So, we saw that the first two feasts were a one-day feast followed by a seven-day feast, and here we see that same pattern, but in reverse, like a mirror. The last feasts of the year are a seven-day feast, followed by a one-day feast. That 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 a 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, and then seven days plus one, is also no exception. This pattern invites us to explore these feasts together, which will help us to get just a little more into the mind of their Author.
And that's what we will be doing today. We will compare and contrast Unleavened Bread and Tabernacles. We will look at what is the same and what is different, so that we might uncover connections that we may not have seen before.
As we read, the reason that we stay in temporary dwellings is because God made the Israelites 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 associate with the Unleavened Bread. We have tended to think of Tabernacles in terms of looking ahead. But by God's command, Israel had to look back to and remember the exodus journey, and this applies to us as well.
So, this is a commonality with Tabernacles, because the place the Israelites camped for the First Day of Unleavened Bread is what this feast is 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, except that it is plural. So, the Israelites stayed in booths in Succoth. This is curious because they stayed in booths in the place that had already been named booths. It was already named Succoth when they got there and made their camp. The backstory to this is found in Genesis 33:17:
So, the place the Israelites camped for the First Day of Unleavened Bread was named after the dwellings Jacob made for his animals, and those dwellings are what this current feast is named after. It's one of those understated connections in God's word. But it shows a linkage between these feasts. They have a common origin.
Here in Leviticus 23, verse 34 says the Feast of Tabernacles is for seven days, and again, it is to the LORD. It says in verse 39: you shall keep the feast of the LORD for seven days, and again in verse 41: You shall keep it as a feast to the LORD for seven days. And verse 42 says, you shall dwell in booths for seven days.
If God is not the object and our foremost consideration, then it is basically just a vacation - it isn't the Feast. It becomes our week rather than His. And we may compound the error by using second tithe to pay for our vacation.
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 to 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, 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, 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 regarding what it means to keep a feast to the LORD for seven days. And this is the pattern we follow today. We not only stay in temporary dwellings … . . .
He often says, I am the Lord your God when He is specifically emphasizing something that we need to do or not to do.
A few details here put dwelling in booths during the Feast in perspective. A booth or a tabernacle are quite similar. You could say that they are synonyms, words that mean pretty much the same thing. And any good dictionary will show this.
Booth came into English through Old Norse, meaning a dwelling and even then it had the connotation of being temporary, impermanent. That is a big thing in the understanding of these words.
Tabernacle comes to us from Latin and that was the word that they used for tent or hut, and of course they had to have a tab-er-na-cle. A four-syllable word for tent. English are so much better at that, simple words. But it also, in Latin, tabernacle implies a temporary shelter.
The Feast of Tabernacles was also to remind them that God made the children of Israel live in booths. Have you ever thought of it that way? Not that they were just crossing the wilderness and they decided to live in booths, but actually, God was the causation of this. God made the children of Israel dwell in booths for that whole trip. Forty years they had to live in a temporary dwelling, a tent, a hut.
He did it purposely. That is what this means that God made them. He had a purpose for them to dwell in booths. He wanted every generation of Israelites to remember all the things He had done to release their forefathers from slavery, that He provided for them all that they needed across all those 40 years and all those miles that they walked across the wilderness.
So, dwelling in booths, in a temporary dwelling, was to remind them, even after they had come into the Promised Land, of what kind of God they served.
God, their God, was a God of liberty. He was a God of abundance and providence that never ended. He was a God of might. He was a God of security. And a God of top-notch leadership. He is a God who keeps His promises.
This is the primary lesson of dwelling in booths.
Now in verse 42, which we read, God explicitly commands all who are native Israelites shall dwell in booths. I looked at all kinds of commentaries on this. I wanted to get as much as they would give me about this, and most of the commentaries that I read brushed this idea of native Israelites off.
They just said, Ah, this is the way Moses (or P or L or whatever person or group they thought wrote it) just meant all Israelites. But the wording is specific. Native Israelites, it says. That ignores God's inspiration.
A native Israelite suggests one born under the covenant. Kind of like, what do they call that citizenship that you get when you are born in America? I cannot remember the word they use, 'something' citizenship.
But you were born under the covenant. If you are a male, you were circumcised on the eighth day, you grew up learning all the ways of God all your life. And so all those who were native Israelites had been in the covenant since birth, and had to live in booths.
This object lesson of dwelling in booths has special significance to those who have a covenant relationship with God. A person that fits this category has much to learn about that relationship, both his obligations as well as his blessings, by or through living for a week in a booth, with not all the comforts of home but in a temporary dwelling in which we are missing things from home, from what we are used to.
