Feast of Tabernacles (2)
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Bring On the Holidays!
Bring On the Holidays!
You’ve probably noticed that the stores already know that it is coming. Fall…Thanksgiving…and Christmas. In 29 days (Labor Day) our house celebrates the arrival of the Fall. We know that it will be hot here in Texas but will turn down the thermostat just a tad to cool it off. Cindy will pull out the fall décor and jazz music will play throughout the house. It is just the beginning! It is the kick off into the season: cooler weather, football, pumpkins, Thanksgiving and Christmas.
We love the holidays! The Feast that we will discuss today is an exciting and celebratory feast – the Feast of Tabernacles.
God Says “Celebrate”!
God Says “Celebrate”!
Let’s review the 7th month of the Jewish calendar once more. On day 1 the Feast of Trumpets announces a new year and calls the people to prepare themselves. For the next 10 days the people will reflect on their sins and prepare their hearts for the holiest day of the year, the Day of Atonement when the sins of the people are atoned through sacrifice and the release of the goat into the wilderness. Now, on the fifth day after the Day of Atonement falls the Feast of Tabernacles and it is a time to celebrate!
The Lord said to Moses,
“Say to the Israelites: ‘On the fifteenth day of the seventh month the Lord’s Festival of Tabernacles begins, and it lasts for seven days.
The first day is a sacred assembly; do no regular work.
For seven days present food offerings to the Lord, and on the eighth day hold a sacred assembly and present a food offering to the Lord. It is the closing special assembly; do no regular work.
(“ ‘These are the Lord’s appointed festivals, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies for bringing food offerings to the Lord—the burnt offerings and grain offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings required for each day.
These offerings are in addition to those for the Lord’s Sabbaths and in addition to your gifts and whatever you have vowed and all the freewill offerings you give to the Lord.)
“ ‘So beginning with the fifteenth day of the seventh month, after you have gathered the crops of the land, celebrate the festival to the Lord for seven days; the first day is a day of sabbath rest, and the eighth day also is a day of sabbath rest.
On the first day you are to take branches from luxuriant trees—from palms, willows and other leafy trees—and rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days.
Celebrate this as a festival to the Lord for seven days each year. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come; celebrate it in the seventh month.
Live in temporary shelters for seven days: All native-born Israelites are to live in such shelters
so your descendants will know that I had the Israelites live in temporary shelters when I brought them out of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.’ ”
Did you notice the repetition of “celebrate”? God is good! He’s taken our sin. He is worthy of praise. We are going to offer sacrifices, eat feasts from the recent harvests, set up tents, and rejoice because God has provided for us!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7okN0nGxAM4
What Do We Have to Celebrate?
What Do We Have to Celebrate?
We Are Truly Blessed
We Are Truly Blessed
It has been a crazy month with all the national and international stories. What really stands out to me is that Jesus is looking better and better with every story. He always has but think about how wonderful it is to be a believer. We know who has given us breath. We know that His thoughts toward us are good and that we have a purpose. We know that He has given us directives that lead us into health.
Cindy and I stopped on the eastern shores of Mobile Bay in a small town called Fairhope. This town is a peaceful getaway, but it is famous for something that happens every year. It is the Jubilee. It is a phenomenon that occurs on the shores of the bay. Fish and other sea critters will seemingly surrender themselves to everyone along the shore. You can simply go to the shallow waters and pick up fish, crabs, and what not to throw in the pot or on the grill.
The Bible talks about a Jubilee that occurred every 50 years but the Feast of Tabernacles is a time of celebrating the blessings of God. Afterall, the harvest is in and the barns are full. In Ezekiel 47 the prophet shares a vision of what will be one day. It begins with the picture of a stream of water coming from the entrance of the temple. It got deeper and deeper as it continued. Let’s pick it up in verse 7.
When I arrived there, I saw a great number of trees on each side of the river.
He said to me, “This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah, where it enters the Dead Sea. When it empties into the sea, the salty water there becomes fresh.
Swarms of living creatures will live wherever the river flows. There will be large numbers of fish, because this water flows there and makes the salt water fresh; so where the river flows everything will live.
Fishermen will stand along the shore; from En Gedi to En Eglaim there will be places for spreading nets. The fish will be of many kinds—like the fish of the Mediterranean Sea.
But the swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they will be left for salt.
Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail. Every month they will bear fruit, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing.”
This is the provision of the Lord for a people who love Him! Those who are in Christ are truly blessed!
In Jesus is Our JOY!
In Jesus is Our JOY!
I mentioned a few minutes ago that Jesus is looking better and better every day. In a world of chaos, Jesus stands out for His honesty, His integrity, His humility, and so much more. I want to show you some foreshadowing that occurs in Deuteronomy in reference to this Feast of Tabernacles.
Celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles for seven days after you have gathered the produce of your threshing floor and your winepress.
Be joyful at your festival—you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levites, the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns.
For seven days celebrate the festival to the Lord your God at the place the Lord will choose. For the Lord your God will bless you in all your harvest and in all the work of your hands, and your joy will be complete.
