Tag: The Feasts of the Lord

Posted on

Tabernacles: Christ’s Coming KIngdom

The seventh of the Feasts of the Lord was observed in the fall of the year, right after the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 23:33-44). It was a joyful celebration which lasted seven days. It was, like the spring festivals, a pilgrim feast which brought Jewish families back to Jerusalem. There they gave thanks for the forgiveness of sins, for abundant blessings of good harvests and for God’s faithfulness to his covenant promises. It is said to be the most popular of the annual festivals.

The feast was called “tabernacles” because for that week the people erected and camped in temporary shelters, or booths. These shelters were made of leafy limbs and branches woven together. These temporary dwellings were to remind the Hebrews of their history as a pilgrim people. They remembered how the Lord had guided their ancestors through the forty year pilgrimage in the wilderness of Sinai. The Hebrews had lived on the move in temporary quarters all that time until they occupied the promised land.

“Live in booths for seven days: All native-born Israelites are to live in booths so that your descendants will know that I had them live in booths when I brought them out of Egypt. I am the Lord your God” (Leviticus 23:42-43). Some observant Jews in Israel still make a practice of constructing booths for seven days in the middle of the seventh month of the Jewish calendar.

Jesus observed this festival by making the pilgrimage to Jerusalem (John 7:2, 14). He would have participated in the sacred assembly at the temple. He would have seen the grand procession of the priests who, accompanied by music and dancing and the sounding of the shofar, brought water from the Pool of Siloam to pour out as a libation to the Lord. He would have seen the lighting of four golden lamps in the court of the temple amid great rejoicing. He would have joined the crowds in singing “Hosanna” (Psalm 118:25).

The ceremonial pouring out of water was a symbol of how the Lord provided water for the Hebrew pilgrims in the wilderness (Exodus 17:6). The lighting of the lamps evoked memories of the pillar of cloud and fire by which God led his people in their journey (Exodus 13:21-22). Jesus knew this when he stood in the courts of the temple, raised his voice so the crowds could hear him, and cried, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, streams of living water shall flow from within him” (John 7:37-38). He drew the crowd’s attention away from the literal water to himself, the spiritual water of life.

Then, with the inherent authority he had as the Son of God, he interrupted the lighting of the lamps in the temple to declare, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12). This young itinerant rabbi from Galilee was inviting the congregation of Israel to come to him! He was saying that the Feast of Tabernacles pointed to him! He is the Messiah. He is the Savior.

When he comes again, the whole earth will rejoice under his kingly rule. At the climax of the Book of Zechariah we read about Israel’s national restoration (Zechariah 13:9). The Jews will cry out to God in repentance (Zechariah 12:10-11, 13:1). Messiah Jesus will reign as king in Jerusalem (Zechariah 14:9, 8:3). The Lord will live among his people (Zechariah 2:10). Representatives of all nations will go up to Jerusalem to worship the Lord in the Feast of Tabernacles (Zechariah 14:16).

The  pilgrim feasts of the Lord are important witnesses to us. The Feast of Passover signifies Jesus’ past sacrificial death. Pentecost reminds us of the coming of the Holy Spirit who remains with us now. Tabernacles is a testimony to the future second coming and glorious kingdom of our Lord Jesus. Just as the Hebrew people rejoiced when they celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles in the past, so God’s people will rejoice when Jesus comes and his people reign with him in his kingdom in the future.

Pastor Randy Faulkner

Posted on

Resurrection: A Harvest Celebration

Thomas Jefferson, our nation’s third president, was a brilliant man. He was an inventor, a legal scholar, a diplomat, the primary author of The Declaration of Independence, and the founder of a university.

He also edited and published what is known as “The Jefferson Bible.” This was his attempt to draw attention to the ethics and morals of Jesus, while dismissing the elements of Jesus’s life that he didn’t accept as true. He literally took a pen knife and cut out the parts of the gospels that he rejected, including, and especially, references to the resurrection.

Despite the rationalism of Jefferson and other skeptics, the Bible is clear: Jesus rose from the dead, and his resurrection is the “firstfruits” of a great harvest to come in the future resurrection of believers (1 Corinthians 15:20).

This is symbolized in the Old Testament Feast of Firstfruits (Leviticus 23:9-14). It was the annual harvest celebration for the people of Israel. It accompanied the festivals of Passover and Unleavened Bread. It was observed on the day after the sabbath day that followed the Passover. This would have been on the first day of the week, the day Christians recognize as resurrection day!

The worshipping family would bring a sample of the spring barley harvest to be given as a sacrifice to the Lord. It was an act of thanksgiving, in recognition of the Lord’s gracious provision. In contrast to the ancient Egyptians and Canaanites, the Hebrew people were not trying to manipulate their God into giving them abundant harvests with fertility rituals. They were acknowledging that he was the source of all good things. They were thanking him after the fact.

The New Testament makes use of this ancient practice to show how it represents the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He became the firstfruits. Speaking of his own death and resurrection, he said, “Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds” (John 12:24). The apostle Paul wrote, “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:20).

The Feast of Firstfruits also pictures the resurrection of believers. “But each in his own turn: Christ the firstfruits,; then when he comes, those who belong to him” (1 Corinthians 15:23). Death will not have the last word for those whose faith is in Jesus. A great harvest is coming when Jesus comes again.

“The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body” (1 Corinthians 15:42-44).

The Holy Spirit is the firstfruits of eternal life in the life of the believer. “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies” (Romans 8:22-23). The Holy Spirit is heaven’s investment in us now. The Spirit is God’s downpayment on our future inheritance, the firstfruits of what we may expect to come.

Believers in Jesus, then, are doubly secure. We have the Holy Spirit now, and the promise of resurrection when Christ returns. Believers are said to be “a kind of firstfruits of all he created” (James 1:18). 

Thomas Jefferson was an intelligent man, but he was not a wise man. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding” (Proverbs 9:10).  He denied what God’s word says about Jesus and the resurrection. If only he had understood the significance of the Feast of Firstfruits!

Pastor Randy Faulkner