1 Kings 8:2

It is no longer only "the chosen men of Israel" (2 Samuel 6:1), as in David's day; all the people share in this complete and final celebration. Final indeed, for the dedication of the temple takes place during the great days of the Feast of Tabernacles, which closes the series of Jewish feasts (Leviticus 23). It is indeed "the feast" above all feasts, "the feast in the month Ethanim, which is the seventh month." This feast properly ran seven days, followed by an eighth, "the great day of the feast" (John 7:37). It came after the harvest and the vintage, which are pictures of judgment. It was the symbol pointing to the wonderful reign of Christ, when the people will live in joy and safety in their tents, remembering the testings in the wilderness, past forever.

The Feast of Tabernacles fell on the fifteenth day of the seventh month and lasted seven days, with a holy assembly on the eighth day. Israel lived in booths during the feast, to remember that they had lived in tents when God brought them out of Egypt… It came at the end of their harvest and vintage, when they enjoyed the fruits of God's goodness. The feast pictures the millennium, when the people will enter into full blessing, and the eighth day, the great day, pictures the communion of the heavenly and the earthly.

The king invited all the elders of Israel, all the heads of the tribes and the family chiefs of the people of Israel, and they gathered at Jerusalem. They came to keep the feast of the Dedication before the feast of Tabernacles. They kept the first for seven days, and then came the eight days of the second.

Note this about the feast Solomon kept at the dedication of the temple: they kept the Feast of Tabernacles, yet the great Day of Atonement fell inside it… So the great Day of Atonement came on the second day of that feast. Did they keep it, or is it passed over in silence on purpose? The reality it pictured had been fulfilled long before; now only the fruits are gathered.

The eighth day, the great day, the new day, the day of resurrection and of the new creation, is added to the feast because those who are raised will have a special part in this joy. It is the heavenly day added to the earthly days. When David brought the ark up to the city of David, that was more a "feast of trumpets" (2 Samuel 6:15), preparing for Solomon's solemn day. Here that very day has arisen in all its glory.

In the joy, or perhaps the excitement, of those stirring days, Solomon and the people did not keep the Feast of Tabernacles quite as Scripture said. Leviticus 23 states plainly that on the first day of the yearly feast they were to make booths of palm branches… They seem to have overlooked this. Nehemiah 8:17 says that the remnant who came back from Babylon "made booths and lived in the booths: for from the days of Joshua the son of Nun to that day the people of Israel had not done so." So Nehemiah paid closer attention to the written Word than the great king Solomon with all his wisdom.