The LORD said to Moses, "Say to the Israelites: 'On the fifteenth day of the seventh month the LORD's Feast of Tabernacles begins, and it lasts for seven days. The first day is a sacred assembly; do no regular work. For seven days present offerings made to the LORD by fire, and on the eighth day hold a sacred assembly and present an offering made to the LORD by fire. It is the closing assembly; do no regular work.
("'These are the LORD's appointed feasts, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies for bringing offerings made to the LORD by fire--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 rest, and the eighth day also is a day of rest.
On the first day you are to take choice fruit from the trees, and palm fronds, leafy branches and poplars, 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 booths for seven days: All native-born Israelites are to live in booths so your descendants will know that I had the Israelites live in booths when I brought them out of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.'" So Moses announced to the Israelites the appointed feasts of the LORD.
Leviticus 23:33-44
After the Feast of Trumpets; when the shofar had been blown over Israel; once the moon over the country side was no longer “new”; after the people’s ten days of repentance; and, after they had fasted for the Day of Atonement; after the priests had made atonement for their own sins, the sins of the people, and the sins of the nation; only after these appointed times had been observed, only then, came a most joyous occasion in Israel. A celebration equaled by no other, The Feast of Tabernacles, began in the land.
This was a time for the Israelites to remember that the presence of the Lord had brought them safely out of Egypt. "So I will consecrate the Tent of Meeting and the altar and will consecrate Aaron and his sons to serve me as priests. Then I will dwell among the Israelites and be their God. They will know that I am the LORD their God, who brought them out of Egypt so that I might dwell among them. I am the LORD their God." Exodus 29:44-46
Five days following the Day of Atonement, they were to erect temporary tri-sided huts called “sukkahs”, shelters loosely woven and covered with fresh cut foliage. In addition to remembering their desert days of wandering, it kept them mindful that this world is a temporary home. They were never to forget that they were pilgrims in the land awaiting their divine appointment with the creator. Just as is written in Hebrews 11:9-10 “By faith he made his home in the Promised Land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.”
The majority of the next seven days would be spent in a festively bedecked sukkah with its palm fronds ceiling allowing the view of the evening stars. Fellow kinsmen would join in for meals, fellowship, singing and reading of the Tenack. Most importantly, they would rejoice in the Lord. “The LORD is my strength and song, and is become my salvation. The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tabernacles of the righteous: the right hand of the LORD doeth valiantly. The right hand of the LORD is exalted: the right hand of the LORD doeth valiantly.” Psalm 118:14-16
Another symbolic meaning of the booths was that they represented the indwelling of the Lord. The people were to remember the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night when the Shekinah glory of the Lord guided their ancestors in the wilderness. “Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. And when the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the children of Israel went onward in all their journeys: But if the cloud were not taken up, then they journeyed not till the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the LORD was upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys.” Exodus 40:34-38
The Prophet Isaiah wrote more about the coming ages when the Lord again will dwell amongst His people. Isaiah 4:5-6 says, “Then the LORD will create over all of Mount Zion and over those who assemble there a cloud of smoke by day and a glow of flaming fire by night; over all the glory will be a canopy. It will be a shelter and shade from the heat of the day, and a refuge and hiding place from the storm and rain.”
The word “tabernacle” refers to a temporary structure. God came to dwell with the Israelites as they camped around Mount Sinai. Communing in their Sukkahs, they anticipated His presence with expectation. We are reminded in John 1:14 that Yeshua, God’s son, referred to by the apostle as “The Word”, “became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
This Feast, a culmination of the fall harvest, was a time of thanksgiving for the abundance of produce gleaned from the land. Each booth would be laden with pomegranates, nuts, grapes, almonds, peaches, and wreaths made with ears of corn. Adornments would be hung from the rafters to make them beautiful and pleasing to the Lord. With a single purpose, to praise the Lord for His provisions, they lingered through this feast.
