The verse is the Lord speaking to Moses to give the instruction for the services of the seventh month, beginning with the Feast of Trumpets on the first day of the month, followed by the Day of Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles. Those yearly feast days and sabbaths stand beside and distinct from the weekly Sabbath of the Lord, coming once a year on fixed dates that could fall on any weekday rather than recurring every seventh day in constant succession. They are types fulfilled in Christ's sacrifice, resurrection, outpouring of the Spirit, worldwide proclamation of the second coming, most-holy-place ministry, and final gathering of the redeemed, with the blowing of trumpets announcing the Day of Atonement. As shadows of the ceremonial law they ceased at the cross with meats, drinks, holydays and new moons in Colossians 2:16, while the weekly Sabbath remains as the moral, creation memorial guarded by the fourth commandment.
Verse Setting and Wording
The LORD speaking to Moses is an introductory formula giving instruction belonging to the sanctuary services, covering its yearly round and its occasional services distinct from the daily round of the morning and evening lamb with its meat and drink offering. That instruction embraces the three orders of ministers, the work of the high priest, and the garments of the common priests and the high priest, with Leviticus 1 to 7 and 16 together with Leviticus 23 describing the main features of that service. It was not written in vain or without purpose but is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness to make the man of God perfect, and was written for learning to give patience, comfort and hope. Studied as God's appointed object-lesson, it reveals God's way, power and glory in the earthly sanctuary built by Moses and teaches the temple of God in heaven and Christ's priestly service there as High Priest and Minister of the heavenly sanctuary, of which the earthly was the pattern and shadow. In the chapter's broader setting the Lord appointed Israel's multiday feasts as occasions when the people were not to labor, alongside the weekly Sabbath, showing that work was not meant to exhaust people or harm their health, though neither was idleness intended. In this context the chapter's festival sabbaths belong to the ceremonial laws, which were binding on Israel only until Christ's death, unlike the permanent weekly Sabbath.
It belongs to a yearly system of religious services marked by ordered forms, instituted to draw Israel nearer to God and make them a people of renown, where departing from even a small requirement brought blame. It begins the Lord's instructions about the seventh month, namely the Feast of Trumpets on the first day of the seventh month, the Day of Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles. That section of typical feasts and sabbaths points to Jesus' work as High Priest in the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary, from the tenth day of the seventh month in 1844 until the consummation. The chapter's festival sabbaths are annual days distinct from the Lord's weekly Sabbath, and they could fall on a weekly Sabbath but did not regularly do so. These annual, typical sabbaths belonged to the sacrificial system that arose because of sin and pointed forward to the Saviour.
The first day of the seventh month, Tisri, was an annual sabbath and the first day of the old civil year. The feast of trumpets on that first day of the seventh month was a holy day set apart from common days and expressly called a sabbath in which no servile work was to be done, one of several annual sabbaths besides the weekly Sabbath listed in Leviticus 23, and like the other feast holy days it shadowed forth Christ or some part of Christ's work. The seventh month discussed includes the seventh month of the first year of Cyrus, the year the Jews left Babylon for Jerusalem, when the blowing of trumpets called all the people together preparatory to building the altar. In this chapter "the first day," "the seventh day," and "the eighth day" refer to days within the particular feast, not days of the week, and the feast days and their sabbaths came once a year distinct from the Lord's weekly Sabbaths. The "eighth day" spoken of means the eighth day of the feast observance, with nothing about reckoning the days of the week in the account, so it cannot be used to argue for Sunday-keeping.
That eighth day is called a great day and even a Sabbath, yet it does not prefigure the first day of the week exalted as a Sabbath under the gospel. Feasts beginning on fixed days of fixed months have their eighth day fall on a different weekday in different years, just as New Year's Day and the Fourth of July do, and the eighth-day rite of circumcision reckoned from birth could fall on any day of the week, so neither can establish a weekly first-day Sabbath. No day of the weekly cycle is named in connection with the yearly Sabbaths and feast days, so they cannot make Sunday a weekly Sabbath, since in Scripture "the Sabbath" names the seventh day. The chapter listing the Lord's appointed times shows that holy convocations were held on days besides the seventh-day Sabbath, during which no servile work was done. Therefore the existence of a worship gathering on another day does not by itself make that day a Sabbath or rest day, and these gatherings did not cancel the command to work six days and rest on the seventh.
Positive institutions are commemorative and most fittingly fall on memorable days where they can be permanently located, showing that a new institution has a new underlying reason and may be placed on the most notable day. Those Old Testament commemorative institutions listed in Leviticus 23 were observed on different days than the days on which they were instituted, with nearly all falling on the same day if instituting time fixed observing time, so the time of instituting an institution does not determine the time of observing it. The chapter gives a specific statement of the time for instituting and for observing the feasts, and therefore provides no precedent for fixing a time for the Lord's supper, for which there is no such specific statement of time. The Lord required exact obedience in ceremonial details, including offerings that met His stated standard, illustrating that God is particular about obedience and does not authorize people to choose their own way of serving Him. The verse shows one of the times appointed of God connected with His law and worship, that the day begins and closes at evening, at sunset, with the day and the week as the first times mentioned in the word of God, and this evening reckoning belongs with the weekly cycle closing with the Sabbath. The little horn thinking to change the appointed times and the law refers directly back to these appointed times, and the apostasy has thought to change this reckoning from sunset to midnight as part of changing God's law in the only commandment which refers to time.
