Feast of Tabernacles

     The seventh feast of the Lord is the Feast of Tabernacles, also called Sukkot (Hebrew for booths) or Feast of Booths. It is celebrated five days after the Day of Atonement. Here is the biblical description of this feast: "On exactly the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the crops of the land, you shall celebrate the feast of the Lord for seven days, with a rest on the first day and a rest on the eighth day. Now on the first day you shall take for yourselves the foliage of beautiful trees, palm branches and boughs of leafy trees and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days." Leviticus 23:39-40

     The Israelites were to take these branches and build temporary shelters or booths to use during the week of the feast. This feast is a beautiful reminder of the forty years that Israel spent "camping out" in the wilderness following the presence of the Lord, following the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. See Exodus 40:34-38. When they would set up camp the tabernacle where God's presence dwelt would be set up in the midst of the camp, thus God dwelt among His people.

     A tabernacle is a dwelling place, and right now, during this Church Age, God's tabernacle or dwelling place is in the Body of Christ. The Holy Spirit dwells in each believer. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit. This is the present fulfillment of the Feast of Tabernacles. Devout Jews still celebrate this feast today by building little shelters or booths outside their homes and worshipping in them during the week of the feast, and, of course, there is a huge celebration of this feast every year in Jerusalem.

     One future fulfillment of the Feast of Tabernacles will be when Jesus returns at the end of the Great Tribulation, and sets up His kingdom in Jerusalem where He will reign for 1,000 years, but the ultimate fulfillment will come at the end of the 1,000 years when there will be a new heaven and a new earth, and Jesus will tabernacle with men forever. "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, 'Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He shall dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be among them.'" Revelation 21:1-3

     So, with this ultimate fulfillment of the seventh feast of the Lord, all of prophecy will have finally been fulfilled. Oh, what a glorious day that will be! "...but just as it is written, 'Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him.'"             I Corinthians 2:9