FEAST OF TABERNACLES (ALTERNATE VERSION)

THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES (ALTERNATE VERSION)

                It is important for us to understand that every one of the Feasts is absolutely centered in Christ. The feasts reveal to us in detail the purpose of God for our salvation and how He has and will accomplish this through His Son Jesus, the Lamb of God.

                Jesus fulfilled the Spring Feasts perfectly at His first coming. As our Passover Lamb He died on the cross on Passover at the very time that the Lamb was being sacrificed in the Temple. As our sinless sacrifice, he lay in the tomb as the unleavened bread. He died for our sins and not His own. Then on Sunday morning He rose from the dead to become the first fruits of a great harvest to follow. Then exactly 50 days later, He sent down His Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost and the church was conceived by the Holy Spirit even as Mary conceived by the Holy Spirit, with the purpose of bringing many sons to glory.(Hebrews 2:10)

                This has been the purpose of God throughout all time. Ever since Adam and Eve fell, God has been working to restore us as sons and daughters of God.

John 1:12: “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become the children of God, even to those who believe in His name…”

Romans 8:14: “For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.”

Galatians 4:4, 5: “But when the fullness of time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under Law, in order that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons And because we are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying “Abba Father.”

Hebrews 2:10,11: “For it was fitting for Him for whom are all things and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through suffering. For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father; for which reason He is not ashamed to call them “Brethren.”

                This love of God for His people and this adoption into His family goes beyond all comprehension, but this is what Jesus accomplished for us at His first coming and now, 2000 years later, we are about to experience the Fall Feasts that will bring this present age to a close.

                We saw the Feast of Trumpets or Rosh Hashanah, which announces many things including the opening of the books followed by ten days of awe in which the people would repent and put away their sins and purify their hearts. Then on The Day of Atonement the books would be closed and the judgments would be meted out. These judgments are poured out on the Beast and his kingdom and upon all who have not received the Lamb of God as their Savior and Lord. We who have received Him have overcome by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony.

                But now we come to the Feast of Tabernacles. This feast represents the coming of Christ when He will once again tabernacle among men and He will rule the nations with a rod of Iron for one thousand years. This final 1000 years is known to the Jews as the Sabbath millennium. It is the seventh millennium after the order of creation and we enter into our rest as kings and priests who will reign on earth. ON this account it says in Revelation 5:9, 10 saying: “And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy art Thou to take the book and to break its seals; for Thou wast slain and didst purchase for God with Thy blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. And Thou hast made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth.”

                So, we are going to reign with Christ upon the earth during the coming millennium and that is what the Feast of Tabernacles is all about. So let’s take a look at it:

WHAT WAS IT LIKE IN BIBLE TIMES?

                The feast of tabernacles was an awesome event in Bible times. Josephus tells us that there were more than 2 million people that would converge upon Jerusalem for this required feast. And this may explain why Mary and Joseph could not find a room in the inn. Jesus was born during the Feast of Tabernacles, for He had come to tabernacle among men. All of Jerusalem as well as all surrounding areas were overrun by huge crowds and there were simply no motel rooms left.

                But now let us jump ahead to the Great Feast of Tabernacles that occurred near the end of Christ’s ministry.

                With over two million people in town you can imagine the excitement. It was like the world’s biggest camp meeting. Most of this festival took place in the woman’s court of the temple. There were 24 courses of priests who served throughout the year, but on the required feasts the priests all did double duty. There was much to be done.

                The first group was responsible to slay all the sacrifices. The second group, headed by the high priest would go out the Water Gate to the pool of Siloam. The high priest would draw water, known as living water, using a golden vase. Then the multitude would ascend again to the Temple to bring the vessel up to the altar. The priest would pour out the living water on the altar as another priest poured out wine from a silver pitcher.

                During this pouring of the libation the people would sing Psalms 112:14, 15 singing: “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.”

                But to realize the real significance of this particular day when Jesus came to the feast we need to understand a little Hebrew. The Hebrew word for Salvation is “Yeshua.” as in “Thou shalt call His name Yeshua for He will save His people from their sins. So on the very day as Jesus was mingling among the people they were singing: “The Lord is my strength and song and is become my Yeshua. The voice of rejoicing and Yeshua is in the tabernacle of the righteous; the right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly.” And of course we also know that the right hand of the Father is also Yeshua.

                Now let’s see if this next text has more meaning to us: “Now the Jews’ feast of tabernacles was at hand… Now about the midst of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and tahght…In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried saying, “If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink. He that believes on Me, as the scripture hath said, out of His belly shall flow rivers of living water.” John 7:14, 37-38.

                The third group of priests went out the Beautiful Gate over to the Motzah Valley and cut willow branches twenty-five to 30 feet long.  AS if in a parade they would form rows and rows of priests waving the branches thirty feet apart. YOU can almost hear the rushing wind as it passed through the hundreds of willow branches being waved as the priests ascended to the Temple. The Hebrew word for wind is “ruach”, which can also be translated as “spirit.” This is where we get the Hebrew name” Ruach ha Kodesh” The Holy Spirit.

                So here we have the high priest with living water and his assistant with the wine symbolically representing the blood marching up to the water gate on the southern side at eh same time the other priests were ascending with willows. This was to be symbolic of the Spirit of God coming upon Jerusalem. Once they arrived at their gates, a priest known as the “pierced one” played a flute calling for the wind and water to enter the Temple.

