The Feast of Tabernacles
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The Lord spoke to Moses: “Tell the Israelites: The Festival of Booths to the Lord begins on the fifteenth day of this seventh month and continues for seven days.
There is to be a sacred assembly on the first day; you are not to do any daily work. You are to present a fire offering to the Lord for seven days. On the eighth day you are to hold a sacred assembly and present a fire offering to the Lord. It is a solemn gathering; you are not to do any daily work.
“These are the Lord’s appointed times that you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies for presenting fire offerings to the Lord, burnt offerings and grain offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings, each on its designated day. These are in addition to the offerings for the Lord’s Sabbaths, your gifts, all your vow offerings, and all your freewill offerings that you give to the Lord.
“You are to celebrate the Lord’s festival on the fifteenth day of the seventh month for seven days after you have gathered the produce of the land. There will be complete rest on the first day and complete rest on the eighth day. On the first day you are to take the product of majestic trees—palm fronds, boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook —and rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days.
You are to celebrate it as a festival to the Lord seven days each year. This is a permanent statute for you throughout your generations; you must celebrate it in the seventh month. You are to live in booths for seven days. All the native-born of Israel must live in booths,
so that your generations may know that I made the Israelites live in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt; I am Yahweh your God.” So Moses declared the Lord’s appointed times to the Israelites.
Jesus made two significant declarations in the Scriptures recorded in John 7 and John 8.
On the last and most important day of the festival, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone is thirsty, he should come to Me and drink! The one who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, will have streams of living water flow from deep within him.”
He said this about the Spirit. Those who believed in Jesus were going to receive the Spirit, for the Spirit had not yet been received because Jesus had not yet been glorified.
Then Jesus spoke to them again: “I am the light of the world. Anyone who follows Me will never walk in the darkness but will have the light of life.”
Jesus’ statements are significant because they bring ritual into reality, the prophetic into the present, hope into hope fulfilled.
The Jewish nation would gather together at the Feast of Tabernacles, of the Feast of Ingathering (Ex 23:16). in Jerusalem to celebrate the finality of the Harvest season. It was a rioteous joyful celebration, commanded by the LORD Himself for 8 days, with a Holy Sabbath gathering and rest on the 1st and 8th days.
For seven days people would make fire offerings of bulls, lambs, and grains, the waving of fruit, palm trees, leafy trees, and willows, and the drinking of wine in merriment. 72 bulls, 17 rams, 105 male lambs, and 8 male goats would be offered to the LORD over the 8 days of feasting! Why so much you may be asking. Just how great is our God? Just how great are His works? Just how thankful are we for who He is and what He has done, and done for us?
Just how thankful will we be when we are gathered together with Him at the Great and Final Feast and Wedding Banquet of the LORD (Luke 14:15-24; Matthew 22:1-14)? Many are invited, but few will accept, few are choosen. Many believe that they have viable excuses and appointments, but then just how great is their god they supposedly worship? How great is our God, to us? Because of our lack of thankfulness, many will enter the Kingdom of God before us; many will enter the Kingdom of God, rather than us.
Just how thirsty are we for God? Just how desireous are we to see God? During the Feast of Tabernacles, the LORD instructed the Hebrews to live in booths or shelters during this time. This was instructed to be a reminder to the Hebrews of where they came from and what God did for them. When God brought Israel out of Egypt they dwelt in shelters (Lev. 23:39-43), temporary dwellings, tents. God provided for them.
When Israel wandered in the desert for 40 years, they dwelt in shelters, and God provided for them, meeting all their needs. But the people constantly rebelled in unbelief and disobedience towards God....so they wandered for 40 years, in the wilderness, before God brought them into the promised land. Why? Because their hearts did not belong to Him. So God waited until their hearts did. It took a couple of generations. Num 32:10-11
So the Lord’s anger burned that day, and He swore an oath: ‘Because they did not follow Me completely, none of the men 20 years old or more who came up from Egypt will see the land I swore to give Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—
none except Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite and Joshua son of Nun, because they did follow the Lord completely.’
The Lord’s anger burned against Israel, and He made them wander in the wilderness 40 years until the whole generation that had done what was evil in the Lord’s sight was gone.
“You must carefully follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase, and may enter and take possession of the land the Lord swore to your fathers. Remember that the Lord your God led you on the entire journey these 40 years in the wilderness, so that He might humble you and test you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep His commands.
He humbled you by letting you go hungry; then He gave you manna to eat, which you and your fathers had not known, so that you might learn that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.
Your clothing did not wear out, and your feet did not swell these 40 years. Keep in mind that the Lord your God has been disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son.
So keep the commands of the Lord your God by walking in His ways and fearing Him. For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with streams of water, springs, and deep water sources, flowing in both valleys and hills;
a land of wheat, barley, vines, figs, and pomegranates; a land of olive oil and honey; a land where you will eat food without shortage, where you will lack nothing; a land whose rocks are iron and from whose hills you will mine copper.
When you eat and are full, you will praise the Lord your God for the good land He has given you.