The Israelites had forgotten this feast during the Babylon captivity. Nehemiah 8:14-18 wrote of its revival after that time: “And they found written in the law which the LORD had commanded by Moses, that the children of Israel should dwell in booths in the feast of the seventh month: And that they should publish and proclaim in all their cities, and in Jerusalem, saying, Go forth unto the mount, and fetch olive branches, and pine branches, and myrtle branches, and palm branches, and branches of thick trees, to make booths, as it is written. So the people went forth, and brought them, and made themselves booths, every one upon the roof of his house, and in their courts, and in the courts of the house of God, and in the street of the water gate, and in the street of the gate of Ephraim. And all the congregation of them that were come again out of the captivity made booths, and sat under the booths: for since the days of Jeshua the son of Nun unto that day had not the children of Israel done so. And there was very great gladness. Also day by day, from the first day unto the last day, he read in the book of the law of God. And they kept the feast seven days; and on the eighth day was a solemn assembly, according unto the manner.”
Again, in 2 Chronicles 8:12-15, King Solomon celebrated this beloved feast at the dedication of the Second Temple: “Then Solomon offered burnt-offerings unto Jehovah on the altar of Jehovah, which he had built before the porch, even as the duty of every day required, offering according to the commandment of Moses, on the Sabbaths, and on the new moons, and on the set feasts, three times in the year, even in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles.”
When Jesus attended The Feast, as it had become called, the celebration continued to be integrated into Temple Festivities. Much revelry was given to The Water Libation ceremony, a time of carrying golden jugs of water to the altar from the Pool of Siloam. Crowds gathered around the priests, playing trumpets, and lifting their palm branches high in the air as they rustled and shook the leaves in the breeze. Isaiah 44:3 related the water poured out by the Lord to the Holy Spirit: “For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants.”
It was at this Feast that the Messiah proclaimed Himself to be “the living water”. “On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." 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.” John 7:37-39
The courtyard of the Temple housed magnificent towering golden candlesticks which were said to glimmer over all of Jerusalem. They were lit during the Ceremony of Illumination as harps, lyres, cymbals, and trumpets filled the glowing courtyard with the sound of merriment. In John 8:12, Christ proclaimed, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." He continued on with this message in John 12:35-36 when He “said unto them, Yet a little while is the light among you. Walk while ye have the light, that darkness overtake you not: and he that walketh in the darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. While ye have the light, believe on the light, that ye may become sons of light.”
The Messiah’s reference to the water and the light tied the living Lord to the Feast of Tabernacles. Here He was, living and breathing, walking, eating, speaking among the people, yet they knew Him not. His presence had come. He became flesh. He dwelled with them. He loved them, shepherded them, healed them, and they knew Him not.
Just as Jehovah-Sabaoth, Lord of Hosts dwelled with the Israelites and Yeshuah, son of God, dwelled on this earth, so too does the Holy Spirit dwell with the children of the covenant today. 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 reads, “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? … for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.”
Read more about how the Lord dwells with His people in Psalm 68:15-20. “The hill of God is as the hill of Bashan; an high hill as the hill of Bashan. Why leap ye, ye high hills? this is the hill which God desireth to dwell in; yea, the LORD will dwell in it for ever. The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels: the Lord is among them, as in Sinai, in the holy place. Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also, that the LORD God might dwell among them. Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Selah. He that is our God is the God of salvation; and unto GOD the Lord belong the issues from death.”
Christ tabernacled on this earth for a season. He gave himself as the perfect sacrifice for our sins. He went into the Holies of Holies for each of His children, atoning for the sins of man. The prophesies revealed in the Fall Feasts show what is to come when Christ returns bringing salvation to the nations. Hebrews 9:28 says “so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and He will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.”
Below are some prophetic scriptures which refer to the Lord dwelling with His people and to the Feast of Tabernacles. It is evident in reading them that the Lord plans for this Feast to be celebrated into the millennium. Reference is made to “the nations” joining in Jerusalem to celebrate this Feast. It is the intention of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to dwell amid His people, He their God and they His people.
