The Pulpit Commentary — Leviticus — Section 395

Vere. 23--44.-The hebdomad. Seven in Scripture is a very remarkable number. Jn the text it is repeated in so many forms that it forces itself upon our attention. . I. HEBDOMADB ARE CONSPICUOUS IN _THE CH~~OLOGY OF ~E LA w. 1. They appear in the week of days. (1) The foundation of this 1s the Creation week. The patriarchal sabbath became incorporated into the Mosaic Law. There were other weeks of days and sabbaths. In the text there are three of these, with a sabbath on the first and another on the eighth day. (2) Could there be in these an anticipation of the chan"e of the sabbath from the seventh day to the first or eighth under the Christian dispensation? 'l'he sabbaths of the seventh and eighth days may point to the rest of the millennium in the first instance, and to that of the new heavens and earth in the second. In observing the Lord's day, it would be highly edifying to have these anticipations in mind. 2. They appear again in the week of months. (1) The entire cycle of the feasts of the Lord was comprised in such a week. It commenced on the 14th day of Abib, with the Passover, instituted in commemoration of the Exodus. Then followed, in their appointed seasons, the Feast of Unleavened Bread; that of the Firstfruits; the Feast of Harvest, which is also called the Feast of Weeks (Exod. miv. 22; Ueut. :xvi. 10, 16; 2 Chron. viii. 13). The series ended with the festivals of the seventh month. (2) During the five months remaining there was no annual feast. The daily sacrifices and those of the sabbaths and moons were of course continued. (3) The moon was a symbol of the Church, and its changes represented the mutations through which it passes in this world, but when it has fulfilled its great week of changes it will be per- fected for ever in heaven. 3. They appear again in the week of years. (1) The Law had its septenary division of years, with a continually repeated seventh year of rest for the land (chs. :x:xv. 3--7; :x:xvi. 34, 35; 2 Chron. xxxvi. 21). (2) Founded upon this also was a greater period of a week of weeks of years, with its year of jubilee (eh. xxv. 8-17). The lessons of the sabbatic and jubilee years will come under consideration in their proper places. II. HEnDOHADS ARE CONSPICUOUS IN THE CHRONOLOGY OF PROPHECY. 1. The days of the week are taken as prophetic. (1) David, and Peter from him, notes that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years (Ps. xc. 4 ; 2 Pet. iii. 8). Paul also mentions the sabbath-keeping of the future" which remaineth to the people of God" (Heh. iv. 9). And John describes that rest as extending over a thousand yeare (Rev. xx. 4). (2) 'l'o this agrees the tradition in tbe house of Elias, a teacher who lived about two hundred years before our Lord, and which is thought to have been derived from Elijah the Tishbite. It purports that this world is to endure in its imperfect state six thou- sand years: two thousand before the Lnw; two thousand under the Lnw; two thousand under Messiah; and then a thousand years in a state of reaovntion (see Mede, 536, 776, 894; also Bishop Newton's • Disser.,' vol. iii. 335). (3) The same view is no less definitely put forth by Barnabas. Ho makes each do.y of the Creation week represent a thousand years or the subsequent history of the worl<l, nod the sabbath he makes to stand for the reign of peace, or millennium of John. 2. Dispen- sations are measured by weeks of times. (1) The "times of the Gentiles" are accepted to be the same as the "seven times," during which Israel was destined to ho trodden down of them. Upon the year-day principle these are the double of the "time, time, and dividing of a time" of Daniel and John, during which the little hom was to wenr out the saints, and represent 2620 years. The larger period commences with the literal Babylon, and the smaller with the mystical. (2) But how can the Patrinrchnl, Levitical, and Christian dispensations be limited to six thousand years, if each is to extend over 2520? They do so by overlapping each other. 'l'hus the patriarchal extends "from Adam to Moses" (Rom. v. 13, 14), which space comprises "seven times." The Jewish then reckons from Shem the patriarch, selected as the depositary of the covenant, to Jesus. '!'ho interval from Shem to Jesus measures "seven times." The dispensation of the Gentiles, already described as the "times of the Gentiles," forms the third. It began with the rise of the ancient Babylonish power, and will end with the overthrow of the mystical Babylon. 860 THE BOOK OF LEVITICUS. [os. nm. 6--44,