7 Keys to Celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles

 As summer turns into fall, the season of God’s fall Holy Days is upon us once more. The seventh month of God’s calendar is beginning. On the first day of the seventh month, as God tells us in Leviticus 23 and Numbers 29, is the Day of Trumpets. On the 10th day is the Day of Atonement. On the 15th day begins the seven-day Feast of Tabernacles, and on the 22nd day is the Eighth Day or “Last Great Day.” This year, these Biblical dates line up with October 3, 12, 17, and 24 on the Gregorian calendar.

The Feast of Tabernacles, or the Feast of Ingathering as it’s sometimes also called (Ex. 23:16; 34:22), is an event that many of us eagerly anticipate for months in advance, a highlight of each year. And well it should be! God commanded us to rejoice at the Feast of Tabernacles (Lev. 23:40; Deut. 16:14). It’s also important, though, to be sure that we celebrate God’s feasts in the proper manner, the manner He prescribed in His Word. So let’s take a few moments to review God’s instructions for celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles.

Assemble Before God

All of God’s Sabbaths and Holy Days are holy convocations, as we’re told in Lev. 23 and Num. 28-29. Of the Feast of Tabernacles, we read, “On the first day there shall be a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work on it” (Lev. 23:35). And of the Eighth Day, which isn’t truly part of the Feast of Tabernacles but a separate Holy Day, we read, “On the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation, and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the LORD. It is a sacred assembly, and you shall do no customary work on it” (Lev. 23:36).

What’s a holy convocation? It’s a commanded assembly ordained by Almighty God, especially for the purpose of instruction and study in His Word. Dictionary.com defines “convocation” as “a group of people gathered in answer to a summons; assembly.” The Hebrew word translated as “convocation” is miqra (Strong’s # H4744), which Gesenius’ Hebrew Lexicon defines as “a calling together, convocation, an assembly; recitation, reading.”

Assembling before God isn’t just something we do if it doesn’t inconvenience us too much; it’s a command. As Heb. 10:24-25 exhorts, “And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.”

So the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles and the Eighth Day are holy convocations. Commanded assemblies. Days which we are to keep holy and on which we are to refrain from any customary work.

But that’s not all. God set aside the whole Feast as one of three pilgrimage feasts in which He commanded all His people to appear before Him, as we find in Ex. 23:14-17, Ex. 34:18-23, and elsewhere. Here’s a brief summary of the three: “Three times a year all your males shall appear before the LORD your God in the place which He chooses: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks [Pentecost], and at the Feast of Tabernacles; and they shall not appear before the LORD empty-handed. Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the LORD your God which He has given you” (Deut. 16:16-17).

It’s not just men that God commanded to assemble before Him, of course, but those men and their entire households. We’ll see more verses on that in a moment. And so throughout the Bible, we witness God’s people assembling before Him at these three pilgrimage feasts, just as He instructed.

King Solomon observed these feasts, as you can read in 1 Kings 9:25 and 2 Chron. 8:12-13. In fact, it was at the Feast of Tabernacles that he dedicated the temple: “Therefore all the men of Israel assembled with King Solomon at the feast in the month of Ethanim, which is the seventh month” (1 Kings 8:2). “At that time Solomon kept the feast seven days, and all Israel with him, a very great assembly from the entrance of Hamath to the Brook of Egypt. And on the eighth day they held a sacred assembly… On the twenty-third day of the seventh month he sent the people away to their tents” (2 Chron. 7:8-10).

Even after Solomon’s death and Israel’s division into the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah, the people continued to assemble before God at the temple in Jerusalem, Judah’s capital (1 Kings 12:26-27). It was for this reason that Jeroboam, Israel’s wicked king, not only established a counterfeit religion in Israel, but even counterfeited the Feast of Tabernacles one month after the true Feast: “Jeroboam ordained a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the feast that was in Judah” (1 Kings 12:32).

