THE JOY OF TABERNACLES
DAY 1
Our Lord has set aside a week plus a day every year to give his people a new infusion of joy!
Exodus 23:16 calls it “the Feast of Ingathering” (NASU) or “Feast of the Final Harvest” (NLT). Deuteronomy 16:13 calls it the “Feast of Tabernacles” or “Feast of Booths.” Leviticus 23 tells why both names fit:
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 sabbath rest, and the eighth day also is a day of sabbath rest. On the first day you are to take branches from luxuriant trees – from palms, willows, and other leafy trees – and rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days … Live in temporary shelters for seven days: All native-born Israelites are to live in such shelters so your descendants will know that I had the Israelites live in temporary shelters when I brought them out of Egypt. I am the Lord your God (Lev. 23:39-43).
The Lord specified two purposes for this feast:
- To celebrate harvests in the Promised Land
- To recall his faithfulness in the wilderness.
Yet when he established the feast, his people had just left Egypt and entered the barren desert. They were 40 years away from living in permanent houses and reaping their first harvest.
On any given year at Sukkot, we may be experiencing harvest, or wilderness, or something in between. Regardless, God calls us to celebrate his faithfulness. By grace through faith:
- Remember his provision in the past: “Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness” (Deut. 8:2).
- Believe his promises for the future: “For the Lord your God will bless you in all your harvest and in all the work of your hands, and your joy will be complete” (Deut. 16:15).
- Rest and rejoice in him today: “Celebrate the Lord’s festival for seven days. The first day and the eighth day are days of special rest … and rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days” (Lev. 23:39, 40).
Feast on the Word
As one enjoying a banquet, feast on:
- the full description of Sukkot in Leviticus 23: vv. 33-36, 39-44;
- the brief overview of all three feasts in Exodus 23:14-16;
- the description of the Feast of Tabernacles in Deuteronomy 16:13-15.
What in them triggers an interest, a question or an insight deep within you? ask God to guide you, pursue.
Celebrate the Feast
Remember a wilderness time, or acknowledge if you’re in one now. What “temporary shelters” has the Lord provided for you? Live in them this week, by recalling how it felt in a difficult season when God sheltered you and faithfully led you.
Acknowledge the bounty God has provided for you. Ask him for eyes to see the good things he gives you day by day. As you see them, give thanks for each one. Reread God’s promise of future harvests (Deut. 16:15). Will you, by faith, believe what he has said? Regardless of what else today holds, ask the Lord for grace to spend the day resting and rejoicing in him.