The Feast of Tabernacles - Lev. 23:33-43; Num. 29:12-39; John 7:1-44
The Feast of Tabernacles
Lev. 23:33-43; Num .
29:12-39; John 7:1-44
I. Institution
of the Feast of Tabernacles
A.
God's Commands Concerning its
Observance, Lev. 25:33-43
"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."
(Lev 23:39-43)
1. The Feast of
Tabernacles, also called the Feast of Booths, or the Feast of Ingathering,
began on the 15th day of the seventh month, which corresponds roughly to the
last week of September.
a.) The Feast was held
for eight days, beginning and ending on a Sabbath.
b.) The festival
commemorated Israel festival
Jews were to erect booths made from branches and to live in them for seven
days, as a joyful reminder to Israel of God's provision. The “booth” is not an
image of privation and misery, but rather of protection, preservation, and
shelter from heat and storm.
c.) Josephus, a 1st
century Jewish historian, called the Feast of Tabernacles “the holiest and
greatest of the Hebrew festivals”.
d.) It is sometimes referred
to as the Feast of Ingathering because it was celebrated after the harvest had
been brought in, and so it was a harvest thanksgiving celebration as well.
e.) It is described in
Deut. 16 as a time of great joy and it was to be a feast for the whole family.
“And you shall rejoice in your feast, you, and your son, and your daughter,
and your man-servant , and your maid-servant, and the Levite, and the foreigner,
and the fatherless, and the widow, who are within your gates.”
2.
Another thing that is significant about this feast is that
it required more sacrifices to be offered than any other of the Jewish feasts
(See Num 29:12-40).
B. The
Significance of the Offerings
1.
The Burnt Offering (Lev 1:3-9)
"If his offering
is a burnt offering from the herd, he shall offer a male without blemish. He
shall bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting, that he may be accepted
before the LORD. He shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and
it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him. Then he shall kill the bull before the LORD,
and Aaron's sons the priests shall bring the blood and throw the blood against
the sides of the altar that is at the entrance of the tent of meeting… And the priest shall burn all of
it on the altar, as a burnt offering, an offering made by fire, of a pleasing
aroma to God.”
a.) The name
for the burnt offering means "ascending", because, as the animal was
wholly consumed in the fire, the smoke would rise toward heaven as a pleasing
aroma to God. ( The animals in other sacrifices were only partially consumed on
the altar.)
b.) The
burnt offering symbolized the entire surrender to God of the individual
or congregation, God's acceptance of that surrender, and therefore the renewal
and restoration of the individual. That is why it was a daily offering.
c.) The
total surrender of one’s self to God is summed up in the first commandment,
Deut. 6:5 “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your
heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”
d.) The
offer’s laying or pressing his hand on the head of the sacrifice symbolized his
complete identification with the animal as his substitute.
e.) This
offering was not made to atone for sin, as were the other offerings.
f.) The Burnt-Offering
is a type of the work of Christ, who offering Himself to God, was accepted by
God as a pleasing aroma to Him.
Eph 5:2 “And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us,
and has given Himself for us as an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet
smelling savor.”
g.) Paul evidently had
this sacrifice in mind when he said in Romans 12:1-2
Rom 12:1-2 “Therefore I urge you,
brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice,
holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service. (2) Don't be conformed to this world, but be
transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the
good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
2.
The Grain or Meal Offering, Lev. 2:1-3, 11, 13
"When anyone brings a grain offering as an offering to the
LORD, his offering shall be of fine flour. He shall pour oil on it and put
frankincense on it and bring it to Aaron's sons the priests. And he shall take
from it a handful of the fine flour and oil, with all of its frankincense, and
the priest shall burn this as its memorial portion on the altar, a food offering
with a pleasing aroma to the LORD. But
the rest of the grain offering shall be for Aaron and his sons; it is a most
holy part of the LORD's food offerings … No grain offering that you bring to
the LORD shall be made with leaven, for you shall burn no leaven nor any honey
as a food offering to the LORD ... You shall season all your grain offerings
with salt. You shall not let the salt of the covenant with your God be missing
from your grain offering; with all your offerings you shall offer salt.”
a.) The grain offering
recognized the sovereignty of God and His goodness in providing earthly
blessings. The idea seems to be expressed by David in 1 Chron. 29:10-14, "All that is in the heaven and in the earth is
thine... All things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee.".
b.) This was for a
memorial, to put God in mind of his covenant with their fathers, and to recall
to their mind his gracious conduct towards them and their ancestors.
c.) Oil was used for
the purpose of anointing and as food; in both senses a symbol of divine grace.
d.) Frankincense, with its sweet perfume, symbolizes prayer accepted
before God.
e.) Honey, being used to produce fermentation, and leaven were excluded
because fermentation was an apt symbol of the working of corruption in the
human heart.
f.) Salt was the opposite of leaven, for it preserved from putrefaction
and corruption, and signified the purity and faithfulness that were necessary
in the worship of God. It was called the “salt of the covenant” of God, because
as salt is incorruptible, so was the covenant made with Abram, Isaac and Jacob.
3.
