Then begins the last feast in verse 34: “Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the feast of tabernacles for seven days unto Jehovah.” For seven days! It is to be remarked that we have had nothing about seven days since the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and this, as I showed, signified our walking in sincerity and truth, in Christian holiness, the true import of that feast, because Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us. It is the whole course of those who are under the pilgrimage of grace. Now here are seven other days for a different purpose; and what are they? Seven days of glory on the earth. This may startle some; for there are very many Christians who, when they think of glory, always connect it with heaven. So they speak of souls having gone to glory at death. Now I am very far from denying that the Christian is destined to heavenly glory. We do belong distinctly to Christ on high; we depart at death to be with Him.
But I am far from thinking, with a valued countryman of yours, that the glorified church is to live and reign on the earth. It is not in a likeness of heaven we are to dwell forever; we are going to heaven itself. The Father's house does not mean the earth, however sublimated or etherealized, but heaven, and the brightest part of heaven. It is not some distant corner or outskirt of glory; it is where the Son abides, where the Father's love satisfied itself in receiving the Son. There shall we be with Him, in the Father's house of many mansions. “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” It is where He is. The portion of the Christian is Christ in the Father's house; so we shall be ever with the Lord. He would not tell us so if it would raise our hopes too high. He did so tell us that He might inspire us with the same expectation that filled His own breast. The bride is to be with the Bridegroom. I reject the notion therefore, as unfounded, that the scene of our glory is to be on the earth; and, no matter what the piety of men who have such low views, I reject them as doubly injurious. They deny the church's glory to be distinctively heavenly, and they do not leave room for Israel's future glory according to promise on the earth. It is really therefore a mistake of grave consequence, which affects our interpretation of all the Bible, and confuses the entire scheme of God's ways. Hear what the New Testament teaches: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.” We are blessed there in title already in Christ, as we shall be there in fact with Him after His coming for us.
But in the portion before us we have another thing brought out. Here it cannot mean our going to heaven, for we do not speak of “days” there. It is one eternal day in that sphere of unchanging light and blessedness; and by a figure it may be called very well the “day of eternity.” Indeed this is the way the apostle Peter does speak in the last verse of his Second Epistle “To Him be glory, both now and to the day of eternity.” But glory will assuredly come to the earth. Thus: “Arise, shine; for thy light is come,” etc. Where is that to be? In heaven? No; Zion is here on the earth; really it was that mountain on which the king's palace was built, and how significant of grace yet to build up the broken house and realm of Israel, when God will give them the true David!
Let me draw your attention here to two schools of theology, as the truth in question is of practical moment as well as doctrinal. It may be instructive to see how both fail and come short of what the Holy Spirit reveals for the glory of God. As to this then we find each of these schools in opposition. One says that the scene of future glory is to be the earth, where Christ died and God has wrought so graciously, and as to which He has promised such glorious things. Fully do I admit this; but their inference as to our being glorified there is unsound. The other school holds that heaven will be the only scene of glory, and this so exclusively as almost, if not quite, to forget the body and its future resurrection from the grave. They are in danger of thinking only of the soul, and of heaven as a place of pure spirit, which, I submit, is a poor substitute for the Christian’s hope, and not at all what the word of God teaches. It is quite true and blessed that even now the separated spirit goes to be with Christ; and no believer should seek to weaken this truth. The recently converted robber was to be with Him in paradise. It is lamentable to know how little this is believed by modern theologians; and I doubt not that their feebleness here is due to their scanty knowledge of Christ and redemption. But this intermediate blessedness is not resurrection; though departed saints, when risen, shall be, as now, in the “paradise of God.” As the paradise of Adam was the brightest spot on earth, so the “paradise of God” is the brightest region of heaven. Sinful man was cast out of the one; believing man is received into the other. Christ was the first-fruits, as was due to Him, the Son and Savior; afterward those that are Christ's at His coming.
But there is another thing, the kingdom of God, which has “earthly things"; and for these man needs new birth (John 3), as well as for “heavenly things.” So it will neither be heaven alone, nor the earth alone, but both (com. Eph. 1:10 and Col. 1:20). In scripture faith finds no real difficulty, though it be far larger than theology, which is invariably short of the truth of God. Theology is an attempt on the part of man to reduce the word of God to a science, and a science for man, converted or not, to learn. No wonder that this is always a total failure, as it deserves to be. You cannot squeeze what has life into this iron vice of theirs without destroying its strength and tissues and beauties. Both heaven and earth are to be under Christ, the distinct but united spheres of His reign to God's glory. In the fullness of the times God is going to gather “all things” under Christ; not all persons, for this will never be. Alas! those who despise the Lord Jesus will, at the end, be cast into the lake of fire. But “all things,” the groaning creation, guilty of no sin but suffering from the sin of man, will be delivered through the victory of the Second Man. For this we and it are waiting.
It is not true, therefore, that the earth is the only scene of glory, but also heaven. I might prove this from other scriptures besides Ephesians and Colossians. But I would remind you that it is no good sign to require many passages. One, if plain, is conclusive. Who would admire the state of soul that, when one scripture is given, asks for another? Even if you had only to do with a man's word, do you wish him to repeat the same thing half-a-dozen times over? In fact, if he were to do so, it, ought to arouse suspicion. Bit, if such is the case with man, is it not most dishonoring to God to look forever so many assurances from Him? I grant that in certain cases He may present the same thing in various forms; but this is only pure grace in consideration of the weakness of man.
