feast: The Feasts of Tabernacles and Unleavened Bread

David C. Grabbe
Given 09-Oct-25; Sermon #FT25-03; 69 minutes

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When I was in high school, my English teachers employed what seems to many of us to be cruel and unusual punishment.

They made us write essays.

This was before the time when digital assistants could do homework for us.

We had to write these for ourselves.

As if writing essays were not sufficiently painful, there was a particular type of essay that we absolutely despised because of the mental energy that it required.

This type of essay really made us think, and to be blunt, we did not like that.

But as it turns out, there was a method to what we believed was madness because this type of essay helped us to thoroughly explore a topic and see connections and symbolism and other things that we had not seen before.

It helped us to get into the minds of the author.

And in short, it required us to learn things personally rather than just regurgitate Cliff's Notes, if you know what those are.

The type of essay we dreaded so much was the compare and contrast essay.

I do not know if it's still inflicted on students today.

But in a compare and contrast assignment, the student must carefully evaluate two things, could be two characters, two events, maybe two subplots within a story.

And then explain how those two things are similar, that's the compare part, and how those things are different, and that's the contrast part.

Comparing and contrasting forces the student to go beyond the words on the page and truly analyze what is beneath.

And it takes a lot of work, which is why we were less than pleased.

But I now have a grudging respect for those assignments because of what they produced, what they made us produce.

And today we are going to follow this pattern, and I hasten to add, I'm not going to ask any of you to write an essay.

But we will compare and contrast, and we will see connections and symbolism and ultimately get into the minds of the greatest Author and His life-giving Word.

We'll begin in Leviticus chapter 23, if you please turn there with me.

Leviticus 23 starting in verse 1.

Leviticus 23:1-4 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, the feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are My feasts. This is God's preamble to all His instructions for the feasts in this chapter. This is the foundation upon which everything else in this chapter is built.

I notice that God both claims all the feasts.

He says these are My feasts, and He also tells us in general what the focus should be.

They are feasts of the Lord, meaning each one of them must be observed in reference to Him.

God declares at the outset that the feasts are for Him and about Him.

If that focus is lost, then the feasts become our days rather than God's.

Richard's been going through each of the feasts and showing how they point to Christ.

So there is one comparison for us.

That's what all the feasts have in common.

For decades, the focus of the church has been on how the feast fits into a prophetic sequence, and yet we are learning that there is so much more to them.

They teach us about God Himself.

They are feasts of the Lord, and each one points to the Messiah.

Moving on to verse 4.

Leviticus 23:4.

Leviticus 23:4-8 These are the feasts of the Lord, holy convocations which you shall proclaim at their appointed times. On the 14th day of the first month at twilight is the Lord's Passover, and on the 15th day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord. Seven days you must eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall have a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work on it, but you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord for seven days. The seventh day shall be a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work on it.

So these are the first two feasts of the year.

They're in the spring for those of us in the northern hemisphere.

And just for now, note the structure or their arrangements.

There is a one-day feast, which is Passover, followed by a seven-day Feast of Unleavened Bread.

Now please drop down to verse 33.

Leviticus 23:33-36, 39-43 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, saying the 15th day of the seventh month shall be the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days to the Lord. On the first day there shall be a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work on it. For seven days you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. On the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation. You shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. It is a sacred assembly. You shall do no customary work on it. Also, on the 15th day of the seventh month when you have gathered in the fruit of the land, you shall keep the Feast of the Lord for seven days. On the first day there shall be a Sabbath rest, and on the eighth day a Sabbath rest, and you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of beautiful trees, branches of palm trees, the boughs of leafy trees and willows of the brook. And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days. You shall keep it as a Feast of the Lord for seven days in the year. It shall be a statute forever in your generations. You shall celebrate it in the seventh month. You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All who are native Israelites shall dwell in booths. That your generations may know that I made the children of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.

So we saw that the first two feasts in the year were a one-day feast followed by a seven-day feast.

And here we see the same pattern, but it's in reverse, like a mirror.

The last feasts of the year are a seven-day feast, followed by a one-day feast.

And this is not an accident, as we will see what we observe later in the year relates to what we observe at the beginning.

Knowing what we do of God, both as the Creator and as the one who inspired these things, we should know that this is not happenstance.

In everything God does, there is purpose and precision.

And His written Word is no exception.

His feasts and holy days are no exception.

And this arrangement of one day plus seven days, followed by later in the year, seven days plus one day, is also no exception.

And this pattern invites us to explore these feasts together, which will help us to get just a little more into the minds of the Author.

But first, we need to understand another pattern within God's Word.

This seems to be one of God's favorites because He uses it in many places.

It is called the chiasm.

The chiasm is where related ideas are repeated, but in reverse order.

And that's what we've already seen with 1 + 7 and then 7 + 1.

It repeats, but it's reversed.

The word chiasm comes from the Greek word chi, which is the letter X.

In a chiasm, the first idea or the element relates to the last idea or elements.

