“Speak to the sons of Israel and say. In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a solemn rest, a memorial proclaimed by blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation” (Lev. 23:24). Here we see that the feast of the blowing of trumpets was on the first day of the seventh month, the beginning of the second half of the year. This signifies the second half of God’s redemption, which is to be accomplished on Israel, the first half having been accomplished on the church. Although the second half of God’s redemption will be applied to Israel, it will still be related to us.
Between the fourth feast, Pentecost, and the fifth feast, the blowing of trumpets, there appears to be nothing. Actually, this interval is the church age, which is called the age of mystery. The church age lasts from the day of Pentecost, when the church came into being, until the day God calls His scattered people to come back together.
The feasts of Pentecost and the blowing of trumpets may be compared to two distant mountain peaks which appear to be close together but actually are very far apart. We may liken the distance between these two peaks to the time span between the feast of Pentecost and the feast of the blowing of trumpets. The time span has already been more than nineteen hundred years. This long period of time is the age of the church, the age of mystery.
The feast of the blowing of trumpets was a solemn rest (v. 24b). This signifies causing God’s gathered people to enter into God’s genuine and thorough rest.
During the twenty-seven hundred years since the carrying away to Babylon, the Jews have been a people without rest. They lost their homeland because they rejected the God of rest. Only a part of the homeland has been recovered, and the Jews today are still struggling, for they are a people without rest. When the trumpet sounds, God will call His scattered people, who have so long been without rest, back to the land of their fathers. Then they will have rest with God. They will enjoy Christ as the absolute and thorough rest. For the Jews, that will be a real feast.
This feast was a memorial proclaimed by the blowing of trumpets (v. 24c). This signifies that from the time the children of Israel slew the Lord Jesus and were scattered, there has been nothing among them that could be a memorial before God. But at the Lord’s coming back, God’s calling them together from their dispersion back to their fathers’ land will be a real memorial to them.
The solemn rest proclaimed by the blowing of trumpets was a holy convocation. Having such a holy convocation signifies returning to God and becoming a corporate people.
“You shall not do any laborious work; you shall bring an offering by fire to Jehovah” (v. 25). This signifies that without the need of any human labor, God’s gathered people will be able to offer Christ to God as food for the satisfaction of both God and man.
The sixth feast is the feast of propitiation, the day of propitiation closely following Israel’s repentance unto God (vv. 26-32). This signifies that the day of man’s redemption follows our trumpeting of the gospel and man’s repentance as a reaction to it.
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