Leviticus 23:33-44
THE NEXT feast, the feast of atonement, tells of the bitter sorrow of Israel when their eyes are opened to the fact that their Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, has already come to them and they have not received Him, but had murdered Him. Then they will receive Him and they will ask, “What are these wounds in Thine hands?” Then shall He answer, “Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends!” Zech. 13:6. Great will be their anguish in soul, but it is not their sorrow that covers their guilt; they will understand that the precious blood of the Lamb of God, the very One whom they slew themselves, covers all their wickedness, and the crowning sin of rejecting and murdering their own Messiah. “They shall look upon Me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him, as one mourneth for his only son.... In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem,... and the land shall mourn, every family apart,...” The repentant remnant of Israel will be brought to own what they have done, but their sorrow will be turned into joy. It is the path to blessing, for in the next feast they are called to rejoice.
The feast of tabernacles comes next, on the fifteenth day of the month and like the feast of unleavened bread it lasted for seven days. What characterizes this feast is rejoicing. “And ye shall rejoice before the Lord your God.” v. 40. They were to take boughs of trees and branches of palm trees and make booths, or tents, and they dwelt in these tents during those seven days.
The feast of tabernacles is a type then of the millennium when Israel will enter into and enjoy the rest of God on earth. All the promises of grace, glory and blessing made to Abraham and Israel will be completely fulfilled.
God will have His people to remember His wonderful and patient ways with them as He brought them through that waste howling wilderness. How sweet for Israel then to trace His patient ways of grace and how sweet for us, His people, now to look back and dwell upon His faithful love, and His wonderful grace that has brought us hitherto. In that coming day, when we are all gathered in our heavenly home, the wilderness behind us forever, we shall praise Him for all that is past. As one dear departed servant of Christ used to tell us, the last Book of the Psalms is the backward look of Israel and it is all praise. So it will be with us, the Church, when at home and at rest in the glory.
Taken up in resurrection
Desert ways rehearsed above,
Tell the power of God’s salvation
And His never failing love.
The feast of tabernacles then tells of a wonderful scene of joy and blessing, not only for Israel, but for the nations, the Gentiles, and indeed all creation, for all will be brought under Messiah’s gracious and beneficent reign.
After the feast of tabernacles had run its allotted seven days we read of an eighth day — something not found in any other of the feasts. It marked a new beginning, and there is no end mentioned. The eighth day speaks of eternity and new creation. God will then bring in an entirely new and final scene of blessing the new heavens and the new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.
Memory Verse: “OUR SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST; WHO GAVE HIMSELF FOR US, THAT HE MIGHT REDEEM US FROM ALL INIQUITY.” Titus 2:13, 14.
ML-09/24/1972