It doesn't mean that they are identical, only that there is some relationship between them.

When we understand the relationship through, again, comparing and contrasting, we understand both of these things better.

And next in the chiasm, the second element relates to the second to the last elements.

And so the top and the bottom of the chiasm march toward each other, and they meet in the middle of the X.

In February, Richard gave a Bible study on the book of Daniel that showed a very clear chiasm.

And Daniel chapters 2 and chapters 7 are paired and they are mirrored in what they talk about.

Chapters 3 and 6 are paired and mirrored, and so are chapters 4 and 5.

Each pairing reinforces the themes of the individual chapters.

Matthew chapter 13 contains eight very well-known parables, and they also are arranged as a chiasm.

When you compare and contrast, you see that the first four parables are spoken to a large public audience, while the last four parables are spoken privately, just to the disciples, to the fledgling church.

And what's more, the problems that are described in the first four parables, spoken to the carnal nation, find their resolution in the last four parables.

The problem in the first parable is answered in the eighth parable.

The second parable is resolved by the seventh, and so on.

Even though the comparing and the contrasting takes a great deal of effort, it brings things together to tell a much larger story.

Larger than any one of the smaller parts.

In fact, the entire Bible forms a chiasm.

As you march forward through the Bible from the beginning to the middle, and you march backward from the end of the Bible toward the middle, you can pick out how things are paired and mirrored.

You start seeing the signature of the divine Author everywhere that you look.

So God uses the chiasm repeatedly, so it's worth paying attention to because it's part of how His mind works.

The chiasm is not some minor feature, let alone just a quirk of ancient writing.

The chiasm is a deliberate part of how the Creator chose to arrange His words to help us by drawing attention to connections and elements that we might not otherwise notice.

And for our topic today, the eight feasts are also arranged in chiasm.

Passover relates to the eighth day.

The first day of Unleavened Bread, and really most of Unleavened Bread, relates to Tabernacles.

The last day of Unleavened Bread relates to Atonement.

Don't worry, we are not going through all of those today, and Pentecost and Trumpets are linked as well.

We have tended to look at them just as a sequence, but when we identify the commonalities between the pairs, it helps us to better understand what God is teaching through these times that He is set apart.

As we read, the reason that we stay in temporary dwellings is because God made Israel stay in booths when He delivered them from slavery in Egypt.

Now, maybe it seems unusual that the instructions for this feast mention the exodus, which we normally associate with Unleavened Bread.

We've tended to think of Tabernacles in terms of looking ahead.

But by God's commands, Israel had to look back to, and remember, the exodus journey, and this applies to us as well.

Please turn with me to the backstory, which is in Exodus chapter 12.

Exodus 12 beginning in verse 37.

Exodus 12:37.

Exodus 12:37-41, 42 Then the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about 600,000 men on foot, besides children. A mixed multitude went up with them also and flocks and herds, a great deal of livestock, and they baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they had brought out of Egypt, for it had no leaven because they were driven out of Egypt and could not wait, nor had they prepared provisions for themselves. Now the sojourn of the children of Israel who lived in Egypt was 430 years, and it came to pass at the end of the 430 years on that very same day. It came to pass that all the armies of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt. It is a night of solemn observance to the Lord for bringing them out of the land of Egypt. This is that night of the Lord, a solemn observance for all the children of Israel throughout their generations.

This passage is all about the first day of Unleavened Bread, beginning with the night of solemn observance, just after sunset.

Unleavened Bread pictures God's deliverance from the environment of sin from Egypt, whether physical or spiritual.

This feast is about what God did and what He does for us.

It's a memorial of His deliverance.

But notice where this took place.

Verse 37 puts the beginning of the exodus at Succoth.

That was the first place that they camped after leaving Rameses in Egypt proper.

So this is a commonality with Tabernacles, because the place that the Israelites camped for the first day of Unleavened Bread is what this feast is actually named after.

The Jews call this feast Sukkot, which is the Hebrew word for tabernacle, tent, or booth.

And the name of the first place the Israelites camped is Succoth, which is the same word, it's just plural.

And so the Israelites stayed in booths in Succoth, which is curious because they were staying in booths in the place that had already been named booths.

It was already named Succoth when they got there and they made their camp.

The backstory to this is found in Genesis 33:17.

I'll just read that to you.

Genesis 33:17, it says.

Genesis 33:17 Then Jacob journeyed to Succoth, built himself a house, and made booths for his livestock. Therefore the name of the place is called Succoth.

So the place the Israelites camped for the first day of Unleavened Bread was named after the dwellings that Jacob made for his animals, and those dwellings are what this current feast is named after.

The Hebrew word for tabernacle is Sukkah.

It's one of those understated connections in God's Word, but it shows a linkage between these feasts.

They have a common origin.

Please turn with me back to Leviticus chapter 23.

Another commonality with these two feasts is that they are both kept for seven days.

That may sound obvious, and it is.

But it's worth reviewing God's commands, so we do not forget.

Back in verse 6 of Leviticus 23, it says.

