Now, if we look in Leviticus, where all the holy days are covered, it’s like there is no
indication at all what that day means. Let’s go to Leviticus 23:34. Here God says:
Lev. 23:34 – Say to the Israelites, “On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, the
LORD’s Feast of Tabernacles begins. It lasts for seven days. The first day is a sacred
assembly. Do no regular work. For seven days, present offerings made to the LORD by
fire. And on the eighth day, hold a sacred assembly and present an offering made to the
LORD by fire. It is the closing assembly. Do no regular work.
Down in verse 39, it says:
V-39 – So beginning with the fifteenth day of the seventh month, after you have gathered
the crops of the land, celebrate the festival to the LORD for seven days. The first day is a
day of rest. And the eighth day, also, is a day of rest. So there’s a seven day festival,
followed by the eighth day, which is a holy day. And there’s a convocation on that day,
just like there was during the Feast of Tabernacles.
Now, notice what it says.
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V-40 – On the first day you are to take choice fruit from the trees and palm fronds, leafy
branches and poplars, and rejoice before the LORD your God for seven days. Celebrate
this as a festival to the LORD for seven days each year. This is to be a lasting ordinance
for the generations to come, celebrating it in the seventh month. Live in booths for seven
days. All native-born Israelites are to live in booths so your descendents will know that I
had the Israelites to live in booths when I brought them out of Egypt. I am the LORD
your God.
It doesn’t say a thing about what they are to learn or do on the eighth day, except to have
a convocation. That’s all it says – no information at all, except that it is a high day and it
follows right after the Feast of Tabernacles. And the name of it is The Eighth Day. That’s
what it is referred to in the Bible. It’s not The Last Great Day. That’s not a biblical term
for that day. We believe that terminology – the great day of the Feast – applies to the
seventh day of the Feast of Tabernacles. And if we understand it, when Jesus gave His
sermon, it was on the last day of the Feast – the seventh day – and it pictures the great
white throne judgment mentioned in Revelation.
When we study these things, we really understand why Paul say, “Great is the mystery of
godliness.” So what is the eighth day about? Well, that’s what we’re going to study
today. And we’ll do it on The Eighth Day following the Feast of Tabernacles.
Let’s start in Revelation 1.
Rev. 1:1 – The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to Him, to show His servants
what must soon take place. He made it known by sending His angel to His servant John,
who testifies to everything he saw – that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus
Christ. Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those
who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.
The time is near? You know, John wrote that nearly 2,000 years ago. So what do you
mean, “The time is near?” Well, let’s think about that. Here is a message from God to us
so we can know more about what is going to happen at the end time. It says, “The time is
near.” Now there are several ways to think about that. If we look at the U.S. economy, or
its government that is corrupt to the core, and the citizenry that is gradually becoming
that way, as well, we can say that the time of the seventh trumpet is near. Things are
getting worse. This could all implode on us. Or, we can say…and believe me, we’ve been
saying things like that for a long time, haven’t we? There have been people, since the
beginning of this country, claiming it was going to happen in their lifetime. Or, we can
take another approach, and we can say that when we die, we sleep, and then we wake up
in a resurrection, so it doesn’t really matter how far off it is, because for each of us, it is
just as near away as the end of our mortal life. That’s a true way to look at it. Or, we can
realize that every time that anybody asked Jesus how far away the end was, He always
said, “It’s near. It’s imminent. It’s just around the bend. It’s about to happen.” And yet
Jesus walked the earth two thousand years ago.
So what do we make of that? Well, I think to say, for the very least then, God doesn’t
look at time like we do. We know Jesus didn’t tell any lies. To Him, I think, time is kind
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of like looking into tray of sand. Here’s one end and here’s the other, and He can see both
at the same time. He’s outside of it – not in it. From here to there, that’s not far away.
