The Eighth Day

 

 

Numbers have important meanings in Scripture. For example, the number four represents the world (four corners), five speaks about grace, six is the number for man, and seven is used to reference perfection or completion. But what about the number eight?

The number eight is very significant such that it is used 73 times in the Bible. It is the symbol of Resurrection and Regeneration. In Bible numerology, eight means new beginning; it denotes “a new order or creation, and man's true 'born again' event when he is resurrected from the dead into eternal life.” The first historic reference is to Noah and his family as “eight persons were brought safely through the water” (1Peter 3:20). Those eight persons experienced a true new beginning once the flood receded. Another was instituted by God as a sign of the covenant He was making with Abraham in Genesis 17:12, that each child would be circumcised on the eighth day. This covenant with Abraham represented a new relationship with God.

The Hebrew word shemoneh is translated eight or eighth and is derived most likely from the root word meaning plumpness, as if a surplus above the “perfect” seven. Of course, the first mention of seven is found in Genesis 1 with the creation story, in reference to seven days as a week. Metaphorically, the eighth day takes us above and beyond the seventh day, the day of rest.

Two other Old Testament references to the number eight include 1Samuel 17:12-14 indicating King David as the youngest of eight children, the eighth child and the one who would become known as “a man after My (God’s) heart”. In 2Chronicles 34:1-3, Josiah, one of only three good kings, became king when he was eight years old. In verse 3, Scripture says, “For in the eighth year of his reign while he was still a youth, he began to seek the God of his father David”. A new beginning took place in Josiah’s heart in his eighth year. It says he began to purge the images of other gods from Judah and Jerusalem. Both David and Josiah changed the course of history.

In Leviticus 23:33-36, the Lord institutes the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) to be celebrated for seven days in fabricated booths as a reminder of the nation’s exodus from Egypt. In verse 36: “For seven days you shall present an offering by fire to the Lord. On the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation and present an offering by fire to the Lord; it is an assembly. You shall do no laborious work.” This eighth day of Sukkot is also known as Shemini Atzeret and is a separate—yet connected—holy day devoted to the spiritual aspects of the festival of Sukkot. Part of its duality as a holy day is that it is simultaneously considered to be both connected to Sukkot and also a separate festival in its own right. It is also referred to as “the great day of the feast”. John’s gospel cites a particular event that occurred on that day in John 7:37-39:

“Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, 'From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.'" But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. This connection between the eighth day and the Holy Spirit is significant. 

A Hebrew word closely related to shemoneh is shemen and is translated “anointing” in the King James version. In Isaiah 61:1, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners”. This is a clear reference to Jesus as Messiah and quoted by Him in Luke 4:18 as being fulfilled “in their hearing” (verse 21). The Holy Spirit is the source of His anointing and will become that for the New Testament believer as well at Pentecost.

It is commonly accepted that the Law was given to Moses on the Feast of Shavuot, otherwise known as Pentecost. This means that the Old Covenant and the New Covenant were given on the same day, some 1,680 years apart. When the Holy Spirit came upon believers in Jesus as Messiah in Acts 2, it was the completion of the old work and the new beginning of a better covenant (Hebrews 8:6). Like Shemini Atzeret, it is connected to the Old Covenant yet it is its own separate celebration, bringing in an anointing to the believer by the Holy Spirit not experienced by Old Testament believers. This eighth day is really a brand new week in God’s sovereign plan to take us to the Second Coming of Messiah.

One final point is important to consider. The seven major Jewish festivals are prophetically fulfilled in the two comings of Messiah, the ones occurring in the spring pointing to His first coming and the last three, which all happen in the fall, point to His second coming. Specifically, Rosh Hashanah is also the Feast of Trumpets and is fulfilled by the rapture of the church, Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) looks to the Great Tribulation, and Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles is a picture of the Millenniel Kingdom. If those connections are real, then the eighth day of Sukkot brings us into eternity, an end of human history and the new beginning of eternity. Amen!