What is the Feast of Tabernacles?

This fell on the fifteenth day of the seventh month and continued seven days, with a holy convocation on the eighth day. Israel dwelt in booths during the feast, in remembrance of their having lived in tents when brought out of Egypt. Lev. 23:34; Num. 29:12; Deut. 16:13; 2 Chr. 8:13; Ezra 3:4; John 7:2. It was at the end of their harvest and vintage, when they enjoyed the fruits of God's goodness. The feast prefigures the millennium, when the people will enter into full blessing, and the eighth day, the great day, the communion of the heavenly and the earthly. Zech. 14:16. See FEASTS and SEASONS.

We come now to the last of the "Feasts of Jehovah", "The Feast of Tabernacles." This feast was kept for seven days when the work in the fields was completed. All who were Israelites born then made themselves booths out of the boughs of trees, and dwelt in the booths. It was a time of joy and rejoicing. The labour and cares of this life were forgotten, and their hearts went back to the time when the Lord led them through the wilderness as pilgrims and strangers, without house or home, but only with booths to dwell in. The Lord would never have us forget our wilderness pathway. He says, "Thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart." (Deut. 8:2).

But there will be a remnant out of all the nations who have come up against Jerusalem, just as there will be remnants of Judah, Jerusalem, and Israel. From year to year, they who have been spared will go up to Jerusalem and the temple to bow themselves before the Lord and to celebrate the feast of booths, the feast that follows upon the grain and wine harvest. To Israel it spoke of the joy of a peaceful rest under the booths, in memory of their living in tents in the wilderness (Lev. 23:43). This memory was not combined with any sense of repentance or bitterness for the people, for it said: “Jehovah thy God will bless thee in all thy produce, and in all the work of thy hands, and thou shall be wholly joyful” (Deut. 16:15). The times of judgment and humiliation will then have passed. For the faithful ones, the Day of Atonement, on which Israel humbled itself (Lev. 16:20, 31), will take place during the great mourning of Jerusalem (Zech. 12:11).

Then they will look upon Him whom they have pierced, and who had once made atonement especially for their sins. After this, that day can never be repeated for God’s people, neither can that of Pentecost, for Israel will have received the Holy Spirit once for all. Only the feast of booths will continue to exist together with the Passover, the memorial of the atonement and the finished redemption (Ezek. 45:21, 25).

As mentioned before, the nations will share in the feast of booths. But, although a large crowd from among them will be saved (Rev. 7:9-12), they will not be saved as entire nations. They will have to subject themselves to the iron sceptre of the Messiah or be dashed in pieces as a potter’s vessel (Ps. 2:9). Here we see that they who will not go up to Jerusalem to the feast of booths to bow themselves before the King will be smitten with a plague. The blessing that should have made their land fertile will be kept from them.

During the Feast of Tabernacles, which took place at the end of the Harvest, a time of plenty and rejoicing, a faint picture of the fulfillment of the type in the days to come, the Israelites by birth were to dwell in booths to remind them how God had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They might forget this in the comfort of the land and in the joy of the bountiful reign of their Messiah with all its accompaniments of peace and plenty never before known in the world. It does not do for us to forget the pit out of which we have been dug, that we are after all, with all the wondrous blessings that are ours, sinners saved by grace.

The Feast of Tabernacles--The final feast began on the fifteenth day of the seventh month. It is the feast, which comes after the sin of Israel has been removed. It was the feast of ingathering of the products of the year and a memorial of Israel's dwelling in booths in the wilderness. The feast of tabernacles foreshadows the coming glory of the millennium, Israel's glorious inheritance and the Gentiles gathered with redeemed Israel in the kingdom. It will be the time of the complete harvest, the time of rejoicing, when sorrow and sighing will flee away. It comes after the harvest (the end of the age) and the vintage (the winepress of the wrath of God). How beautiful is the order in these three last holy convocations! The blowing of the trumpets; the remnant of Israel called and gathered; the day of atonement; Israel in national repentance looking upon Him, whom they pierced, when He comes the second time; the feast of tabernacles; the millennium. "And it shall come to pass that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem, shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles" (Zech. 14:16). It is the great memorial feast of millennial times. Perhaps it will be during that feast that the King of Israel, the King of kings, the Lord of lords, will appear in visible glory in Jerusalem to receive the homage of the representatives of the nations of the earth. What a day that will be! The eighth day which we meet here again points us to that which is beyond the millennium. The story of the twenty-third chapter is marvellous! Only God in His infinite wisdom could give us such an unfolding and foreshadowing of His eternal counsels and purposes. We rehearse it briefly. The Sabbath is the type of the end, which will come after the accomplishment of all His purposes; the eternal rest. Passover, the type of the death of Christ; the waving of the firstfruits, the type of the resurrection of Christ; Pentecost, the type of the coming of the Holy Spirit for the formation of the Church. Then Israel's restoration and fullest blessing comes in. How blind men must be who can call all these beautiful things fable and legends! In these poor critics there is once more fulfilled the Word of God, professing themselves to be wise, they become fools" (Rom 1:22).

