with the sacrifices appointed to go with it. With the wave loaves it was completely different. He waved the appointed sacrifices with them. He could not wave the loaves without them.

The act of waving shows that the offering is given to the Lord. Some also see in it a sign of ascension (compare v.11). Christ risen ascended to heaven, and the church is a heavenly people that also has a heavenly destination.

Remember what these two loaves pictured: the Jew and Gentile offered together to God as the firstfruits of the harvest (James 1:18). Then we can see the reason for this unusual feature of that day's ritual. The whole animals were waved, but waved after death. Those who compose the church are in this way set apart to God as a whole. The church came into being only after the resurrection of the Lord, and its standing is in resurrection. So the animals were first killed and then waved.

The priest waved the two loaves before the Lord, and they were baked with leaven. In them we have a marked suggestion of the presentation of the Church to God, made up of Jew and Gentile. They are presented to God not in themselves, but in connection with that perfect sacrifice pictured in the seven lambs, one bullock, and two rams offered as a burnt offering to God, and in the sin offering of the goat, together with the peace offering.

The two wave-loaves certainly do not mean two churches, one Jewish and one Gentile. One may add that this is the very worst idea possible, since it keeps up the old distinction. The very heart of the gospel, and of the one body too, is to break all this down — to unite as well as to save, in Christ.

The "two male lambs a year old as a sacrifice of peace offerings" give us God's testimony of the place of communion into which He has now brought us through Christ's death and resurrection. How great is the grace that has brought us before God, where we have fellowship with the Father and the Son… The priests fed on these peace offerings. In the same way, we have the privilege of feeding on Christ, the Lamb of God, who gave Himself to bring us into this favoured place.

Once the priest had waved these gifts, we are told they were "holy to the LORD for the priest." These are the things which sustain priesthood — Christ and all that He is in association with His people. He could not take up His priesthood apart from His people. There would be no point in this… With the wave sheaf it is Christ, the One who has gone in and opened the way of access into the presence of God. But this feast shows us that priesthood is active in relation to the Christian company.

Only this feast is marked out by seven sabbaths in between. It is the feast of weeks. But among the Greek-speaking Jews the number fifty, as is well known, has given this feast its name, so it is called "Pentecost." What then was fulfilled when the day of Pentecost arrived? The Father made good His promise — that unmatched promise about which the Lord Himself had said, "It is to your advantage that I go away." What could outweigh the blessing of His presence with His disciples on earth? The gift of another Advocate — not gifts only, but He Himself baptising them. This was no longer a hope, but a fact.

There was no convocation on the day of waving the sheaf of firstfruits. That waited for the offering of the wave-loaves. When these types were fulfilled, no public gathering announced the resurrection, though there was a private one: "On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews." The day of Pentecost was very different. The disciples "were all together in one place," and when the news of what the Holy Spirit's presence had done spread, "the multitude came together." On that historic day the gathering of the disciples was indeed a holy convocation.

Again, verse 21 forbids customary (or servile) work. Pentecost speaks of another great work of God, in which people are blessed by God's grace without any work on their part.

In this feast we come to "a holy convocation." Whatever we go through in our own life in this world, we must never forget the pleasure God has in gathering His people together. If we walk before Him and please Him, we will truly value "the holy convocation" and be a help to it. What a privilege it is to be free from lawful things — servile work — and to come together to enjoy the circle of blessing which is ours in Christ. We are not to take up service for Christ as servile work, and not to worship God in a servile way. Instead, in the liberty of sonship by the Spirit, we praise and worship the Father in spirit and in truth.

"A statute forever." This would warn us against modern innovations in the things of God. In picture form, this feast has opened up the grand answer to all that Christ has done. All of it is made good in the Christian company today. The whole truth of it came out at the beginning of this age, and we are wise if we hold to it to the end. The statute is not only "in all your dwelling places" but also "throughout your generations." In later generations some might have thought the feast was out of date. Who knows — perhaps this very evil is what in the end reduced them to "feasts of the Jews."

This rule will meet us again in Leviticus 23, where we will see its place in God's plan for the ages. Here we look at it morally, as unfolding the precious grace of Israel's God. He would think of "the poor and stranger," and He would have His people think of them too. When the golden sheaves were being reaped and the ripe clusters gathered, the Israel of God was to remember "the poor and stranger," because Jehovah was the God of Israel. The reaper and the grape-gatherer were not to act out of a grasping, greedy spirit. Such a spirit strips the corners of the field and strips the vine bare. They were to act out of a large-hearted, genuine kindness that leaves a sheaf and a cluster "for the poor and stranger."

God wanted to develop a merciful spirit in His people. As they showed mercy, they would themselves be blessed, and would receive still more mercy (Matthew 5:7). The nation should remember God's kindness to them. They were all "strangers" and slaves in the land of Egypt (Exodus 22:21). So they ought to show kindness to any "strangers" among them. They were to let them glean in their fields and vineyards, and to make sure the reapers left something behind on purpose for the gleaners. The strangers were not of "the seed of Abraham according to the flesh." They had taken no part in the ploughing, the sowing or the reaping. Even so, Israel was not to cut down their share of God's goodness at harvest time.

But why is it brought in at this place? Why do we have a warning only about the harvest, and none about the grape gathering? Leviticus 19:9-10 warns about both. The answer appears to be this. This chapter traces the outline of God's ways with Israel. After the church is taken away, there will still be saints on earth who will have their part in heaven. So they are part of the crop in the field, though they will not form part of the church. This verse comes in just its proper place. It fills up the order of events. Leave it out, and there would be a gap in the history of Jehovah's ways.

Doesn't it seem rather strange that, after the two wave loaves have disappeared from the scene, good grain should still be found in "your field"?... How is it that, when these are gone, we hear of grain left in the corners of the field? Can the wave loaves picture all saints? Doesn't an instance like this confirm that true believers will be on the earth after the church has gone on high and before the day of Jehovah? There will be some little good grain.

God's thought in this verse goes far beyond social issues. When the harvest comes, the wave loaves will have disappeared, because the church will have been caught up to heaven. Then blessing will reach the remnant of Israel, the poor of the flock (Zechariah 11:7, 11) — represented here by the "poor." These will spread the gospel of the kingdom, and multitudes among the Gentiles will be saved — represented here by the "strangers." The church is where blessing reaches its high point. Even so, blessing will keep flowing after the church has gone.

She represents the faith found in the remnant, which makes no claim of right, but comes to glean in the fields of divine mercy. So she is called the Moabitess here. Her Gentile birth shuts her out from any legal claim to a portion in Israel. And yet God had made provision for just such a case... Here are the crumbs that fall from the Master's table, and they will prove for Ruth an abundance for all her need.

This clause hangs on Jehovah's instructions for keeping "the feast of weeks" each year. At that feast the people were to bring Him a freewill offering, in keeping with how He had blessed them (Deuteronomy 16:10). The New Testament joins the same two things: giving our thanks to God and our goods to the needy (Hebrews 13:15-16). Our worship will be incomplete and unacceptable if it lacks either one.

The words "the LORD spoke to Moses" introduce a new subject here. Let me say in passing that this gives an interesting help in classifying the subjects of the entire chapter. The first communication covers the Sabbath, the Passover, and the feast of unleavened bread. The second covers the wave sheaf, the wave loaves, and the ungleaned corners. After that comes a long interval that passes unnoticed, and then the stirring feast of trumpets, on the first day of the seventh month.

The Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of First-fruits, and Pentecost were the first four. These all came close together. Then there was an interval of about four months, during which there was no "Feast of Jehovah" and no "holy convocation" of the people at Jerusalem. A long pause fell between the Feast of Pentecost and the next feast, the Feast of Blowing of Trumpets. Through all of it Jehovah sent no fresh call to His people. The Lord had a purpose in this, and a lesson for us to learn. The meaning is perhaps that the first four feasts picture truths already fulfilled, while the last three picture truths not yet fulfilled. The long gap between Pentecost and the next feast perhaps pictures the more than 1900 years from the day of Pentecost to our own day.

God is inaugurating a fresh testimony. The trumpet is clearly a figure of His intervention to announce some signal change. It may be for judgment, as we find in some cases; it may be a distinct testimony in grace, as we know elsewhere. It is clearly a loud summons from God to people on the earth. Here, as we read, it is not merely a blowing of trumpets, but "a memorial" of blowing of trumpets. It is a recall of what had long passed out of memory — God calling to mind what had once been before Him, but long dead and gone.

The Feast of Trumpets is God's taking up Israel afresh to awaken them. Plainly then this feast comes after Passover and Pentecost, and stands quite apart from them. Those two are where our interest lies. So the first thing disclosed in it is God's loud summons to a people who once had a place before Him and again come into remembrance for mercy, not judgment.

"For the calling together of the assembly." This was the first occasion of their use. These trumpets were made of silver. That suggests that whatever Jehovah says to His people, He says it on the basis of redemption. In Luke's record of our Lord's discourse — one about events that fall at the same time as the feast of trumpets — we hear Him say, "your redemption is drawing near" (Luke 21:28). Comparing this with Matthew's account of the same discourse we read, "And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other" (Matt. 24:31). This is the answer to "the calling of the assembly." What is more, they are called to redemption, as the silver would show.

At this feast Israel are again reminded that their blessings do not come from their labours, but from the sacrifice of Christ. All their efforts to establish themselves in the land will prove useless. Disappointment and judgment will follow their toil and conflicts. If they are to have a sabbath they must learn to "do no servile work," and instead to "offer an offering made by fire to the LORD." Christ has done all the work, alone upon the cross.

A new subject starts here with the words, "the Lord spoke to Moses"... after that we have a long unnoticed gap, and then comes the stirring feast of trumpets, on the first day of the seventh month. This command leads us on to the time, now fast approaching, when the remnant of Israel will "blow the trumpet" for a memorial, calling to mind their long-lost glory, and stirring themselves up to seek the Lord.

Notice that, strictly speaking, all the feasts are pictures of what happens on earth and in connection with Israel. The one possible exception is the eighth day of tabernacles. The church period, as such, is the stretch of time from Pentecost to the seventh month.

At the very start of this closing period of God's dealings, what do we read? "A memorial proclaimed with blast of trumpets." God is beginning a fresh testimony. The trumpet is clearly a picture of His stepping in to announce a major change. It may be for judgment, as we find in some cases; it may be a distinct testimony in grace, as we know elsewhere. It is a loud summons from God to people on the earth.

It is helpful to notice that the word "memorial" here means "a remembrance." It is the same word used of the twelve stones taken out of Jordan. Will not the moment of Israel's awakening bring many things to their remembrance? "The first day of the month" points to a new beginning. Not in the first month as when God first led them out of Egypt but the seventh month, their second new beginning.

It is a recall of what had long passed out of memory. It is God calling to mind what had once been before Him, but long dead and gone. It is the recall of His ancient people on the earth. The Jew is brought into remembrance before God again. Hundreds, one might say thousands, of years had passed since they had stood before Him as His people. The return from Babylon was only a partial work. As a whole, Israel never returned, but stayed scattered across the world.

Israel had lost God's blessing through their own fault. The people should have reflected the light of the glory of the Lord, just as the moon reflects the sun, but that light had disappeared. Now the new moon, an image of the restored people, had begun to reappear. The full splendour of this light was not yet visible, but this first quarter moon pointed to the future display of the glory of the people of God.

We read this command to do no ordinary work at nearly every feast... it shows that in all God's dealings with man, with His heavenly people or with His earthly people, we can do nothing. Israel's return will not be our work, and it will not be the work of the Jew. It will be the work of God, Who will blow the trumpet.

Here, in the blowing of trumpets in the seventh month, we have the set time to favour Israel. Closely linked with it is the great day of atonement... Here alone Israel sees her sins put away by the One she has rejected until now, though He was offered long before... So the way opens for the feast of ingathering, when the people can enjoy the triumph of grace to the full.

The words "the Lord spoke to Moses" introduce a new subject here, and this helps us sort the subjects of the whole chapter. The first message gives the Sabbath, the Passover, and the feast of unleavened bread. The second gives the wave sheaf, the wave loaves, and the ungleaned corners. After that we have a long unnoticed gap, and then comes the soul-stirring feast of trumpets, on the first day of the seventh month.

The Feast of Trumpets is God taking up Israel afresh to awaken them. Undeniably then this feast is after and quite distinct from Passover and Pentecost, in which we have our interest. So the first thing disclosed in it is God's loud summons to a people who once had a place before Him and again come into remembrance for mercy, not judgment.

The blowing of trumpets signifies the regathering of Israel back to their land. Matthew 24:31 shows it: "And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." The trumpet speaks of clear, declared testimony. The Jews, so scattered for centuries, will be awakened to return to their land.

So the blowing of trumpets was another "holy convocation." Again, the people were to do no customary work. Human energy will have nothing to do with this great regathering of Israel (v. 25). It will be the work of God alone.

We read this command to do no ordinary work at almost every feast. Here it stands in very close connection with the blowing of the trumpet. It shows that in all God's dealings with man, with His heavenly people or with His earthly people, we can do nothing. It is not our work, and it will not be the work of the Jew that they return; it will be the work of God who will blow the trumpet.

The feast of trumpets is a distinct feast, and it is not directly connected with the land. There was an offering made by fire — God was acknowledged in the sacrifice — but the blowing of trumpets is what characterises it.

Notice that the word "memorial" here means "a remembrance." … "The first day of the month" shows a new beginning. Not in the first month, as when God first led them out of Egypt, but the seventh month — their second new beginning. On this day they have "a rest." … It seems that a moment is coming when they will lay down the things they are so busy with today, commercialism and politics. Then, at rest, they will have time to review their position in the sight of God. … What is more, Jehovah will get His rightful place among them again, as shown in the "offering by fire to Jehovah."

On the first day of the seventh month there is the feast of trumpets. This is the day of the new moon, speaking of a weak testimony raised up by the Lord. This testimony will grow steadily until the day of atonement on the 10th of the month (in repentance). Following this, the feast of tabernacles starts on the 15th of the month — at full moon, speaking of a full testimony.

The blood shed on this solemn day formed the basis of God's throne among the congregation. Because of it, a holy God could live among the people, in spite of all their uncleanness. "The tenth day of the seventh month" was a unique day in Israel. There was no other day in the year like it. The sacrifices of this one day formed the ground of God's dealing in grace, mercy, patience, and forbearance.