Leviticus 23:6 And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord; seven days you must eat unleavened bread.

And the rest of these, you do not have to turn to.

I'll just read them to you.

This is the same command in other places.

Exodus 12:15 Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses. For whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel.

Exodus 13:6-7 Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a feast to the Lord. Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days. And no leavened bread shall be seen among you, nor shall leaven be seen among you in all your quarters.

Exodus 23:15 You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread; you shall eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month of Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt.

Exodus 34:18 The Feast of Unleavened Bread you shall keep. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, in the time of the month of Abib; for in the month of Abib you came out from Egypt.

Seven times, God says to eat unleavened bread for seven days.

It's very clear, seven is the number of perfection.

It's commonly held that unleavened bread is about putting sin out of our lives, and while that is an aspect, if we were to go through all of God's instructions for Unleavened Bread, we would see that His reason and His emphasis are different.

What God overwhelmingly emphasizes is His deliverance, not our work of avoiding leavening or sin.

The overarching reason for that feast, the reason that we eat unleavened bread for seven days, is to remember God's deliverance.

And when we get to the New Testament, Jesus identifies Himself as the bread of God, the bread of life.

He was entirely unleavened.

And further Paul tells us in I Corinthians 5.

I Corinthians 5:8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Christ is the embodiment of sincerity and truth.

He's the one who delivered us from the present evil age, from spiritual bondage, from the power of darkness.

And it's through the strength that He provides that we have the means to overcome sin, and that strength comes from ingesting His Word and beseeching Him to live His life in us every day.

The unleavened bread that God says we must eat for seven days represents Christ Himself.

To miss eating the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth is to miss out on that divine connection with our Savior.

Our minds should rebel at the thought of skipping that.

It's similar with Passover.

The bread and the wine are the symbols of Passover.

It wouldn't be Passover without them.

These things may just be symbols, but these symbols signal to God our intent and our desire to fulfill all righteousness, even in symbols.

In the same way, the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days, we keep it by eating unleavened bread each day, and not merely avoiding leavening.

Consider what neglecting to eat the unleavened bread of life every day would signal to God.

The symbols matter.

Faithful and righteous Daniel chose to spend the night in a den of lions rather than give up his bread of life for a single day.

That's how important his connection with God and being strengthened by God was to Daniel.

It's those who know their God who will be strong and carry out great exploits, but that strength and that knowledge of God come from continually partaking of what or of whom that unleavened bread represents.

Now there is a similar slippage that can happen with the Feast of Tabernacles.

Sometimes plans are made to arrive at the feast late or to leave early, which means fewer than seven days of keeping it.

There is also an idea that's been around for decades, that since only the first and the eighth days are holy, we do not have to attend services on the other days.

Now before exploring those ideas, I'm going to confess to you.

I attended an engineering school.

That's not what I'm confessing.

The engineering coursework was very rigorous.

And I was concerned about missing classes for the feast.

The nearest feast site was about an hour and a half away, and so for the feast, I drove to the site for the Sabbath and for the holy days, but for the rest of the feast, I was at college.

And my experience was that it was not really a feast.

It certainly was not a feast of the Lord, nor was I truly keeping it to Him, even though I was going to the convocations on the holy days.

I was 18 at the time, and not yet baptized, and so I was not thinking clearly.

I was reasoning carnally, regrettably, and my priorities showed that.

And this is how I know that the idea that only the first and eighth day are important has been around for decades.

Now here in Leviticus 23.

Verse 34 says.

Leviticus 23:34 The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days to the Lord.

And again, it is to the Lord.

It says in verse 39.

Leviticus 23:39 Also on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruit of the land, you shall keep the Feast of the Lord for seven days; on the first day there shall be a Sabbath-rest, and on the eighth day a Sabbath-rest.

And again in 41.

Leviticus 23:41 You shall keep it as a feast to the Lord for seven days in the year. It shall be a statute forever in your generations. You shall celebrate it in the seventh month.

Verse 42 says again.

Leviticus 23:42 You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All who are native Israelites shall dwell in booths.

If God is not the object and our foremost consideration, and it's basically just a vacation, it is not the feast, it becomes our week rather than His.

And we may compound the error by using tithes to pay for our vacation.

Let's look at one of Judah's revivals that shows how a people who were eager to keep the feast to the Lord did so.

Please turn to Nehemiah chapter 8.

Nehemiah 8.

This is after a portion of Judah returned from captivity, and they rediscovered God's law.

Nehemiah 8 starting in verse 17.

Nehemiah 8:17-18 So the whole assembly of those who had returned from the captivity made booths and sat under the booths; for since the days of Joshua the son of Nun until that day the children of Israel had not done so. And there was very great gladness. Also day by day, from the first day until the last day, he read from the Book of the Law of God. And they kept the feast seven days, and on the eighth day there was a sacred assembly, according to the prescribed manner.

So this shows how they kept the feast.

They were in temporary dwellings for seven days, but more than that, they also had Ezra reading from the law each day.