Ezekiel 37:27-28 “My tabernacle also shall be with them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And the nations shall know that I am Jehovah that sanctifieth Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore.”
Zechariah 2:11-13 “And many nations shall be joined to the LORD in that day, and shall be my people: and I will dwell in the midst of thee, and thou shalt know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me unto thee. And the LORD shall inherit Judah his portion in the holy land, and shall choose Jerusalem again. Be silent, O all flesh, before the LORD: for he is raised up out of his holy habitation.”
Zechariah 14:16-17 “Then the survivors from all the nations that have attacked Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the King, the LORD Almighty, and to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles. If any of the peoples of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD Almighty, they will have no rain.”
Revelation 21:3 “And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.”
Revelation 21:3-4 “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God."
Although it would be a far stretch to try to know the ways of the Lord and predict how and when the above will happen, one can derive insight into the heart of the Lord based on His Holy word. This, along with Passover and Pentecost, is one of the three feasts which required that adult males journey to Jerusalem to present an offering before the Lord. These occasions were important to the Lord. He ordained them. “And ye shall proclaim on the selfsame day, that it may be an holy convocation unto you: ye shall do no servile work therein: it shall be a statute for ever in all your dwellings throughout your generations”. (Leviticus 23:21) They were celebrated in the Promised Land, in Jerusalem, by King David and King Solomon, by the Son of God, Jesus, and are mentioned in prophecy for ages to come.
Because the schedule of these Feasts is based on the phases of the moon, believers today can celebrate and observe them in accordance with the ordinances of the Lord. How powerful to know that the same New Moon which signaled the beginning of the Feast of Trumpets rises over our homes and communities today. Why wouldn’t one want to honor the Lord by seeking repentance, redemption, and rejoicing?
As the temple worshipers arrived carrying their palm branches, they waved them to the east, the south, the west, and the north. Then the waved them up to the Heavens and down to the Earth. While doing so, they recited the following prayer, “Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who hast sanctified us with Thy commandments and has commanded us concerning the waving of the lulav.”
Take up your frond! Lift up your voice! Hear the trump of the Lord! Seek Him, Know Him, Desire Him… He will come and tabernacle with you.
"Thou shalt observe the feast of tabernacles seven days, after that thou hast gathered in thy corn and thy wine: And thou shalt rejoice in thy feast, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite, the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are within thy gates. Seven days shalt thou keep a solemn feast unto the LORD thy God in the place which the LORD shall choose: because the LORD thy God shall bless thee in all thine increase, and in all the works of thine hands, therefore thou shalt surely rejoice." Deuteronomy 16:13-15
"Sing unto the LORD, all the earth;
shew forth from day to day His salvation.
Declare His glory among the heathen;
His marvellous works among all nations.
For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised:
He also is to be feared above all gods.
For all the gods of the people are idols:
but the LORD made the heavens.
Glory and honour are in His presence;
strength and gladness are in His place.
Give unto the LORD, ye kindreds of the people,
give unto the LORD glory and strength.
Give unto the LORD the glory due unto His name:
bring an offering, and come before Him:
worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.
Fear before Him, all the earth:
the world also shall be stable, that it be not moved.
Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice:
and let men say among the nations, The LORD reigneth.
Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof:
let the fields rejoice, and all that is therein.
Then shall the trees of the wood
sing out at the presence of the LORD,
because He cometh to judge the earth.
O give thanks unto the LORD; for He is good;
for His mercy endureth for ever.
And say ye, Save us, O God of our salvation,
and gather us together, and deliver us from the heathen,
that we may give thanks to thy holy name, and glory in thy praise.
Blessed be the LORD God of Israel for ever and ever.
And all the people said, Amen, and praised the LORD.
1 Chronicles 16:23-36
The following were used as reference:
Mitch and Zhava Glaser, The Fall Feasts of Israel (Chicago: The Moody Bible Institute, 1987)
Bruce Scott, The Feasts of Israel (New Jersey: The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry, Inc., 1997)
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