The feast of trumpets is closely linked with another great solemn day: "the day of atonement." … So after the blowing of the trumpets, eight days pass, and then we come to the day of atonement. Three things belong to it: affliction of soul, atonement for sin, and rest from labour. All these things will find their proper place in the experience of the Jewish remnant later on.

Affliction of soul clearly means repentance. We do not have to look far in the Word to find what that repentance will produce. We only need to turn to Zechariah 12:10-14. There we see the repentance of the remnant, who will be the election of grace (Romans 11:5), in its widest form. David stands for the royal line, Nathan for the prophets, Levi for the priests, and Shimei for the common people. All of them will share in that day. No privileged position will keep anyone out of that repentance who wants the blessing of God.

Atonement was not to be a matter of mere joy, in case it sank into lightness. Where is there an act set up by God that searches the heart like this?

Wherever there is real faith, there is real repentance. Where souls do not feel their sins, it is useless to expect the forgiveness of them. There is no light talk here about receiving the word with joy. There is deep self-judgment, resting on that most solemn and humbling scene where the Lord Jesus died for us. Second, no one pretended to work on that day. It was to be a sabbath day, and the work was Another's. They had no thought of doing anything towards atonement. They felt only a real brokenness of spirit in the presence of such incomparable mercy.

We have had Christ as our sacrifice in the Passover long ago. The Christian has no need of it a second time. To repeat the work for us would call its everlasting value into question, on the principle of the Epistle to the Hebrews. So it is really the work of Christ applied to Israel. They once had the testimony to the Lamb, but they refused it. … The day of atonement in the seventh month comes so long after the Passover. This shows, not that the work must be done over again, but that the same work will be applied a second time and in a distinct way — to Israel, as God pledged by His oath.

In Leviticus 25 we have the account of the great day of jubilee. On that day the trumpet will sound (v. 9), "and you shall return every man to his possession and you shall return every man to his family." v. 10. Now the trumpet of jubilee will sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, at the same time as this feast of atonement. This then is what is in view for Israel when they turn in heart to the Lord.

Atonement is the foundation, and glory is the stone at the top. Between these two points we have the resurrection of Christ (vv. 10-14), the gathering of the Church (vv. 15-21), the waking up of Israel to a sense of their long-lost glory (vv. 24-25), and their repentance and warm welcome of their Messiah (vv. 27-32).

Three things are joined together in Leviticus 23:27: a holy gathering, the afflicting of their souls, and an offering made by fire to Jehovah. God will gather Israel back and sift them under His government. Then they will afflict their souls, because they will see that the One who has saved them from the anger of the nations is none other than Jesus, whom they rejected, crucified and killed.

There will be deep mourning, intense grief, and genuine repentance. Under the mighty working of the Holy Spirit, the conscience of the remnant will recall the sins of the past: the neglect of the Sabbath, the breaking of the law, the stoning of the prophets, the piercing of the Son, the resistance of the Spirit!

Notice the solemn emphasis on two things: "you shall afflict your souls," and "you shall do no work at all." They set out God's way of blessing for His people then, and His way of blessing for sinners now. (1) A sense of their sinful condition, which means repentance. (2) Their complete dependence on the work of another to take their sins away.

God says, "whoever does any work on that very day, that person I will destroy from among his people." There was plenty of work for other days, but on this day there must be none. Man has no part at all in the task. Only the Saviour can do that work, and He did it by suffering for us… Anyone who dares to rest on grace without judging himself for his sins before God is trifling with Him. And anyone who dares to work puts himself, in a manner of speaking, on a level with Christ and God Himself.

The Christian cannot need it a second time. To repeat the work for us would call its everlasting value into question, on the principle of the Epistle to the Hebrews. So it is really the work of Christ applied to Israel… The Day of Atonement comes in the seventh month, so long after the Passover. This does not mean the work must be done over again. It means that God will make a second and distinct application of that work to Israel, as He pledged by His oath.

Whether for Israel or for the believer now, no work of man must be added to the glorious work already done for sinners. On the other hand, we must not take up this rest, bought at such a cost, with light and careless hearts. Israel were to "afflict their souls" on the day of atonement, just as at the Passover they were to eat the bitter herbs with the lamb.

Wherever there is genuine faith, there is genuine repentance; where souls do not feel their sins, it is vain to look for the forgiveness of them.

On that day the people were to rest from every kind of work, just as they did on the sabbath. At their other great feasts they stopped only the work of a servant; here they stopped everything. On the sabbath they rested in remembrance of God's rest after His six days' work in making the heavens and the earth. On the tenth day of the seventh month they rested, because another was doing a work for them — a work they could take no part in, yet one in which they had deep and urgent interests. Even so, they were not to sit at home, careless and unconcerned, while the High Priest was inside the sanctuary. They were to afflict their souls.

There was enough and to spare of work for other days; but for this day there must be none. Man has absolutely no part in the task. None but the Saviour can work for it, and He in suffering for us… the soul that dares to work puts itself, so to speak, on a level with Christ and God Himself. The work that alone can serve as a basis for atonement must be done before God by One who is God's own equal.

These are the two effects of grace. On one side, affliction of soul as they confess their sins. On the other, no mixing of anything of their own with what Christ suffered for them before God. Verses 29 and 30 repeat it with solemn emphasis: anyone who was not afflicted on that day would be cut off from his people, and anyone who did any work on that day God would destroy from among his people… The two moral realities, no work of man and true affliction of soul, mark the Day of Atonement for Israel.

God is showing the evil of sin, and His atonement by Christ for all who believe Him. To turn aside into merriness of heart at such a time is dangerous. The soul should be afflicted then, not carried away by music and singing, by a solo, a choir, or any other kind of excitement.

Could this be said so fittingly and emphatically to any other people? For a nation is in question here, the one chosen people of Jehovah. Were they not, more than any other people, the ones who boasted of their works? Trying to set up a righteousness of their own, they "stumbled at the stumbling-stone."… For that time, the Day of Atonement shut out everything but Christ, their propitiation and substitute. Their self-loathing will be as complete as their giving up of their own works… nothing can mix with His work.

Affliction of soul is clearly repentance… Here we see repentance at its widest, in the remnant who will be God's chosen by grace. David stands for the kingly line, Nathan for the prophets, Levi for the priests, and Shimei for the common people. All of them will be part of that day. No privileged position will keep anyone out of that repentance who wants the blessing of God.

Wherever there is genuine faith, there is genuine repentance: where souls do not feel their sins, it is vain to look for the remission of them. Instead of light talk about receiving the word with joy, there is deep self-judgment. It rests on that most solemn, humbling scene where the Lord Jesus died for us. And no one claimed the right to work on that day. It was to be a sabbath-day; the work was Another's.

Israel kept the day on the tenth day of the seventh month. It was a Sabbath of rest, and on it they were to afflict their souls. What is called "afflict" was fasting, the outward sign of inward sorrow over sin. When this was left out, the atonement did not profit anything. Only true faith shown by repentance gives the sinner a share in the great work of atonement.

The soul that dares to rest on grace without condemning itself for its sins before God is trifling with Him. It has not yet learned to hate its own unholiness as something completely at odds with God's character. And the soul that dares to work puts itself, so to speak, on a level with Christ and God Himself. The only work that can serve as the basis of atonement must be done before God by One who is God's own fellow.

