Feast of Tabernacles
Pastor Joe Fuiten,
The
20’s will be showing a video on Tuesday of an actual miracle of raising a man
from the dead who had already been embalmed.
Home
groups start in a couple of weeks. Seven
host homes are needed.
Tonight—With
God in a time of war.
Annual
Business Meeting. Deacons, and purchase
of five acres in
Scripture
"'So beginning with the fifteenth day of the seventh
month, after you have gathered the crops of the land, celebrate the festival to
the LORD for seven days; the first day is a day of rest, and the eighth day
also is a day of rest. 40 On the first day you are to take choice fruit from
the trees, and palm fronds, leafy branches and poplars, and rejoice before the
LORD your God for seven days. 41 Celebrate this as a festival to the LORD for
seven days each year. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to
come; celebrate it in the seventh month. 42 Live in booths for seven
days: All native-born Israelites are to live in booths 43 so your descendants
will know that I had the Israelites live in booths when I brought them out
of
God set the standards for this day
long ago. Jewish people are to live in
booths and remember the Exodus. When the
Messiah returns, Jews and Gentiles alike will observe this holiday. Tabernacles is a day of rejoicing because God
is with us, guiding his people on their journey to the promised land.
Modern Jews still spend time in the booths of branches each year. In colder climates they eat in them, and in
warmer climates some actually sleep in them.
The idea is to be able to look up between the branches and see into the
heavens. With no roof to separate you
from God, you feel his presence and remember that it is God who is protecting
you, not the strength of walls or roof.
The
idea of being dependant upon a very present God is key to this
celebration. Our Thanksgiving Day is
patterned about Tabernacles. It is a
harvest festival that celebrates that everything we have is from God.
I
wanted to emphasis the idea of God being present rather than distant. At the Exodus, God was present in the
Tabernacle, above the Mercy Seat and between the Cherubim. He was also present in the fire and
cloud. There is a sense of closeness
with God. It is Emmanuel, God with us.
Sinai
is quite a magnificent place. The colors
are like the colors of the rainbow. The
granite is purple, black, rose, and orange.
It is so barren and still. At
night it is quiet. There are no
sounds. The closest thing to it was a
night I spent in
Maybe
when we are lost in praise and worship or deep in prayer we approach this kind
of relationship. Our world presses in on
us and God is squeezed to the edges. In
tabernacles, we rejoice and celebrate because God is with us. His presence looms larger with each prayer.
In
the morning the Israeli’s awakened to see the ground white with manna. Like snow that had fallen in the night, it
was there to feed them and to remind them that God had been with them, even in
the night. He fed them so they would not
believe we live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds from the mouth
of God.[1] It must have been quite a feeling, to be so
directly sustained by God.
If
we truly understand, every paycheck is the presence of God. Every bucket of green beans harvested, every
ear of corn enjoyed should remind of us God.
Every day should be Thanksgiving.
Every blessing a reminder that God is near.
I
may have found proof that God’s masculine qualities are dominant. All those years in the desert, their clothes
did not wear out![2] Their clothes said, God is with us.
Even
the fire was God’s presence with a purpose. When Pharaoh’s troops were about to
swoop down upon them at the edge of the
God’s
fire and cloud was like a canopy over their homes. It was like a banner written over their
heads, “These are my people, and I am their God.”
This was a prophecy of the end of time. The time when God would again reside with his people as he did in the wilderness. The writer of 2 Chronicles 6:41 felt this: "Now arise, O LORD God, and come to your resting place, you and the ark of your might. May your priests, O LORD God, be clothed with salvation, may your saints rejoice in your goodness.
The Feast of Tabernacles is a
Thanksgiving Feast and is a celebration of the God who makes it all possible. Even though it is a warm of fuzzy day, it
emerges out of conflict. Just as the
original celebration was born out of the battle of the Exodus, so the future
Feast of Tabernacles will have an incredible conflict for its context. That brings us to the present moment.
Zechariah 14 is clear that God
intends to continue the Feast of Tabernacles as the event celebrating his
presence among his people. We are
looking forward to that day. Between us
and that great day is the
Things have radically changed this last week. First, the President announced that he has
received detailed war plans from the military.
He has not said this before. He
announced a change in
Zech 14:12-16
“This is the plague with which the LORD will strike all the nations that
fought against
We know how all this is going to
turn out. You may have driven here in a
2003 Mercedes, but you are rejoicing in God who meets all your needs. You may have driven her is an old wreck that
sounded louder than a High School band at a winning football game and look like
a steam engine, but you are rejoicing in God who meets all your needs.
You may have the biggest house on the street, or be
out in the street, but you are here to rejoice that God is with us.
You may have the fanciest clothes in town or your
clothes might look like they were with the Israeli’s in the wilderness but you
are blessing God that he is with you right now.
We
are rejoicing now. It is a taste of how
we will rejoice when Jesus is King over all the earth, ruling in peace from
[1] Deut 8:3 He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.
[2] Deut 8:4 Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years.
[3] Exod 14:19-20 Then the angel of God, who had been traveling
in front of