The feast of tabernacles shalt thou hold seven days, when thou hast gathered in [the produce] of thy floor and of thy winepress.
The Feast of Booths, also called the Feast of Tabernacles, closed Israel's year and began only when the grain and the grapes were in. Commentators read that timing, the seven days and the booths as a picture of what God still plans to do.
The feast could not begin until both gatherings were finished. Kelly says what the feast pictures, and why that timing matters:
This feast is not the freedom of grace, which the feast of pentecost is; it is rather a picture of the time when the freedom of glory will arrive. The gathering in of the corn and the wine (that is, the grain harvest and the grape harvest, or vintage) are the well known pictures of God's final dealings. The harvest is when He separates the wheat from the chaff, or at least from what is not wheat. The vintage is when He carries out unsparing judgment on the vine of the earth — on all religion that is empty and denies heaven. There is no mercy in the vintage. In the harvest there is the gathering in of the good and the wiping out of the evil. But the vintage knows nothing but vengeance from God. After this will come the full time of joy for the earth.
(The ESV speaks of the threshing floor and the winepress. The older wording the writers quote is "corn and wine" — the grain and the grapes.)
Darby traces the same order, and says plainly where it leaves us:
The Feast of Tabernacles came only when the harvest and the vintage were both gathered in. That is, God has gathered in His own and hidden them in His storehouse. He has trodden His enemies in the winepress. This is a feast whose reality, it is certain, we have not yet seen.
For one week, people who had houses of their own lived in shelters of branches. Willis says what that week brought back to them:
Everyone born an Israelite made booths out of tree branches and lived in them. It was a time of joy and rejoicing. They forgot the work and cares of this life. Their hearts went back to the time when the Lord led them through the wilderness as pilgrims and strangers, with no house or home and only booths to live in. The Lord would never have us forget our wilderness pathway.
Israel kept this feast badly. Darby ties that failure to what the booths were for.
Israel could not keep the feast of tabernacles in the wilderness. To keep it, the people had to hold the land, as is plain. Notice too that from Joshua until Nehemiah they never kept it as the law laid down. Israel had forgotten that they had been strangers in the wilderness. Joy without that memory tends to ruin; the very enjoyment of the blessing leads there.
The command to rejoice runs well past the household. Look at who is named:
"You shall rejoice before the LORD your God, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant." That takes in not only every soul belonging to us, but even those who do not: the desolate and sorrow-stricken, the poor and the stranger — "the Levite who is within your towns, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow who are among you, at the place that the LORD your God will choose, to make His name dwell there." The grace of God goes out to bring in others to share the blessing.
The joy also rests on a promise: "He will bless you in everything, and so you are to rejoice and all with you" (J. N. Darby).
This feast alone has an extra day after the seven. Kelly finds in it a reach beyond the earth.
It is not only that there will be a complete period of glory on the earth then, as we are now going through a complete period of grace. In this one feature, as we can see, the Feast of Tabernacles stands apart from all the others: it has an eighth day. The other feasts never mention such a day. The seven days, as we said, were glory for the earth, but there is the "eighth day" too. This opens heavenly and eternal glory! So it is not "days" now, but this one "day," "the eighth day." It has a beginning, but it will never have an end.
- After — the feast starts only when corn and wine are in; joy follows God's dealings, it does not run ahead of them.
- Harvest — the corn pictures the good gathered in. The wine pictures judgment with no mercy at all.
- Booths — people with houses live in branches for a week. Blessing must never erase the memory of the wilderness.
- Everyone — son, servant, stranger, orphan and widow rejoice together. Grace brings in those who own nothing.
- Eighth — seven days of glory for the earth close with one day that begins and never ends.
And thou shalt rejoice in thy feast, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy bondman, and thy handmaid, and the Levite, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are in thy gates.
This verse belongs to the rules for the feast of tabernacles, the week Israel spent living in booths. It was the last of the three feasts Israel kept each year at the place God chose. The command to rejoice is not the striking part. The guest list is: the joy reaches people who own nothing.
The feast comes only after the year's crops are in. The commentators, quoting an older translation of the verse before, see the two crops named as pictures of two different things.
Note carefully the time of this feast. It was to be "after you have gathered in your corn and your wine" — in other words, after the grain harvest and the grape harvest. There is a very marked distinction between these two things. The one speaks of grace, the other of judgement. At the end of the age, God will gather His wheat into His barn. Then will come the treading of the winepress, in awful judgement.
Commentators set this feast apart from the other two.
Here we have a striking and beautiful picture of Israel's future. The feast of tabernacles has not yet had its fulfilment. The Passover and Pentecost were fulfilled in the precious death of Christ and the coming of the Holy Spirit. But the third great feast points forward. It looks to the time when God restores all things — the time He has spoken of through all His holy prophets since the world began.
The joy is not kept inside the household.
The rejoicing includes not only every soul belonging to us, but even those who do not belong to us: the desolate and the grieving, the poor and the stranger, the Levite within your gates, the stranger, the fatherless and the widow among you. The grace of God goes out to bring in others to share the blessing.
The generosity is not an extra duty tacked on to the celebration. It is what blessing does when it is real.
The fruits of grace and of the Spirit show themselves in joy and in grace. Blessing shows itself in the spirit of blessing, in the joy and the good-will of grace. Blessed and precious results! Joy, and the desire for the joy of others, always flow from grace, known according to the power of the Spirit of God.
The whole scene has one centre:
The worshipper and all those named were to rejoice together in the place where Jehovah had set His name. God surrounded Himself with joy, the fruit of grace and of His blessing.