I remember one time, I was trail-running above Pasadena in the Angeles Forest, and I
was coming back. And the trail was following the side of the mountain. It followed the
contours of the hill. I saw ahead of me, as I rounded a curve, a man and about five or six
young Boy Scouts. And I remember that they were all bunched up, and as I got to them, I
saw that one of them was so hot that his glasses had fogged up. They were all hot and
sweaty. They all smelled like wet puppies. And off in the distance, I could hear someone,
who was angry and shouting – and I saw these boys were all looking back across the side
of the hill, and I saw a man, way off in the distance, yelling to them. He might have been
a half-mile away by the trail that followed the curves, but actually, he was fairly close to
them. So they could shout at each other and hear one another, even though the trail was
quite long. The one that was back down the trail, apparently, was upset because his group
had gotten so far ahead of him. And there was this man with five or six of these boys and
a bigger group back with him. And he was asking the question, “How much further is it?”
The boys heard the question, and as they heard and saw me coming, all their little heads
swiveled toward me with this big question mark on their faces. I’d just come from up the
trail, so I knew how far it was. And not wanting to discourage anybody, of course, I said,
“Well, it’s just around the bend.” And their little faces all beamed with enthusiasm, and
their heads swiveled back to look at their leader back down the trail, and they yelled out
in unison, with all their might and gusto to their frustrated leader, those words of
encouragement, “It’s just around the bend.” Of course, the bend was three miles long,
like I said.
So when God tells us, “It’s not going to be long,” you have to realize that He doesn’t
really give us much specific information with that statement. “It’s imminent.” That can
mean one thing to us and something else to Him altogether.
Another thing I think we need to take into account here…we just read in Revelation 1 that
this was the testimony of Jesus Christ given to John. Yet, Jesus told us, in the Gospels,
that He didn’t know when the end was exactly – that the Father was the only One who
knew that. So the one who wrote the book of Revelation doesn’t even know when the end
is coming. The Father is playing His cards close on this one. So the time is shrouded in
mystery.
Let’s pick it up from where we left off yesterday in Revelation 20, and verse 10, to
understand more about it. It says in Revelation 20:10:
Rev. 20:10 – The devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulphur,
where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and
night forever and ever. Who does the they refer to? If you threw me into a pit of burning
sulphur, I would not be tormented forever and ever. I would soon die. Right? If you
throw the devil into a pit of burning sulphur, he’s not going to be tormented by the fire,
because he’s spirit. So fire doesn’t affect him one way or the other. But restraining him,
so that he can’t cause trouble, that torments him. So, if you just think logically about
what this means, it’s talking about the devil being tormented, because he is now
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restrained. And it says, Then I saw a great white throne and Him who was seated on it.
Earth and sky fled from His presence, and there was no place for them. So obviously, the
earth and sky do not flee from any human being. This, obviously, is a reference to Jesus
Christ. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne. Okay, when the
dead stand, what is that? Well, that’s the resurrection. So this is the resurrection at the
end of the thousand years. It’s not talking about the one that occurred at the beginning of
the thousand years. So there’s another resurrection. In fact, that’s why it talks about the
first resurrection in Revelation there, because there is another, and this is it. I’m sorry, I
left out a part. I saw the dead, great and small standing before the throne, and the books
were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. That’s the Bible. And
the dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. So if
you read that translation, it sounds like they’re being judged on what they did in their first
life. But I think that translation was intended to help us understand, but I think it isn’t
really very close to what John actually said. If we read it in the New American Standard,
it’s a little less biased, I guess we could say.
Revelation 20:12 – New American Standard – says:
Rev. 20;12 – And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books
were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were
judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds – not
had done – but according to their deeds. So this could imply, then, that there are things
being written in these books after this resurrection, and they’re going to be judged on
what they do. That certainly makes a lot more sense to me, because why would these
people be resurrected again, and then judged on what had been written, when they didn’t
even know Jesus Christ? This is a chance for them to get to know God finally. You see,
this is the great plan that God has. He is not going to throw somebody in an everburning
hell because the missionary didn’t make it to their village. There is a plan that God is
working that includes all people. It just doesn’t include all people now.