Centuries later, when King Hezekiah restored Godly worship in Judah, the people again assembled before God for the three annual feasts, beginning with Passover and Unleavened Bread (2 Chron. 30). Then they brought their tithes to the temple in the third month and the seventh month (2 Chron. 31:5-7), the months of Pentecost and the Feast of Tabernacles.

When God brought the captives of Judah back into the land, one of their first acts was to observe the Feast of Tabernacles (Ezra 3:4). Again, decades later, during the time of Nehemiah, they celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles with zeal and devotion not seen since the days of Joshua (Neh. 8:14-18)!

Jesus Christ and all His family and disciples celebrated the Feast, too. In John 7:2, we’re told, “Now the Jews’ Feast of Tabernacles was at hand.” Later we read, “But when His brothers had gone up, then He also went up to the feast, not openly, but as it were in secret” (John 7:10-11). But “about the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and taught” (John 7:14). He also taught “on the last day, that great day of the feast” (John 7:37).

And when Jesus returns, all nations will observe the Feast of Tabernacles as a pilgrimage feast — or suffer the consequences! Here’s Zech. 14:16-19:

16 And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.

17 And it shall be that whichever of the families of the earth do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, on them there will be no rain.

18 If the family of Egypt will not come up and enter in, they shall have no rain; they shall receive the plague with which the LORD strikes the nations who do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.

19 This shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.

So when we assemble before God at the Feast of Tabernacles, it’s not just for the First Day and the Eighth Day, the two holy convocations. It’s for the whole feast! The whole feast is a pilgrimage feast, in which we are to assemble before our Creator.

This is the first key to keeping the Feast of Tabernacles: KEEP IT! Assemble before God for the whole Feast.

Go Up to Zion

Now, as we’ve just seen, God not only commanded all His people to assemble before Him at the Feast of Tabernacles, but to assemble in a specific place: “Seven days you shall keep a sacred feast to the LORD your God in the place which the LORD chooses, because the LORD your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you surely rejoice” (Deut. 16:15). No less than 11 passages in the Book of Deuteronomy alone reference this place, the place which the Lord chooses to make His name abide (Deut. 12:5, 11, 14, 18; 14:23; 15:20; 16:2, 7, 15, 16; 26:2; 31:11).

So where is this place? Under the Old Covenant, it was the place of God’s sanctuary. When Solomon dedicated the temple in Jerusalem, that became the place: “And the LORD said to him: ‘I have heard your prayer and your supplication that you have made before Me; I have consecrated this house which you have built to put My name there forever, and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually’” (1 Kings 9:3; also 2 Chron. 7:16). But God went on to warn Solomon that if Israel turned away from Him, “I will cut off Israel from the land which I have given them; and this house which I have consecrated for My name I will cast out of My sight” (1 Kings 9:7).

And as long as Israel dwelt in the Promised Land, all the faithful kept the Feast of Tabernacles by assembling before God at the temple in Jerusalem, as we’ve already read. When the Jews returned from captivity in Babylon and rebuilt the temple, they again assembled before God at the temple in Jerusalem.

But what about today? There is no temple in Jerusalem. It was destroyed in AD 70 and has never been rebuilt. Nor has God established a temple or a sanctuary anywhere else on earth.

During His ministry, shortly before ushering in the New Covenant by His death, Jesus taught that the earthly temple was about to be replaced. To the woman at the well in Samaria, He said,

 21 “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father.

23 “But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.

24 “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:21, 23-24.)

The earthly temple has been replaced by a spiritual one: God’s people. “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” (1 Cor. 3:16). “And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: ‘I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be My people’” (2 Cor. 6:16).

And not only are we the temple of God, but we are also citizens of the heavenly city, the New Jerusalem. “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Phil. 3:20). “The Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all” (Gal. 4:26). “But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem” (Heb. 12:22).

Wherever God’s people assemble together to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles, there is His temple and there He has caused His name to abide! When we assemble before Him, we have made a spiritual pilgrimage up to Zion to worship before the King, the Lord of Hosts. We have heeded the call and met Him at His appointed time.

