Category: The Eighth Day

After the seven days of Sukkot is Shmeni Atzeret, Hebrew for the holy assembly on the Eighth Day.

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Appointments With God Discussions Prophets and Writings The Eighth Day

A bigger tent: God’s heart for the nations (Isaiah 54–56; John 4, 7)

A vibrant, oil-painting-style image featuring on the right side a Messiah figure in white robes with a radiant halo and a group of diverse people in a lush green landscape at His feet, extending His right hand across a flowing river toward a woman on the left side in a desert landscape with a large tent in the background. The woman raises her hands in response. The text overlay reads, "A bigger tent, God's heart for the nations," with biblical references "Isaiah 54-56; John 4, 7." The image includes a "hallel.Info" watermark. This image was created by ChatGPT.

This study during Heaven’s new-beginnings festival of Shemini Atzeret (Eighth Day) explores Isaiah 54–56. We see God’s promises of restoration and hope not only for Israel but for outsiders — foreigners and those not able to have children — teaches us about belonging in His big family. Spiritual hunger and thirst are satiated and slaked by the “living water” of Heaven’s tag-team Comforters: the Messiah (Word) and the Spirit. God invites us to pursue justice, compassion and renewal via an invitation that is for all who long for home, true belonging and the ways of the Creator.

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Apostolic Writings Appointments With God Discussions Prophets and Writings The Eighth Day Torah readings

Yom Teruah (Festival of Trumpets, Rosh Hashanah) readings

Renowned blower Robert Weinger of Shofar So Good blows two horn trumpets in Jerusalem with the Dome of the Rock mosque on the site of the Holy of Holies of the Temple behind him. (ShofarSoGood.com)

The first day the seventh month on Israel’s calendar is a biblical triple-header memorial festival: Rosh Chodesh (New Moon), Yom Teruah (Day of Blowing Trumpets) and Rosh Hashanah (New Year). There are also a number of connections between and lessons in the mentions of trumpets in the Apostolic Writings (New Testament) and the themes of this festival. Here are Bible readings related to the festival and other details to get you ready to celebrate.

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Apostolic Writings Appointments With God Discussions The Eighth Day

Dwelling with God: Hold firm to your faith

"Lessons from the feasts: Dwelling with God: Hold firm to your faith." Adobe Firefly AI layered-paper-style image showing a city with chaos around it, hinting at the New Jerusalem at the time when forces of the Adversary surround it.

Dwelling with God in the New Jerusalem on the Day of the LORD demands unshakable faith, not just temporary obedience. This study explores one of the lessons from the biblical festival of Shemini Atzeret, the Convocation of the Eighth Day after the start of Sukkot, the feast of Tabernacles. The Messiah’s supreme authority (Hebrews 3-4) grants forgiveness to the repentant, while the unbelieving remain excluded (Revelation 21). Eternal life in God’s presence requires a lifetime of trusting His unseen purposes, not just outward compliance.

The choice is ours — to believe and enter His rest, or harden our hearts like those of our spiritual ancestors in Israel who refused to enter God’s “rest, the Promised Land (Psalm 95; Hebrews 3-4).

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Apostolic Writings Appointments With God Discussions Prophets and Writings The Eighth Day

The Eighth Day: What it means to have ‘Christ in you’

Priests, such as Zachariah, the father of John the Baptist, could enter the Holy Place to burn incense to take care of the menorah, but the High Priest entered the Most Holy Place only once a year. (Photo from www.LumoProject.com via Creative Commons License for educational purposes only)

This is the second part of a study on how we go into the Creator’s presence by way of the Messiah and how the Creator’s presence goes into us and through us into the world around us by way of the Messiah. Yeshua’s ministry on Earth fulfilled God’s desire to dwell with us, not to be foreign to us. A heart transformed, such as King David’s, welcomes the Kingdom of God and the fact God can see everything in us. The Holy One provides us a way out of temptation to forsake Him when we cry for help from Heaven’s tag team of comforters, Yeshua the Son of Man and the Spirit.

Teachings of Sukkot and Shemeni Atzeret (Tabernacles and the Eighth Day) and of Yeshua’s ministry on Earth are that God desires His dwelling place to be with us — better, within us — not foreign to us. A heart transformed welcomes the Kingdom of God and the fact God can see everything in us. The Holy One provides us a way out of temptation to forsake Him when we cry for help from Heaven’s tag team of comforters, Yeshua the Son of Man and the Spirit.

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Appointments With God Discussions Pentecost/Shavuot Tabernacles The Eighth Day

Spirit-filled connections between Shemini Atzeret (Eighth Day), Shavuot (Pentecost) and Sukkot (Tabernacles)

Palm branches are linked to Sukkot and Chanukah.
Palm branches are linked to Sukkot and Chanukah.

Shemini Atzeret (Convocation of the Eighth Day, Lev. 23:33–36, 39–43), the day following the seven days of Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles or Booths), and Shavuot (Pentecost) are “buddies.” The symbolism of one is mirrored in the other. What happened on Shavuot throughout the Bible is a “shadow,” a likeness, of what will happen on a Shemini Atzeret during the Day of the LORD.

Spirit beings need God’s breath, “water” from the God and the Tree of Life. We will experience seeing God face to face, and we will be able to keep His commandments without any hinderance. He will be our Father, and we will be His children in fullness. We will “look like” God, which was God’s intent all along.

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Appointments With God Atonement Discussions Tabernacles The Eighth Day Trumpets

Seventh month of God’s calendar: Beginning of the end of the beginning of the end

Studies in Prophets and Writings

This is a 50,000-foot-high view of the fall “feasts to the LORD” (Lev. 23:2) — Yom Teruah (Trumpets, aka Rosh Hashanah), Yom haKippurim (Atonement) and Sukkot (Tabernacles). We’ll look at what they are and what meanings are stacked on top of each other as memorials of the actions of the Messiah past, present and future.

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Appointments With God Discussions Tabernacles The Eighth Day

Shmini Atseret (convocation of the Eighth Day) pictures new beginnings

Studies in Torah

The common name for the day following seven days of Sukkot (Festival of Tabernacles) is Shmini Atseret in Hebrew, or “Assembly of the Eighth (Day).” The day also is called Simchat Torah, Hebrew for “joy of the Torah,” based on the centuries old practice in synagogues of restarting the cycle of Torah readings at that time.

Shmini Atseret is a bookend to the miqra qodesh on the first day of Sukkot. Its place following Sukkot suggests that God wants to memorialize what is planned for when the time period of “wandering” in these mortal bodies and rebellious minds finally comes to an end, and humankind enters total lasting “rest.”