The Feast of Tabernacles

Introduction

Illustration: When I was a kid we used to go camping a lot. As the youngest I didn’t have to wait until my younger siblings got old enough. It also helped that both my parents worked at Oak Point Campground for a while, and besides that just loved camping as usual. As a result, I love camping.

For that reason, the whole idea of the Feast of Tabernacles is really fun to me. For those who don’t know, one of the seven festivals that God commanded the Israelites to observe is the Feast of Tabernacles, a weeklong celebration to remember their time of wandering in the desert and give thanks for their home in the promised land. They celebrate this holiday by camping for a week. It’s first instituted in Exodus 23:16 but it’s described in Leviticus 23:33-34

Leviticus 23:33–44 CSB

The Lord spoke to Moses: “Tell the Israelites: The Festival of Shelters 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 food offering to the Lord for seven days. On the eighth day you are to hold a sacred assembly and present a food offering to the Lord. It is a solemn assembly; 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 food 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; celebrate it in the seventh month. You are to live in shelters for seven days. All the native-born of Israel must live in shelters, so that your generations may know that I made the Israelites live in shelters when I brought them out of the land of Egypt; I am the Lord your God.” So Moses declared the Lord’s appointed times to the Israelites.

A part of me wants to just start celebrating this with my family. It might be a little chilly in Canada though, it starts on October 6th this year. October could really go either way in my experience, maybe it wouldn’t be too bad. Anyway, everyone had to build a tent and stay in it for the week.

So why did God command them to do this? Just like with the Feast of Firstfruits, we’re going to look at what it was, what it is, and what it will be. For the Israelites, the feast was a yearly reminder of the time their ancestors spent wandering in the desert, as a reminder to be grateful for their lives of plenty in the promised land. For us today, it’s a reminder that Jesus came and experienced His own time in the wilderness for our sakes. For the future it points towards a time when God will set up a permanant tent among us in a world without death and suffering for all of eternity.

What it Was: Remembering the Desert

Illustration: Sometimes when life is going really well it can be good and humbling to remember where you came from. Now I’m blessed I realize that I haven’t suffered much in my life, but I did come from a low income family. We always had something to eat, and my parents always worked overtime to make sure we had Christmas presents, but we struggled sometimes. I remember eating army surplus rations at times. The peaches were actually amazing. The beans I vaguely remember with horror. These are good things to remember now that I’m living comfortably and doing my best to provide well for my family.

Remembering the past this way helps you to be extra thankful for what you have now. If you can remember when you struggled to buy bread, than it makes that toast in the morning all the sweeter, am I right? It can also help you to remember your past struggles when you feel stuck, to help you remember how far God has taken you to reassure yourself that you are growing.

God was about to provide a promised land for His people at the time of our sermon passage. A land “flowing with milk and honey.” It can be easy in those sorts of circumstances to take everything that you have for granted. Especially if the hard times weren’t even in your lifetime. If your grandparents memories are what you’re relying on to keep you grounded, or even your distant ancestors, than it can be easy to lose sight of what a gift God had provided for them. So to help mitigate this problem God called them to another festival, one that remembers where they came from and their wanderings in the desert.

Let’s zoom in on the final few verses of the passage this morning.

Leviticus 23:42–43 CSB

You are to live in shelters for seven days. All the native-born of Israel must live in shelters, so that your generations may know that I made the Israelites live in shelters when I brought them out of the land of Egypt; I am the Lord your God.”

So while they are still in the desert, God commands them to celebrate a festival every year where they live in tents for seven days, so that they will remember when they lived in tents in the desert. So the Israelites every year would leave their comfortable permanent homes to sleep in tents. Over the course of the week I’m sure they were reminded to be thankful for their homes, and the reminder that they did this first in the desert I think would really bring that blessing home.

On a different level I think this helps to illustrate the importance of where we came from. I don’t mean just remembering the hard times you’ve had financially or whatever, I mean in remembering who we were before Jesus. What kind of person were you then? How far have you come in your discipleship and growth? Let’s remember where we were so that we can be thankful for where we are. So we can give God the praise that He is due for the transformation that He has made in our lives. And so that when we feel stuck we can remember that God is still growing us every day.

What it Is: Remembering Jesus’ Tent

Illustration: I have had a number of seasons in my life where I have been living places on a temporary basis. For instance, I spent a long time working at a summer camp, Circle Square Ranch in Snider Mountain. I also went to University. In both cases I lived somewhere for part of a year for a limited number of years. The tragedy of this was building deep relationships with people that you have to say goodbye to at the end of your time there.

I mean it was a privilege to get to know so many wonderful people in my life that I have so many people to miss. It’s a comfort however to know that Jesus can relate. Although His stay on earth was a lot longer than my four years at university, it was still a temporary stay for Him. Now for context living on earth for 33 or so years is longer than many get, but remember this is Jesus we’re talking about. He’s the Word of God who existed before time began, and He will continue to exist forever. So in comparison to that timeline His time on earth was a brief stay. He said this Himself in John 7:33-34

John 7:33–34 CSB

Then Jesus said, “I am only with you for a short time. Then I’m going to the one who sent me. You will look for me, but you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come.”

I can’t help but wonder what He felt saying goodbye to His friends and family before He left. It’s a bit different because He knows He’s going to be seeing them ‘soon’ and forever. But still, considering He wept when Lazarus died knowing full well He was about to raise Him from the dead, I imagine He might have wept to say goodbye to His closest friends for a while.