Dwelling in Booths

Thus far, the instructions we’ve seen for the Feast of Tabernacles have been identical to those for the other two pilgrimage feasts, the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Feast of Pentecost. “Assemble before God” and “go up to Zion” apply just as much to these two feasts as to the Feast of Tabernacles.

But God also had a special set of instructions for the Feast of Tabernacles:

40 And you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of beautiful trees, branches of palm trees, the boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God for seven days.

42 You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All who are native Israelites shall dwell in booths,

43 that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.

“Booth” is sukkah (Strong’s # H5521) in Hebrew, and the whole feast is called Sukkot, that is, “booths” or “tabernacles.” In the Book of Nehemiah, long after the Jews’ return from exile in Babylon, we find an example of this command in action:

14 And they found written in the Law, which the LORD had commanded by Moses, that the children of Israel should dwell in booths [sukkot] during the feast of the seventh month,

15 and that they should announce and proclaim in all their cities and in Jerusalem, saying, “Go out to the mountain, and bring olive branches, branches of oil trees, myrtle branches, palm branches, and branches of leafy trees, to make booths, as it is written.”

16 Then the people went out and brought them and made themselves booths, each one on the roof of his house, or in their courtyards or the courts of the house of God, and in the open square of the Water Gate and in the open square of the Gate of Ephraim.

17 So the whole assembly of those who had returned from the captivity made booths and sat under the booths; for since the days of Joshua the son of Nun until that day the children of Israel had not done so. And there was very great gladness. (Neh. 8:14-17.)

Now notice, back in Lev. 23:42, who God commanded to do this: “all who are native Israelites.” Every other command in the Old Testament, when mentioning native-born Israelites, adds that it applies to the native and the sojourner alike. Regarding the Day of Atonement, for example, we read, “This shall be a statute forever for you: In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict your souls, and do no work at all, whether a native of your own country or a stranger who dwells among you” (Lev. 16:29). But the command to dwell in booths during the Feast of Tabernacles is the ONLY command which mentions natives alone and doesn’t add that it applies to sojourners also.

Why did God tell the native Israelites to dwell in booths? “That your generations may know that I made the children of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt” (Lev. 23:43).

As long as the Israelites sojourned in the wilderness, they had no need to build booths, for they already dwelt in booths. When the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob sojourned in the Promised Land, they, too, dwelt in tents. “By faith [Abraham] dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise” (Heb. 11:9). “They were strangers and pilgrims on the earth” (Heb. 11:13). When the Israelites at last inherited the land God had promised them, then He commanded them to dwell in booths during the Feast of Tabernacles as a reminder of where they came from and what He’d done for them.

When God drove the Israelites out of the land and sent them into exile for their sins, they were once more strangers and pilgrims on the earth. God sent them to “be wanderers among the nations” (Hos. 9:17), and He said, “I will again make you dwell in tents, as in the days of the appointed feast” (Hos. 12:9).

Today, all “who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ” (Rev. 12:17) are spiritual Israelites and grafted into the house of Israel (Rom. 11), whether physically descended from Jacob or not. As the apostle Paul wrote, “For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God” (Rom. 2:28-29). Again, “And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Gal. 3:29).

Like our forefathers of old, we are strangers and pilgrims on the earth. This world is not our home, but we are sojourners awaiting our inheritance: “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Phil. 3:20).

When Jesus Christ came to this earth, He came as a fellow pilgrim and sojourner: “And the Word became flesh, and did tabernacle among us” (John 1:14; YLT). These temporary, fleshly bodies of ours are tents or tabernacles: “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (2 Cor. 5:1; KJV). The apostle Peter, too, described his physical body as a tent or tabernacle: “I think right, so long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up in reminding you, having known that soon is the laying aside of my tabernacle, even as also our Lord Jesus Christ did shew to me” (2 Pet. 1:13-14). Like any temporary dwelling, our bodies are slowly wearing out, until one day we die: “Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day” (2 Cor. 4:16).