The Sin Offering, Lev. 4-6
Lev 4: 27-28-31 "If anyone sins unintentionally in doing
any one of the things that by the LORD's commandments ought not to be done, and
realizes his guilt, (28) or the sin which he has committed is made
known to him, he shall bring for his offering a goat, a female without blemish,
for his sin which he has committed. ( 29)And he shall lay his hand
upon the head of the sin offering, and slay the sin offering in the place of
the burnt offering. ( 30) And the priest shall take
some of its blood with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt
offering and pour out all the rest of its blood at the base of the altar. ( 31) And all its fat he shall remove, as the
fat is removed from the peace offerings, and the priest shall burn it on the
altar for a pleasing aroma to the LORD. And the priest shall make atonement for
him, and he shall be forgiven. “
a.) The sin
offering was the prescribed means by which to atone for sins done in ignorance.
b.) The idea
is that some sins are unintentional, "in error", and may have been
committed through ignorance, hurry, lack of consideration, or carelessness, in
other words, sins which came from human weakness, as opposed to sins which are
deliberately and knowingly done in rebellion against God and His commandments.
c.) Sins
that are committed intentionally or defiantly, referred to as “sins of the
upraised hand,” could not be atoned for by ritual sacrifice.
d.) The
penalty for these sins was to be cut off from among God's people. Of course
there were times when God through His love and mercy would forgive these sins.
e.) The
distinctive aspects of the sin offering are that it was offered for a specific
sin. Not sins in general.
f.) By the offender
laying his hands on top of the goat signified his transference of his sin to
the goat.
g.) And after doing this
then the priest shall make atonement for him and the will be forgiven.
II. Feast
of Tabernacles, or Booths, or Ingathering, Lev. 23:33 -43
A. History
of the Feast
1.
It is called the Feast of Ingathering because it was timed
to correspond to the completion of the harvest in Israel 23:16 , Lev 23:39 ). The ultimate consummation of
this feast comes at the final harvest and ingathering of the nations (Zech 14,
Joel 3:12-16, Rev 14, Jer 3:17). Those who have been set apart as holy to the
Lord (from all the nations) will go up to celebrate the feast, but the
unbelieving "Canaanites" (from all the nations) will be permanently
banished from the house of the Lord (Rev 21:22 -27).
2.
It is called the Feast of Booths because God commanded,
" 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 23:42 -43 , Neh 8:14 ) After a week of living in
booths, there was a sacred assembly on the eighth day and the people would
return to their permanent dwellings. This aspect of the feast looks foreward to
the shedding off our our earthly tent (2 Cor 5:1-4) to be replaced by new
imperishable bodies (1 Cor 15:35ff) and our secure dwelling place (Zech 14:11 ) in the Father's house (John
14:2). All of this is in line with a Biblical pattern in which the eighth day represents the day of new
creation.
3. Other biblical
references to the feast are found in Ezra 3:4; Neh.
8:16-18 and Zech. 14:16.
4. One strange incident
in the gospels comes to light when we understand the meaning of this feast. As
the perfect fulfillment of the Law, Jesus certainly went up to Jerusalem 16:16 ). Indeed, in John 2 we see Jesus
going up to Jerusalem Judea , so that your disciples may see the miracles you
do. No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are
doing these things, show yourself to the world."
5. For even his own
brothers did not believe in him. Therefore Jesus told them, "The right
time for me has not yet come; for you any time is right. The world cannot hate
you, but it hates me because I testify that what it does is evil. You go to the
Feast. I am not yet going up to this Feast, because for me the right time has
not yet come."
6. However, after his
brothers had left for the Feast, he went also, not publicly, but in secret. Now
at the Feast the Jews were watching for him and asking, "Where is that
man?"... Not until halfway through the Feast did Jesus go up to the
temple courts and begin to teach.
7. Why this strange
behavior from Jesus? Because the "Feast" in question was the Feast of
Booths (John 7:2)! The Feast of Unleavened was soon to be fulfilled when Jesus
our Passover Lamb was sacrificed. The Feast of Weeks was fulfilled just after
Jesus ascended to the Father. But the Feast of Booths speaks of things to come
at the very end of this world. So Jesus said to His brothers, "I am not
yet going up to this Feast, because for me the right time has not yet
come." The ordained timing of Jesus' coming for the Final Ingathering is a
secret known only to His Father. People will be asking, "Where is He, will
He really come again?" He will come unexpectedly, as a thief in the night,
and then will suddenly appear as the ultimate public figure and show Himself to
the world.
B. Messianic
Significance
1. Later after the
Jewish Temple was built the feast also evoked many images of God’s care for Israel
2. On each of the seven
days water was drawn in a golden pitcher from the Pool of Siloam and carried in
procession to the Temple
“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.”
3. Also on each day the
priest would light huge Menorahs in the court of the women as a reminder of the
pillar of fire that guided the Israelites during the wilderness wanderings.
Also in John 8:12 during this same feast Jesus
said:
“I am
the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but
will have the light of life.”
4. And it was probably
the reminder of God’s care and provision during this time that led Jesus to
teach the parable of the good Shepard in John 10.
5. Apart from possible
prophetic interpretations of Ezekiel's temple vision (Ez 40ff), the clearest
reference to one of the holy convocations in the prophets comes when Zechariah
sees all the nations of the world going up to Jerusalem
"A
day of the LORD is coming when your plunder will be divided among you. I will
gather all the nations to Jerusalem to fight against it... On that day there
will be no light, no cold or frost. It will be a unique day, without daytime or
nighttime-a day known to the LORD. When evening comes, there will be light. On
that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem, half to the eastern sea and
half to the western sea, in summer and in winter. The LORD will be king over
the whole earth. On that day there will be one LORD, and his name the only
name... It will be inhabited; never again will it be destroyed [or, "there
will be no more curse" (NAS)]. Jerusalem
"Then the survivors from all the nations that have attacked Jerusalem
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