And Ezra was probably doing more than just reading.

If you look back at the start of the chapter, the first observance of the Day of Trumpets after the return from exile is described.

Verse 7 mentions some of the men in the congregation and verse 8 says.

Nehemiah 8:8 So they read distinctly from the book, in the Law of God; and they gave the sense, and helped them to understand the reading.

Verse 3 says.

Nehemiah 8:3 Then he read from it in the open square that was in front of the Water Gate from morning until midday, before the men and women and those who could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive to the Book of the Law.

This is what people do who are eager to take in God's Word and receive what He has for them.

This is the example that God recorded for us and what it means to keep the feast to the Lord for seven days, and this is the pattern that we follow today.

We not only stay in temporary dwellings for seven days, but we also have the Word of God expounded on for seven days, even non-holy days, followed by a sacred assembly.

So both these feasts are seven days long, and they involve specific things to do all seven days.

Seven is the number of divine perfection, completion, or fullness.

In instances of seven days plus one day, and there are several, the seven days are used for sanctifying.

But not being consistent for all seven days, whether in eating or in dwelling, undermine what God desires these days to produce.

Another commonality is that the instructions for both week-long feasts involve dwellings.

This is where the contrasts start to come in.

Please turn to Exodus chapter 12.

Exodus 12 and verse 15.

Exodus 12:15 Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses. For whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel.

And emphasize that word again, houses.

Drop down to verse 19.

Exodus 12:19 For seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses, since whoever eats what is leavened, that same person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a stranger or a native of the land.

You shall eat nothing leavened in all your dwellings.

You shall eat unleavened bread.

Now maybe you never caught this, but the instructions for Unleavened Bread are not about just our food that week.

But God includes multiple mentions of our dwellings, our houses, our quarters, those areas that are under our authority.

Again, this is not by chance.

Every word matters.

By the first day of Unleavened Bread, all the leavening must be removed from our houses, and then we must be vigilant about not letting anything leavened into our houses.

In all our dwellings, we must eat unleavened bread.

Now houses are dwellings that are made to last.

They have foundations.

They represent being settled and having a more or less permanent place of one's own.

Of course, nothing physical is truly permanent, but there is a greater and a longer term stability in houses compared to booths.

Houses give a measure of certainty.

They do become a base from which we operate and return to.

Under most circumstances, we aren't concerned that they will be blown away or washed away.

They have foundations, and they become foundational to us.

And we can apply that to the lessons of Unleavened Bread, because God says repeatedly that the reason we keep that feast and eat unleavened bread each day is because of what He did.

He delivered Israel from Egypt and the power of the Pharaoh, and likewise, He delivered us from this present evil age and its adversarial ruler.

He delivered us from spiritual Egypt, and He has given us a new home.

The Israelites only had physical houses, but we have a spiritual house that can give us far greater stability if we allow it.

And we could go to Matthew 7 and plug in the parable of the two builders and apply the houses there to our lives, and that does fit.

But there is another way to apply this house symbolism, which we will see in Hebrews chapter 3, if you'd please turn there.

Hebrews 3 starting in verse 1.

Hebrews 3:1-6 Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was faithful in all His house. For this One has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as He who built the house has more honor than the house. For every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God. And Moses indeed was faithful in all His house as a servant for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward, but Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end.

As with so many things, the symbol of the house points us back to Christ as well.

He has built and is building a spiritual house.

And we are that house as long as, it says we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end.

We are that house because we are in Him.

Jesus promised that the gates of the grave would not prevail against the church.

This house, the individual members die physically, but this house has continued for some 2000 years.

It has a sure foundation.

It doesn't mean that the house is always tranquil inside, because it consists of still imperfect people, and the carnality that remains tends to cause friction.

But in the long view, the house is far more stable than anything that spiritual Egypt can offer because it's founded on and upheld by the Son of God.

The spiritual house is a shelter from the storms that rage outside.

And so part of our duty is not to bring corruption, symbolized by leaven, into either our own homes or into this spiritual house.

But to prioritize feeding on the bread of life and helping other members of the household do the same.

Now within the imagery of the house or the dwelling, there is an intriguing contrast with Tabernacles.

Please turn back to Leviticus 23 once again.

Leviticus 23.

And we will read verses 42 and 43 again.

Leviticus 23:42-43 You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All who are native Israelites shall dwell in booths, that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.

So God says this feast is about the Israelites' experience with Him as He brought them out of Egypt.

God puts the focus of this feast on the journey to their inheritance.

It's about the pilgrimage and moving toward the inheritance rather than picturing the inheritance.

Booths are, by definition, temporary.

They lack a foundation.

In the faith chapter, Abraham is noted as dwelling in temporary dwellings with Isaac and Jacob, and is contrasted with the city that has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

Booths provide some protection from the elements, but they also remind us that there is a goal that we are moving toward that is far more significant.

Nobody ever settles down in a booth.

And so we sacrifice some comfort and stability for the sake of being led and fed by God Himself.