So we are strangers and pilgrims on this earth, like our forefathers. God has brought us out of this world, just as He brought Abraham out of Chaldea and just as He brought Israel out of Egypt, but, like them, we have received no inheritance as of yet. We dwell in tents of flesh awaiting our inheritance, the Kingdom of God.

This is the overarching theme of the Feast of Tabernacles. Just as unleavened bread is the theme of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, so booths or tabernacles are the theme of the Feast of Tabernacles. This world is not our home, we’re simply passing through. We are sojourning in tents and awaiting our inheritance.

Some have taught that by traveling to a Feast site and staying in a hotel room or condo, we fulfill the command to dwell in booths, but this is mistaken. It is simply making a kind of pilgrimage to assemble with fellow brethren as God commanded; it has nothing to do with building and dwelling in a booth of leaves and branches!

So should we build literal, physical booths of branches and dwell in them during the Feast of Tabernacles, even though we’re already dwelling in tabernacles with no inheritance yet? There’s certainly nothing wrong with doing so, and many Feast sites set up a small booth or sukkah at the front of the meeting room. This is a wonderful visual. But for us in this life, one of the main themes of the Feast of Tabernacles is the temporary nature of this life and the glory of the inheritance awaiting us. This is what we must bear in mind!

Rejoice

At least six times, God tells us to rejoice at the Feast of Tabernacles. “You shall rejoice before the LORD your God for seven days” (Lev. 23:40). Again,

13 “You shall observe the Feast of Tabernacles seven days, when you have gathered from your threshing floor and from your winepress.

14 “And you shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant and the Levite, the stranger and the fatherless and the widow, who are within your gates.

15 “Seven days you shall keep a sacred feast to the LORD your God in the place which the LORD chooses, because the LORD your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you surely rejoice.” (Deut. 16:13-15.)

Part of God’s plan for His people to rejoice before Him included setting aside their tithes and taking them to His sanctuary at the pilgrimage feasts. “And there you shall eat before the LORD your God, and you shall rejoice in all to which you have put your hand, you and your households, in which the LORD your God has blessed you” (Deut. 12:7). Again, “And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God, you and your sons and your daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levite who is within your gates, since he has no portion nor inheritance with you” (Deut. 12:12). And again, in Deut. 12:17-18, we find,

17 “You may not eat within your gates the tithe of your grain or your new wine or your oil, of the firstborn of your herd or your flock, of any of your offerings which you vow, of your freewill offerings, or of the heave offering of your hand.

18 “But you must eat them before the LORD your God in the place which the LORD your God chooses, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, and the Levite who is within your gates; and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God in all to which you put your hands.

What does it mean to rejoice before God? Eating and drinking. Everything we’ve read so far has been about eating and drinking. Lest we miss the point, it’s repeated again a couple chapters later. After telling His people they could exchange their tithes for money if necessary (Deut. 14:24-25), God said, “And you shall spend that money for whatever your heart desires: for oxen or sheep, for wine or similar drink, for whatever your heart desires; you shall eat there before the LORD your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your household” (Deut. 14:26). “Whatever your heart desires” is clearly defined as food and drink!

The Feast of Tabernacles isn’t about amusement parks, tourist attractions, or family vacations. There isn’t necessarily anything wrong with these things, but they aren’t why God gave us the Feast. All too often, they become the focal point of the Feast and actually distract from the real purpose of the Feast. At a time when God called us out of this world, away from our jobs and daily routines to spend time with Him and rejoice before Him, many people spend the Feast focusing on and indulging in the things of this world!

Unfortunately, it seems that many people’s goal for the Feast is to cram as many activities into it as possible, leaving no hour or minute unaccounted for. They sit through the worship services hoping the sermon doesn’t run over time, and rush off to the next activity as soon as the man giving the closing prayer says, “Amen.” There’s no time to linger after services and fellowship with brethren; the next activity awaits! The hectic schedule often leads to tension and quarrels among the family. The husband gets grouchy, the wife gets moody, and the kids get cranky. So much for “rejoicing.”

