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Fundamentals of Dispensational Truth.
#80.
A dispensational forecast (Lev. 23:).
pp. 6 - 11
This chapter of Leviticus is distinguished from the rest of the book, by the fact that it
surveys the typical year of Israel's fasts and feasts, and sets forth, so far as the people of
Israel and those associated with them are concerned, the purpose of the ages. A reading
of the chapter impresses one with the important sabbatic principle that underlies the
whole purpose. The chapter opens with a reference to the weekly Sabbath (verses 1-3),
and then proceeds to outline the feasts and fasts that occupy the first seven months of the
year.
It will be remembered that at the Passover, first instituted in Exod. 12:, a change was
made in the calendar, and Abib became "the beginning of months". The seventh month,
therefore, and the twelfth month of the respective reckonings would overlap, and so, for
the purposes of typical teaching, Israel's year is limited to the first seven months, the
remaining months being allowed to run their course unnoticed.
The sabbatic principle.
The sabbatic principle is not confined to the written revelation of God. It is found
throughout the works of His hand. All are familiar with the seven-hued rainbow, and
most know that in the diatonic musical scale there are seven notes, the sequence being
repeated at the eighth or octave. Turning to the observations of men of science we may
mention the periodic law of the elements. Sir William Crookes said of this law:--
"I am convinced that whoever grasps the key to the periodic law will be permitted to
unlock some of the deepest mysteries of creation."
Dr. E. J. Pace, in his book The Law of the Octave, shows by a series of diagrams, too
complicated to describe and perhaps unnecessary so far as we are concerned, that the
elements composing the universe all obey this law of the seven sequence. Dr. Bullinger's
Number in Scripture will supply further information of interest. We are, however, more
concerned with the presence of the number seven in the typical and dispensational
foreshadowings of Scripture. We find that there are seven features, developed in an
orderly sequence--a seven of days, a seven of weeks, a seven of months, a seven of
years, a seven times seven of years, a seven times seventy of years, and a period of
seven times.