Annual Feasts Described
The chapter sets out seven annual sabbaths at specified points in the year, connected with the three annual feasts. They are the first and seventh days of unleavened bread, Pentecost, the first, tenth, fifteenth and twenty-third days of the seventh month, and the first and eighth days of Tabernacles. Some were fixed by dates in the month, while the Feast of Weeks was set in relation to the harvest and the weekly Sabbath. The seventh month itself was not a whole-month sabbath.
Israel had three yearly occasions when all males were to appear before the Lord at the sanctuary. These were Passover, Pentecost or Weeks, and Tabernacles or Ingathering. Atonement and Trumpets belonged to the five yearly celebrations but not to the three pilgrimages. At these three annual meetings the people were to bring offerings of produce from the land and the work of their hands, as well as vowed and freewill gifts. The feasts were celebrated year by year when the people lived rightly before God, were given great importance, and required observance. Their observance required special priestly work in the first apartment, distinct from the yearly most-holy-place work.
The feast days were holy days set apart from common days, expressly called sabbaths in which no servile work was to be done. The fifteenth of Abib came once a year, allowed food preparation, and prohibited servile work, while the seventh-day Sabbath came weekly and prohibited all work. The tenth day of the seventh month was an annual sabbath of rest even though the people were to afflict their souls on that day, and it was more sacred than the other annual sabbaths. Multiday feasts included occasions when the people were not to labor.
The annual sabbaths stand beside the Sabbaths of the Lord as distinct from them, set apart as days for bringing special offerings to the Lord. They are listed with their meat offerings and drink offerings, and with holydays, new moons, and sabbath days. The complete list of the festival holy days is tied to eating or abstaining from foods and to sacrificial meats and drinks.
The calendar is regulated by specified dates, the moon and the barley harvest. It requires the wave offering of the first barley sheaf, the first fruits of barley harvest, on the sixteenth day of the first month as the morrow after the Sabbath. The Sabbath is given first place, and the other festivals are dated from it. The count to Pentecost began after the annual Passover Sabbath, not after a weekly Sabbath, so Pentecost could fall on any day of the week. The cycle parallels Deuteronomy 16, with Passover, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles appointed in the first and seventh months, alongside solemn days and fasts observed in later practice.
Weekly Sabbath Distinct
The yearly feast days and sabbaths stand distinct from and beside the Sabbaths of Jehovah, the regular weekly Sabbath. They are called your sabbaths and her sabbaths, not the Sabbaths of the Lord, the tenth day of the seventh month being called your sabbath while the weekly seventh-day Sabbath is identified as the Lord's Sabbath. The distinction is made by the phrase besides the Sabbaths of Jehovah and in verses 37-38, and by the very nature of the institutions. The chapter enumerates the yearly feast days and Sabbaths connected with Passover, First-fruits, Trumpets and Atonement, describing the Jews' three annual feasts and the seven yearly sabbaths connected with them, with the complete list of set feasts kept in connection with Passover, Pentecost and other yearly feasts, several kept as sabbaths on which no manner of servile work was done. These yearly sabbaths were observed on specified dates and were called feasts, observed in addition to the Lord's Sabbaths, and are presented as four ceremonial sabbaths associated with feasts, food and drink. They were typical and shadowy, typifying certain events in the work of redemption, and expired by limitation when the thing typified was reached, the shadow ending when it reached the substance.
The weekly Sabbath always falls on the seventh day of the week in constant succession, while the yearly sabbaths come once a year on fixed dates of the month regardless of the weekday and could fall on any day of the week. They coincided with the seventh day only about once in six or seven years, and they could fall on a weekly Sabbath but did not regularly do so. In this chapter the first day, the seventh day and the eighth day refer to days within the particular feast, not days of the week, and the feast days and their sabbaths came once a year distinct from the Lord's weekly Sabbaths. Some were fixed by dates in the month, while the Feast of Weeks was set in relation to the harvest and the weekly Sabbath. The seven annual ceremonial sabbaths tied to Israel's feast days fell on specified dates regardless of the day of the week and belonged to the ceremonial law of sacrifices, offerings and appointed observances, not to the Ten Commandments or the weekly Sabbath.
The weekly Sabbath grew out of the action of a holy God at creation before sin and before types, is a universal memorial of creation for all people, and would have existed without the typical system. The yearly days grew out of man's actions as a sinner and would never have existed but for sin, coming in because of sin as types and prophecies pointing forward to Christ and meeting their fulfillment in Christ Jesus. They belonged to the Mosaic system of types introduced because of sin and to Israel's national, local, ceremonial system tied to the land of Canaan and Jerusalem, requiring circumcision and pilgrimage, and lasted as forever or perpetual only until their purpose was fulfilled. They are ceremonial sabbaths, days in which no work was done, with ceremonial feast-days connected with them, having to do with sin and the putting away of sin to point men to the One who takes away sins. They stand out in contradistinction to the seventh-day Sabbath, the weekly Sabbath, God's memorial of creation instituted before sin entered, which is not a shadow of things to come but an eternal memorial and sign of Christ's power to create, uphold, redeem, sanctify and save. When treated as a means of earning salvation they became carnal ordinances, while the weekly Sabbath remains a memorial of creation and a sign of redeeming power.