They rested from all work. But they were not to sit at home idle and unconcerned while the High Priest was inside the sanctuary. They were to afflict their souls. Atonement was God's gracious provision for His people who had sinned. The people were not therefore to think lightly of it. If the High Priest was actively engaged on their behalf, it was because they had sinned. So God required them to afflict their souls. Anyone who refused faced the penalty of being cut off from his people.

Affliction of soul is repentance. To see what that repentance will produce, we have only to turn to Zechariah 12:10-14. There the repentance in the remnant who will be the election of grace (Romans 11:5) is seen in its widest character. David — the kingly line; Nathan — the prophetic line; Levi — the priestly line; Shimei — the common people. All will be involved in that day. No privileged position will keep anyone who wants God's blessing out of that repentance.

It is true that Christ died for the nation, and the nation — that is, the remnant that comes into that place before God — will own its sin in rejecting the Messiah. But every individual must own his sin "apart," alone in the presence of God. That is how he is brought under the value and efficacy of the sacrifice of Christ. This was foreshadowed indeed in the directions for the Day of Atonement.

The great public summons now given brings on the day of atonement for Israel — that is, their coming in personal humiliation under it — and this was separating in its character. It was a day for them to afflict their souls, stopping entirely from all worldly employment: "You shall do no work." Whatever soul was not afflicted was to be cut off, and so it will be. We find it in Joel 2; we find their character in Zephaniah 3:12; we find the affliction itself in Zechariah 12. Their acknowledgment, in words, of the value of that which made peace for the mourners is in Isaiah 53.

There is a solemn warning in Leviticus 23:29. It seems to refer to the ungodly in the land of Israel, the followers of antichrist. Zechariah writes of them, "In the whole land, declares the LORD, two thirds shall be cut off and perish." God will not have among His people in that day any who have not truly repented.

First, his soul was to be afflicted in that day, not to be merry. Wherever there is genuine faith, there is genuine repentance. Where souls do not feel their sins, it is useless to expect forgiveness for them. Instead of light talk about receiving the word with joy, there is deep self-judgment. It rests on that most solemn, humbling scene where the Lord Jesus died for us. Secondly, there was no pretending to work on that day; it was to be a sabbath day, the work was Another's.

They rested from all work. But they were not to sit at home listless and unconcerned while the High Priest was inside the sanctuary. They were to afflict their souls… Anyone who refused to do that exposed himself to the penalty of being cut off from his people. If anyone did any work on that day, destruction from among his people would be the due reward of his deeds. Two things they were to learn — and not they only. First, another made atonement for their sins on their behalf — yet they were not to think lightly of sins, which required, as we now know, the death and the shed blood of the holy Lamb of God. Second, God will have the sinner admit that he can have no hand in that work.

There was enough and to spare of work for other days; but for this day there must be none. Man has absolutely no part in the task. Only the Saviour can work for it, and He did so by suffering for us… The soul that presumes to work shows its presumption. It puts itself, so to speak, on a level with Christ and God Himself. The only work that can serve as the basis for atonement must be done before God by One who is God's own equal.

The other command, "no work," will deliver them from any attempt to work out a righteousness for themselves. How carefully God lays this command down. Like Israel of old, who rested on the day of atonement, so will the remnant. Aaron did all there was to do on that day when he went in alone, with the blood, and sprinkled the mercy seat.

In connection with atonement the meaning is most simple. Whether for Israel or for the believer now, no work of man must supplement the glorious work which has been done for sinners. On the other hand, the rest so dearly purchased for us is not to be received with light and indifferent hearts: Israel were to "afflict their souls" on the day of atonement, just as at the passover they were to eat the bitter herbs with the lamb.

The Lord would destroy the one who ventured to do any work on that day. Sin, and its consequences, are no light subjects in God's eyes, nor were they to be in the people's. They will enter fully into that when the mourning of Zechariah 12:10-14 takes place, as they look on Him whom they pierced.

In Leviticus 23:28 Jehovah commanded, "You shall not do any work on that very day," so that those who worked were rebels, disobeying the command of God… God will not tolerate self-will among His people; such will not enter into His rest.

First, you must afflict your soul. To translate that sentence into one New Testament word is simple. It means repentance… Does repentance earn salvation? Does it win it? Is it a work? It isn't a work, because we read that they had to afflict their souls, and do no manner of work. To neglect the one, or try the other, brought death upon them. So repentance is not a work. What is it, then? You find deep down in your soul that you are a guilty sinner. Yet God, in His love, offers you salvation, and you get this thought: "God is good and I am bad." In short, you get right thoughts of God and yourself.

Leviticus 23 gives us the Day of Atonement from the Lord's point of view. The first thing we see is that it falls on the tenth day of the seventh month. The number ten in Scripture speaks of responsibility towards man and towards God. There were ten commandments. Now every failure to meet these responsibilities must be faced, met and covered. Three times we read that they are to afflict their souls (verses 27, 29, 32). Three times we read, "You shall not do any work" (verses 28, 30, 31). Three times we read the word "atonement," or covering.

There was enough and to spare of work for other days; but for this day there must be none. Man has absolutely no part in the task. Only the Saviour can work for it, and He did so by suffering for us… And the soul that dares to work shows that pride by putting itself, so to speak, on a level with Christ and God Himself. The only work that can serve as a basis for atonement must be done before God by One who is God's equal.

In Hebrew, "Sabbath of rest" is "Sabbath sabbatizing." Nobody was to do any work on that great day. The work was completely on God's side, and man must not try to add to it. But let us also remember how this applies to a coming day. Israel's great national day of atonement and repentance will come. They will look on the One they pierced, and the great mourning and grief of soul will take place (Zechariah 12:9-12). Then the glorious Sabbath will follow.

Could God have said this so fittingly and so forcefully to any other people? A nation is in view here — the one people the LORD had chosen. Were they not, above all others, the people who boasted about their works? Trying to set up a righteousness of their own, they "stumbled over the stumbling stone."… This does not mean that works will not follow. But for that time the Day of Atonement shut out everything except Christ, their propitiation and substitute. So their self-loathing will be as complete as their giving up of their own works.

The other command, "no work," will save them from trying to work out a righteousness for themselves. See how carefully God lays this command down. Israel of old rested on the day of atonement, and the remnant will rest in the same way. Aaron the high priest did all there was to do on that day, when he went in alone with the blood and sprinkled the mercy seat.

First, he was to afflict his soul that day, not to be merry. Wherever faith is real, repentance is real. Where people do not feel their sins, it is useless to expect forgiveness for them. Instead of light talk about receiving the word with joy, there is deep self-judgment. It rests on that most solemn, humbling scene, where the Lord Jesus died for us. Second, no one claimed to work on that day. It was to be a sabbath day, and the work was Another's.

This was one of the most solemn days in the whole year. Apart from the Sabbath, it was the only occasion when God commanded the people to stop work entirely. On the day of atonement they were also to afflict their souls, and that by a statute for ever.

On that day the people were to rest not only from ordinary work, as at all their great feasts, but from every kind of work, just as they did on the sabbath. On the sabbath they rested in memory of God's rest after His six days' work of making the heavens and the earth. On the tenth day of Tisri they rested because a work was being done for them. They could take no active part in it, yet they had special and pressing interests in it.