God commanded the tabernacles to be made from branches which contained another lesson for us.

The walls and roof started out green and lush.

You can picture this.

They were vibrant and beautiful.

They were made from green things.

But in the hot and dry Mediterranean climates, as each day passed, the branches dried a little and the leaves started turning brown.

As the week progressed, the people watched the relentless march of time and entropy.

When we get to the New Testament, the human body becomes one antitype of the temporary dwellings.

And for the purpose of this message, I'll be leaning more on the temporary aspect than the permanent dwelling that Richard explained on the first day.

As he said, we can still gain some insight from this symbolism.

He went through the primary symbolism, so for today, we will look at this secondary antitype.

Both Paul and Peter refer to their bodies as tents.

They use this symbolism to describe the temporariness of human life.

Like dwellings of branches, our bodies are fearfully and wonderfully made.

They are full of life at the start, but eventually they wear out because the physical creation has been subjected to futility.

Even the Word of God, who was and is God, took on a tent of flesh to tabernacle with mankind.

He not only tabernacled with His creation, which He had already done with Israel.

But this time He tabernacled as His creation, tabernacles.

He took on the very same temporary form.

It's a truly remarkable thing.

No other religion has a God that does this.

This is part of what God wants us to reflect on.

We're commanded to rejoice in the abundance and shelter that God gives, but this week, both this week and throughout the year, and yet also remember that it does not continue forever.

The feast teaches about the impermanence and the transitoryness of this life as we follow God on a difficult way.

It reminds us of our complete dependence on Him to supply the need during this pilgrimage of 70 or 80 years.

And the rejoicing we should do as we see Him provide time and again.

Even though only the booths are mentioned here in these verses, we should understand that they can stand for all the aspects of the wilderness journey.

Today, if we refer to a tent city of displaced peoples, we understand that the tents really point to the entire circumstance of vulnerability, uncertainty, and lack, and the tents are not just where the people sleep.

And likewise for the Israelites, that time was marked by their absolute dependence on God to sustain them through a harsh environment that was hostile to human life.

They were helpless on their own, and God had to be with them every day for 40 years.

And He was.

He provided food where there was no food, and etched the Sabbath into their minds with the manna.

Through the pillar of cloud, He provided shade from the blistering sun during the day.

Through the pillar of fire, He provided light and warmth as the temperatures dipped at night in the desert.

If you think about it, He was their true shelter, and the booths were echoes or tokens that pointed to Him.

He provided water where there was no water, opening the fountains of the deep, as Mark described a few weeks ago.

God protected them.

Though He also tested them to see what was in their hearts.

Of course, the Israelites second guessed Him at every turn.

Even as we sometimes do.

The Israelites at least had the pillar of cloud and fire to look at and be reminded of God's presence.

We must overcome living by sight and use our faith to be reminded that God is with us.

He is in us.

And He is providing for His physical and spiritual needs on our pilgrimage as well.

He is doing far more with us and for us than with physical Israel, and His care of us is even more detailed.

But we must strive to live within the spiritual reality, recognizing and finding comfort in His presence, even though we do not see it physically as they did.

Now these themes of impermanence and pilgrimage may seem to contradict the themes of houses with foundations in Unleavened Bread.

It is comparisons and contrasts such as these that lead us to insights that might otherwise remain hidden.

The way to reconcile the symbolism of permanence and being settled in houses with the temporariness and movement is to see how both of these things relate to Christ's work.

And the pattern for understanding this I found in Christ's words on the eve of His crucifixion.

Please turn with me to John chapter 16.

John 16 verse 33.

John 16:33 These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.

Notice that He does not take away tribulation.

He doesn't take away the storms.

He doesn't take away the gates of the grave.

These are all unsettling things for us.

These and other certainties make us uncertain of the elements within our pilgrimage.

Instead of giving us permanence now, He says that within Him, we have peace.

In Him, we have stability even when our lives may seem unstable, and the direction of our lives do not make sense to us.

The houses in Unleavened Bread, and the temporary dwellings in Tabernacles find their commonality in Christ.

Our lives are still like those on the move, but in Him, there is peace.

But the peace is internal.

This peace does not come from controlling all of the things in our environment.

This peace comes from surrendering and trusting.

The temporary dwellings of this week keep us a little off balance, and that's good.

A common human failing is that when everything is the way that we want it, or close to it, we typically lose sight of God.

The temporary dwellings remind us that nothing on earth is permanent, and that our focus and our faith must be on what God is doing with us, because the things of this life are not our true inheritance.

The temporary dwellings teach us to trust in God's providence and to temper the drive in all of us to live life on our terms.

And so we must surrender our lives and entrust them to God, not just at baptism, but every day of this journey.

Now we will continue to compare and contrast these feasts, just as both feasts have dwellings as a significant part.

So also both feasts focus on eating.

The Feast of Unleavened Bread has food right in its name.

The Israelites left Egypt with little time to prepare, and so they could not make bread like they normally would.

God calls it the bread of affliction, in part because of their affliction in Egypt, but also I think physically.