This resurrection, clearly, is to physical life. The one in the beginning was to eternal life,
because the people in that resurrection have lived their life, entered into relationship –
had Christ’s sacrifice cover their sins – and so they were made a part of God’s family in
that resurrection. They were spirit beings at that point.
So that was the meaning of the last day of Feast, wasn’t it? “If you’re thirsty, I have
something for you.” Here comes us all this humanity that had lived from Adam until the
return of Christ – the ones that didn’t know God – and here is this speech that He’s going
to give and invite them to get to know Him.
So after that, something really amazing happens. Let’s read it in Revelation 20, and verse
13. I’m going to kind of back up a little bit here to where we were reading before.
Rev. 20:11 – I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the
earth and heaven fled away. I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God and they
were judged. The sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and hell delivered up
the dead which were in them, and they were judged – every man according to his works.
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So here’s this resurrection that is being talked about – a resurrection back to life – for
those who died and didn’t know Christ – and out of the grave – that’s what the word hell
means – and out of the sea, everybody is going to come and be given a chance to get to
know God. And if you surrendered your life to Christ and covenanted with Him – at the
end of that period – then you become a part of God’s eternal family as well. But what
about those people that didn’t? Well, it says:
V-14 – Death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. That’s in
verse 14.
So, lived, died, resurrected, had a chance to live and get to know God. If they don’t make
it at that point, then they die again. If they are not changed to spirit, then they are going to
die.
V-15 – Whoever was not found, it says – verse 15 – written in the book of life was cast
into the lake of fire. That’s sounds terrible, doesn’t it? Death by fire. But let’s look. Peter
tells us something about this that maybe we haven’t thought about.
2 Pt. 3:7 – The heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word kept in store,
reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
I remember listening to my parents when I was a child. They had read me the story about
Noah’s flood. And we got to the part about the rainbow, where God promises never to
destroy the earth by water again, and I remember my father telling me that the next time
He destroys it, it is going to be destroyed by fire. So he knew that. I mean, he’d read
enough of the Bible to know what was going to happen.
V-8 – But beloved, he says in verse 8, be not ignorant of this one thing – that one day is
with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not
slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering to
usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
One of the questions that people have asked me a lot, in my life as a minister, is, “Why
doesn’t Jesus just come back now and stop all the suffering and the misery and the
inhumanity?” You think about the terrible things that have been done in our history as
human beings, and it’s terrible! Why doesn’t God just come and save us all from it?
People of God have been crying out for Jesus to come for a long time. Well, this scripture
explains to us why He doesn’t come. He’s working a plan – not willing that any should
perish, but that all should come to repentance. He’s working a plan that includes
everyone that has ever been born. And the scope of it is so grand! It’s so vast! It’s so farranging!
It’s so astounding! It’s so daring that we can scarcely conceive it!
Let’s look in 1 Corinthians 2, and verse 9, and read some more about this. Paul said:
1 Cor. 2:7 – We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which
God ordained before the world unto our glory, which none of the princes of this world
knew. For had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is
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written, “Eye has not seen – not a single human eye has ever seen – or any human ear
heard, neither have entered into the heart of any human being, the things which God has
prepared for them that love Him.” A plan so unthinkable – by human terms – that no
human has ever conceived it. But the interesting thing is, that one day that plan is no
longer going to be a mystery. It’s going to be manifest. God is going to work His plan.
And it may seem like it is taking forever to us, but to Him it doesn’t.
Yesterday we talked about the completion of that plan for man – at least the first phase of
it – if you’re thirsty, come and drink. The last we read of it is in verse 10 here in Peter.
2 Pt. 3:10 – But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in the which the
heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat,
the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
So we’re really talking here about the end of the universe, aren’t we? You have the
reverse of the big bang – but way before science thinks it is going to happen. How hot
would that be? We’re talking about people being destroyed in a lake of fire at the end.