There was plenty of work and more for other days, but for this day there must be none. Man has no part at all in the task. Only the Saviour can do that work, and He did it by suffering for us… And the soul that dares to work shows its presumption: it puts itself, so to speak, on a level with Christ and God Himself.

They kept the day itself on the tenth day of the seventh month. It was a Sabbath of rest, and on it they were to afflict their souls. This afflicting was fasting, the outward sign of inward sorrow over sin. When they left it out, the atonement did them no good.

Notice how solemn the emphasis is on two things: "you shall afflict yourselves," and "you shall not do any work." They set out God's way of blessing for His people then, and His way of blessing for sinners now. (1) A sense of their sinful condition, which means repentance. (2) Their complete dependence on the work of another to remove their sins.

Wherever there is genuine faith, there is genuine repentance. Where souls do not feel their sins, there is no use looking for forgiveness. Instead of talking lightly of receiving the word with joy, there is deep self-judgment, resting on that most solemn, humbling scene where the Lord Jesus died for us. Second, no one claimed to work on that day. It was to be a sabbath day, and the work was Another's.

Next, Scripture counts the day from "the evening and the morning." This matters greatly for other parts of Scripture. The Spirit of God never forgets it, but people today almost always let it slip… Even scholars bring in their western notions from the familiar habit of counting the day from morning to evening.

Here the stress falls on doing away with all work on that day, and even more strongly on the sorrow of heart and soul that was to mark the people. Seen in its setting among the other feasts, then, the day points forward to that great spiritual awakening in Israel. It will produce repentance of unusual depth and reality, as Zechariah 12:10-14 foretells.

They will be made to feel their guilt and be afflicted. They will also be led to see how effective the blood is, and they will find perfect peace — a sabbath of rest to their souls.

There is another way of dividing them. Take the words "And the LORD spoke to Moses" as the title of each part: the sabbath, the passover, and the unleavened bread (vv. 1-8); the firstfruits and Pentecost (vv. 9-22); the feast of trumpets (vv. 23-25); and the day of atonement (vv. 26-32). Last comes the feast of tabernacles (v. 33 to the end). This second way of dividing them gives us the moral distinction of the feasts; that is, the ways of God in them.

In this last feast we have Israel's great day of rejoicing in the kingdom. These last three feasts all fall in the seventh month, and they picture the nation's last deep searching of heart. The prophetic Word will go out to them. It will wake them and give them life, and they will come to own their sins. When the nation repents, God will forgive the nation and restore them in public as the people of the LORD. In that day they will look back over all God's ways with them. They will begin at their rescue from Egypt and end with the kingdom of God set up in power.

The feast of tabernacles is the joy of the thousand-year kingdom, when Israel have left the wilderness where their sins put them. So we find that it took place after the increase of the earth had been gathered in. As we learn elsewhere, it came not only after the harvest but after the vintage as well. That is, it came after separation by judgment, and after the final execution of judgment on the earth, when heavenly and earthly saints should be all gathered in. Israel was to rejoice seven days before the LORD.

Israel could not keep the feast of tabernacles in the wilderness. To keep it, the people had to be in the land, as is plain. Notice too that from Joshua until Nehemiah they never kept it as the law directed (Neh. 8:17). Israel had forgotten that they had been strangers in the wilderness. Joy, without the memory of this, tends to ruin; the very enjoyment of the blessing leads to it.

By bringing in the eighth day here, God shows us how the earthly blessing connects with the heavenly glory of resurrection. Resurrection points to heaven, and nothing but heavenly places can satisfy it. So God hints here at a link with glory on high. At the same time the chapter fully recognises a day of rest and blessedness for the earth and the Jewish people.

Surely, Jerusalem means Jerusalem; nations mean nations; and the feast of tabernacles means the feast of tabernacles. Is there anything incredible in this? Surely nothing, except to man's reason, which rejects all that lies beyond its narrow range. The feast of tabernacles will yet be celebrated in the land of Canaan. The nations of the saved will go up there to share in its glorious and holy celebrations.

In the Gospel of John, they are called "feasts of the Jews." They had long ceased to be the LORD's feasts. He was shut out. They did not want Him. There is a solemn lesson in this. Man's hands soon spoil what God sets up. But what a blessing to know this: the thirsty soul who feels the barrenness and drought of empty religious form has only to flee to Jesus and drink freely.

On the first day of the seventh month there is the feast of trumpets. This is the day of the new moon, speaking of a weak testimony raised up by the Lord. This testimony will grow until the day of atonement, kept on the 10th of the month in repentance. After that, the feast of tabernacles starts on the 15th of the month — at full moon, speaking of a full testimony. This feast foreshadows the millennial blessing into which the remnant will enter.

The feast of tabernacles took place after the produce of the earth had been gathered in. As we learn elsewhere, it came not only after the harvest but after the vintage too. That is, it came after separation by judgment, and after the final execution of judgment on the earth, when heavenly and earthly saints will all be gathered in. Israel was to rejoice seven days before Jehovah.

The final feast began on the fifteenth day of the seventh month. It is the feast which comes after the sin of Israel has been removed... The feast of tabernacles foreshadows the coming glory of the millennium, Israel's glorious inheritance, and the Gentiles gathered with redeemed Israel in the kingdom... How beautiful is the order in these three last holy gatherings! The blowing of the trumpets — the remnant of Israel called and gathered. The day of atonement — Israel in national repentance, looking on Him whom they pierced, when He comes the second time. The feast of tabernacles — the millennium.

What a scene! Who would want to strip it of its beauty by a vague system of interpretation wrongly called spiritualising? Surely, Jerusalem means Jerusalem; nations mean nations; and the feast of tabernacles means the feast of tabernacles. Is there anything incredible in this?... Israel will rest in the cool shade of their vines and fig trees. And all the earth will rejoice in the government of "the Prince of Peace."

The Feast of Tabernacles took place at the end of the harvest, a time of plenty and rejoicing. It was a faint picture of the type being fulfilled in the days to come. During it, the Israelites by birth were to live in booths, to remind them how God had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They might forget this in the comfort of the land, and in the joy of the generous reign of their Messiah, with all that comes with it: peace and plenty never known before in the world. We must not forget the pit we were dug out of. With all the wonderful blessings that are ours, we are still sinners saved by grace.

We read in Leviticus 23 it "shall be the feast of tabernacles for seven days to THE LORD [JEHOVAH]" (v. 34). Verse 36 tells us, "Seven days you shall offer an offering made by fire to THE LORD [JEHOVAH]."... Verse 40, "You shall rejoice before THE LORD [JEHOVAH] your God."

They forgot that they had once been strangers and pilgrims, and so they neglected this feast for a long time. From the days of Joshua down to the time of Nehemiah, the feast of tabernacles had never once been celebrated. The weak group that came back from captivity in Babylon did what no one had done, even in the bright days of Solomon.

Look at Leviticus 23 and you will see that the feast of tabernacles completes the cycle of feasts. So it sets out the end and result of all God's ways with His earthly people. They have forfeited everything under responsibility. Yet by His grace, and through the work of Christ, He will set them in perfect blessing in their own land, "after the harvest and the vintage." So joy through the perfect period of seven days will be the fitting expression of their sense of Jehovah's goodness and grace.