The weekly Sabbath is moral, absolute, independent, enduring and unchangeable, guarded by the fourth commandment as the eighth commandment guards property. The yearly sabbaths are typical, shadowy, temporary and dependent for their existence on the typical feasts to which they belong, expiring by limitation when the thing typified is reached. The annual ceremonial sabbaths on the first, tenth, fifteenth and twenty-third days of the seventh month, distinct from the Lord's weekly Sabbath and associated with new moons and feast days, are identified with the plural sabbaths and feast days Paul says were shadows whose body is Christ, so their removal does not abolish the moral law or the seventh-day Sabbath. They stand with meats and drinks and sacrificial meats and drinks as component parts of the typical and shadowy system pointing forward to Christ and His death, wholly different from the weekly Sabbath of the Lord, which is absolute and independent, as old as the world, a memorial of creation for every person rather than a shadow of Christ's death, about which there is nothing shadowy. When the feast met its antitype in the work of Christ, as Passover met its antitype when Christ was sacrificed, the sabbaths connected with it ceased, and these ceremonial observances expired when Christ came.
By contrast, those who held the other teaching place the weekly Sabbaths and the annual sabbaths in the same category of positive, commemorative, typical institutions with no moral basis, since moral institutions are not typical and typical institutions are not moral. On that reckoning God appointed sabbaths on days other than the seventh day and thereby proved that any day of the week might be made a Sabbath if He chose to make it one. The same teaching explains the Sabbath of the fourth commandment as requiring observance on fixed dates that change the weekday from year to year, so that the fourth-commandment Sabbath was kept on fixed dates shifting weekdays, falling many times on Thursday or Friday rather than Saturday. In that account the true Sabbath of the law kept by Christ fell in the Gospels twenty-eight times on a day not Saturday but more probably Thursday, once on Friday, and a number of times on Saturday during the last year of His public teaching, meaning no one now keeps the Sabbath in the manner Christ kept it.
Types Fulfilled in Christ
The feasts of Leviticus 23 are typical, and their fuller meaning is found in the sacrifice, life and priestly work of Jesus Christ, distinct from the Sabbath of Jehovah. The Passover lamb points to Christ's death, the sheaf of firstfruits waved on the sixteenth of the first month to His resurrection, and Weeks or Pentecost, kept on the fiftieth day from firstfruits, to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples. Trumpets points to the worldwide proclamation of the second coming carried by the three angels with the everlasting gospel in Revelation 14, Atonement to His work as High Priest in the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary, and Tabernacles or Ingathering to the homecoming to the New Jerusalem and the final gathering of the redeemed. They were celebrated year by year when the people lived rightly before God, including the three annual occasions when the males were commanded to appear before the Lord at the sanctuary, and each was met in His antitypical priestly service. The timing of Pentecost marks that fulfillment, not any intent to honor the first day of the week or to change the Sabbath.
The spring types were fulfilled exactly as to time, with the Passover killed on the fourteenth of the first month met in Christ sacrificed as Passover, firstfruits in Christ risen, and Weeks in Pentecost. The same work of burnt offerings and other offerings appointed on the day of firstfruits and the feast of Weeks as on the day of atonement shows that mere preliminary offerings do not prevent the grand event of the day from meeting its antitype on the very day of the type. The antitype commences on the day of the type but may then extend forward a great distance. So the autumnal types likewise indicate time as well as nature and order, with the Day of Atonement on the tenth day of the seventh month pointing to Christ the great High Priest coming from heaven to bless His waiting people. That tenth day of the seventh month in 1844 marks the beginning of His most-holy-place work in the heavenly sanctuary continuing until the consummation.
The memorial of the blowing of trumpets introduced here is a fall festival type whose work was to announce the great Day of Atonement coming on the tenth day of the same month, and it belonged to the five yearly celebrations but not to the three pilgrimages requiring all males to attend. Like the other festival shadows it finds its fulfillment in Christ without requiring revival of its ancient ceremonies. The yearly round closes with that tenth day of the seventh month, called the Day of Atonement, when the sins transferred to the sanctuary by the daily ministration through the year were removed in the cleansing of the sanctuary. The high priest killed the Lord's goat and sprinkled its blood before and upon the mercy-seat and upon the horns of the altar to make atonement, then laid the sins upon the head of the scapegoat to be sent away into the wilderness, giving final riddance of sin from the people and the sanctuary.
The feasts need not be celebrated annually until their full antitypical fulfillment, and the Day of Atonement will also reach its completion. Their meaning is met in Christ's ministry and in a consistent life of walking in newness of life.
Ceremonial Law Ended
The yearly sabbaths set out in Leviticus 23:5-39 and 23:4-44 belong only to the ceremonial law called the law of Moses, not to the moral law that commands the seventh day. They stand with meats, drinks, carnal ordinances, holydays, new moons, feast-days and yearly sabbaths connected together as one whole system, distinct from and beside the Sabbaths of the Lord. The Sabbath of the Ten Commandments was spoken by God with His own voice and written on tables of stone by His own hand, while nothing about meats and drinks was so spoken or written, but the typical services were given through Moses to proclaim. That ceremonial code with its numerous sabbaths, new moons and feast days was outward, binding on the Jews only until Christ's death, and has been abrogated, while the moral law remains as the unchangeable rule of right. Its days are the class of days meant in Romans 14, where esteeming one day above another or esteeming every day alike is a matter of indifference so long as justification is not sought through them to the rejection of Christ's sacrifice, marking the change from that ritual to spiritual worship of Jesus under the faith of the gospel.