But I direct you to Psa. 73:24, and I do so in order to clear out a singular mistake of our translators. There we read these words, a favorite text with many: “Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory:” very good Christian doctrine; but is it the object of the Psalm to teach anything of the sort? Let us be subject to scripture. You see the word “to” is inserted. And what is the reason for it? “To” or “with” would require authority, for it cannot be inserted or left out in this sort of way. The truth is that our translators could not understand the meaning of the words as they stand, especially as it was taken for granted that the Psalm was speaking of what we Christians want for our comfort; and so they thought it must mean, “Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel, and afterward receive me, [to] glory.” They never thought of the peculiar hopes of Israel, and so they could not find out the bearing. It is confusion if you apply these words to the Christian. But then they did not know anything worth mentioning of God's ways for the future, when Christ shall reign over the earth.
Now, let me tell you, people are learning to translate accurately, whether they understand the meaning or not. This may not be pleasant, still it is more honest; and thus grace may the sooner use the some one else to help them to the meaning. But, further, I may say that one of our American kinsmen has lately brought out a new translation of the Psalms. The late Dr. J. A. Alexander, of Princeton, was a man not to be despised. His book on the Psalms, as a version, is respectable, though some of us would think its exegesis rather dark. He did not understand what he was writing about; yet he was a scholar, and translates uprightly his text. But let me add, that being a scholar will never enable one to understand the scripture. The one and only means of understanding it is by the Holy Ghost, Who gives us God's mind in it. If it is the church in the New Testament, I must see it in its relation to the Head; if it is Israel in the law or the Psa. 1 must see them as they are related to their Messiah.
Now the late Dr. Alexander never saw the true distinction between Israel and the church, but being honest and competent, though he did not know what the passage meant, he translated it as it really stands, “In (or by) Thy counsel Thou wilt guide me, and after glory Thou wilt take me.” Now what is the meaning of this? The last clause is obscure, he says; and no wonder: he had no notion of the special hopes of the ancient people of God.
The Christian, no doubt, is received now, and will go up at the coming of Christ to heavenly glory; but His dealings with Israel are quite different. He will come in glory to the destruction of their enemies, and bring them in deep penitence to Himself; and then they will be received as His people before the universe. This will only be “after glory.” The glory will have shone first. Take Saul of Tarsus for instance, though he was a pattern not only of the Jew but for the Gentile. All will remember that he had a vision of the Lord in glory, and after that he was brought into acceptance before God.
When we see this, it helps us to understand how the children of Israel will be brought into their blessedness. There were to be seven days of suffering, as we have now (that is quite a distinct thing), and seven days of glory in the age to come. This will be the Feast of Tabernacles in its ordinary character for Israel on earth.
Then, further, verse 39: “Also on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when ye have gathered in the fruit of the land, ye shall keep a feast unto Jehovah seven days.” When they had gathered in the fruit of the land, when the harvest was past, and the vintage over; what is the meaning of this? God's judgment will have taken its course. The harvest is that character of judgment where the Lord discriminates the good from the bad. The vintage is where He will trample down wicked religion unsparingly. It is the infliction of divine judgment, and, mark, it is of the living: the judgment of the dead is at the end of the kingdom, which is not spoken of here. This is the judgment of the quick at the beginning of the Lord's reign.
Now we get something further (verse 32): “Ye shall keep a feast unto Jehovah seven days: on the first day shall be a sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a sabbath.”
It is not only that there is a complete term of glory as we are now going through a complete term of grace. In one feature, we may see, the Feast of Tabernacles stands distinct from all the others; and what is that? The eighth day. There has been no mention of this in the other feasts. The seven days we saw were glory for the earth; but there is the “eighth day too.” This is heavenly and eternal glory! So it is not “days” now, but this one “day,” “the eighth day;” and therefore it has a beginning, but it will never have an end.
We have seen then in this chapter—first, the purpose of God generally sketched; next, the mighty work of the Lord Jesus, with the holy call it involves for all blessed by it, and the witness to Christ's resurrection for those risen with Him. But the application of that work is first to the Gentiles now called in. By and by, too, Israel will be awakened and confess their sins, when the days of glory dawn on earth, and not only this but with a glance at that which is heavenly and eternal in the eighth day.
May the Lord bless His own word, so that you may be simple and clear and wise in the truth unto salvation! And may you have your faith strengthened as you see how God has given a complete cycle of His ways in one of the most ancient books of the Bible. When the theological professors of our day are misusing their position to give currency to the cavils of unbelief, which have lost much of their acceptance even in free-thinking Germany, it is time for men whose fathers valued revealed truth to wake up to these insidious efforts at undermining their faith under the pretentious claim of learning and science. The best of all answers to Satan is a deepening entrance by the Holy Spirit into the truth, and an enlarged sense of that divine wisdom and grace in the word, which is as much superior to Elohistic and Jehovistic theories, or such like vanities and speculations, as the Second man is above the first. “Sanctify them by Thy word: Thy word is truth.”