And then there’s the Feast sites in exotic locations. What is the overarching reason that we have Feast sites at beachside resorts? Or Feasts spent touring Rome, Paris, or Madrid? Is it easier to worship our Creator there? Is God’s presence more readily felt in these locations? Does the Scriptural teaching seem more inspired there? Or is it simply that these Feast sites provide greater entertainment value?

Even many people who don’t attend church the rest of the year, or who seldom do, are more than happy to attend the Feast of Tabernacles. Do they suddenly feel more worshipful? Do they suddenly feel like it’s time to draw near to their Creator? No. They go because it’s FUN! It’s party-time. Just sit through the sermon in the morning, and then you can get on with the party.

Is this way of celebrating the Feast Scriptural? Is this what God had in mind when He told us to assemble before Him and rejoice? Does God’s Word say, “And you shall celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles with camel rides and horseback rides and boat trips and water slides?” No. Does God’s Word say, “And you shall worship your Creator by doing as much shopping and sightseeing as possible?” No.

So many folks act as if God puts 1 John 2:15-17 on hold during the Feast: “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world — the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life — is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.”

The purpose of the Feast is not to ooh and ah over the things of this world! The Feast is not a vacation. It’s not a shopping trip or a sightseeing tour. It’s not Christmas in the fall. We are not to celebrate God’s Holy Days in the way the people of this world celebrate their pagan holidays, nor are we to spend His Feasts focused on everything but Him.

Now, to be clear, there’s nothing wrong with doing a little shopping or sightseeing during the Feast, nor with enjoying some activities. Oftentimes, these things can be enjoyed with fellow brethren, giving us more opportunity for fellowship. These things can enhance the Feast, but they are not the purpose for the Feast, nor should they be our focus.

Again, when God tells us to rejoice at the Feast of Tabernacles, He specifically mentions eating and drinking. Obviously, this isn’t a license for gluttony and drunkenness; self-control must be exercised at all times! But the Feast of Tabernacles is a harvest festival. “You shall observe the Feast of Tabernacles seven days, when you have gathered from your threshing floor and from your winepress” (Deut. 16:13). Many nations have harvest festivals. The United States observes Thanksgiving, and other nations have their own harvest festivals. But God’s harvest festival is the Feast of Tabernacles, or, as it’s also called, the Feast of Ingathering (Ex. 23:16; 34:22).

As such, we partake of the bounty that God has bestowed upon us, and we give Him thanks for all His abundant blessings. “When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land which He has given you” (Deut. 8:10).

But the greatest rejoicing of all ought to be spiritual rejoicing, and the greatest feasting of all should likewise be spiritual feasting! “I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels” (Isa. 61:10). More on this shortly.

Share

Part of rejoicing before God includes sharing His blessings with others. As we read back in Deut. 16:14, “And you shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant and the Levite, the stranger and the fatherless and the widow, who are within your gates.” If everyone is to rejoice before God, including the poorest and most vulnerable among His people, then obviously they may need help to do so.

Once again, the Book of Nehemiah gives us an example of this command in action. Granted, this specific example took place on the Day of Trumpets (Neh. 8:2) rather than the Feast of Tabernacles, but the principle still applies. After reading and teaching from God’s law that morning, Nehemiah and Ezra dismissed the people, saying, “Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord” (Neh. 8:10). And so the people did: “And all the people went their way to eat and drink, to send portions and rejoice greatly, because they understood the words that were declared to them” (Neh. 8:12).

If we encounter a brother or sister at the Feast who’s lonely, let’s visit with that person. If they’re hungry, let’s invite them over for dinner and fellowship. If they’re new to the faith, let’s encourage them. We can all help one another rejoice before God!

Notice, too, that the people rejoiced not only in God’s physical blessings, but above all, in His spiritual blessings. They understood God’s Word, and for that they truly rejoiced! Again, more on this spiritual aspect of the Feast in a moment.