The annual ceremonial sabbaths on the first, tenth, fifteenth and twenty-third days of the seventh month are the seven yearly feasts and sabbaths of Leviticus 23:4-37, separate from and beside the weekly Sabbaths of the Lord and associated with new moons and feast days. They are plural shadows pointing forward to Christ and His death and typifying certain events in the work of redemption, not memorials of creation looking back like the seventh-day Sabbath. They fell on certain days of certain months and feasts on any day of the week, were dependent for their existence on the typical feasts to which they belonged, and expired by limitation when the thing typified was reached, the shadow ending when it reached the substance. When the feast met its antitype in the work of Christ, as Passover met its antitype when Christ was sacrificed, the sabbaths connected with it ceased with the sacrificial law at the cross. They stood for sin and became a yoke of bondage against the people because they trusted in them for righteousness, and everything typical was blotted out and nailed to the cross with the handwriting of ordinances, having no further significance or use after Christ came and being reduced to common days.
Those seven ceremonial sabbaths observed during the year, joined with meat, drink, holyday and new moon ordinances, are the sabbath-days of Colossians 2:16, whose body is Christ in Colossians 2:17. They belong to the Mosaic system of types introduced because of sin, unlike the weekly Sabbath instituted at creation before sin entered, which would have existed without the typical system. They were a shadow of Christ pointing forward to the cross rather than back to creation, kept beside the Sabbaths of the Lord with no connection between the two, and were blotted out and nailed to the cross, leaving the weekly Sabbath still in force. They are wholly different from the Eden Sabbath guarded by the fourth commandment, about which there is nothing shadowy, which is the Sabbath of the Lord our God, the seventh-day Sabbath.
The complete list of Jewish feast days and fast days connected with eating or abstaining from certain foods, including new moon, Passover, Pentecost, Atonement and others, are the days Paul discusses in Romans 14 about esteeming one day above another, not the weekly seventh-day Sabbath guarded by one of the Ten Commandments and honored from creation. Like modern New Years, Christmas and Thanksgiving, those annual days are now reduced to a level with common days, having been instituted with the ceremonial law that came by sin. As part of the Jewish ritual of carnal ordinances they are a matter of indifference where justification is not sought through them, marking the change to spiritual worship under the gospel. The dispute is about these ceremonial days, not about all days, and neither the institution of the ceremonial law nor its abolition affects the weekly Sabbath or releases man from obligation to devote the seventh part of his time to God.
Those Jewish festivals beginning here, with annual sabbaths distinct from the weekly Sabbath, are the times of Galatians 4:10-11, which Gentile Christians are forbidden to observe. The annual sabbaths and feast-days of Leviticus 23:4-37, including Passover and the Day of Atonement, are not binding on Christians, but a Jewish believer may still keep them from old association while another believer may regard them like any other working day. Keeping them or treating them alike falls within Christian liberty, so no believer is to judge another over them.
The yearly sabbaths are shadowy sabbaths distinct from the weekly seventh-day Sabbath, enforced by a law of types that has passed away, so they have ceased and ended when the shadow reached its substance, while the seventh day remains the Sabbath and the Lord's day. When treated as a means of earning salvation they became carnal ordinances, while the weekly Sabbath remains a memorial of creation and a sign of God's redeeming power to create, uphold, redeem and sanctify. That weekly Sabbath was ordained and sanctified by the creating God before the entrance of sin for Adam and his sons, is eternal and of lasting obligation, and Jews and Gentiles alike are still required to hallow God's Sabbaths.
Scripture Links and Application
The count to Pentecost began after the annual Passover Sabbath rather than after a weekly Sabbath, so Pentecost could fall on any day of the week and its timing gave no special honor to Sunday. The appointed timing of Pentecost was a type fulfilled when the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples in Acts 2, not an intention to honor the first day of the week or to change the Sabbath. The offering of first-fruits on the day after the Sabbath was likewise fulfilled in the resurrection of Christ as the first-fruits of those who sleep. The yearly Sabbaths and feast days belong to the annual cycle in which no day of the weekly cycle is named, and therefore they cannot make Sunday a weekly Sabbath, for in Scripture the Sabbath names the seventh day.
The eighth day spoken of in the feasts means the eighth day of the feast observance, with nothing about reckoning the days of the week in the account, so it cannot be used to argue for Sunday-keeping. That eighth day, though called a great day and even a Sabbath, does not prefigure the first day of the week exalted as a Sabbath under the gospel. Because feasts begin on fixed days of fixed months, the eighth day falls on a different weekday in different years, just as New Year’s Day and the Fourth of July do. The eighth-day rite of circumcision reckoned from birth could likewise fall on any day of the week, so neither can establish a weekly first-day Sabbath. Any type relating to gospel events and ordinances must be interpreted in harmony with plain gospel facts, where no declaration exalts the first day as a weekly Sabbath.
The Lord speaking to Moses to give instruction belonging to the service of the sanctuary stands with Leviticus 1 to 7 and 16 in describing the main features of that service. That instruction was not written in vain or without purpose but is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness to make the man of God perfect. It was written for learning to give patience, comfort, and hope. Studied as God’s appointed object-lesson, it reveals God’s way, power, and glory in the earthly sanctuary built by Moses. It teaches the temple of God in heaven and Christ’s priestly service there as High Priest and Minister of the heavenly sanctuary, of which the earthly was the pattern and shadow.
The Lord required exact obedience in ceremonial details, including offerings that met His stated standard, which shows that God is particular about obedience and does not authorize people to choose their own way of serving Him. The yearly system of religious services was marked by ordered forms instituted to draw Israel nearer to God and to make them a people of renown, so that departing from even a small requirement brought blame. The chapter lists seven annual sabbaths distinct from the Lord’s weekly rest day, and their observance was not pleasing to God when accompanied by sin. The Lord appointed Israel’s multiday feasts as occasions when the people were not to labor, alongside the weekly Sabbath, showing that work was not meant to exhaust people or harm their health, though neither was idleness intended.
