“And on the eighth day, a sabbath rest…” (Lev. 23:39)
“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”). (If that felt a bit confusing, this study about Jubilee and Pentecost may help clarify a bit.)
In its most macro fulfillment, the Eighth Day represents the beginning of a new cycle after 6,000 years of man (six “days”) and 1,000 years (1 “day”) of Jesus Christ reigning on earth.
Placed right after the Feast of Tabernacles, the Eighth Day is the ultimate culmination of God’s plan, when sorrow and death cease to exist, mankind has been fully redeemed, Satan banished forever, the physical world destroyed and recreated as spiritual, and when God will dwell permanently with His children.
And while there’s a LOT we don’t know about what it pictures and what that will be like, there are several key themes throughout the bible that can help us learn a bit more and give a clearer picture of the Eighth Day as the conclusion of God’s plan for humanity.
What does the bible say about the Eighth Day?
Of all God’s holy days, the Eighth Day is the most mysterious. Explicitly, the bible doesn’t tell us a lot. So I’ll mention the few verses here and some additional food for thought, but will try to keep this brief so we can dive into the themes.