The Eighth Day

And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, “Peace to you!”

John 20:26

The Eighth Day is a fairly common theme in scripture; it is the day that Hebrew boys, for instance, were to receive the sign of circumcision ( Genesis 17:12 )! It was also a day for offering sacrifice ( Exodus 2:40, Leviticus 14:10 ). The Eighth Day marked the beginning of the official ministry of Moses & Aaron as well! I would be willing to bet, almost, that Jesus began His official ministry on this most significant of days!

Many scholars have noted this Day as pointing to, or being significant of the Fulfillment of Rest that Jesus brought us that Day when He finally uttered these famous but heart-rending words, 'It is finished'! As such, this Day can be compared with its predecessor, The Seventh Day, wherein it is said that 'God rested'. This rest, of course, pointed to the Rest that we presently enjoy, our Rest in the Finished Work of the Christ!

Any good Hebrew scholar who reads these lines may find correction necessary here, but as I understand it, the Hebrew reckoning of days was a bit different from ours! The Sabbath Day, was always held on the eighth day from the previous Sabbath. In our manner of reckoning, then, the Sabbath always fell on the seventh day of the week, the day on which 'God rested'. In the Hebrew reckoning, however & please correct me if I'm wrong, the days were counted, not so much in weeks months & years as we do, though similarly, but in weeks of weeks, leading up to that Great Sabbath, the Jubilee of Jubilees!

The Book of Daniel prophesies most famously of this Eighth Day, though by a different & better name! His prophecy reads, 'Seventy weeks[a] are determined, for your people and for your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of[b] sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy.' Daniel's prophecy pointed to Jesus the Messiah, the Christ as the Fulfillment, or the End of those 'weeks of weeks', the Great Jubilee!

Jesus IS the Eighth Day, He Is the Fulfillment of the seventh-day rest that God took! He is also the Circumcision of the Heart that was spoken of in Deuteronomy 10:16, Jeremiah 4:4 & promised in Ezekiel 36:26! The Sabbath is fulfilled in Jesus, the week of New Creation has come to its End; we are in that Eternal Eighth Day, so let us LIVE in Him, for He IS our Life!

Charles Haddon Shank