The verse is the Lord speaking to Moses to give the instruction for the services of the seventh month, beginning with the Feast of Trumpets on the first day of the month, followed by the Day of Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles. Those yearly feast days and sabbaths stand beside and distinct from the weekly Sabbath of the Lord, coming once a year on fixed dates that could fall on any weekday rather than recurring every seventh day in constant succession. They are types fulfilled in Christ's sacrifice, resurrection, outpouring of the Spirit, worldwide proclamation of the second coming, most-holy-place ministry, and final gathering of the redeemed, with the blowing of trumpets announcing the Day of Atonement. As shadows of the ceremonial law they ceased at the cross with meats, drinks, holydays and new moons in Colossians 2:16, while the weekly Sabbath remains as the moral, creation memorial guarded by the fourth commandment.
Verse Setting and Wording
The LORD speaking to Moses is an introductory formula giving instruction belonging to the sanctuary services, covering its yearly round and its occasional services distinct from the daily round of the morning and evening lamb with its meat and drink offering. That instruction embraces the three orders of ministers, the work of the high priest, and the garments of the common priests and the high priest, with Leviticus 1 to 7 and 16 together with Leviticus 23 describing the main features of that service. It was not written in vain or without purpose but is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness to make the man of God perfect, and was written for learning to give patience, comfort and hope. Studied as God's appointed object-lesson, it reveals God's way, power and glory in the earthly sanctuary built by Moses and teaches the temple of God in heaven and Christ's priestly service there as High Priest and Minister of the heavenly sanctuary, of which the earthly was the pattern and shadow. In the chapter's broader setting the Lord appointed Israel's multiday feasts as occasions when the people were not to labor, alongside the weekly Sabbath, showing that work was not meant to exhaust people or harm their health, though neither was idleness intended. In this context the chapter's festival sabbaths belong to the ceremonial laws, which were binding on Israel only until Christ's death, unlike the permanent weekly Sabbath.
It belongs to a yearly system of religious services marked by ordered forms, instituted to draw Israel nearer to God and make them a people of renown, where departing from even a small requirement brought blame. It begins the Lord's instructions about the seventh month, namely the Feast of Trumpets on the first day of the seventh month, the Day of Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles. That section of typical feasts and sabbaths points to Jesus' work as High Priest in the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary, from the tenth day of the seventh month in 1844 until the consummation. The chapter's festival sabbaths are annual days distinct from the Lord's weekly Sabbath, and they could fall on a weekly Sabbath but did not regularly do so. These annual, typical sabbaths belonged to the sacrificial system that arose because of sin and pointed forward to the Saviour.
The first day of the seventh month, Tisri, was an annual sabbath and the first day of the old civil year. The feast of trumpets on that first day of the seventh month was a holy day set apart from common days and expressly called a sabbath in which no servile work was to be done, one of several annual sabbaths besides the weekly Sabbath listed in Leviticus 23, and like the other feast holy days it shadowed forth Christ or some part of Christ's work. The seventh month discussed includes the seventh month of the first year of Cyrus, the year the Jews left Babylon for Jerusalem, when the blowing of trumpets called all the people together preparatory to building the altar. In this chapter "the first day," "the seventh day," and "the eighth day" refer to days within the particular feast, not days of the week, and the feast days and their sabbaths came once a year distinct from the Lord's weekly Sabbaths. The "eighth day" spoken of means the eighth day of the feast observance, with nothing about reckoning the days of the week in the account, so it cannot be used to argue for Sunday-keeping.
That eighth day is called a great day and even a Sabbath, yet it does not prefigure the first day of the week exalted as a Sabbath under the gospel. Feasts beginning on fixed days of fixed months have their eighth day fall on a different weekday in different years, just as New Year's Day and the Fourth of July do, and the eighth-day rite of circumcision reckoned from birth could fall on any day of the week, so neither can establish a weekly first-day Sabbath. No day of the weekly cycle is named in connection with the yearly Sabbaths and feast days, so they cannot make Sunday a weekly Sabbath, since in Scripture "the Sabbath" names the seventh day. The chapter listing the Lord's appointed times shows that holy convocations were held on days besides the seventh-day Sabbath, during which no servile work was done. Therefore the existence of a worship gathering on another day does not by itself make that day a Sabbath or rest day, and these gatherings did not cancel the command to work six days and rest on the seventh.
Positive institutions are commemorative and most fittingly fall on memorable days where they can be permanently located, showing that a new institution has a new underlying reason and may be placed on the most notable day. Those Old Testament commemorative institutions listed in Leviticus 23 were observed on different days than the days on which they were instituted, with nearly all falling on the same day if instituting time fixed observing time, so the time of instituting an institution does not determine the time of observing it. The chapter gives a specific statement of the time for instituting and for observing the feasts, and therefore provides no precedent for fixing a time for the Lord's supper, for which there is no such specific statement of time. The Lord required exact obedience in ceremonial details, including offerings that met His stated standard, illustrating that God is particular about obedience and does not authorize people to choose their own way of serving Him. The verse shows one of the times appointed of God connected with His law and worship, that the day begins and closes at evening, at sunset, with the day and the week as the first times mentioned in the word of God, and this evening reckoning belongs with the weekly cycle closing with the Sabbath. The little horn thinking to change the appointed times and the law refers directly back to these appointed times, and the apostasy has thought to change this reckoning from sunset to midnight as part of changing God's law in the only commandment which refers to time.
