The eighth day

The Holy Spirit

(John 7:2,37,39).

A year is the length of time taken by the earth in making one complete

revolution round the sun, and is approximately 3651/4 days.  This length of

time is independent of manner or custom, people or place.  It is true for

Jew, Gentile and Church.  Israel's festal year, however, occupies the first

seven months only, after which, no feast Divinely instituted is observed

until with 'the beginning of months' Passover opens the series once more.

This seven -month year, contrary to 'nature', indicates its intentional

typical character.  Passover, or redemption by the blood of the Divinely

appointed Sacrifice, opens the year, and after the interval occupied by the

fourth, fifth and sixth months, in which only the stranger, and the treading

down of Jerusalem is mentioned, the Feast of Trumpets and Atonement once more

usher in the blessings of Jubilee and of the Feast of Tabernacles.  This is

of extreme importance.  Apart from the sacrificial mediation of Christ, there

can be no blessing for Jew or Gentile.  Here, too, all must start, and this

fact was impressed upon Israel at the institution of the first Passover.

Israel's civil year begins with the blowing of trumpets in the seventh month,

but when the people were about to be delivered from the bondage of Egypt,

Moses made the following important pronouncement:

'This month shall be Unto You the beginning of months: it shall be the

first month of the year To You' (Exod. 12:2).

Tishri, the seventh month, corresponds roughly with our September --

October, and up to the institution of the Passover this autumnal harvest

period was reckoned as the conclusion of one year and the beginning of

another.  It is reasonable to believe that man would be placed on the earth

when the fruits of the earth were ripe for harvest, rather than in the spring

of the year, when some period of waiting would be expected.  Exodus 23:16

speaks of the feast of the ingathering as taking place 'in the end of the

year', and this falls about the close of September.  The 'latter rain',

according to Joel, fell 'in the first month' (Joel 2:23).

The Christian life begins not at the font, it begins not on the day of

natural birth, it begins with the recognition of Christ as 'The Lamb of God

Who takes away the sin of the world', i.e. the Passover.  The sacrifice of

Christ is fundamental.  All else is contingent upon this one Sublime Event.

Here is the Door, here is the Way, here is the One Mediator between God and

men, here Israel and here the individual must make a new start.

To us all the gospel proclaims, at the true Passover, and at the

recognition of Jesus Christ and Him crucified 'this month shall be the

beginning of months unto you'.  Teachers and preachers differ in their

appreciation of the types of Scripture.  Some see types where none are

intended, others see none when they are most surely there.  With regard to

the Passover, no such ambiguity or personal inclination can be permitted, the

apostle Paul categorically affirms that 'Christ our Passover hath been

sacrificed for us' (1 Cor. 5:7).  It is interesting to see how the initial

feasts of Israel are recognized in the epistle to the Corinthians.

'Christ our Passover'

(1 Cor. 5:7).

Feast of weeks

'Let us keep the feast'

(1 Cor. 5:8).

'On the first of the sabbaths'

(1 Cor. 16:2).