Leviticus 23:39
“Also on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruit of the land, you shall keep the feast of the Lord for seven days; on the first day there shall be a sabbath-rest, and on the eighth day a sabbath-rest” (Lev. 23:39)
Revelation 21:1
“Now I saw a new heaven & a new earth, for the first heaven & the first earth had passed away” (Rev. 21:1)
The holy day following the Feast of Tabernacles, simply called the “Eighth Day”, is perhaps the most meaningful—and yet least talked about or understood—holy day in God’s plan for mankind. It often gets lumped in with the rest of the Feast of Tabernacles, or rushed through as everyone packs up their temporary dwellings and sets their minds toward home.
But we would be still majorly in the dark about God’s plan and His nature without the Eighth Day. It is not just a tack-on, a bonus day of feasting before we go back to our regular lives. Rather, it is the point of God’s holy days and His plan for mankind.
The spring holy days are quiet, personal, intimate. They’re about salvation on a one-to-one level, focused on inward change. But the fall holy days are about the whole of mankind, with dramatic and world-encompassing events that no one will be able to ignore. And how He places those holy days on the calendar is very purposeful.
Across all of God’s created times and seasons, the number seven/seventh represents completion (or perfection), and the number eight/eighth represents the beginning of a new cycle. We see this in the foundational seven-day week, to start with.
It’s also seen repeated in the Feast of Pentecost (the 50th day or “eighth day” after seven weeks, which beginning an eighth week). And similarly, we see it in the Jubilee Year (the 50th year, or eighth year after seven “weeks” of years and beginning of the eighth “week”).
In Leviticus 23 as Moses lays out all of God’s holy days, we’re given the command for the Feast of Tabernacles and the Eighth Day together.
In Numbers we learn a little bit more about the sacrifices commanded, and in that command it’s called a “sacred assembly”. All holy days are called holy convocations, but this word (H6116, asara), is only used for the Eighth Day and the Last Day of Unleavened Bread (Num 29:35, Neh 8:8).
The first thing many of us associate with an eighth day is the law of circumcision, requiring male babies to have their foreskin removed on the eighth day after birth (Lev. 12:3). The Eighth Day represents the ultimate fulfillment of this physical ceremony, picturing the complete cessation of the physical world.
Mankind’s sinful and rebellious nature will be permanently removed and destroyed, and every person will be transformed into eternal, spiritual children of God. There WILL BE NO MORE MAN. This is one of the main reasons I think that the resurrection and judging of humanity is pictured on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles rather than the Eighth Day—which pictures the cessation of the physical.
When the new heavens and new earth come and the physical world that existed for 7,000 years of humankind is destroyed, we will no longer be separated from God. We will see His face and He will dwell with us (Rev. 21:3).
Another larger theme that reveals itself around the Eighth Day is that of consecration and purification, the final steps in God setting things apart for Himself.
We see ties between the eighth day and the purification and reacceptance of (healed) lepers into the community (Lev. 14:10, 23). Once the priest pronounces them acceptable on the eighth day after their quarantine, they wash in water and offer sacrifices to complete the purification.
In Leviticus 8-9 God consecrated Aaron and his sons as His priesthood, first using water, oil, the blood of sacrifices, and special garments. Then He commanded that they remain in the tabernacle of meeting for seven days, “since Adonai will be consecrating you for seven days” (Lev. 8:33).
On the eighth day their consecration was complete and Moses called them out to make a sin offering for themselves and for the people. God accepted the offering and “then the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people, and fire came out from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering” (Lev. 9:22-24).
Hundreds of years later we see a similar eighth day example, in the culmination of rejoicing and worship at the dedication (consecration) of the temple that Solomon built for God, followed by the seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles and then the Eighth Day (II Chron. 6-7). Here again, the people worshiped, the nation offered sacrifices, and God’s glory came to tangibly rest within the temple in a dramatic and awe-inspiring way.
As we go through the Feast of Tabernacles, dwelling in our temporary huts, one of the things we should meditate on is that it pictures a time of setting apart. A period when God will pour out His spirit on all flesh (Joel 2:28) to purify and consecrate mankind so that we can all move forward into the Eighth Day as His eternal children.
In fact, the whole creation will be purified. Peter tells us that “the heavens and the earth which are now…are reserved for fire until the day of judgment” (II Pet. 3:7). Fire destroys but it also purifies, and the fire of the last judgment (the second death, Rev. 20:14) will usher in the new heaven and new earth.
Water is also a key element in purification. In the new heaven and new earth once all have accepted God’s way, all will have access to the “pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb” (Rev. 22:1).
God’s called today are in the early stages of setting apart, consecration, and purification. The Eighth Day is when this process will be complete across the totality of mankind.
