“For seven days you shall bring an offering by fire to Jehovah” (v. 36a). This signifies the offering of Christ day after day as food to God for the satisfaction of both God and man. According to this type, in the millennium every day an offering will be presented to God to signify that Christ is God’s food in our experiences offered to God for His satisfaction so that we and God may enjoy mutual rest.
“On the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation, and you shall bring an offering by fire to Jehovah; it is a sacred assembly; you shall not do any laborious work” (v. 36b). This signifies that in the resurrection of Christ God’s people as a sacred congregation offer Christ as food to God for the satisfaction of both God and man, not needing to do any work but resting. This indicates that the entire thousand years of the millennium will be a rest for God and for God’s redeemed people.
“These are the appointed seasons of Jehovah which you shall proclaim as holy convocations, to bring an offering by fire to Jehovah-a burnt offering and a meal offering, a sacrifice and drink offerings, each on its own day-besides the sabbaths of Jehovah, besides your gifts, besides all your vows, and besides all your freewill offerings which you give to Jehovah” (vv. 37-38). This signifies offering Christ to God as different offerings, each on its own day, for God to enjoy with His people. Here we see that in God’s heart for His enjoyment and satisfaction is Christ as everything. In different aspects Christ is God’s satisfaction and enjoyment.
“Then, on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered the produce of the land, you shall keep the feast of Jehovah seven days” (v. 39a). This signifies that the millennium will come after the harvest of what God desires to obtain on earth.
After the creation of the earth, God will go through four main dispensations. The first is the dispensation of the fathers, also called the dispensation before law or without law, from Adam to Moses. The second is the dispensation of law, from Moses to Christ’s first coming. The third is the dispensation of the church, from Pentecost to Christ’s second coming. The fourth is the dispensation of the millennium, the kingdom of the thousand years. In these four dispensations, God has been doing much for His new creation. In His old creation God created the universe. The center of this old creation is the man created by God. In His eternal plan God has a purpose with man, and this purpose is to produce a people for His expression, which will consummate in the New Jerusalem.
During the four dispensations, God is working with man in the old creation. God is dispensing Himself into man to make him a new creation. Eventually, after the four dispensations, this new creation will consummate in the New Jerusalem, which will be the totality of the result of God’s work of the new creation among the old creation. Today, we are in the third dispensation, the dispensation of the church. In the coming age we shall be in the fourth dispensation, the dispensation of the kingdom, either as the overcomers or as those being disciplined.
The millennial kingdom will be a full harvest of what God has been doing in the last three dispensations. Hence, the millennial kingdom will be a feast both to God and to His redeemed. If we read the New Testament carefully, we shall realize that in the millennium God’s redeemed will include two peoples-the church and the kingdom of Israel. Both peoples will enjoy this feast.
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