Lesson 88 - Senior

Memory Verse

"The LORD thy God shall bless thee in all thine increase, and in all the works of thine hands, therefore thou shalt surely rejoice" (Deuteronomy 16:15).

Cross References

I The Feast of Tabernacles, or the Feast of Ingathering

1. This feast was observed the 15th of the 7th month (October) for seven days at the end of the harvests, [LEV:23:33-34]; [EXO:23:16]. 2. The 1st and 8th days were holy convocations and the intervening days were observed with offerings, [LEV:23:35-36], [LEV:23:39]. 3. All Israel were to rejoice over the fruits of the increase as bestowed by God, [DEU:16:13-15]; [LEV:23:40]. 4. All the males were to appear and each give according to the blessing of the LORD, [DEU:16:16-17]; [LEV:23:38]. 5. Burnt offerings, meat offerings, and sin offerings were made daily, requiring 199 beasts, [NUM:29:12-39]; [LEV:23:38].

II The Feast Observed in Booths or Tabernacles

1. The booths were built of boughs of palm trees, thick trees, and willows, [LEV:23:40]; [NUM:8:14-18]. 2. The feast was a memorial of Israel's schooling in the hot, dry wilderness, [LEV:23:41-44].

III The Feast a Type of the "Harvest" in the Last Days

1. The Reaper appears on a white cloud, like the Son of man, with a sharp sickle, [LEV:14:14]; [MAT:24:30]. 2. The reaping is proclaimed, because the harvest of the earth is ripe, [REV:14:15-16]; [MAT:24:31]; [MAK:4:26-29]. 3. Another reaper appears, an angel also having a sharp sickle, [REV:14:17]; [MAT:13:49]. 4. The reaping of the clusters of the vine is also proclaimed, being fully ripe, [REV:14:18]. 5. They are cast into the wine press and trodden without the city, [REV:14:19-20]; [ISA:63:1-4].

Notes

The successive harvests in the Promised Land covered a long period. They began with the barley harvest in the first month and continued through the wheat harvest, the gathering of the grapes, the olives, the figs, the pomegranates, and other fruits, until the seventh month; at which time thee was a great ingathering of the bounty which God provided annually for Israel. The feast of tabernacles was instituted, in the first place, to remind Israel of God's goodness toward them, and to give them thankful hearts toward Him for His bountiful provision, somewhat similar to our Thanksgiving Day in the fall of the year.

The Observances Ushering in the Feast of Tabernacles

This feast was ushered in by the sounding of trumpets on the first day of the seventh month and by the great Day of Atonement on the tenth day which was a day of mourning for Israel, reminding them of their past sins, and God's great mercy in providing the Atonement, by which alone they were reconciled to Him. And then on the fifteenth day began the feast of tabernacles, continuing for seven days and a final convocation added on the eighth day. This was a season of rejoicing and praising God for His goodness to them, both materially and spiritually. And how different Israel's destiny might have been, had they retained the spirit of this feast in their hearts and had been obedient to the God unto whom they owed their all. They might then have joined with David in his Psalm of praise: "The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters...." On each day of this feast Israel was to present burnt offerings, meat offerings, drink offerings, and sin offerings unto the Lord; besides their freewill offerings, all of which was to issue out of the gratitude of their hearts. And they were to build booths and live in them during this week to remind them of their days of schooling, after their deliverance out of Egypt, when they dwelt in tents and wandered in the wilderness.

The Typical Significance of the Feast

The feast of tabernacles, like the two preceding annual feasts, reaches beyond its lessons to Israel and points out great events centuries ahead in the last days. John the Revelator caught a vision of the Reaper upon a cloud, like unto the Son of man. "And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe" (Revelation 14:15). And to this great day of the "harvest" Jesus Himself also referred, when speaking of the last days: "And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other" (Matthew 24:30, 31). This is the great ingathering of "his elect." And who knows but what the sounding of the trumpets prior to the feast of tabernacles was symbolic of "a great sound of a trumpet" which shall announce the ingathering of God's elect? Also that Day of Atonement bespeaks the Lamb that was slain, without whom there would be no harvest of the elect. The Lamb is the theme of the tribute of praise by that vast throng around the Throne above, "saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing" (Revelation 5:12).

A Second Great Harvest

But the revelatory tells us of a second "harvest" which shall take place in the last days: "And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle. And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire [bespeaking judgment]; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe. And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs" (Revelation 14:17-20). God's wrath toward sin is as infinite as His mercy toward sinners.

Those Who Perish in the Wilderness and Those Who Won the Victory

The booths which were erected and in which the Children of Israel dwelt during the feast of tabernacles reminded them of those forty years in the wilderness, and perhaps reminded that younger generation, which reached the Promised Land, of their elders who through unbelief failed of their high calling and bleached their bones in the desert sands. It is a fearful thing for one to fall short of his privileges in Christ Jesus. Jeremiah tells us of a people who cried, "The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved" (Jeremiah 8:20). But there were some even in Old Testament times "who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection: and others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: they were stoned, they were saw asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; (of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect" (Hebrews 11:33-40).

The Fulfilment of the Feast of Tabernacles

The first of these three annual feasts, the Passover, was fulfilled to the letter when Jesus entered Jerusalem on the 10th day of the month Abib, and was crucified and died upon the cross just at the hour of the evening sacrifice on the 15th day. The second feast was fulfilled just fifty days later, on the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Ghost descended like a mighty rushing wind, and the hundred and twenty in the upper room were endued with power for service; when the Church was founded, and the door of mercy was opened to the nations. The third, the feast of tabernacles, will be fulfilled when the Lord returns, and founds His millennial Kingdom, and the will of God is done in earth as it is in Heaven. "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" (Zechariah 14:16).

Questions

1. What time of the year was the feast of tabernacles observed, and what did it celebrate?

2. Why did the Children of Israel build booths and dwell in them during this feast? How many days did it continue?

3. What day do we observe in our land that is similar to the feast of tabernacles?

4. What offerings were presented unto the LORD daily which hallowed this feast? What did the offerings typify?

5. What was God's chief aim in instituting the feast of tabernacles for the Children of Israel?

6

. What teachings in the New Testament does the feast of tabernacles typify?

7. What two observances in the seventh month ushered in the feast of tabernacles? and how are they fulfilled in New Testament teachings?

8. What three major annual feasts were instituted at which the males in Israel had to be present?

9. Which of these feasts have been fulfilled? Describe the events, which fulfil them.

10. When and in what way will the final feast of these three be fulfilled? Quote the Scripture.