What’s that going to be like for them? Well, a gasoline fire burns at three hundred to six
hundred degrees. Lava flows between thirteen hundred and twenty-two hundred. Lava is
nowhere near what we’re talking about when we talk about the degradation of matter!
We’re talking way beyond thermonuclear. Anybody who dies this way would not even
know it. They would be here and then, more rapidly than in an instant, they would be
gone!
So it tells us that the earth is purified by fire. It says that the earth is going to be destroyed
in that purification. There won’t be anymore universe. No more earth. And that happens
on what we believe is that additional day – the day with no stated purpose. But actually,
there is a gigantic clue for us.
I want you to go home tonight. I want you to fire up your computer. I want you to open
up your Bible program and go to the search feature. And I want you to type in there these
words: eighth day. Do a combo search on eighth day. That’s the name of the day that
we’re talking about. So, if we want to know what it means, all we have to do is type in
the name. You’ll get twenty-one hits. Read all of them. And when you get done, you’ll
see that the number eight is all about purification in the Bible. It’s about something new.
So it fits, doesn’t it? When you think about it. The only clue as to what it means, actually,
is the name of the day, which is The Eighth Day. (By the way, when you come to the
Feast at LifeResource Ministries, and you look on your festival calendar, that’s what
you’re going to see there – Eighth Day.
But we’re not done yet. Why is is all being purified? Well, we’re told. Revelation 21:1.
This is more about what this day is about.
Rev. 21:1 – Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first
earth had passed away. And also, there was no more sea. So there is a new heaven and a
new earth. But it’s not physical. And I, John, saw the holy city – New Jerusalem – coming
down out of heaven from God to us – it doesn’t say that, but that is what it means –
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prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven
saying, “Behold the dwelling place of God is with men – God is going to live with us! –
and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself shall be with
them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There shall
be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former
things have passed away. And then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all
things new.” And He said to me, “Write these words, for they are faithful and true.” And
He said to me, “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega – the beginning and the end. I
will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. He who overcomes
shall inherit all things. And I will be His God and he shall be my son.”
So you see, that’s what it is all been about all along! God has made humankind to be in
relationship with Him. And this is when it is going to happen. Here at the end of the
story, God wins us all back. And we end up His children forever – when there is no more
physical creation. We’re all way past physical things then.
Let’s go to Revelation 21:19. Here is the description that John gives of this city. I mean,
that’s what he called it because that’s all he had to call it.
V-19 – The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with all kinds of precious
stones. The first was jasper…and then he goes on down with the rest of them. Weren’t all
these things supposed to be burned up? Jasper and jacinth and all of those things? Didn’t
the elements all melt with fervent heat? Verse 21:
V-21 – The twelve gates were twelve pearls – each individual gate was one pearl. Are
there still pearls? Maybe a better question is, “Are there still oysters? And how big does
an oyster have to be to produce a pearl that is as big as a city gate? Wasn’t there no more
sea, so how would there be…?” And the street of the city was pure gold. There wasn’t
anymore gold – no more transparent glass. See, this is all symbolic talk here for
something that he doesn’t have words to describe.
V-22 – But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.
So there is no need for a building, because it’s all about God now. This account is written
by a man who has been given a vision of a thing so unlike anything he has ever
experienced, he is just struggling for words to describe it. There is no temple. God and
Christ are the light. What he is really trying to describe is our life with God.
V-23 – The city had no need for the sun or the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God
illuminated it. The Lamb is its light. The Lamb is its light? And the nations who are saved
shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it. You
know, God loves diversity. And He’s going to convert all those people of all the nations,
and they’re going to be with Him eternally as His children, just like we are.
V-25 – Its gates shall not be shut at all by day, and there shall be no night there. When
you don’t have a sun and an earth rotating it, you don’t have any day or night. They shall
bring the glory and honor of the nations into it. But there shall by no means enter in
anything that defiles or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in
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the Lamb’s book of life. All this trouble was caused in the beginning because of a lie,
wasn’t it? The devil told a lie. No lies. The source of all the problems is going to be gone.