Unleavened bread is simply not as satisfying as bread that has time to rise.

The instructions for Unleavened Bread mentions houses, which implies some stability, if not comforts.

However, the bread in that feast is lackluster because it has not risen.

And most of us are relieved to return to the normal bread after that week is over.

That feast also keeps us somewhat off balance regarding our diet.

Hardly anything touches us like food does.

And so a restricted diet affects a major portion of life.

When our diet is missing something that we normally enjoy, it's impossible to ignore.

Each time we have to think about what we are eating or not eating.

We have to turn off the autopilot and remember what the seven days are about.

And so being a little off balance is part of God's education of us.

Please turn to Deuteronomy chapter 14, we will look at the food aspect of Tabernacles.

Deuteronomy 14, beginning in verse 22.

Deuteronomy 14:22.

Deuteronomy 14:22-26 You shall truly tithe the increase of your grain that the field produces year by year. And you shall eat before the Lord your God, in the place where He chooses to make His name abide, the tithe of your grain and your new wine and your oil, of the firstborn of your herds and your flocks, that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always. But if the journey is too long for you, so that you are not able to carry the tithe, or if the place where the Lord your God chooses to put His name is too far from you, when the Lord your God has blessed you, then you shall exchange it for money, take the money in your hand, and go to the place which the Lord your God chooses. And you shall spend that money for whatever your heart desires: for oxen or sheep, for wine or similar drink, for whatever your heart desires; you shall eat there before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your household.

So in verse 23, God says the reason that we save our tithe and eat before Him is to learn to fear Him always.

When we keep this feast as He intends, it instills a reverential awe of Him.

Because we experience Him acting and providing and working things out in our lives.

As we see His work, it builds our respect for Him so that He is always a part of our priorities and decisions.

And so God wants us to rejoice in the abundance that He gives, which is why He calls it a feast.

But God also places some hedges, as He says the reason for enjoying the abundance is learning to fear Him.

But not all rejoicing and feasting instills the fear of God.

Verses 23 and 26 say we are to eat.

It says before the Lord.

And we read back in Leviticus 23 that we are to rejoice before the Lord for seven days, again, showing that He is the object.

Now, it could be said that all rejoicing is before the Lord in the sense that He is aware of everything, and that part is true.

But in another sense, rejoicing is not truly before Him, if He is not at the forefront of our minds, and the reason for the rejoicing.

The Israelites ate, and they rejoiced, but it was not truly before the Lord, except in location.

God through Isaiah and Amos took Judah and Israel to task because of their festival observances.

God was not at the forefront of their minds.

Their keeping of the feast did not increase their respect or their awe of Him because they did not really seek Him at the feast.

They did not approach the feast like a nation that had been weak and unable to provide for itself, and in need of God for everything.

They forgot the reasons for the temporary dwellings, forgot the lessons of the wilderness journey, and forgot that being God's people means one's life is no longer one's own.

In short, they forgot God.

And so while He certainly was aware of their eating and their rejoicing, they were not really aware of Him.

And so like Unleavened Bread with its diet restriction, this feast also keeps us a little off balance with its housing restriction.

During this feast, our food is normal and even abundant, but we do not have quite the comfort or stability that our homes and all of our belongings bring us.

We rejoice in the abundance of what God has provided this year, but we do so in dwellings that are lacking some of the things that our homes have.

And usually by the end of this feast, we are ready to say goodbye to our temporary dwellings and get back to what is familiar.

So to start drawing together the comparing and the contrasting.

During Unleavened Bread, our food lacks something.

During Tabernacles, our dwellings lack something.

And looking at these two feasts together, we see that God often does not give us everything that we might like.

He provides abundantly, but where He holds back, it prompts us to think about what is lacking.

And then to reason through why we might not have that thing that we believe would make our lives complete.

God's providence is perfect.

It falls short only in our estimation and expectation.

We need to consider why God might withhold things that are normally acceptable or even good, such as normal bread for a week or normal dwellings for a week.

You can take this further into aspects of our life that we might feel are lacking.

Maybe it's a better job, a bigger house, being free from a health issue, or deliverance of some sort.

You can fill in the blank for yourself.

While you're filling in that blank, please turn with me to Psalm 84.

Psalm 84 and verse 11.

Psalm 84:11 For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord will give grace and glory; no good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly.

Or we may be doing all we know to do to walk uprightly, and yet it seems that God is withholding good from us.

This can be a serious test of faith.

Please turn to Psalm 34.

Psalm 34 verses 9 and 10.

Psalm 34:9-10 Oh, fear the Lord, you His saints! There is no want to those who fear Him. The young lions lack and suffer hunger; but those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing.

And so similar to Psalm 84, God promises that those whom this describes will not lack any good thing.

And yet we may feel like we are lacking something good, even though we are doing our parts.

We fear Him, we seek Him, and we are doing all that we can to walk uprightly.

This challenge becomes even more difficult if we fall into the deadly snare of comparing our lives with others.

