The Four-Month Interval
Leviticus 23:22
This interval is pictured as a summertime of labor in the fields
in preparation for the final harvest of the summer and before the fall harvest.
The first four feasts were fulfilled by the program of the First Coming of Yeshua and occur within about fifty days of each other. Between the first four feasts and the last three feasts, there is a four-month interval mentioned in passing. When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and for the foreigner residing among you. I am ADONAI Your God (23:22). During the pause between the two sets of festivals, life is to continue as normal. This interval is pictured as a summertime of labor in the fields in preparation for the final harvest of the summer and before the fall harvest. This verse is not related to any feast. Unless one understands what is really happening, it almost seems like an unnecessary interruption. However, it is the pause between the festivals that fulfilled the program of the First Coming as opposed to the festivals to be fulfilled by the program of the Second Coming. This internal of four months does have a Messianic implication.
The Messianic implication is the insertion of the Dispensation of Grace (see my commentary on Hebrews Bp – The Dispensation of Grace), interrupting the program of the feasts of Isra’el. Indeed, the gleanings for the poor and the foreigner residing among you is a very good picture of the mission of the Church itself in Gospel evangelism. For example, Yeshua states: Look to the fields! They are ripe for harvest (John 4:35)! Thus, it becomes a fitting symbol of the obligation of the Church to do the work of Gospel evangelism. Therefore, Leviticus 23:22, being a parenthetical verse interrupting the discussion of the feasts of Isra’el, is significant in that it symbolizes the present age in which we now live and in which the program of the feasts of Israel has been temporarily interrupted.
The last three festivals in the second cycle of festivals also come close together, even closer than those of the first cycle of feasts. In fact, they all come within two weeks of each other. The last three feasts of the second cycle are to be fulfilled by the program of the Second Coming. As Jesus says Himself at the end of the Bible: Yes, I am coming quickly (Revelation 22:20). Amen. Come, Lord Yeshua.
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