Fellowship

The purpose of a pilgrimage feast, in which God’s people assemble together from far and wide, is to rejoice TOGETHER. It isn’t to exchange pleasantries in the meeting hall and then rush off to do our own thing as soon as services are over. When we engage in activities during the Feast, the primary purpose should be to spend time with fellow brethren.

Let us remember why God commands us to assemble together: to encourage, exhort, and strengthen one another in our walk with God. “And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching” (Heb. 10:24-25). “Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing” (1 Thes. 5:11).

Yes, we all need some time alone to pray and to study and meditate on our Creator’s Word. Jesus Christ often went off by Himself to pray, such as before and after feeding the 5,000 families (Mat. 14:13, 23; John 6:15). And obviously we all need time alone for various other reasons as well. Families, too, all need private time during the Feast, as at other times.

Nevertheless, in tending to these various needs, let us not neglect the reason God tells us to assemble! God has called us together so that we can actually spend time together. “A man who isolates himself seeks his own desire; he rages against all wise judgment” (Prov. 18:1).

Be Instructed in God’s Law

While writing this post, I’ve saved the best for last. This is the most important key to celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles. The purpose of every commanded assembly is to worship our Creator together, and one of the most important elements of this is teaching and instruction from God’s Word.

We find multiple examples in Scripture of God’s Word and His laws being taught during the Feast of Tabernacles. When the ancient Israelites dwelt in the Promised Land and observed the Sabbatical years, they were to publicly re-read God’s law during the Feast in every Sabbatical year:

10 And Moses commanded them, saying: “At the end of every seven years, at the appointed time in the year of release, at the Feast of Tabernacles,

11 “when all Israel comes to appear before the LORD your God in the place which He chooses, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing.

12 “Gather the people together, men and women and little ones, and the stranger who is within your gates, that they may hear and that they may learn to fear the LORD your God and carefully observe all the words of this law,

13 “and that their children, who have not known it, may hear and learn to fear the LORD your God as long as you live in the land which you cross the Jordan to possess.” (Deut. 31:10-13.)

Nehemiah 8 tells us how, on each day during the Feast of Tabernacles, Ezra the scribe read aloud from God’s law to the people and taught them from it: “Also day by day, from the first day until the last day, he read from the Book of the Law of God. And they kept the feast seven days; and on the eighth day there was a sacred assembly, according to the prescribed manner” (Neh. 8:18).

Jesus Christ, too, taught the people during the Feast of Tabernacles, as we saw earlier, beginning in the middle of the Feast (John 7:14). “On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified” (John 7:37-39).

The Feast of Tabernacles, like all of God’s Holy Days, isn’t merely a physical feast, but above all a spiritual one. And the physical feast is, in fact, a type of the greater, spiritual feast. All the other keys to celebrating the Feast that we’ve covered so far have pointed to this one.

What is the biggest reason why we assemble before God on His Holy Days and at His Feasts? To feast on His Word! To study it and be instructed in it.

What does it mean to go up to Zion during the Feast? To worship and give thanks to our Creator. To set our minds on things above, and not on things on this earth (Col. 3:2).

What does it mean to dwell in booths during the Feast? To remember that our bodies and everything around us are only temporary, and to look forward to eternal life in God’s Kingdom.

Why do we rejoice before God? Not merely for His physical blessings, but above all, for His spiritual blessings! Even if we have little physically, we can rejoice in what we do have, and above all in God’s truth. God’s calling and redemption are the most precious gifts in this life.

What do we share with others? Not merely our physical food and drink, but above all the love, joy, and peace that comes from God’s Spirit. We discuss God’s Word and share its spiritual food with one another.

Why do we fellowship with one another? To discuss God’s Word, to exhort one another, and to encourage one another in our walk with God.

All these things make the Feast of Tabernacles not only a physical feast but, most importantly, a spiritual feast! Whether we have little or much in the physical realm, we can have a rich and fulfilling Feast. This is the true meaning of rejoicing in our Creator’s presence.

Brethren, let us celebrate, and may this Feast of Tabernacles be the best you’ve ever experienced!