Chapter 22 ended with a solemn reminder to Israel of the holiness of Jehovah, who had brought them up from the land of Egypt to be their God. Chapter 23 opens with the fact that He wanted to have the people He had redeemed assembled before Him. A "convocation" is a "calling together," and this was to mark the feasts of the Lord.

"Holy Convocations." These suggest collective gatherings. It seems our God delights to have His people together with a single thought in their minds — to minister to Him together. He would guard them from any intrusion of the fleshly mind of man by reminding us that they are "HOLY"!

Twice over we get the words, "You shall do no servile work in it." On the first day, and on the eighth day, there must be no servile work at all. The first day would tell us of the entry into that feast; this speaks of the Kingdom. The eighth day speaks of a new beginning, and reaches on to the eternal state. Whether it is entry into the Kingdom or our part in eternity, our right of entry is the same. It is only by the precious blood of Christ.

They were to do no servile work. In that day God's people will know for sure that all their blessing depends on the goodness of God, not on their own efforts. Under the bondage of the law of Sinai, Israel had been trying to gain blessing on the principle of works. Their failure and sins only brought God's judgment on them. Now, under the New Covenant, God is not demanding from them. He pours out His blessing freely through the work of Christ on the cross.

That feast of seven days was a time of great rejoicing after the harvest had been gathered in. Israelites were to make booths of branches of trees and live in them during that week. This teaches us that Israel will have wonderful safety as well as pleasant weather during the Millennium.

In this one feature the Feast of Tabernacles stands distinct from all the others: it has an eighth day. No other feast mentions one. The seven days, we said, were glory for the earth, but there is the "eighth day" too. This opens heavenly and eternal glory! So it is not "days" now, but this one "day," "the eighth day." It has a beginning, but it will never have an end.

We come now in this feast to "a holy convocation." Whatever we go through in our own life in this world, we must never forget the pleasure God has in gathering His people together. What a privilege to come together, free from lawful everyday tasks — that is, from servile work — and to enjoy the circle of blessing that is ours in Christ. We are not to take up that service for Christ as servile work. We are not to worship God in a servile way. Instead, in the liberty of sonship by the Spirit, we praise and worship the Father in Spirit and in truth.

There were to be special sacrifices each day of the feast. In Numbers 29:12 to 40 we get a detailed account of these sacrifices. The burnt offering included bulls, telling perhaps of the value and worth of our great Sacrifice. The rams told of His devotedness even to death. The lambs told of His gentleness, and of the special way in which He came as the Lamb of God. All the sacrifices had to be without blemish. All declared His spotless purity. All were a pleasing aroma to the LORD. The sin offering is specially mentioned for each of the seven days, and specially noted for the eighth day (Num. 29:38).

"The eighth day" in Scripture seems to have a special significance. Seven days completed the week, ending with the Sabbath on the seventh day. The following day was "the morrow after the Sabbath," or the first day of a new week. But here it is not called the first day, or "the morrow after the Sabbath," but "the eighth day." In verses 11, 15 and 16 we read of "the morrow after the Sabbath." These verses tell in type of the resurrection of Christ and the coming of the Holy Spirit. But when we come to verses 36 and 39, we do not get "the morrow after the Sabbath," but "the eighth day." In these verses we have, in picture, an entirely new beginning.

Now just a word about the eighth day. It is connected with the seven, yet distinct from them. It carries our thoughts on to the beginning of that time of blessedness which will follow the millennial reign of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the eternal state, when the tabernacle of God will be with men. He will tabernacle not then over them, but with them (Rev. 21:3). As the eighth day, it was the start of a new week, a stretch of time which, as far as the picture goes, never ended. We come to the start of a new week, but we never reach its close. So it symbolises the eternal state, which will begin, but never end.

By bringing in the eighth day in this remarkable way, God shows us how the earthly blessing is joined to the heavenly glory of resurrection. Resurrection points to heaven, and can never satisfy itself except in heavenly places. So this day hints at a link with glory on high. At the same time there is the fullest possible recognition of a day of rest and blessedness for the earth and the Jewish people.

Everything earthly comes to an end — even the Millennial Kingdom has a time limit… In picture, "the eighth day" is Eternity. The bliss and glory of the millennial age is only the entrance hall into the kingdom which will know no end. This was the day when the rejected Messiah stood in Solomon's city and cried, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink" (John 7:37). The ritual of the Feast of Tabernacles, all pointing to Himself, was in full swing, but HE was unwanted. It was true then, and it is true still. Hearts that religious ceremony cannot satisfy find full satisfaction and rest in Christ.

We come now in this feast to "a holy convocation." Whatever we each go through in our own life in this world, we must never forget the pleasure God has in gathering His people together… What a privilege, free from legitimate things — servile work — to come together and enjoy the circle of blessing which is ours in Christ. We are not to take up service for Christ as servile work. We are not to worship God in a servile way. Instead, in the liberty of sonship by the Spirit, we praise and worship the Father in Spirit and in truth.

Verses 37 and 38 sum up these set times. Again they insist that these are "feasts of the Lord," and that the offerings go "to the Lord," all on the days appointed. Besides these there were gifts, vows and freewill offerings, which they were to "give to the Lord." The Lord was to be the Object of their lives.

The idea of these feasts is the gathering of the people round Jehovah for some cause or other, a "holy convocation."

Having completed the outline of this final feast, the Spirit of God sums the matter up in verse 37. This is the third time in the chapter that He draws our attention to the feasts being holy convocations (see also verses 2 and 4). He says it again as each feast is detailed (see verses 3, 7, 8, 21, 24, 27, 35 and 36). How essential it is for the saints to observe the important place their gatherings have in the thoughts of God. The writer of Hebrews realised this when he wrote, "not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near" (Hebrews 10:25).

We learn from Lev. 23:37 what "an offering by fire to Jehovah" is. First there is the burnt offering, which tells of the acceptance before God of His saints in all the fragrance and efficacy of Christ's death. Then there is the oblation, which engages us before God with the perfections of His Son, shown in His holy life on earth. "A sacrifice" is doubtless a peace offering. In it the saints have communion with God about His Son, who glorified Him in death and brought them near in righteousness and peace. The offering by fire ends with "drink offerings," which, being in the plural, magnify the joy that comes through the work of the cross.

Each feast has its proper time and proper order in the chapter and we must take care to keep to this order. How could we know the blessing of the feast of Tabernacles if we did not begin with the cross of Christ? "In their seasons" would show a Divine order, worked out according to plan. Not like the world, which would gladly take up the Kingdom blessing but ignore the great necessity of founding it all on the DEATH of Christ. God has His own way and His own time in working things out, and we must work to this plan if the blessings of these things are to be ours.

Looking at the feasts separately, we have the Sabbath, the Passover, the feast of unleavened bread, the first-fruits, Pentecost, the feast of trumpets, the day of atonement, and the feast of tabernacles. That would make eight in all. But the Sabbath clearly holds a unique and independent place of its own… So, strictly speaking, Israel's first great feast was the Passover, and their seventh was the feast of tabernacles. That is to say, once we look past the picture, we have full redemption; and, last of all, we have the millennial glory.

