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7 days.
1:
"Remember the Sabbath day" (Exod. 20: 8-11).
7 weeks.
2:
"Seven Sabbaths shall be completed" (Lev. 23: 15).
7 months.
3:
"In the seventh month a Sabbath" (Lev. 23: 24).
7 years.
4:
"In the seventh year a Sabbath" (Lev. 25: 2-5).
7 * 7 years.
5:
"Seven times seven years Jubilee" (Lev. 25: 8-10).
7 * 70 years.
6:
"Seventy weeks are determined" (Dan. 9: 24-27).
7 times.
7:
"Punish seven times for sins" (Lev. 26: 24; Dan. 4: 16).
Here we have orderly and regular progression.
The only passages that may be questioned in this series are Dan. 9: and Lev. 26:
That Dan. 9: implies a period of years we show in the series dealing with Daniel's
prophecy. That the term "times" is prophetic of a period we discover by studying its
usage in Daniel. Lev. 26: 33, 34 suggests that the "seven times" of Israel's punishment
is co-extensive with the period of Gentile dominion (the seven times of
Nebuchadnezzar's madness. These questions are dealt with more extensively in the
series on Daniel. It is sufficient for our present purpose that we recognize this sabbatic
principle at work.
This series of sevens leads up to the octave, the new beginning, the new heaven and
earth "wherein dwelleth righteousness". So that we find the seventh feast of the year
expanded, and prominence given to one part of it--"the eighth day" (Lev. 23: 39). In
this last phase we see, in type, Israel's wonderful restoration--the steps leading up to it
being set out, as we shall see, in strictly historical order.
The feasts mentioned in Lev. 23: are the following: The weekly Sabbath,
Passover, Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, Trumpets, Day of Atonement, Tabernacles,
and the Eighth Day of the Feast. Their interrelation may be demonstrated as follows:--
The feasts of the Lord (23:).
A | THE WEEKLY SABBATH (1-3)
B | PASSOVER. Redemption by the blood of Lamb (5-8).
THE FIRST-FRUITS.
C | UNLEAVENED BREAD. The present attitude (9-14).
D | PENTECOST. The end of the first harvest (15-21).
The uniting of the nation.
The Jubilee anticipated.
References to Holy Spirit.
Provision for the stranger (22, 23).
Interval of Israel's blindness.
Israel's regathering inaugurated by
A | THE BLOWING OF TRUMPETS (24, 25).
B | THE DAY OF ATONEMENT. Atonement by blood (27-32).
Israel "the second time".
C | TABERNACLES. (34-38).
D | THE INGATHERING (The sunteleia) (39-44).
THE EIGHTH DAY OF THE AGE.
References to Holy Spirit.