So, when we think about what this is telling us, all the obedience, all the worship, all the
observances, all the good work, all the faith, the temple of God, the Sabbath, the holy
days, the Law, the offerings, the church, the city of Jersusalem, the temple, Christ’s life
as a human, His death, His resurrection…what was all that about? Well, these last two
chapters explain it to us. They tell us about how it is going to come out in the end.
But let’s think back about the beginning for a minute. In the first three chapters of
Genesis, we find out about the beginning. And what happened there? Well, that’s where
humankind broke relationship with God. God created mankind in relationship with Him
and we broke it off – Adam and Eve did, and we’ve been following along ever since. The
rest of the Bible is the story of how God is trying to draw all of us back into relationship
with Him. It’s always about relationship, because God is a relational being. And this
whole thing is about Him having a family. He’s the Father. We’re the children. Jesus
Christ is our older brother. That’s family talk.
But then what? Okay. So we’re in God’s family. Then what? What happens after that?
Well, great is the mystery of godliness. We don’t know what’s going to happen after that.
I’ve heard some pretty wild speculations, but all the ones I’ve heard are so easy to shoot
down. It’s like we’re all going to go out to the ends of the universe and sacrifice and
become Christs, just like Christ did for us. What do you mean, “ends of the universe?”
That’s not going to be there anymore. The former things are passed away – quote,
unquote. Done with that. Besides, it says there is only one name under heaven by which
people may be saved, and it’s not Bill. It’s not your name either. So, no, that’s not going
to happen. But don’t worry about it. You know, you’ll never figure it out. We just read
the scriptures where it said that we’re not going to be able to figure it out.
I went to visit my daughter and son-in-law and our twin grandchildren, who, I think, were
three at the time – four, maybe? And Elaine went and bought them some pretty cool gifts.
One of them that she gave to our grandson was a Buzz Lightyear figure – one of these
mechanical guys. You push him and he would make these different statements – a bunch
of different buttons for the different things he could say. The one that Ethan liked the best
was, “To infinity and beyond!” So he’d run around the house, pushing this button. All
day long you’d hear this off in the bedroom, out in the garage – “To infinity and
beyond!” There’s a bombastic buzz and it goes on like that. That’s about as close as
we’re going to get – to infinity and beyond.
There is a governor on our minds. We don’t know what God has in store for us. It’s a
mystery. But whatever it is, we know it is going to be good. That’s the thing that we
know, because we know what God is like. He is a good God.
Most sermons end here when you talk about the holy days and their meanings, but in
LifeResource Ministries we always take it a little further. We always ask that question,
“So what?” To inifinity and beyond. So what? What does it mean to you in your life right
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now? How does this information change things for us now? What are we supposed to do
with it?
Well, if we go back to where we were reading in 2 Peter 3, we are given the answer to
that question.
2 Pt. 3:10 – The day of the Lord will come – verse 10 – as a thief in the night, in which
the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, the elements will melt with fervent heat,
the earth also, and the works that are therein shall be burned up. We read that. Peter says
then:
V-11 – Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought
you to be in holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of
the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the elements
shall melt with fervent heat? Quite a question! What should we do? What should you do?
How does this change your life now – today? Nevertheless, we, according to His
promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwells righteousness.
Wherefore, beloved, seeing that you look for such things, be diligent that you may be
found of Him in peace, without spot and blameless. Without spot and blameless are really
important. What does that mean? Well, it means to be in relationship wtih Jesus Christ.
He died for us. He covered our sins. So that we could be without spot and blameless.
Right? And He died for us, so that we could live for Him.
Now, without spot…and be found of Him in peace is something else to think about. To be
at peace with others in a positive relationship with those around us – to have peace of
mind. Be at peace with God and be at peace with other people. Now let’s think about that
for a minute.