Annual Feasts Described
The chapter sets out seven annual sabbaths at specified points in the year, connected with the three annual feasts. They are the first and seventh days of unleavened bread, Pentecost, the first, tenth, fifteenth and twenty-third days of the seventh month, and the first and eighth days of Tabernacles. Some were fixed by dates in the month, while the Feast of Weeks was set in relation to the harvest and the weekly Sabbath. The seventh month itself was not a whole-month sabbath.
Israel had three yearly occasions when all males were to appear before the Lord at the sanctuary. These were Passover, Pentecost or Weeks, and Tabernacles or Ingathering. Atonement and Trumpets belonged to the five yearly celebrations but not to the three pilgrimages. At these three annual meetings the people were to bring offerings of produce from the land and the work of their hands, as well as vowed and freewill gifts. The feasts were celebrated year by year when the people lived rightly before God, were given great importance, and required observance. Their observance required special priestly work in the first apartment, distinct from the yearly most-holy-place work.
The feast days were holy days set apart from common days, expressly called sabbaths in which no servile work was to be done. The fifteenth of Abib came once a year, allowed food preparation, and prohibited servile work, while the seventh-day Sabbath came weekly and prohibited all work. The tenth day of the seventh month was an annual sabbath of rest even though the people were to afflict their souls on that day, and it was more sacred than the other annual sabbaths. Multiday feasts included occasions when the people were not to labor.
The annual sabbaths stand beside the Sabbaths of the Lord as distinct from them, set apart as days for bringing special offerings to the Lord. They are listed with their meat offerings and drink offerings, and with holydays, new moons, and sabbath days. The complete list of the festival holy days is tied to eating or abstaining from foods and to sacrificial meats and drinks.
The calendar is regulated by specified dates, the moon and the barley harvest. It requires the wave offering of the first barley sheaf, the first fruits of barley harvest, on the sixteenth day of the first month as the morrow after the Sabbath. The Sabbath is given first place, and the other festivals are dated from it. The count to Pentecost began after the annual Passover Sabbath, not after a weekly Sabbath, so Pentecost could fall on any day of the week. The cycle parallels Deuteronomy 16, with Passover, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles appointed in the first and seventh months, alongside solemn days and fasts observed in later practice.
Weekly Sabbath Distinct
The yearly feast days and sabbaths stand distinct from and beside the Sabbaths of Jehovah, the regular weekly Sabbath. They are called your sabbaths and her sabbaths, not the Sabbaths of the Lord, the tenth day of the seventh month being called your sabbath while the weekly seventh-day Sabbath is identified as the Lord's Sabbath. The distinction is made by the phrase besides the Sabbaths of Jehovah and in verses 37-38, and by the very nature of the institutions. The chapter enumerates the yearly feast days and Sabbaths connected with Passover, First-fruits, Trumpets and Atonement, describing the Jews' three annual feasts and the seven yearly sabbaths connected with them, with the complete list of set feasts kept in connection with Passover, Pentecost and other yearly feasts, several kept as sabbaths on which no manner of servile work was done. These yearly sabbaths were observed on specified dates and were called feasts, observed in addition to the Lord's Sabbaths, and are presented as four ceremonial sabbaths associated with feasts, food and drink. They were typical and shadowy, typifying certain events in the work of redemption, and expired by limitation when the thing typified was reached, the shadow ending when it reached the substance.
The weekly Sabbath always falls on the seventh day of the week in constant succession, while the yearly sabbaths come once a year on fixed dates of the month regardless of the weekday and could fall on any day of the week. They coincided with the seventh day only about once in six or seven years, and they could fall on a weekly Sabbath but did not regularly do so. In this chapter the first day, the seventh day and the eighth day refer to days within the particular feast, not days of the week, and the feast days and their sabbaths came once a year distinct from the Lord's weekly Sabbaths. Some were fixed by dates in the month, while the Feast of Weeks was set in relation to the harvest and the weekly Sabbath. The seven annual ceremonial sabbaths tied to Israel's feast days fell on specified dates regardless of the day of the week and belonged to the ceremonial law of sacrifices, offerings and appointed observances, not to the Ten Commandments or the weekly Sabbath.
The weekly Sabbath grew out of the action of a holy God at creation before sin and before types, is a universal memorial of creation for all people, and would have existed without the typical system. The yearly days grew out of man's actions as a sinner and would never have existed but for sin, coming in because of sin as types and prophecies pointing forward to Christ and meeting their fulfillment in Christ Jesus. They belonged to the Mosaic system of types introduced because of sin and to Israel's national, local, ceremonial system tied to the land of Canaan and Jerusalem, requiring circumcision and pilgrimage, and lasted as forever or perpetual only until their purpose was fulfilled. They are ceremonial sabbaths, days in which no work was done, with ceremonial feast-days connected with them, having to do with sin and the putting away of sin to point men to the One who takes away sins. They stand out in contradistinction to the seventh-day Sabbath, the weekly Sabbath, God's memorial of creation instituted before sin entered, which is not a shadow of things to come but an eternal memorial and sign of Christ's power to create, uphold, redeem, sanctify and save. When treated as a means of earning salvation they became carnal ordinances, while the weekly Sabbath remains a memorial of creation and a sign of redeeming power.
