Feast of Tabernacles

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Feast of Tabernacles
Carrying Branches to Make Booths by Charles Foster
Name草幕節, Feast of Tabernacles
Another NameFeast of Ingathering
DateThe 15th to 22nd day of the seventh month by the sacred calendar
OriginThe Israelites gathered materials for the tabernacle.
Ritual in the Old TestamentThe people built booths and lived in them for seven days.
Ritual in the New Testament7-day preaching week
Fulfillment of prophecyPreaching to gather materials for the spiritual temple

The Feast of Tabernacles is the last one of the seven feasts in three times written in the Bible. It is celebrated from the 15th to the 22nd of the seventh month by the sacred calendar,[1] and it falls between September to October in the Gregorian calendar [solar calendar]. The Israelites kept this feast to celebrate the building of the tabernacle of God during their journey in the desert. This is the feast of harvest observed at the time of harvesting autumn crops. The Feast of Tabernacles represents the third set of feasts[2]—the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles.

The Origin of the Feast of Tabernacles

On the tenth day of the seventh month by the sacred calendar in the first year after coming out of Egypt and heading for Canaan, Moses descended from Mount Sinai [Horeb] after receiving the second set of the Ten Commandments, and gave the Israelites detailed explanations of how to build the tabernacle to keep the Ten Commandments and of the materials for the tabernacle.[3][4] The people willingly brought materials for the tabernacle. For seven days from the fifteenth day of the month, various materials such as gold, silver, linen, and wood were gathered abundantly.[5] God appointed the Feast of Tabernacles to commemorate the Israelites’ gathering the materials for the tabernacle.[6][7]


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. . . . Live in booths for seven days: All native-born Israelites are to live in booths.’ ”

Leviticus 23:33–43


The Feast of Tabernacles was also called the Feast of Ingathering because it was celebrated during the season for harvesting and storing crops.[8][9]

The Ceremony of the Feast of Tabernacles

Old Testament Times

The Israelites commemorated the Feast of Tabernacles by making booths. They cut off branches from palm trees, myrtle trees, shade trees, etc., and built booths and joyfully lived in them for seven days.[10] They helped their neighbors in need and kept the feast holy.[7] Through this, they commemorated the work of building the tabernacle in the desert and their ancestors’ living in tents for forty years.

In the sanctuary, sacrifices such as grain offerings and drink offerings were offered according to the regulations of the Feast of Tabernacles apart from regular burnt offerings.[11] Every day during the seven days of the Feast, bulls, rams, and male lambs of the first year were offered as the burnt offerings, and their grain offerings were offered according to the number specified. As a sin offering, one male goat was offered every day.[12]

New Testament Times

The ceremony of building booths with grass and branches and living in them, rejoicing for seven days, and the work of people bringing materials for the making of the holy tabernacle in the days of Moses, were a prophecy about the completion of the gospel work on the earth as the saints represented by the trees[13][14][15] and temple materials[16][17] are gathered. Therefore, on the Feast of Tabernacles in the New Testament times, a preaching festival is held for seven days to gather the saints, who are the materials for the temple.

History of the Feast of Tabernacles in the Old Testament Times

  • Age of the United Kingdom of Israel
In the 10th century B.C., during the golden age of the united kingdom of Israel, Solomon completed the Jerusalem Temple and placed the ark of the covenant in the Most Holy Place, and the people assembled for a dedication ceremony in the seventh month. He kept the Feast of Tabernacles together with the dedication of the temple.[18][19][20][21]
  • Age of the Return From the Captivity
The Israelites joyfully keep the Feast of Tabernacles.
The Israelites joyfully keep the Feast of Tabernacles.
In about 537 B.C., the Israelites, who had been taken captive to Babylon,[22] returned to their homeland under the leadership of Zerubbabel according to the decree of Cyrus II, king of Persia (first return). The people who returned to their homeland made every effort to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem and resolved to keep the law that God gave Moses. After that, they kept the Feast of Tabernacles as written in the Law and fully offered the sacrifice to God according to the regulations every day.[23] In about 444 B.C., the Israelites, who had returned home (third return) led by Nehemiah,[24] completed the construction of Jerusalem walls in 52 days, despite the hindrance of Sanballat and Tobiah.[25] In the seventh month, the people learned the law of God from Ezra who was a priest and a teacher of the law.[26] Reading the Book of the Law, they found that God commanded them to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles in the seventh month, and proclaimed that they would keep the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem and throughout their towns.[27] The people went out into the hill country and brought back branches and built booths on their roofs, in their courtyards, in the temple courts, in the square by the Water Gate, and the one by the Gate of Ephraim. Day after day, from the first day to the last, Ezra read from the Book of the Law of God. They celebrated the feast for seven days, and on the eighth day they held an assembly in accordance with the regulation. The Bible says that from the days of Joshua until that day, the Israelites had not celebrated it this greatly.[28]

