The instructions for the Feast of Tabernacles are found in Leviticus 23:33-44, and I encourage you to read them. We will start, however, in John 1:14 TLV “And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us. We looked upon His glory, the glory of the one and only from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
Jesus tabernacled among us. The Son of God, who preexisted with the Father (John 1:1; Proverbs 8) left heaven to be a sacrifice on our behalf.
The Fall Feasts are a reminder of God’s nearness to Israel in the wilderness. To that end, let’s look at an interesting passage of Scripture,
Deuteronomy 23:13-14* CJB “13 (12) Also you are to have an area outside the camp to use as a latrine. 14 (13) You must include a trowel with your equipment, and when you relieve yourself, you are to dig a hole first and afterwards cover your excrement.”
The walking in the camp was not figurative but literal, just as God walked with Adam and Eve in the garden. God instructed Israel to bury their poop so He wouldn’t step in it. Leaven is a picture of sin during Passover; let this passage represent your sin during Tabernacles.
God’s purpose from the beginning was to have a relationship with us and through Jesus, we are brought into that relationship, and tabernacles celebrates that closeness.
Look at the words of Zechariah’s prophecy about the Feast of Tabernacles, “Finally, everyone remaining from all the nations that came to attack Yerushalayim will go up every year to worship the king, Adonai-Tzva’ot, and to keep the festival of Sukkot. 17 If any of the families of the earth does not go up to Yerushalayim to worship the king, Adonai-Tzva’ot, no rain will fall on them. 18 If the family of Egypt doesn’t go up, if they refuse to come, they will have no [annual] overflow [from the Nile]; moreover, there will be the plague with which Adonai will strike the nations that don’t go up to keep the festival of Sukkot. 19 This will be Egypt’s punishment and the punishment of all the nations that don’t go up to keep the festival of Sukkot. 20 When that day comes, this will be written on the bells worn by the horses: “Consecrated to Adonai”; and the cooking pots in the house of Adonai will be [as holy] as the sprinkling bowls before the altar. 21 Yes, every cooking pot in Yerushalayim and Y’hudah will be consecrated to Adonai-Tzva’ot. Everyone who offers sacrifices will come, take them and use them to stew the meat. When that day comes, there will no longer be merchants in the house of Adonai-Tzva’ot.1”
There is coming a day when everyone will celebrate Tabernacles in Jerusalem! The Fall Feasts begin with the sounding of the trumpet (catching away of the Church), Atonement (the second coming), Tabernacles (the millennium), and the eighth day (eternity). The Fall Feasts are still yet to be fulfilled. May this time remind us to look up because our redemption draws near.
The first number is the verse in the Hebrew Bible and the number in parenthesis is the verse number in the Christian Old Testament.
- Zechariah 14:16-21 CJB
Casey D. Bell 