We may see God blessing others in ways that we would like to be blessed.

This can lead to jealousy and envy and thinking terrible thoughts about people whom God has given good things while withholding some of those things from us.

And those others might even be sinners, unlike us, you understand.

Next may come complaints about what we judge to be unfair.

Complaints that are spoken before the Lord because He listens.

If we are not careful, we may know better than God how to run His creation, just like Hillel before he was cast out.

So finding fault with God's management puts us on very thin ice.

Circumstances like this can drive us to the super righteousness that Solomon warns of in Ecclesiastes 7.

That is, maybe if we just pray more and study more and become more righteous, maybe if we fast twice a week and give a tithe and a half on all that we possess, then we can earn our way into God's favor and convince Him to give us that good thing that is lacking.

That's not going to work, and there is a better way to understand this dilemma.

If we accept these verses as absolute truth, which we should, it means that if there is something lacking in our lives, it must not be good for us in the present circumstances, or else God would provide it.

That means that the failure is not in God's providence.

Perish the thought.

But in our own expectations.

And that can be hard to accept.

It can be especially challenging if what we lack is something that God Himself says or indicates is good.

It just may not be what is best for us at this time or in this circumstance.

If God is withholding something, it does not mean that God hates us and is determined to make us miserable.

As difficult as it is to believe at times, everything that God does is an act of love.

But sometimes that takes some deep evaluation to understand why and how what He does or does not do is an act of love.

When we experience a lack, it invites us to more deeply take stock of our life with God.

And consider why something perfectly legitimate might not be best for us.

And that can be uncomfortable because it may reveal something about us that we may not want to see.

That there is something about us in our present state that could make a normally good thing not be good for us.

It doesn't mean that we are a terrible person.

Incomplete, yes, but not terrible.

Probably.

But such an evaluation helps us to remember that it is God who is guiding us to the destination that He has in mind for us, and only He knows the particulars of what it will take for us not to just get there, but to arrive with the right character and the spiritual image.

The lack we experience in this life is part of what God does to make us complete.

That's the meaning of seven, completion.

Both of these seven-day feasts lack things to help make us perfect.

When we see a lack of something that would otherwise be good, we can and we should be grateful that somebody is watching out for us.

Saving us from things that would not be good for us right now, and doing something even better than what we lack under the sun.

A significant part of our journey is learning to account that where we are going and what God is forming in us vastly exceed the things that we might be missing.

But it requires fully surrendering to His way of forming us into His image, which often clashes with how we think it should be done.

We have to trust that our Master Potter knows exactly what we need and do not need to be a vessel of honor that will bring Him glory rather than itself.

As a lesson for later generations, God allowed one man to have absolutely everything physical that he wanted.

That might sound like heaven on earth, but as it turns out, it was not.

It was probably thrilling for a time.

But it turned into vanity and grasping for the wind.

Solomon's wealth and accomplishments did not truly satisfy him.

And it would be the same for every last person.

We already know that what he tried did not work and so we do not have to try to copy him.

Solomon concluded that what truly matters is what this feast teaches us to fear God and keep His commandments.

And yet even after reaching that foundational truth, Solomon still went astray.

Just knowing that paramount life principle did not keep him from turning away because he did not follow through on his conclusion.

He did not practice what God had taught him.

He lost his fear of God, and he broke His commandments.

Ecclesiastes is often part of the reading for Tabernacles.

And yet this lesson also relates to Unleavened Bread.

Unleavened Bread teaches that true satisfaction cannot come from anything physical.

Lasting satisfaction only comes from the bread of life.

To the world, that perfect bread seems lackluster.

Even revolting.

Carnal man cannot imagine the benefit of being strengthened by Christ and letting go of sin.

Like leavening, sin seems normal for the unconverted, it is a shock to think about going without.

But those who know the Father and the Son experience the sense of well-being that comes from a growing relationship.

That relationship delivers the contentment, the joy, the peace and satisfaction that eluded even Solomon.

These two feasts and the lessons that we've already seen meet together in Deuteronomy 8, if you please turn there.

Deuteronomy 8 verse 2.

Deuteronomy 8:2-3 And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.

This passage contains the themes of both eating bread from God, as well as the rigors of the wilderness journey.

Though the booths are unmentioned here, we know that they were in them.

This fills in some of the details of that time.

I noticed that it was God who caused a measure of hardship.

And denied some things to see what was in their hearts.

He does this with us as well, not just during these two feasts, but throughout our lives.

He withholds things when withholding is better.

That's what we must accept, and then begin to explore why it could be better this way with something lacking, rather than our way, with everything already perfect.

The apostle Paul exemplified this.

He experienced the heights of acclaim and status as he advanced in Judaism beyond his contemporaries, but he also experienced the depths of rejection because of Christ.

Think of Paul's ministry as a type of the wilderness journey and all of its themes.

Please turn with me to II Corinthians chapter 11.

II Corinthians 11 recounts what Paul went through in service to Christ.