The wording shifts at this feast, and the small change carries weight.
The feast of Tabernacles goes farther: after "you have gathered in your corn and your wine, you shall rejoice in your feast." Son, daughter, manservant, maidservant, stranger, fatherless and widow keep a solemn feast to Jehovah their God for seven days, "because Jehovah your God shall bless you in all your increase … therefore you shall surely rejoice." It is not now, rejoice "according to" the measure. He will bless you in everything, and so you are to rejoice, and all with you. In the booths they were to say they had been strangers in the wilderness, but now they have all God's promises.
The booths recalled Israel's days in the wilderness. Forget that, and the celebration turns dangerous.
The feast of tabernacles could not be kept in the wilderness. To keep it, the people had to be in possession of the land. Notice too that Israel never kept it as the law directed, from Joshua until the days of Nehemiah (Neh. 8:17). Israel had forgotten that they had been strangers in the wilderness. Joy, without the remembrance of this, tends to ruin; the very enjoyment of the blessing leads to it.
The same memory softens the master toward the servant beside him:
The remembrance of having been themselves bondmen was to touch the heart and influence the conduct of Israel; and by understanding the grace which had delivered them when they were in that condition, they were to be led to act in grace towards those who were bondmen to them. At the same time they are told to keep the statutes of Jehovah. The presence of the Holy Spirit, while giving joy, leads to watchfulness and obedience.
- Harvest first. God commands the joy only after the corn and the wine are in — one crop speaking of grace, the other of judgement.
- Grace given. This joy is not worked up. It is the fruit of blessing received, and it shows itself in the spirit of blessing toward others.
- Grace shared. God names the servant, the Levite, the foreigner, the orphan and the widow. His grace goes out to bring others in to share the blessing.
- Grace remembered. Israel was to recall its own slavery. Joy that forgets it tends to ruin. Remembering it makes masters gentle with servants.
- Grace assured. The word is not "according to" but "because." God will bless in everything, so the rejoicing is certain — and every guest is swept into it.
Seven days shalt thou hold a feast to Jehovah thy God in the place which Jehovah will choose; for Jehovah thy God will bless thee in all thy produce, and in all the work of thy hands, and thou shalt be wholly joyful.
These are the closing words on Israel's seven-day harvest feast. They tie its joy to two things: the place God chooses, and His promised blessing on the crops and on the work of their hands. But how can God command joy?
The feast comes only after the grain and the grapes are in. Commentators see in those two harvests a picture of two acts of God.
Undoubtedly the gathering in of the grain and the wine (that is, the harvest and the vintage) are well known pictures of God's final dealings. The harvest is when He separates the wheat from the chaff, or at any rate from what is not wheat. The vintage is when He carries out unsparing judgment on the vine of the earth — on all religion that is empty and denies heaven. There is no mercy shown in the vintage. The harvest gathers in the good and wipes out the evil. The vintage knows nothing but vengeance from God. After this will come the full time of joy for the earth.
The word "because" gives the reason for the joy. God's blessing is its ground, not the size of anyone's harvest — and that sets this feast apart from the earlier one at Pentecost.
This feast was to be kept for seven days in a row. It is joy, full and complete joy. It is not measured by the size of the blessing, as at Pentecost. It is joy because God had blessed them in all the works of their hands, and so they certainly ought to rejoice. The spirit of that day belongs to us, although the fulfilment of it has not yet taken place.
The promise covers both the crops and the work. Writers say believers do not see this now, so the verse points to a coming day.
That will mark the day of glory. It is not only personal blessing, which is truly the portion now of all who are Christ's. It is what will be then: God will "bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands." That is not the case now. There are many believers now for whom everything goes wrong, people are tried in every way... The time is coming to bless everything, not only persons separated from all the rest of the world.
The verse names no city. God alone picks the spot — and commentators apply that principle to how believers gather now.
God is careful to say that Israel could sacrifice only at the place the LORD their God would choose, to put His name there. This is a very great principle, dear friends, as true now as in Israel's day. The Name of the Lord Jesus is the only gathering centre today. The believer who does not gather simply in that Name will lack the deep enjoyment of Christ that our God wants our souls to taste.
Israel could not keep this feast at home, enjoying their own plenty. They had to travel — and to arrive with something to give.
They were not to stay under their own vine and fig tree, congratulating themselves on the rich and varied mercies around them... No; three times a year they had to get up and go to the meeting place God had appointed. There they raised their praises to the Lord their God. There too they gave generously, out of what He had given them, to every kind of human need. God would give His people the rich privilege of gladdening the heart of the Levite, the stranger, the widow and the fatherless. This is the work in which He Himself delights.
Living in booths recalled the wilderness years, yet the memory carried no sting. Writers place the feast's full meaning in a day when judgment is past.
To Israel it spoke of the joy of a peaceful rest under the booths, in memory of their living in tents in the wilderness. For the people, this memory carried no sense of repentance or bitterness. The verse says: "The LORD your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you will be altogether joyful." The times of judgment and humiliation will then have passed.
- Cause — The feast follows the harvest and the vintage. They picture God gathering in the good and judging the evil. Full joy comes only after that.
- Ground — The joy rests on God's blessing, not on the size of the harvest. That is why He can command it.
- Scope — The blessing covers crops and work alike. Commentators say that is not the believer's portion now; it marks the day of glory.
- Place — The joy has one centre, chosen by God. Today that centre is the Name of the Lord Jesus.
- Reach — The joy widens to the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless and the widow. Gladdening them is a work God delights in.