Elaine asked me a question just before we left for the Feast. We were talking about
Babyland, which we’ve already covered this Feast, and she asked me what I thought we
would need in order to be able to help all the people that God is going to resurrect,
including all those young girls that had all of those babies that died. And all those babies
that died, what do we need to be able to help those people? And I told her that I thought it
didn’t have anything to do with technical knowledge. Most of the stuff we do today
doesn’t have anything to do with what is going on then. But it’s all about relationships. If
we’re headed toward a place where there are perfect relationships, what God wants us to
do is to start working on ours now – to learn how to do relationship. All of those young
women, who bore all those children…what are they going to need? Well, they’re going to
need – beyond food and shelter – they’re going to need support, and attending, and care
more than anything else.
In my work, as a counselor, I see that is what my clients need most of all – without
exception, almost. I think about his little guy that I started working with in the third
grade. He came. He was diagnosed with ADHD and bipolar disorder, because he was
having gigantic tantrums. He had two older siblings, who had been abused by their stepfather.
He lives with them and they abuse him – or were abusing him. But he got shuffled
between his mother’s and his grandmother’s and his father’s homes – living in three
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homes where nobody knows how to take of children. When I got him, he didn’t even
know how to play. Now he is in the fifth grade and they’re moving him back into regular
ed, because his behaviors are going away. His grades are improving. He’s learning how
to make friends at school. What has made this change? Well, I’m not completely sure,
because I’m not the only one that works with him. I’m glad there are other people
involved. But one day he told me that he wished I were his father. My response to that
was, “You really like being with me and you know that I really like being with you. And
we, over the years working together, have become really good friends. So you know how
to make friends now.” And he nodded and smiled. He understood that that’s what had
happened. And he was now using those skills that he learned in relationship with me, and
I hope other people that are working with him, and his sense of self was bolstered, his
concept of himself was changed from a bad kid to a kid who could be successful. What’s
interesting is, while I had so much enjoyment working with him and helping him, for the
last year and a half, I’ve had to withstand pressure from parents and social services to
detail some kind of fix that we’re going to employ with him. They wanted a treatment
plan. So I gave them one. He needs to learn to connect. And I’m going to connect with
him, so he can learn how to do that and what it feels like. And somehow, over the last
two years, he doesn’t look like a kid with ADHD any longer. He’s calm. He didn’t need a
treatment plan. He needed love. He needed relationship. It’s always about that. That’s
what takes care of the problem. It takes care of it in this life. It’s going to take care of it
whatever circumstance we’re in later.
So we had some workshops here at the Feast, didn’t we? Why did we have the kind of
workshops we had? Because we understand what the plan is about. It’s always about
relationship. So we had seminars that helped us learn how to walk in the world, how to
heal. We had the Wild at Heart thing that Dale and Donna did, where we learned how to
heal our own relationships because it is hard to heal others when you need healing
yourself. We learned how to resolve family relationship problems. We learned how to
find and use our spiritual gifts. The Speeds took care of that for us. We studied about how
to understand the deepest longings of people by understanding sheep – thanks to Brent
and his amazing presentation he does on a shepherd, looking at Psalm 23. We talked
about grace and evangelism. Aaron did that. We talked about connecting with others of
like mind within our own culture through joint efforts, like Faith Networks. We just
talked a lot about how to connect with people, which proves to be the meaning of this
day. That was not by accident. It was on purpose. We intended it to be that way. We think
that is what the Feast is for – to learn how to acquire the skills so that we can live out the
Feast in the future in God’s family.
So where are the potential connecting points that God has made available to you to reach
other people? What can you do to draw closer to your children? To your siblings? To
your parents? To your friends? To you neighbors? To the people you work with? Who do
you know who needs help? How can you walk your walk more transparently so the light
can shine out? We can have all the love in the world, but if we never express it, then it is
not of help to anybody. We don’t know exactly how it is going to work out, but, if we
know that after the entire plan is completed, there will be a connection somehow between
our ability to relate and what comes after the plan. Somehow we know the relationships
we build now with everybody will endure to infinity and beyond.