That’s the thing about Jesus. Your joy will never be complete until you know Jesus. Jesus acknowledged it Himself when He stood up on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles and said this:
On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.
Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”
By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.
All our good is found in Jesus!
“Knowing and experiencing His love that has no limits and His power that keeps and protects us should humble us—to think that He would want to care for us.
I frequently go out at night to walk alone under the stars and remind myself of His majesty and might. Looking up at the star-studded sky I remember that at least 250,000,000 × 250,000,000 such bodies—each larger than our sun, one of the smallest of the stars—have been scattered across the vast spaces of the universe by His hand. I recall that the planet earth, which is my temporary home for a few short years, is so minute a speck of matter in space that if it were possible to transport our most powerful telescope to our nearest neighbor star, Alpha Centauri, and look back this way, the earth could not be seen, even with the aid of that powerful instrument.
All of this is a bit humbling. It drains the “ego” from a man and puts things in proper perspective. It makes me see myself as a mere mite of material in an enormous universe. Yet the staggering fact remains that Christ the Creator of such an enormous universe of overwhelming magnitude, deigns to call Himself my Shepherd and invites me to consider myself His sheep—His special object of affection and attention. Who better could care for me?
As the hymn-writer Charles Weigle reminds us, “No one ever cared for me—like Jesus.” Why trust your care to anyone else?[1]
An Exodus is Coming!
An Exodus is Coming!
At first it seemed strange to me that a feast that features camping out would have a positive effect on the people. Of course, it depends on your experiences camping.
As mentioned in the video, the week was more about ‘glamping’, feasting, decorating. It seems that the emphasis was not on the discomfort of living in tents but the fact that the exodus was about leaving slavery and going into freedom.
It reminds me of the series of sermons we began the year, Freedom. The Bible talks about freedom in many places – physical slavery/freedom and spiritual bondage/freedom.
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
Freedom comes because of the presence of the Lord.
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
I like to think that the Feast of Tabernacles calls the attention of the people back to the historical exodus(es) but it also directs our thoughts toward an exodus that is coming. A time when we will leave this world and enjoy the homecoming of Heaven. In fact, we are living in ‘tents’ now. That is what our current existence is.
For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.
I don’t believe that Paul had the Feast of Tabernacles on his mind for this passage but it does show the wonderful anticipation that we as believers enjoy.
Our Hero is Coming Again
Our Hero is Coming Again
The feasts taught the Israelites about God and emphasized their need of Him. Walter Kaiser helps us understand the power of understanding the reasons behind the feasts:
A sabbath or a festival was like a kiss between lovers. It gathered into a special moment what was always true.’ It is always true that God desires his people to know the restfulness of trusting in him, but once a week the frantic round of busy lives is brought to a standstill to recall his resting on the seventh day and his desire that no-one should be exploited in the labour market. It is always true that God saves, that he nourishes his people, claims their commitment, provides for their needs, recalls his covenant with them, forgives their sin and reminds them of their identity. But it is helpful to have particular days spread through the calendar, which mark these truths in a special way and stave off the presumption that takes them as read. Some Christians still find the observance of a special calendar helpful to their spiritual lives, though none are obliged to observe one. Since the coming of Christ it is important that we do not judge one another on the basis of external religious observance. In this area we must do what our consciences dictate before God. Above all, we must not hold on to these shadow days too tightly, since they merely point forward to a future reality. Rather, we must hold firmly to the reality of Christ himself: our redeemer, protector and provider, and the Lord who claims the freshest and best of our lives.[2]
In conclusion I want you to see the progression of the feasts – they give a history of redemption:
Passover—The crucifixion
Firstfruits—The resurrection of Christ
Pentecost—The outpouring of the Spirit
Trumpets—The rapture of the living, and resurrection of the dead, saints
[Day of Atonement]
Tabernacles—Our dwelling in the presence of the Lord after the great gathering[3]
We had an opportunity to celebrate with a family whose daughter was going into the Marines. At the celebration were many of their neighbors who had to travel through Houston traffic on a Friday night to get to the traffic. What makes this group of neighbors so close? They celebrate together! They decorate their street for the holidays. They hold block parties. They just have a good time.
Scientists at Temple University and the University of Utah published a study in the Journal of Environmental Psychology, and among its findings were the indication that people whose homes are decorated communicate a sense of friendliness and cohesiveness with neighbors.
They may go overboard with their tidings of comfort and joy, but as it turns out, the early Christmas decorators among us may actually be doing themselves—and the rest of us—good.
Simply put, those people tend to happier.[4]
We have every reason to celebrate!
[1]Leadership Ministries Worldwide, Practical Illustrations: 1 Peter, 2 Peter, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, Jude (Chattanooga, TN: Leadership Ministries Worldwide, 2003), 48.
[2]Derek Tidball, The Message of Leviticus: Free to Be Holy, ed. Alec Motyer and Derek Tidball, The Bible Speaks Today (England: Inter-Varsity Press, 2005), 281.
[3]Myer Pearlman, Old Testament: Genesis to Esther, vol. 1, Through the Bible Book by Book (Gospel Publishing House, 2012), 29.
[4] https://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/2018/december/study-links-happiness-to-early-holiday-decorating.html
