The Feast of Tabernacles
This God-ordained
festival occurs five days after the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur). It is
a seven-day feast that begins with a Holy Day on which all ordinary work
is forbidden and on which people are to gather before God. God commanded
this festival to be kept forever.
The Feast of
Tabernacles was also called the Feast of Ingathering because it celebrated
the summer and early autumn harvest. This Feast, picturing the sixth step
in God’s Master Plan, is a time of great rejoicing! For ancient
Israel,
it was a time of rejoicing because the abundant winter’s store was taken
in just before the Feast.
It is also believed
that Jesus was born during this festival, being born in a temporary
shelter and living on this earth in a temporary earthly body. This Feast
reminds believers that our time on this earth is only temporary. It also
points towards the Millennium, which this feast pictures, the happiness,
joy and prosperity portrayed by the Feast of Tabernacles will exist
worldwide under the righteous rule of Jesus Christ. Universal adherence to
God’s way of life will make the World Tomorrow a literal utopia!
During this Feast
God’s people are to live in booths—temporary dwellings. A "tabernacle" or
"booth" or “Sukka” in Hebrew, is a temporary dwelling. God commanded the
ancient Israelites to live in temporary shelters made of tree branches
while observing the Feast of Tabernacles. For God’s people who attend the
Feast of Tabernacles today, a tent, camper, motel or hotel room would
certainly qualify as a temporary dwelling.
God intends the Feast
of Tabernacles to separate and free His people from the world. Living in
temporary dwellings for an entire week—away from their everyday
surroundings, jobs and most negative influences—God’s people enjoy a tiny
foretaste of the universal freedom, joy and peace that will exist in the
Millennium when Satan is gone and the Spirit of God is leading all of
humanity.
These are days of
continuous, genuine Christian fellowship and just plain good fun! Tens of
thousands of God’s people and their families gather at dozens of festival
sites around the world. Christians at the Feast demonstrate now, by the
way they live together in harmony, what today’s sin-filled, unhappy world
will become like after Christ returns.
But just as the Feast
of Tabernacles is a physical feast filled with rejoicing, it is also a
spiritual feast of education and preparation. Members of God’s Church
receive instruction from God’s ministers through inspiring sermons to help
them further prepare to rule and teach with Christ during the Millennium.
After Jesus Christ
subdues the warring nations at His return and establishes God’s government
over the earth, the nations will begin to come to Him for instruction in
God’s way of life. The whole world will finally come to understand God’s
way to peace, happiness, abundant living and salvation.
Once Satan has been
bound and the government of God set up, a 1,000-year golden age of world
peace and prosperity will begin. Christ’s reeducation program for the
entire world will bring about a new civilization based on God’s way of
life—His Law of love—resulting in great physical and spiritual blessings.
By
the end of the thousand years, the great Family of God will be ready for
the final step in God’s Master Plan. Even greater joy and accomplishments
lie ahead after the Millennium!
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Scripture References: Leviticus 23:33-43; Deuteronomy 14:26; 16:13-15;
Joel 2:28, 32; Micah 4:1-2; Isaiah 11:9; Jeremiah 31:34.
Click for a chart that summarizes the seven feasts of the Lord. |