This revelation begins with the sabbath, which is here grouped with the set feasts, the appointed times, though many see it as distinct from them... Although the seventh day was grouped with the appointed times, it also differed from them in important ways, and that appears from verses 4 and 37, 38 of this chapter. Putting it at the start of this chapter was surely meant to impress on the people that no set time of rejoicing, and no holy gathering, was to override the lasting ordinance of the sabbath day and its proper keeping. For it was a sign between Jehovah and Israel (Exodus 31:13, 17).

The sabbath comes first, as the beginning of the feasts. Then we begin again, with the sabbath left out. Why? Because the sabbath has a character altogether peculiar to itself. As a plain matter of fact, Israel kept all the other feasts once a year, but the sabbath every week. So there is a clear line of separation, and the second beginning makes sense.

Whatever else comes out, God is never tired of bringing in the sabbath. The reason is good and plain. The sabbath, in its full meaning, is the final result of all God's ways... whatever He may work, He works to this end — the rest of God. I do not say rest for God, as if He needed it. It is His own rest. And it is not only a rest that God will bring about, a rest that will satisfy His mind and affections. It is a rest He will share, in one way or another, with all who are His.

These offerings were to come from hearts touched with a sense of Jehovah's goodness. They came from people who wanted to do what gave Him pleasure, as the burnt offering expresses. A vow would be a special mark of devotion to the will of God. A freewill offering was the simple desire to give God something back for His generosity and goodness. The solemn feasts stirred the hearts of God's people. They were fitting occasions for ministering to Him who kept ministering to them out of His endless resources.

Verses 37 and 38 sum up these set times. They insist again that these are "feasts of the Lord." The offerings were to be made "to the Lord," all on the days appointed. Besides these came gifts, vows and freewill offerings, which they were to "give to the Lord." The Lord was to be the Object of their lives.

In the light of that sacrifice, how petty are all legal vows! We may well bless God that grace has put an end to such vows. The only One fit to make them is He who has fulfilled His own vows and paid them in the presence of the Lord's people (Psalm 116:14-18).

There are times in our lives when we feel a deep concern about matters that touch the things of God. Then we feel the need to give ourselves to the Lord in a settled way, so that we are available for His interests... It is not a duty. It is a privilege, open to anyone who really wants to commit themselves to God in a settled way, so that He can use them. It all rests on the free will of the giver; nothing here is required.

It was when they had gathered in the produce of the land, when the harvest was past, and the vintage over. God's dealings in judgment with the living will have taken this course. The harvest is the kind of judgment where the Lord separates the good from the bad. The vintage is where He will trample down wicked religion unsparingly.

The feast of tabernacles took place after the earth's increase had been gathered in. As we learn elsewhere, this was not only after the harvest but after the vintage also. That is, it came after separation by judgment, and after the final execution of judgment on the earth, when heavenly and earthly saints should be all gathered in. Israel was to rejoice seven days before Jehovah.

The eighth day is always a new beginning… At the beginning of the chapter, God showed that He had set His heart upon a "Sabbath of rest". Now, at the close, He finds His rest, where His people can rest with Him, first, in the millennium, and finally in the eternal state.

How sweet to read of that first day of the feast! The Lord offers rest, even now, to all who come to Him, and to all who take His yoke (Matt. 11:28-30), but in the days to come there is to be a further rest, when the curse shall largely be done away, and the Prince of Peace shall reign.

In this one feature the Feast of Tabernacles stands distinct from all the others; it has an eighth day. The seven days, we said, were glory for the earth, but there is the "eighth day" too. This opens heavenly and eternal glory! So it is not "days" now, but this one "day," "the eighth day." Therefore it has a beginning, but it shall never have an end.

The Eighth Day tells us of this long Sabbath of Eternity… In Genesis we read that "He rested on the seventh day from all His work that He had done" (Gen. 2:2). But sin soon broke in on God's rest. So the Son of God must say, "My Father is working until now, and I am working" (John 5:17)… But "there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God" (Heb. 4:9). Sin has spoiled the rest of the seventh day, but there yet remains the rest of the eighth day.

They forgot that they had been strangers and pilgrims, and so they neglected this feast for a long time. From the days of Joshua down to the time of Nehemiah, Israel never once kept the feast of tabernacles. The feeble remnant that came back from the Babylonian captivity did what had not been done even in the bright days of Solomon… What a happy moment, when the heavenly and the earthly shall meet, as shown in "the first day" and "the eighth day" of the feast of tabernacles!

It was the last day, the great one, of the feast; and the Lord in John 7:37 stood and cried, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water." But this He spoke of the Spirit, says the Evangelist — the Spirit whom those believing on Him were to receive. The Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

Here Israel sees her sins put away by Him whom she has rejected all through this present age, though He was offered long before. Once she has been called to repentance, they look on Him whom they pierced. That is how the way is opened for the feast of ingathering. Then the people can enjoy to the full the triumph of grace and see the completion of all God's ways with them in the great feast of tabernacles.

Palm branches are named here, and Scripture connects this tree with righteousness. Jeremiah 10:5 says, "They are upright as the palm tree" (an older translation), and Psalm 92:12 says, "The righteous flourish like the palm tree." During the reign of Christ on earth, righteousness will prevail. It will not only show in all the homes of Israel; it will fill the whole kingdom of the Son of Man.

"Palm branches" express the joy of complete deliverance (Lev. 23:40; John 12:13). God had brought them safely through their terrible time of appointed suffering, called "the great tribulation." Now they triumph in the triumph of their God. The palm is the only tree named in the building of the millennial temple. It is also named mainly in connection with the Feast of Tabernacles, the last and closing joyful feast of Israel.

Its boughs were used at the Feast of Tabernacles, a season of joy; but at the captivity and since, it is a symbol of sorrow. The captives hung their harps on such trees during their exile, and the Psalmist spoke of it in prophecy.

In the glad days of harvest, when they had gathered in the fruit of the land, it was their solemn admission that after their rescue from Egypt they had wandered so long in the dreary desert. It bore witness to thankful joy that those now in the promised land had once known the wilderness. They are indeed to keep the feast with rejoicing, but the memory of wilderness shame and sorrow is there to sober and yet deepen the joy.

The palm branches speak of victory and joy, the willows of the brook of trial and sorrow. These had to be woven together on the strong frame of the splendid trees and leafy trees, which speak to us of the infallible Word of the God who cannot lie. We must not leave out those splendid and leafy trees as we build our booths of palm and willow. No experience can bring us lasting profit if the Word of God has no place in it.

The other day I stood near an elderly Christian at the open grave of his beloved wife. I asked him, "How are you?" He replied, "I have a wonderful Saviour." He had gathered his palm branch in his sorrow, and he was a triumphant man.

They forgot that they had been strangers and pilgrims, and so they neglected this feast for a long time. From the days of Joshua down to the time of Nehemiah, no one ever kept the feast of tabernacles. The weak remnant that returned from exile in Babylon did what even the bright days of Solomon never saw… How refreshing it must have been to those who had hung their harps on the willows of Babylon to find themselves under the shade of the willows of Canaan!

Look at Leviticus 23, and you will see that the feast of tabernacles completes the cycle of feasts. So it sets out the end and result of all God's ways with His earthly people. They have forfeited everything under responsibility. Now, through the work of Christ, He will set them in His grace, in perfect blessing in their own land, "after the harvest and the vintage."