Just how thankful are we for who God is, what He has done for us, is doing, and will do? The Feast of Tabernacles was instituted by God to function as a reminder of how faithful God has been, how faithful He is and how faithful He will be. It is a Feast that promises and points to the faithfulness of God to meet our needs, completely, by bringing us to a state of rest and peace, not just while living in this world, but in the age to come, His Kingdom.
This is why the Israelites were to build shelters of loose, not permanent construction. They were to build them so they could be easily taken down and moved, but also looked through to the heavens. The shelters were a reminder that they were only pilgrims passing through this life to a greater Kingdom, a far greaty dwelling, where rest would be with God Himself, a permanent rest and dwelling place. A promise that Jesus makes to us today, all that believe and follow Him. John 14:1-2
“Your heart must not be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if not, I would have told you. I am going away to prepare a place for you.
If I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come back and receive you to Myself, so that where I am you may be also. You know the way to where I am going.”
Are we looking forward to our future inheritance in the Kingdom with Jesus, through Jesus, because of Jesus. He is the eternal tabernacle, our blessed hope. This world is not our home, but the one beyond it, in the age to come.
By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed and went out to a place he was going to receive as an inheritance. He went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he stayed as a foreigner in the land of promise, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, coheirs of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.
Through faith, and by faith, in Jesus Christ, we enter the final great wedding feast, the final place of ultimate peace and rest. But also, we can have His peace and rest while living in this world through His promised Holy Spirit, the Living water that He promised to the Hebrews, to every follower of Christ.
On the last and most important day of the festival, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone is thirsty, he should come to Me and drink! The one who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, will have streams of living water flow from deep within him.”
He said this about the Spirit. Those who believed in Jesus were going to receive the Spirit, for the Spirit had not yet been received because Jesus had not yet been glorified.
Jesus made this statement on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, during which He was being sought out to be caught, charged, and crucified for loving His Father and His people. He spoke this in fulfillment of the words spoken by Isaiah, the prophet of God recorded in Isaiah 44:3.
For I will pour water on the thirsty land and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out My Spirit on your descendants and My blessing on your offspring.
The last day of the Feast of Tabernacles is known as Hoshanah Rabbah, or “Day of the Great Hosanna”. It is the day when God’s people pray for rain for the land, and salvation through God’s coming Messiah. The translation of ‘great hosanna’ is “save now” or “deliever us!”. What Jesus was declaring on that final day when He spoke to the thirsty was, “Look unto Me, I AM the Great Hosanna! I AM the One who will deliever you! I AM the One who saves you!” Do you hear His words? Do you believe His words?
The disciple on the day of Pentecost sat in the upper room and prophecy was fulfilled. The Spirit of God came upon them in fire just as Jesus said He would, as He instructed the Spirit to do so. Living water came down, and has come down on all who believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ for their salvation and Lord. Are you thankful for what the LORD God has done? What the LORD God has made possible through Jesus Christ our LORD? The ritual of pouring water, was fulfilled with the pouring out of the Spirit on mankind so that we might have peace and rest in this world. Are you walking in the Spirit? Are you listening to the Spirit? Are you resting in the Spirit of God?
God spoke of the Israelites as a generation that constantly provoked Him by going astray in their hearts and not following His ways (Heb. 3:9-11). As a result, God said that they would not enter His rest (v.11) because of their unbelief and hardended hearts. This is an eternal reality, but also a present day reality. God’s rest is not just about dying and going to heaven, but also about living in the fullness of God here today. It is about walking in His peace, His power, and His rest today, as pictured in the Feasts we have looked at.
Is it possible to live in the peace and rest of God today? Absolutely! As one believes, obeys, and follows Christ. As Caleb entered God’s promised land, so can we, a place of peace and rest. Numb 14:21
Yet as surely as I live and as the whole earth is filled with the Lord’s glory,
none of the men who have seen My glory and the signs I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tested Me these 10 times and did not obey Me,
will ever see the land I swore to give their fathers. None of those who have despised Me will see it. But since My servant Caleb has a different spirit and has followed Me completely, I will bring him into the land where he has gone, and his descendants will inherit it.
Do I believe in Jesus Christ? Will I believe in Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior? His witness and testimony has been recorded, testified to, and given. What is stopping me from receiving Him? Have I hardened my heart? Has God hardened my heart, because I refuse to respond, refuse to repent, refuse to acknowledge the truth of Him, that is clearly visible and known? One can only really celebrate thanksgiving when Truth is believed and received.
On the last day of the feast, Jesus said one more thing to the people. He stood up amongest them, before being arrested and crucified, as He told them that He would, and during the Festival of Lights and said, John 8:12
Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
Pilgrims came from all over to Jerusalem with torches for the feast. They would bring their torches into the temple and celebrate in thankfulness two things. One, God for the sun He provided for the harvest they enjoy. Two, recognizing God as the true light, and the One who would give them the true light of life in the Messiah to come. Jesus declares, “I AM that LIght of Life you have been waiting for.” Jesus is the light of life you need and have been looking for. Receive Him this day. Believe in Him this day. Thank God the Father for sending the Son to give His life so that we might have life, peace and rest in this age, and the age to come.
The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
Amen.