The Feast of Tabernacles is singled out because it is the last of “the feasts of Jehovah” listed in Leviticus 23 and signifies the full accomplishment of God's counsels concerning Israel. It looks forward to the day of millennial blessing which Israel will then have entered upon (Lev. 23:33-43). That feast of seven days was a time of great rejoicing after the harvest had been gathered in. Israelites were to make booths of branches of trees and live in them during that week. This teaches us that Israel will have wonderful safety as well as pleasant weather during the Millennium. There will be no thieves to break in nor cold and storms to assail them, nor danger from animals, nor apparently any infestation of insects.

Likewise are the feasts remembrances of grace and glory. The PASSOVER is the memorial of Israel's deliverance from Egypt (Ex. 12); it is also a memorial remembrance of Christ, our passover sacrifice for us, as the Lord's Supper is in this dispensation. The FEAST OF TABERNACLES, or booths, was a memorial of Israel's wilderness wanderings (Lev. 23:39-43); it is also named the "feast of ingathering" at the year's end (Ex. 34:22), and was a foreshadowing type of millennial rest and restoration which Israel will be then enjoying.

The feast was called that of Tabernacles, or booths, succoth, because throughout the seven days they were to dwell in booths, succoth (42), made of palms, boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook, nachal, in remembrance of their wilderness life (43), at the commencement of which they came to palm trees (Ex. 15:27), and found the close of it was at the brook Zered (Deut. 2:14). Dwelling in booths seven days, they thus kept the feast, after they had gathered in their corn, and wine, and oil, resting and rejoicing when the toil of the year was ended; a foreshadowing of the rest that remaineth, and of the rejoicing that will take place when all their earthly troubles shall be ended, and Messiah be reigning over them. Then not Israel only, but those left of all nations who will have gone up against Jerusalem, will go up thither year by year, to worship the King, the Lord of Hosts, and to keep the feast of Tabernacles. For whilst Passover concerns the redeemed of the Lord, and Pentecost in an especial manner those who are called out for heaven, Tabernacles will concern all on earth who will have had to do with Jerusalem in the past. (Zech. 14:16).*

John 7:1-2. The teaching of the chapter is introduced with the statement that the Jew's Feast of Tabernacles was at hand. There were three great feasts in Israel — the Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles. The Passover, typical of the Cross, has been fulfilled. The Feast of Pentecost, typical of the descent of the Holy Spirit, has also had its fulfilment. The Feast of Tabernacles was the last feast in the Jewish year, when, for seven days, the children of Israel were to dwell in tents in remembrance of the fact that they had once been pilgrims in a wilderness, but also witness to the fact that the promises were fulfilled, and that the nation was established in peace and safety in the land (Leviticus 23:33-43). The feast was celebrated after the harvest and vintage, which are both used in Scripture as figures of judgment (Revelation 14:14-20). Thus the earthly blessing, which the Feast of Tabernacles signifies, will only be reached through the judgment of Israel and the nations. It is evident then that the typical meaning of this feast yet awaits its fulfilment.

There were three great feasts of the Jews: every male who was a grown up man had to go to Jerusalem to celebrate them; these were, the Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles. The antitype of the Passover is found in the cross; that of Pentecost, in the descent of the Holy Ghost; but the antitype of the Feast of Tabernacles is still wanting: no event answers to it. Nevertheless, the ordinances established for this feast throw light upon that which should be its antitype. The Feast of Tabernacles derives its name from the fact, that the Israelites, once entered into the land of Canaan, ought, according to the law, to live during eight days in huts, made of branches of trees, bearing witness thus that they had been pilgrims in the desert, but that God, in His faithfulness, had brought them into the promised land. Moreover, this feast was celebrated after the harvest, and after the vintage, two events employed everywhere in Scripture as figures of the judgment: the harvest, of the judgment, which separates the good and the bad upon earth; the vintage, of the extent of vengeance on enemies, when Christ shall tread the wine-press. The fulfilment of this feast will take place when Israel shall no longer be dispersed, but shall enjoy the effect of the promises which God has made to them, after the judgment which will separate the tares from the good grain, and after that vengeance has been executed, the wine-press of God trodden, according to Isaiah 63, by the Lord Himself.