Interestingly enough, the Bible has a word for Jesus’ stay on earth that doesn’t translate super well into English. Remember the Bible wasn’t written in English, not even King James English, the New Testament was written in Greek. We read in John 1:14

John 1:14 CSB

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

What the CSB translates as “dwelt” in that passage actually comes from a more specific Greek word, that means “to dwell in tents.” There actually is an English word for this, but it’s an outdated word we no longer use, so modern translations don’t use it. That word? Tabernacled. The Word, Jesus, became flesh and tabernacled among us. It’s no coincidence that it’s the same word used for the feast of Tabernacles.

That’s because like we established last night, the Hebrew Scriptures are all about Jesus. John 5:46

John 5:46 CSB

For if you believed Moses, you would believe me, because he wrote about me.

When God called the Israelites to sleep in tents for a week it was both to remember their own time living in tents and to foreshadow the time when He would “tabernacle” among His people as Jesus. This is a huge deal. Why? Because God came down to earth for His own wilderness wandering. He calls us to remember our past struggles but also came down and lived the struggle. Hebrews says that Jesus was tempted in all ways we are and yet did not sin. He lived a life of voluntary poverty for His years of ministry to the point that He could say He had no place to rest His head, He fasted for 40 days and nights in the desert, the same amount of time in days that the Israelites spent in the Wilderness in years. Coincidence? I think not.

Now this isn’t just some really cool trivia connection between Jesus in the Israelites. This means a lot for our own relationship with Jesus. It means that when we struggle and when we go through difficult times we can be reassured that Jesus has been there. He spent His own time in the wilderness. He knows just what it’s like to be a human being struggling in this world. And He did it perfectly by relying on God. We can call on Him to help us get through it too. Whatever wilderness you’re in right now—whether it’s loneliness, anxiety, poverty, or grief—you’re not alone in it. Jesus pitched His tent in the same wilderness, and He’s still walking beside you today.

What it Will Be: God will Tent with us

Illustration: Have any of you ever experienced the excitement of an old friend moving back home? When someone you loves moves away for a while but comes back and you reconnect with them. It’s a great feeling. It comes with the excitement of knowing that whenever you want to see them, you can. I’m still trying to convince some of my university friends I talked about before to move back to New Brunswick. So far no takers.

We talked last point about God coming down to earth as Jesus for a temporary season, and how that’s sort of like He had to move away from His friends. I think that we have a reunion to look forward to, one that is prefigured by both the feast of Tabernacles and Jesus’ stay on earth being about Tents.

In the festival and in the case of Jesus they are both described by the same word, and they are both temporary situations. But there is a promise of what’s to come. Just like with the Feast of Firstfruits it’s not just about what was or even what is, it’s about what will be. What are we to look forward to as believers in Jesus? The day is coming when Jesus is coming back to town.

Things are gonna change when He shows up, though. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, we aren’t destined for TV and movie heaven, where we get wings and fly on clouds and play harps. The Bible says that Jesus is coming back to rule the Earth as King, and after He judges the whole world based on whether or not they have believed in Him He will make a new Heaven and a New Earth and all who followed Him will be resurrected to Eternal blissful life, described in Revelation 21:3-4

Revelation 21:3–4 CSB

Then I heard a loud voice from the throne: Look, God’s dwelling is with humanity, and he will live with them. They will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them and will be their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; grief, crying, and pain will be no more, because the previous things have passed away.

Wanna know something about that verse? You may have guessed it already. That word in verse 3 that says “dwelling”? That’s the same Greek word we’ve already talked about. God will set up His tent with humanity. Now this is an interesting way to put it, because tent usually implies temporary, but in this case the Bible is very clear that this new arrangement is permanent. Eternal even. So why use a word that implies the temporary like “tabernacle?”

I believe God inspired John to use this word in Revelation to make the explicit connection with what has come before. The Feast of Tabernacles and Jesus’ tabernacling on earth are both the foretaste of this everlasting tent that is to come. God is going to come live with us. Jesus is moving back to town. And I included verse 4 for a reason, because as if God being with us isn’t enough the Holy Spirit tells us that there will be no more death, no more crying, no more pain. That’s a future I can get behind.

So what I want us to remember Bayview family, is that this life is just a tent. Just a preview of the future life that we are waiting for. How does this change the way we look at things? Suddenly all that effort we put into making ourselves temporarily happy seems like a waste when we could be using it to build a Kingdom that will last forever. Suddenly those hardships that seem like they’ll overpower us are just a short season before eternal bliss. Suddenly a lifetime lived with a person you love is nothing if you won’t get to see them live with you into eternity. It changes our whole priority system. There’s a saying, where you call someone “too heavenly minded for any earthly good.” I hate that saying. I want us to be so heavenly minded, or I guess so New Earth minded, that we’re finally doing the good we’re meant to do.

Conclusion

One thing I love about studying the Bible is how something so simple can represent such deep ideas. Like how God asked the Israelites to go camping for a week, and yet it can represent such deep themes for our study today. We learn from this feast of tabernacles about the need to remember our struggles and how far we’ve come in order to remember our gratefulness to God for what He’s done for us. We learn how God’s temporary stay on earth means that He can relate to our struggles and stands by us when we go through them. We also learn how these tents point towards a future dwelling where God will be with His people forever.

At the end of the day all of this draws a distinction between the temporary and the eternal. I think that keeping a perspective on what will last and what won’t helps keep us grounded in our values. Do we spend most of our time on what’s temporary, or on what’s eternal? I’m not saying we can’t enjoy some of the temporary pleasures of life. Jesus lived for 30 years before His ministry began, surely in that time He enjoyed some temporary simple pleasure of life. The point is that we can sometimes let those things distract us from the bigger picture that lasts forever.

So my challenge for all of us this weekend is to spend your time on loving God and loving others, both of which will last forever.