This closing feast, like the feast of unleavened bread, occupies a whole week. The seven days of unleavened bread signify the whole course of the Christian's lifetime in this world (1 Cor. 5:8); the seven days of the feast of tabernacles signify the whole millennial period of blessing for Israel.

They were to keep this feast for seven days in a row. It is joy — full and complete joy. The joy is not measured by the size of the blessing, as at Pentecost. It is joy because God had blessed them in all the work of their hands. So of course they ought to rejoice. The spirit of that day belongs to us, although its fulfilment has not yet come.

In the glad days when they had gathered in the fruit of the land, the feast was their solemn admission of this: after God brought them out of Egypt, they had lived so long as wanderers in the dreary desert. Their thankful joy testified that the people now in the promised land had once known the wilderness… Now they are to keep the feast with rejoicing. But they keep it with the memorial of wilderness shame and sorrow, to chasten the joy and yet deepen it.

We read in Leviticus 23 that it "shall be the feast of tabernacles for seven days to THE LORD [JEHOVAH]" (v. 34). Verse 36 tells us, "For seven days you shall offer an offering made by fire to THE LORD [JEHOVAH]."… Verse 40, "You shall rejoice before THE LORD [JEHOVAH] your God." Verse 41, "You shall celebrate it as a feast to THE LORD [JEHOVAH] for seven days in the year."

At the close of our chapter we read, "And Moses declared to the children of Israel the feasts of the Lord." That was their true character and their original title. But the Gospel of John calls them "feasts of the Jews." They had long ceased to be Jehovah's feasts. He was shut out. They did not want Him.

But sadly, they showed little heart for entering into God's thought about this most delightful feast. They forgot that they had been strangers and pilgrims, and so they neglected this feast for a long time. From the days of Joshua down to the time of Nehemiah, Israel never once celebrated the feast of tabernacles. It was left to the feeble remnant that returned from the captivity in Babylon to do what had not been done even in the bright days of Solomon.

"Everyone who is left of all the nations that came against Jerusalem will go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles."… Surely Jerusalem means Jerusalem. Nations mean nations. And the feast of tabernacles means the feast of tabernacles.

It was this living in booths for seven days, not on the eighth, that gave this Feast its usual name. It was the Feast of Ingathering; but Israel lived in booths during it. Yet the booths were not made of tents. They were made of the fruit of beautiful trees, chosen freely, and of branches of tall palms, so typical of the land then. They were to use boughs of leafy trees or brushwood, such as myrtle, and willows of the brooks.

In the days of glad enjoyment, when they had gathered in the fruit of the land, this was their solemn admission: after their deliverance from Egypt they had been strangers for so long in the dreary desert. Then, sadly, came their rebellion in the day of testing in the wilderness. There their fathers put God to the test instead of walking in dependence, obedience and thankfulness — and that generation was ruined. Now they are to keep the feast with rejoicing, but with the memorial of wilderness shame and sorrow to chasten and yet heighten the joy. Such joy needs a reminder like this, in case joy on its own becomes a danger, even death.

Verse 42 of our chapter makes this even clearer. The right to keep the Feast of Tabernacles in the appointed way depends on birth, not on works. Even at the Feast of the Passover there is no hint that only Israelites by birth might put the blood on the door, and we know that a "mixed multitude" went up out of Egypt (Ex. 12:38). There is even provision for the stranger who wished to keep the Feast of the Passover (Ex. 12:48). But the Feast of Tabernacles depends on birth. And the right to enter the Heavenly Kingdom also depends on birth. "Unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3). The new birth alone, without our slavish works, gives the right of entry there.

The Jews, it appears, hold that only an Israelite by birth could keep the feast of tabernacles — that is, live in booths — however widely the joy was shared. There is a clear reason for this. Israel as a people had been in the wilderness, strangers and wanderers, as they are now. In Zechariah 14:19 the nations are to go up and keep the feast of tabernacles. The sin of the Jews was that they would not acknowledge mercy shown to the nations. The nations must bow and join in the joy of mercy shown to the Jews. If they do not, this will be their sin, and God will judge them for it, because they would not submit to Israel's grace.

Sadly, it seems they had little heart to enter into God's thought about this most delightful ordinance. They forgot that they had been strangers and pilgrims, so they neglected this feast for a long time. From the days of Joshua down to the time of Nehemiah, Israel never once kept the feast of tabernacles. The feeble remnant that returned from exile in Babylon did what had never been done, even in the bright days of Solomon.

It was a time of joy and rejoicing. Their hearts went back to the time when the Lord led them through the wilderness as pilgrims and strangers, with no house or home, and only booths to live in. The Lord would never have us forget our wilderness pathway. He says, "You shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that He might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart" (Deut. 8:2).

The feast was called Tabernacles, or booths — succoth — because for all seven days they were to live in booths, succoth (v. 42). The booths were made of palms, leafy branches, and willows from the brook, nachal, to remind them of their life in the wilderness (v. 43). At the start of that life they came to palm trees (Ex. 15:27), and it closed at the brook Zered (Deut. 2:14). They kept the feast after they had gathered in their grain, wine, and oil, resting and rejoicing when the year's work was over. This pictures the rest that still remains, and the joy that will come when all their troubles on earth are over and Messiah is reigning over them.

In the glad days when they had gathered in the fruit of the land, they solemnly admitted that after God delivered them from Egypt they had travelled a long time in the dreary desert… They are surely to keep the feast with rejoicing, but with the memorial of wilderness shame and sorrow to chasten the joy, and so to heighten it. This was for Israel still on earth, for man not raised from the dead though in a day of glory. Joy then needs such a remembrance, in case joy alone should become a danger, if not death.

In this second mention of the feast we are told that all Israelites by birth were to live in booths. It was a witness that God had made them live as pilgrims in booths under His shadow, in what was like a houseless, homeless wilderness. It was the feast of ingathering.

The Jews, it appears, hold that none but an Israelite by birth could keep the feast of tabernacles — that is, live in booths — whatever the shared joy might be. There is a clear reason for this. Israel as such had been in the wilderness, strangers and wanderers, as they are now. In Exodus 12:44, bought servants were to be circumcised and keep the Passover. They were redeemed members of the household, set apart to God by circumcision. Now in Zechariah 14:19 the Gentiles are to go up and keep the feast of tabernacles. The sin of the Jews was that they would not acknowledge mercy shown to Gentiles. Gentiles must bow and join in the joy of mercy shown to Israel; if they do not, this will be their sin.

They forgot that they had once been strangers and pilgrims, and so they neglected this feast for a long time. From the days of Joshua down to the time of Nehemiah, Israel never once kept the feast of tabernacles. The weak remnant who came back from captivity in Babylon did what no one had done even in the bright days of Solomon: "And all the assembly of those who had returned from the captivity made booths and lived in the booths, for from the days of Jeshua the son of Nun to that day the people of Israel had not done so. And there was very great rejoicing" (Neh. 8:17).

The Israelites by birth were to live in booths to remind them how God had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They might forget this in the comfort of the land, and in the joy of their Messiah's generous reign, with all its peace and plenty never known before in the world. We must not forget the pit we were dug out of — that we are, after all, with all the wonderful blessings that are ours, sinners saved by grace.