And this is a resume I do not think any of us would want.

II Corinthians 11 starting in verse 23.

II Corinthians 11:23-29 Are they ministers of Christ? I speak as a fool. I am more: in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness— besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn with indignation?

If I must boast, I will boast in the things which concern my infirmity.

And then in the next chapter, Paul mentions his thorn in the flesh, and so we can add that to Paul's resume.

This apostle lived a journey that lacked physical stability of any sort, I guess, maybe except for prison.

Never knowing what the service of God might require.

Paul had nothing physical as a foundation or a source of security.

There was nothing physical upon which he could depend.

Like the Israelites in the wilderness, he was vulnerable, and he had to depend on God for food, for shelter, for protection, and for guidance.

But notice from his testimony here that the food, shelter, and protection did not always show up immediately or completely.

This was one of the most faithful and committed servants of Christ ever.

We might think that if anyone would be granted favor because of righteousness, it would be Paul.

But that was not how it worked.

Paul did not have what this world calls a charmed life.

We could look at this list and identify any number of things that we would consider good that God chose not to provide.

Things like deliverance from stripes, being kept out of prison or not being in danger of death quite so often.

Those would normally be very good things.

About not being beaten or stoned or shipwrecked.

We would consider it fantastic for those things not to happen.

And yet sometimes that was lacking as well, about deliverance from all of the perils Paul mentions, or deliverance from weariness, or being able to sleep, or always having food and clothing.

How about not having that thorn in the flesh.

All the opposites of this list seem like good things.

Paul sought God, he feared God, and he walked uprightly, and yet look at all these instances of providence or protection that were lacking for Paul.

Now my intent in this is not to make us doubt God in the least.

But to get us to think through these things, because this is for us.

Scripture cannot be broken, which means that if God intervened to stop those things or if He provided differently than He did, it would not have been good by definition.

While it could have been good in a different circumstance, or maybe for a different servant, it was better for Paul to experience the lack of certain things.

God's providence was perfect for what He was doing with Paul, even though it meant that Paul seemed to lack all sorts of things.

And yet those perils and lacks required that Paul stay focused on God.

And that was how God defines what was good for Paul.

What was truly good was what the lack of otherwise good things produced in Paul.

In other words, God defines what is good for each one individually, which is why comparing our lives is an exercise in futility.

Let's turn to Philippians chapter 4, so we can see Paul's approach to his very challenging journey.

Philippians 4 verse 11.

Philippians 4:11-13 Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Paul could genuinely write these words and mean them because of what his experiences with God had taught him about the God he was serving and we are serving.

These verses show what his focus and his priorities were because, or as a result of the hardship, because of being in dire straits so often, or lacking even food and adequate clothing at times.

His response was not to murmur and complain like Israelites.

Physical and even spiritual.

Instead, because Paul was totally on board with God's project of being completely remade in His image, and because Paul had come to know God, he could be content.

Knowing that what was truly needed would be supplied.

And that what was not supplied must not truly be needed for God's will to come to pass in his life.

Paul had fully surrendered to God's guidance and oversight of all his circumstances, and this produced a wonderful fruit within him.

Peace.

That peace came through learning to focus on God rather than the circumstances.

This allowed Paul to be content.

He was not agitated or anxious over the uncertainty or over what could go wrong or probably would go wrong or what was lacking.

He had contentment because his focus was above the sun, which allowed him to take all the things under the sun in stride.

His life was built on the rock.

Capital R.

Because of God's unique calling, he had more storms in life than probably all of us, and yet he also had an internal stability because Christ was real to him.

His final statement here in verse 13 brings in Unleavened Bread.

The source of Paul's strength during his tumultuous journey was not himself.

It could not be.

It was Christ, the bread of life.

It was food that the world would not accept because it seems to be lacking the ingredients of a fulfilling life.

And yet Paul saw it differently.

He sought out this bread because he understood its true worth.

As a result, he had strength and he had internal peace and stability even though outwardly it seemed like he was always being buffeted about.

The unconverted do not understand this.

They believe that rejoicing only comes from good times and abundance.

And yet God says there can be rejoicing in trials, or when we are abased, or when normally good things are lacking.

And now in chiasmic fashion, we will return to the beginning.

We've compared and contrasted the feasts of Unleavened Bread and Tabernacles.

We've seen some of their similarities, such as their lengths and the aspects of dwellings and food.

We've also seen how they differ because each feast teaches us something different.

But where they overwhelmingly meet together and reinforce each other is in the centrality of Jesus Christ.

He's our deliverer from spiritual Egypt.

He's our unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

He's the source of strength that we must seek every day.

He's the one guiding us on our pilgrimage, leading us in ways and places that may not make sense to us because we can't see the whole picture.

Yeah.

He's the one who's protecting us and providing for us according to what He knows is good for us.

And we might find ourselves disagreeing with Him.

Which simply means that we have not yet fully learned the lessons of these feasts.

But they are feasts to Him.

They point us to Him, and they lead us to Him.

Uh.