                Now let us add to this tremendous scene the fact that in the woman’s court there were 4 enormous candle sticks 75 feet high that served as flaming lights to light up every courtyard in all of Jerusalem. The wicks for these giant lights were made up of worn out priest’s garments spattered with the blood of past sacrifices. The garments were torn into strips and wound together at the top and then young priests in training would climb to the top carrying immense jugs of oil to fill the bowls at the top.

                Meanwhile priests, standing on the fifteen steps that ascend from the woman’s court to the court of Israel would play music as the people sang       and the men would dance before them juggling flaming torches. They played lyres, harps, trumpets and many other instruments. Two priests would blow silver trumpets at the top of the stairs on either side of the entrance to the great gate of the Court

                It was at this feast that Jesus ”Spoke again unto them saying. “I am the light of the world; he that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” John8:12

                This was great pageantry and all of it was done to physically represent Jesus who had come to tabernacle among them. IF only they had known… and even as He walked in their midst they were unknowingly singing about Him who was their Messiah.

                “”The Lord is my strength and song and is become my Yeshua. The voice of rejoicing and Yeshua is in the tabernacles of the righteous; the right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly… I will praise them Yeshua… This is the day which the lord hath made; we will rejoice in it. Save now I beseech thee Oh Lord. (Psalms 118:14-15, 21, 24-25)

                Indeed this was a day that the Lord had made. It was one of His Moedim, His appointed Feasts  and Yeshua was there to fulfill it in every detail. But that was not its final fulfillment for it is a fall feast and the fall feasts will yet be fulfilled by the second coming of Christ.

HOW DID THIS FEAST BEGIN?

                The first feast occurred at the foot of Mt. Sinai. It was Yom Kippur and God had judged Israel for their sin of worshipping the golden calf. On that day, Moses descended from the mountain and announced that Israel had been forgiven and they were to take an offering from among the people, whoever would willingly give of what they had to build a tabernacle where God Himself could dwell among them. Ex. 35:4-7.

                So the millennial reign of Christ is a time when the Lord will teach us His ways. WE need to understand this process for even now, god is going to shake the heavens and the earth so that He will shake out of His kingdom and His people everything that is not of God. Anything in your life that is not born of the Spirit will be shaken out. All of our manmade programs, our good intentions and our works of the flesh will be shaken out and burned up. All wood, hay and stubble will be removed from our lives to that what remains will be of the Lord. See Hebrews 12:25-29.

                This work of shaking, of separation from Egypt, of separating us from the chaff in our lives, God is doing now in His people. HE is doing this in us because we are being prepared to reign with Him over the nations during His millennial reign. We, His Bride need to be cooperating with our Lord in this process now. We are in training. Don’t complain when bad things happen… learn to overcome by the blood of the lamb and by the world of your testimony. Learn to fight the devil with the Word of God just as Jesus did. Learn how to properly use the weapons of our warfare. Learn how to make use of the full armor of God. We are not here just to sit in a pew and vegetate. We are here to learn to be more than conquerors through Jesus Christ our Lord.

                Our destiny is not to sit on clouds and play harps. We are to rule and reign with Christ establishing His government on the earth so that His will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

                Because we don’t understand God’s overriding purposes for us as outlined by the feasts we lose hope and direction. We don’t understand why we must undergo fiery trials and persecution. We think that Jesus did it all for us so that now all we have to do is to sit and wait for the rapture, but that is not at all what the bible teaches. We are training to reign. We have a destiny that is higher than we can imagine. God has eternal plans for us that go far beyond mortal comprehension.

                Our mission in ages to come will make Star Trek look puny and insignificant. That’s why we need a thousand years of reigning with Christ before He sets us loose (so to speak) We are ambassadors of a Most holy God and we need to be trained to rightly represent Him and to rightly administer His eternal government as faithful stewards.

                Receiving our glorified and immortal bodies will be just the beginning. Learning to carry out God’s will is going to take some time. It took 7 days to create the world, but it has taken 6000 years and God’s own life to redeem us

                This is why salvation is not just a one- time trip to the altar followed by us living for ourselves and doing our own thing and presuming upon God’s grace. No… He has equipped the church with apostles and prophets and evangelists and pastors and teachers to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of knowledge of the son of god, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. AS a result we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men, by craftiness and deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him, who is the head, even Christ…” Ephesians 4:11-15

                Jesus said: “If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.” Being born again doesn’t give you a better life… it gives you a new life… for the former things have pass away. Through the Law I die to the Law so that I can live unto Christ. The Law could inform you, but it couldn’t transform you. You need the Holy Spirit dwelling inside of you. You need a complete death to what was and a completely new life that is powered by the Holy Spirit and directed by the Holy Spirit. You need to literally die in Satan’s Kingdom and to be born again into the kingdom of God’s dear Son. We are now sons and daughters of God. We belong to a royal family in which God is our Father and Yeshua is our elder brother.

                The message for this age that we are entering is “Maturity.” We need to grow up into all that we are being called. Each of us has a destiny… a reason why we were born at this time in earth’s history. The saints of Hebrews 11 have handed us the baton and their race cannot be won until we finish the last lap and cross the finish line.

                Of the Feast days I have only scratched the surface and I can recommend books for you for your further study if you desire to know more… but in reality, the feasts are not the point. Yeshua is the point and He will lead us to victory if we will deny self and take up our cross and follow Him. It may sound bad, but it is the glorious and royal way. It is the way of Christ who lived every moment of His life by divine appointment. We too can learn to live by divine appointment so that God can order our lives just as succinctly as He has cause all of history to conform precisely to His feast days… even including signs in the sun, moon and stars. He is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the throne. Jude 24