The weekly Sabbath is moral, absolute, independent, enduring and unchangeable, guarded by the fourth commandment as the eighth commandment guards property. The yearly sabbaths are typical, shadowy, temporary and dependent for their existence on the typical feasts to which they belong, expiring by limitation when the thing typified is reached. The annual ceremonial sabbaths on the first, tenth, fifteenth and twenty-third days of the seventh month, distinct from the Lord's weekly Sabbath and associated with new moons and feast days, are identified with the plural sabbaths and feast days Paul says were shadows whose body is Christ, so their removal does not abolish the moral law or the seventh-day Sabbath. They stand with meats and drinks and sacrificial meats and drinks as component parts of the typical and shadowy system pointing forward to Christ and His death, wholly different from the weekly Sabbath of the Lord, which is absolute and independent, as old as the world, a memorial of creation for every person rather than a shadow of Christ's death, about which there is nothing shadowy. When the feast met its antitype in the work of Christ, as Passover met its antitype when Christ was sacrificed, the sabbaths connected with it ceased, and these ceremonial observances expired when Christ came.
By contrast, those who held the other teaching place the weekly Sabbaths and the annual sabbaths in the same category of positive, commemorative, typical institutions with no moral basis, since moral institutions are not typical and typical institutions are not moral. On that reckoning God appointed sabbaths on days other than the seventh day and thereby proved that any day of the week might be made a Sabbath if He chose to make it one. The same teaching explains the Sabbath of the fourth commandment as requiring observance on fixed dates that change the weekday from year to year, so that the fourth-commandment Sabbath was kept on fixed dates shifting weekdays, falling many times on Thursday or Friday rather than Saturday. In that account the true Sabbath of the law kept by Christ fell in the Gospels twenty-eight times on a day not Saturday but more probably Thursday, once on Friday, and a number of times on Saturday during the last year of His public teaching, meaning no one now keeps the Sabbath in the manner Christ kept it.
Types Fulfilled in Christ
The feasts of Leviticus 23 are typical, and their fuller meaning is found in the sacrifice, life and priestly work of Jesus Christ, distinct from the Sabbath of Jehovah. The Passover lamb points to Christ's death, the sheaf of firstfruits waved on the sixteenth of the first month to His resurrection, and Weeks or Pentecost, kept on the fiftieth day from firstfruits, to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples. Trumpets points to the worldwide proclamation of the second coming carried by the three angels with the everlasting gospel in Revelation 14, Atonement to His work as High Priest in the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary, and Tabernacles or Ingathering to the homecoming to the New Jerusalem and the final gathering of the redeemed. They were celebrated year by year when the people lived rightly before God, including the three annual occasions when the males were commanded to appear before the Lord at the sanctuary, and each was met in His antitypical priestly service. The timing of Pentecost marks that fulfillment, not any intent to honor the first day of the week or to change the Sabbath.
The spring types were fulfilled exactly as to time, with the Passover killed on the fourteenth of the first month met in Christ sacrificed as Passover, firstfruits in Christ risen, and Weeks in Pentecost. The same work of burnt offerings and other offerings appointed on the day of firstfruits and the feast of Weeks as on the day of atonement shows that mere preliminary offerings do not prevent the grand event of the day from meeting its antitype on the very day of the type. The antitype commences on the day of the type but may then extend forward a great distance. So the autumnal types likewise indicate time as well as nature and order, with the Day of Atonement on the tenth day of the seventh month pointing to Christ the great High Priest coming from heaven to bless His waiting people. That tenth day of the seventh month in 1844 marks the beginning of His most-holy-place work in the heavenly sanctuary continuing until the consummation.
The memorial of the blowing of trumpets introduced here is a fall festival type whose work was to announce the great Day of Atonement coming on the tenth day of the same month, and it belonged to the five yearly celebrations but not to the three pilgrimages requiring all males to attend. Like the other festival shadows it finds its fulfillment in Christ without requiring revival of its ancient ceremonies. The yearly round closes with that tenth day of the seventh month, called the Day of Atonement, when the sins transferred to the sanctuary by the daily ministration through the year were removed in the cleansing of the sanctuary. The high priest killed the Lord's goat and sprinkled its blood before and upon the mercy-seat and upon the horns of the altar to make atonement, then laid the sins upon the head of the scapegoat to be sent away into the wilderness, giving final riddance of sin from the people and the sanctuary.
The feasts need not be celebrated annually until their full antitypical fulfillment, and the Day of Atonement will also reach its completion. Their meaning is met in Christ's ministry and in a consistent life of walking in newness of life.
Ceremonial Law Ended
The yearly sabbaths set out in Leviticus 23:5-39 and 23:4-44 belong only to the ceremonial law called the law of Moses, not to the moral law that commands the seventh day. They stand with meats, drinks, carnal ordinances, holydays, new moons, feast-days and yearly sabbaths connected together as one whole system, distinct from and beside the Sabbaths of the Lord. The Sabbath of the Ten Commandments was spoken by God with His own voice and written on tables of stone by His own hand, while nothing about meats and drinks was so spoken or written, but the typical services were given through Moses to proclaim. That ceremonial code with its numerous sabbaths, new moons and feast days was outward, binding on the Jews only until Christ's death, and has been abrogated, while the moral law remains as the unchangeable rule of right. Its days are the class of days meant in Romans 14, where esteeming one day above another or esteeming every day alike is a matter of indifference so long as justification is not sought through them to the rejection of Christ's sacrifice, marking the change from that ritual to spiritual worship of Jesus under the faith of the gospel.