Prophecy About the Feast of Tabernacles

In the twenty-fifth year of Israel’s exile to Babylon [Neo-Babylonia], at the beginning of the year, on the tenth of the month, in the fourteenth year after the fall of Jerusalem, the prophet Ezekiel saw in visions the restoration of the temple. In visions, God told Ezekiel about the regulations of sacrifice and commanded to keep the Feast of Tabernacles as well as the Passover.[29]

After that, God showed the restoration of Israel and the glory of Jerusalem through the prophet Zechariah to awaken the Israelites who had returned from Babylon.[30][31] God warned of the judgment against those who had afflicted Jerusalem and commanded His people to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. He also said that those who did not celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles would have no rain.[32] This meant that God’s people, who keep the Feast of Tabernacles before the Judgment, would come to Jerusalem, the source of the water of life.

Fulfillment of the Prophecy

Worship service for the Feast of Tabernacles at the World Mission Society Church of God
Worship service for the Feast of Tabernacles at the World Mission Society Church of God

The Feast of Tabernacles, which commemorates Moses and the Israelites’ gathering of the materials for the tabernacle, is a prophecy about the preaching to gather the saints, the materials for the spiritual temple in the New Testament times.[16][17] Jesus set an example of preaching on the Feast of Tabernacles, showing its meaning. And on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, He promised the blessing of the Holy Spirit, the water of life,[33] to those who believed in Him. The rain symbolizes the Holy Spirit in the Bible,[34][35][36] which fulfills the prophecy of God’s promise that those who keep the Feast of Tabernacles will have rain.[32]

In Revelation 22, it is prophesied that the Spirit and the Bride will give the water of life in the last days.[37] In the Age of the Son, whoever believed in Jesus received the water of life. In the same way, in the Age of the Holy Spirit, those who believe in and receive the Spirit and the Bride can receive the Holy Spirit promised through the Feast of Tabernacles. The Spirit is God the Father who is one with God the Son in the Trinity, and the Bride is the heavenly Jerusalem and God the Mother who appears with Him.[38][39] The World Mission Society Church of God of God keeps the Feast of Tabernacles as Jesus set the example, and believes in God the Father and God the Mother whom the Bible testifies about.[40][41][42][43] This fulfills the prophecy of the book of Zechariah that those who keep the Feast of Tabernacles will come to Jerusalem, the source of the water of life.[32]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Leviticus 23:34–36".
  2. ↑ "Deuteronomy 16:16".
  3. ↑ "Exodus 34:4–35".
  4. ↑ "Exodus 35:4–19".
  5. ↑ "Exodus 35:29–36:7".
  6. ↑ "Numbers 29:12".
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 "Deuteronomy 16:13–15".
  8. ↑ "Exodus 23:16".
  9. ↑ "Exodus 34:22".
  10. ↑ "Leviticus 23:40–42".
  11. ↑ "Leviticus 23:34–37".
  12. ↑ "Numbers 29:12–39".
  13. ↑ "Jeremiah 5:14".
  14. ↑ "Matthew 7:16–19".
  15. ↑ "Revelation 9:4".
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 "Revelation 3:12".
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 "Ephesians 2:20–22".
  18. ↑ "1 Kings 8:1–2, 65".
  19. ↑ "2 Chronicles 5:1–3".
  20. ↑ "2 Chronicles 7:8–9".
  21. ↑ "2 Chronicles 8:12–13".
  22. ↑ Archaeologists find evidence of Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem – as told in the Bible, CNN Travel, August 12, 2019
  23. ↑ "Ezra 3:1–4".
  24. ↑ The Books of Ezra and Nehemiah With Introduction, Notes and Maps, Herbert Edward Ryle, University Press, 1893
  25. ↑ "Nehemiah 6:1–15".
  26. ↑ "Nehemiah 8:1–12".
  27. ↑ "Nehemiah 8:13–15".
  28. ↑ "Nehemiah 8:16–18".
  29. ↑ "Ezekiel 45:21–25".
  30. ↑ "Zechariah 8:1–23".
  31. ↑ "Zechariah 14:3–11".
  32. ↑ 32.0 32.1 32.2 "Zechariah 14:12–21".
  33. ↑ "John 7:2, 14, 37-39".
  34. ↑ "Hosea 6:3".
  35. ↑ "Joel 2:23".
  36. ↑ "Zechariah 10:1".
  37. ↑ "Revelation 22:17".
  38. ↑ "Revelation 21:9–10".
  39. ↑ "Galatians 4:26".
  40. ↑ "55th Anniversary of the World Mission Society Church of God Entering the Age of 3 Million Members". Shindonga. June 7, 2019.
  41. ↑ "The Sacred Assemblies of the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles 2020". WATV News. September 18, 2020.
  42. ↑ "Church of God Celebrated 'Feast of Tabernacles' in Over 7,800 Churches Worldwide". The Incheon Ilbo. October 20, 2019.
  43. ↑ "Church of God Celebrated the Last day of the Feast of Tabernacles". Seoul News. October 13, 2017.
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