The Feast of Tabernacles and More - Part 2
And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the feast of tabernacles for seven days unto the LORD.
On the first day shall be an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein. Seven days ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD: on the eighth day shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD: it is a solemn assembly; and ye shall do no servile work therein. (Leviticus 23:33-36)
BEYOND OUR AMERICAN AUTUMN CELEBRATIONS of Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas, we have some ancient roots with which we need to be familiar. They are: “The Seven Feasts of the Lord.” The first four feasts were in the spring. The last three feasts were in the fall of the year. Because we are in the fall of the year and Halloween is upon us, I thought we needed something else to consider; something from the Word of God. The best place to look first, I think, is at the Feast of Tabernacles.
IN THE FEASTS OF THE LORD, Kevin Howard and Marvin Rosenthal write:
“Worldwide, thousands of holidays are observed annually. In marked contrast, the eternal God instituted only seven holidays. These holidays are discussed throughout the Bible, in both the Old and New Testaments. However, only in one place, the twenty-third chapter of Leviticus, are all seven holidays listed in chronological sequence.” “These seven feasts of the Lord were given to the Hebrew nation. The Jewish people are God’s covenant people.”
“THESE SEVEN FEASTS RELATE TO ISRAEL'S SPRING AND FALL agricultural seasons. When the feasts were instituted, Israel was largely an agricultural nation. That agricultural characteristic of the feasts remains to this day.” “The timing of these seven feasts is based on the Jewish lunar (moon) calendar of approximately 354-day years. Periodically (seven times over nineteen years), the modern Jewish calendar literally has a thirteenth month to make up for its shorter years.”
“THE SEVEN FEASTS TYPIFY THE SEQUENCE, TIMING AND SIGNIFICANCE of the major events of the Lord’s redemptive career. They commence at Calvary where Jesus voluntarily gave Himself for the sins of the world (Passover), and climax at the establishment of the messianic Kingdom at the Messiah’s second coming (Tabernacles). No box has to be manufactured, no text twisted, and no truth manipulated to make these appointed feasts conform to specific events in the Messiah’s life. These seven feasts depict the entire redemptive career of the Messiah.”
KEVIN HOWARD AND MARVIN ROSENTHAL are Jewish Christians and their lives are submerged in service to Christ. Their book, The Feasts of the Lord, is the best I know in explaining the seven Feasts of the Lord. As they say, these feasts are God’s Prophetic Calendar from Calvary to the Kingdom, when Christ shall sit upon the throne of David in Jerusalem and rule the world for one thousand years from that throne.
I STRONGLY RECOMMEND THAT YOU GET A COPY and read it through many times. It is a powerful proclamation of the backbone of the Bible. You will be blessed by it. Get it into the hands of your teenagers (and younger), your adult children. Talk about it. Discuss it. Absorb these truths until you are thoroughly familiar with them. You can still get new and used copies.
THE PROPHETIC THEMES OF THE FIRST FOUR FEASTS, Passover, The Feast of Unleavened Bread, The Feast of Firstfruits, and The Feast of Weeks, have all been fulfilled. These four feasts took place in the spring of the year. There is yet to be fulfilled: The Feast of Trumpets, The Day of Atonement, and The Feast of Tabernacles. The last three feasts took place in the fall of the year.
THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES, THE LAST FEAST, WAS IN THE FALL OF THE YEAR. As I have already said, I have chosen to look at The Feast of Tabernacles because we are in the fall of the year.
BEFORE WE LOOK AT THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES, we need to take a brief glimpse at the Bible’s oft-reference to the number: seven. (The Bible makes much use of numbers.) “Seven is the biblical number for perfection and completion. After creating the world, God rested on the seventh day. He did not rest as a consequence of growing tired --- omnipotence does not grow tired, and God is omnipotent (all-powerful). Rather, God rested in the sense of completion and satisfaction. What God created was good and satisfying --- nothing else was needed. Therefore, He rested on the seventh day.”
“ON THE SEVENTH DAY OF THE WEEK, the children of Israel were to observe a Sabbath rest, patterned after God’s creation rest. They were to rest from all their labors (Exodus 16:23,30).” And he said unto them, This is that which the LORD hath said, Tomorrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the LORD: bake that which ye will bake to day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning. (Exodus 16:23) So the people rested on the seventh day. (Exodus 16:30)
THE JEWISH SABBATH IS A SIGN BETWEEN GOD AND ISRAEL.
It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed. (Exodus 31:17) Please note the words: “…in six days the LORD made heaven and earth” If you want to believe that the earth is millions of years old, the burden of proof is on you to show that you know more about it than God proclaimed through Moses.
THIS IS AN INTRODUCTION TO A SERIES OF SEVENS. There’s not enough room to do it all in the space remaining. We will come back to this, next time and then move on to our study of the Feast of Tabernacles, the last of The Seven Feasts. Ω
Read Through the Bible in a Year
OCTOBER 24, 2018 – WEDNESDAY
A.M. Jeremiah 11-13 P.M. 1 Timothy 4
(Bible Gateway will read this to you if you like. Look for the speaker icon.)
A Good Verse to Memorize:
He that is of God heareth God's words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God. (John 8:47)
Song for Today:
Are You Washed in the Blood? (2:52) (Calv. Mem.Church Choir)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHpv4jsIlcM
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