The annual ceremonial sabbaths on the first, tenth, fifteenth and twenty-third days of the seventh month are the seven yearly feasts and sabbaths of Leviticus 23:4-37, separate from and beside the weekly Sabbaths of the Lord and associated with new moons and feast days. They are plural shadows pointing forward to Christ and His death and typifying certain events in the work of redemption, not memorials of creation looking back like the seventh-day Sabbath. They fell on certain days of certain months and feasts on any day of the week, were dependent for their existence on the typical feasts to which they belonged, and expired by limitation when the thing typified was reached, the shadow ending when it reached the substance. When the feast met its antitype in the work of Christ, as Passover met its antitype when Christ was sacrificed, the sabbaths connected with it ceased with the sacrificial law at the cross. They stood for sin and became a yoke of bondage against the people because they trusted in them for righteousness, and everything typical was blotted out and nailed to the cross with the handwriting of ordinances, having no further significance or use after Christ came and being reduced to common days.
Those seven ceremonial sabbaths observed during the year, joined with meat, drink, holyday and new moon ordinances, are the sabbath-days of Colossians 2:16, whose body is Christ in Colossians 2:17. They belong to the Mosaic system of types introduced because of sin, unlike the weekly Sabbath instituted at creation before sin entered, which would have existed without the typical system. They were a shadow of Christ pointing forward to the cross rather than back to creation, kept beside the Sabbaths of the Lord with no connection between the two, and were blotted out and nailed to the cross, leaving the weekly Sabbath still in force. They are wholly different from the Eden Sabbath guarded by the fourth commandment, about which there is nothing shadowy, which is the Sabbath of the Lord our God, the seventh-day Sabbath.
The complete list of Jewish feast days and fast days connected with eating or abstaining from certain foods, including new moon, Passover, Pentecost, Atonement and others, are the days Paul discusses in Romans 14 about esteeming one day above another, not the weekly seventh-day Sabbath guarded by one of the Ten Commandments and honored from creation. Like modern New Years, Christmas and Thanksgiving, those annual days are now reduced to a level with common days, having been instituted with the ceremonial law that came by sin. As part of the Jewish ritual of carnal ordinances they are a matter of indifference where justification is not sought through them, marking the change to spiritual worship under the gospel. The dispute is about these ceremonial days, not about all days, and neither the institution of the ceremonial law nor its abolition affects the weekly Sabbath or releases man from obligation to devote the seventh part of his time to God.
Those Jewish festivals beginning here, with annual sabbaths distinct from the weekly Sabbath, are the times of Galatians 4:10-11, which Gentile Christians are forbidden to observe. The annual sabbaths and feast-days of Leviticus 23:4-37, including Passover and the Day of Atonement, are not binding on Christians, but a Jewish believer may still keep them from old association while another believer may regard them like any other working day. Keeping them or treating them alike falls within Christian liberty, so no believer is to judge another over them.
The yearly sabbaths are shadowy sabbaths distinct from the weekly seventh-day Sabbath, enforced by a law of types that has passed away, so they have ceased and ended when the shadow reached its substance, while the seventh day remains the Sabbath and the Lord's day. When treated as a means of earning salvation they became carnal ordinances, while the weekly Sabbath remains a memorial of creation and a sign of God's redeeming power to create, uphold, redeem and sanctify. That weekly Sabbath was ordained and sanctified by the creating God before the entrance of sin for Adam and his sons, is eternal and of lasting obligation, and Jews and Gentiles alike are still required to hallow God's Sabbaths.
Scripture Links and Application
The count to Pentecost began after the annual Passover Sabbath rather than after a weekly Sabbath, so Pentecost could fall on any day of the week and its timing gave no special honor to Sunday. The appointed timing of Pentecost was a type fulfilled when the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples in Acts 2, not an intention to honor the first day of the week or to change the Sabbath. The offering of first-fruits on the day after the Sabbath was likewise fulfilled in the resurrection of Christ as the first-fruits of those who sleep. The yearly Sabbaths and feast days belong to the annual cycle in which no day of the weekly cycle is named, and therefore they cannot make Sunday a weekly Sabbath, for in Scripture the Sabbath names the seventh day.
The eighth day spoken of in the feasts means the eighth day of the feast observance, with nothing about reckoning the days of the week in the account, so it cannot be used to argue for Sunday-keeping. That eighth day, though called a great day and even a Sabbath, does not prefigure the first day of the week exalted as a Sabbath under the gospel. Because feasts begin on fixed days of fixed months, the eighth day falls on a different weekday in different years, just as New Year’s Day and the Fourth of July do. The eighth-day rite of circumcision reckoned from birth could likewise fall on any day of the week, so neither can establish a weekly first-day Sabbath. Any type relating to gospel events and ordinances must be interpreted in harmony with plain gospel facts, where no declaration exalts the first day as a weekly Sabbath.
The Lord speaking to Moses to give instruction belonging to the service of the sanctuary stands with Leviticus 1 to 7 and 16 in describing the main features of that service. That instruction was not written in vain or without purpose but is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness to make the man of God perfect. It was written for learning to give patience, comfort, and hope. Studied as God’s appointed object-lesson, it reveals God’s way, power, and glory in the earthly sanctuary built by Moses. It teaches the temple of God in heaven and Christ’s priestly service there as High Priest and Minister of the heavenly sanctuary, of which the earthly was the pattern and shadow.
The Lord required exact obedience in ceremonial details, including offerings that met His stated standard, which shows that God is particular about obedience and does not authorize people to choose their own way of serving Him. The yearly system of religious services was marked by ordered forms instituted to draw Israel nearer to God and to make them a people of renown, so that departing from even a small requirement brought blame. The chapter lists seven annual sabbaths distinct from the Lord’s weekly rest day, and their observance was not pleasing to God when accompanied by sin. The Lord appointed Israel’s multiday feasts as occasions when the people were not to labor, alongside the weekly Sabbath, showing that work was not meant to exhaust people or harm their health, though neither was idleness intended.