The Feast of Tabernacles

The Feast of Tabernacles is the final feast of the seven annual feasts. It is celebrated from the 15th to the 22nd of the seventh month by the sacred year (Leviticus 23:34-36). After Moses had come down from Mount Sinai the second time with the Ten Commandments, the Israelites received instructions about the building of the tabernacle. Then, those who were willing brought various kinds of materials for 7 days, beginning on the 15th of the 7th month. (Exodus 34:27-35; 35:4-29; 36:5-7).

To commemorate this work of building the tabernacle, God appointed the Feast of Tabernacles and commanded the Israelites to celebrate it for generations to come. The Israelites kept this feast by making tents using materials such as palm fronds, myrtle trees, and willows. They lived in these booths for seven days with great joy (Nehemiah 8:9-18; Leviticus 23:39-43; Deuteronomy 16:11-15; Zechariah 14:15-18).

In the Bible, “materials for the temple” represent the holy saints (Revelation 3:12), and “wood” represents people (Jeremiah 5:14). Both the gathering of materials to construct the tabernacle and the collecting of wood to make booths represent the gathering of the 144,000 saints (represented as the “wood” and “the materials for the temple”). We should take part in the work of gathering the saints, just as the Israelites gathered the material for the tabernacle. To do this, we have to preach.In order to preach, we need the Holy Spirit from God. How can we receive it?

Zechariah 14:16-19 Then the survivors from all the nations that have attacked Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the King, the Lord Almighty, and to celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles. If any of the peoples of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord Almighty, they will have no rain. If the Egyptian people do not go up and take part, they will have no rain. The Lord will bring on them the plague he inflicts on the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles. This will be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles.

Those who do not celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles will have no rain—they will not be given the Holy Spirit.

Plagues will be brought upon them. On the other hand, God promised to give the Holy Spirit to those who keep the Feast of Tabernacles. Jesus mentioned clearly about this when He kept the feast (John 7:2).

John 7:37-39 On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.