The sixth feast is the Feast of Expiation, the Day of Expiation, 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.
On the Day of Expiation, the people were to afflict their souls and present an offering by fire to Jehovah (vv. 27c, 29). This signifies mourning, repentance, and sorrow for sin, and offering Christ as food to God for the satisfaction of both God and man. According to Zechariah 12, this is what the Jews will do when the Lord Jesus comes back.
The Feast of the Blowing of Trumpets was on the first day of the seventh month; the Feast of Expiation was on the tenth day of that month. The Feast of the Blowing of Trumpets will be fulfilled when the Lord Jesus comes back, and the trumpet sounds to call God’s dispersed people together to their fathers’ land. After the Lord Jesus descends from the air to the earth, the Jews will repent, mourn, and return to God, receiving Christ as their Savior. This will be a literal fulfillment of the Feast of Expiation.
The type of this feast has been fulfilled spiritually with the New Testament believers. On the cross Christ accomplished expiation. Using the New Testament term, He accomplished redemption. When we repented, believed, and received Christ as our Savior, we experienced this feast. Therefore, the Feast of Expiation has a double application. Spiritually this feast has been applied to the New Testament believers, and it will be applied literally to the Jews.
The seventh feast, which is the last feast, is the Feast of Tabernacles (Lev. 23:33-44). This feast signifies the coming millennium as a dispensational, joyful blessing for God’s redeemed people to enjoy with God for a full period of time in God’s old creation.
“On the fifteenth day of this seventh month is the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days to Jehovah” (v. 34). These seven days signify that the Feast of Tabernacles is for a complete course of days, which will be a thousand years. “Seven days you shall present an offering by fire to Jehovah” (v. 36a). This signifies that during this festival, Christ is offered day by 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, which is offered to God for His satisfaction so that we and God may enjoy mutual rest.
“On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in 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. 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. For this reason, God uses four dispensations to do His work of the new creation on man in the old creation. The first is the dispensation of the fathers; the second is the dispensation of the law; and the third is the dispensation of the church. In the fourth dispensation, the dispensation of the millennial kingdom, there will be a full harvest of what God has been doing in the first three dispensations. Hence, the millennial kingdom will be a feast both to God and to His redeemed. In the millennium God’s redeemed people—including both the church and the kingdom of Israel—will enjoy this feast.
“On the first day you shall take for yourselves the product of stately trees, branches of palm trees and boughs of leafy trees and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before Jehovah your God for seven days” (v. 40). This signifies the evergreen, nourishing, beautiful, and rich scenery of the humanity of Christ being lived out from God’s redeemed people.
Trees are of the plant life, and in typology plants signify Christ’s humanity. The trees in verse 40 signify different aspects of Christ’s humanity. Christ is not only full of fruit but also full of leaves, which in a particular way show the beauty of His humanity. In the millennium all the overcomers will live out the evergreen, nourishing, beautiful, and rich scenery of the humanity of Christ.
The seven festivals portray our Christian life from our salvation as sinners to our entrance into the millennial kingdom, which God has prepared as the peak of His consummation of the new creation in the old creation, so that God and man may gladly enjoy all the blessings that God’s work of new creation accomplished in the age of the old creation.
In Leviticus 25, verses 2 through 7 and verses 18 through 22 speak of the Sabbath year. This Sabbath was not a day of rest but a year of rest. The Sabbath year was a rest not only for man but also for the land.
The Sabbath day refers to Christ, and the Sabbath year also refers to Christ. Christ is our Sabbath not merely for one day but for a full year. Hence, the Sabbath year denotes Christ in His fullness as our rest. We need to enjoy Him not only as our Sabbath day but also as our Sabbath year, that is, not only as our rest in part but as our rest in full. The Sabbath year is for us to enjoy Christ in full as our rest with God.
In the Sabbath year “the land shall observe a Sabbath to Jehovah” (v. 2). This signifies that Christ is the realm of the full rest that we may enjoy Him as our rest to the fullest. “You shall not sow your field nor prune your vineyard. The aftergrowth of your harvest you shall not reap, and the grapes of your unpruned vine you shall not gather” (vv. 4b-5). This signifies that rest is purely and wholly of grace and that all human labor should cease absolutely. Furthermore, the Sabbath produce of the land was to be food for all kinds of people and for the cattle and the animals (vv. 6-7). This signifies that there is grace toward everyone regardless of his status. In this common enjoyment of the produce of the land, there is real freedom. For this purpose, God commanded His blessing on the people in the sixth year so that the land would yield a sufficient crop for three years. This signifies that the sufficient grace in Christ surpasses our need threefold. The practice of keeping the Sabbath year ushers us into the jubilee.