Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the children of Israel, and say, ‘On the fifteenth day of this seventh month is the feast of booths for seven days to Yahweh. On the first day shall be a holy convocation. You shall do no regular work. Seven days you shall offer an offering made by fire to Yahweh. On the eighth day shall be a holy convocation to you. You shall offer an offering made by fire to Yahweh. It is a solemn assembly; you shall do no regular work.
Parallel Translations
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Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
“Speak to the children of Israel, and say, ‘On the fifteenth day of this seventh month is the feast of booths for seven days to Yahweh.
On the first day shall be a holy convocation. You shall do no regular work.
Seven days you shall offer an offering made by fire to Yahweh. On the eighth day shall be a holy convocation to you. You shall offer an offering made by fire to Yahweh. It is a solemn assembly; you shall do no regular work.
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And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the feast of tabernacles for seven days unto the LORD.
On the first day shall be an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein.
Seven days ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD: on the eighth day shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD: it is a solemn assembly; and ye shall do no servile work therein.
Show all 3 translations
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And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying:
Speak unto the children of Israel, saying: On the fifteenth day of this seventh month is the feast of tabernacles for seven days unto the LORD.
On the first day shall be a holy convocation; ye shall do no manner of servile work.
Seven days ye shall bring an offering made by fire unto the LORD; on the eighth day shall be a holy convocation unto you; and ye shall bring an offering made by fire unto the LORD; it is a day of solemn assembly; ye shall do no manner of servile work.
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Commandments (4)
The laws of the Torah, each cited and shown as a primary source.
- To rest on the first day of Sukkot
- Not to do any work on the first day of Sukkot
- To rest on Shemini Atzeret
Show all 4
Cross-references (19)
- Nehemiah 8:14 (v34) They found written in the law how Yahweh had commanded by Moses that the children of Israel should dwell in booths in the feast of the…
- John 7:2 (v34) Now the feast of the Jews, the Feast of Booths, was at hand.
- Numbers 29:12 (v34) “ ‘On the fifteenth day of the seventh month you shall have a holy convocation. You shall do no regular work. You shall keep a feast to…
- Ezra 3:4 (v34) They kept the feast of booths, as it is written, and offered the daily burnt offerings by number, according to the ordinance, as the duty…
- Nehemiah 8:18 (v36) Also day by day, from the first day to the last day, he read in the book of the law of God. They kept the feast seven days; and on the…
Show all 19 cross-references
- John 7:37 (v36) Now on the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink!
- Exodus 34:22 (v34) “You shall observe the feast of weeks with the first fruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of harvest at the year’s end.
- Leviticus 23:7-8 (v35) In the first day you shall have a holy convocation. You shall do no regular work. But you shall offer an offering made by fire to Yahweh…
- Leviticus 23:24-25 (v35) “Speak to the children of Israel, saying, ‘In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, there shall be a solemn rest for you, a…
- Numbers 29:12-38 (v36) “ ‘On the fifteenth day of the seventh month you shall have a holy convocation. You shall do no regular work. You shall keep a feast to…
- Deuteronomy 16:8 (v36) Six days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the seventh day shall be a solemn assembly to Yahweh your God. You shall do no work.
- 2 Chronicles 7:8-11 (v36) So Solomon held the feast at that time for seven days, and all Israel with him, a very great assembly, from the entrance of Hamath to the…
- Joel 1:14 (v36) Sanctify a fast. Call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders, and all the inhabitants of the land, to the house of Yahweh, your God, and cry…
- Joel 2:15 (v36) Blow the trumpet in Zion! Sanctify a fast. Call a solemn assembly.
- Zechariah 14:16-19 (v34) It will happen that everyone who is left of all the nations that came against Jerusalem will go up from year to year to worship the King,…
- Exodus 23:16 (v34) And the feast of harvest, the first fruits of your labors, which you sow in the field; and the feast of ingathering, at the end of the…
- John 1:14 (v34) The Word became flesh, and lived among us. We saw his glory, such glory as of the one and only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.
- Deuteronomy 16:13-15 (v34) You shall keep the feast of booths seven days, after you have gathered in from your threshing floor and from your wine press. You shall…
- Hebrews 11:9 (v34) By faith, he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a land not his own, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him…
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (21 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On v36 Or, a day wherein the people are stayed from…
Or, a day wherein the people are stayed from all work.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On v34 Lev 23:34 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying,…
Lev 23:34 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, The fifteenth day of this seventh month [shall be] the feast of tabernacles [for] seven days unto the LORD.
Ver. 34. The feast of tabernacles.] It signified, the prophet Zechariah being interpreter, {Lev 14:16-19} that the remembrance of our redemption by Christ should be perpetuated with all spiritual gladness.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv34, 36 Of tabernacles, i.e. of tents, or booths, or arbours.…
Of tabernacles, i.e. of tents, or booths, or arbours. This feast was appointed principally to remind them of that time when they had no other dwellings in the wilderness, as it is expressed Lev 23:43, and to stir them up to bless God as well for the gracious conduct and protection then afforded them, as for their more commodious and secure habitations now given them; and secondarily, to excite them to gratitude for all the fruits of the year newly ended, which were now completely brought in, as may be gathered from Lev 23:39; Exo 23:16; Deu 16:13,14. See an instance of this feast Neh 8:16.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v33 We have here, I. The institution of the feast…
We have here, I. The institution of the feast of tabernacles, which was one of the three great feasts at which all the males were bound to attend, and celebrated with more expressions of joy than any of them.
1. As to the directions for regulating this feast, observe, (1.) It was to be observed on the fifteenth day of the seventh month (Lev 23:34), but five days after the day of atonement. We may suppose, though they were not all bound to attend on the day of atonement, as on the three great festivals, yet that many of the devout Jews came up so many days before the feast of tabernacles as to enjoy the opportunity of attending on the day of atonement. Now, [1.] The afflicting of their souls on the day of atonement prepared them for the joy of the feast of tabernacles. The more we are grieved and humbled for sin, the better qualified we are for the comforts of the Holy Ghost. [2.] The joy of this feast recompensed them for the sorrow of that fast; for those that sow in tears shall reap in joy. (2.) It was to continue eight days, the first and last of which were to be observed as sabbaths, days of holy rest and holy convocations, Lev 23:35, Lev 23:36, Lev 23:39. The sacrifices to be offered on these eight days we have a very large appointment of, Num 29:12, etc. (3.) During the first seven days of this feast all the people were to leave their houses, and the women and children in them, and to dwell in booths made of the boughs of thick trees, particularly palm trees, Lev 23:40, Lev 23:42. The Jews make the taking of the branches to be a distinct ceremony from the making of the booths. It is said, indeed (Neh 8:15), that they made their booths of the branches of trees, which they might do, and yet use that further expression of joy, the carrying of palm-branches in their hands, which appears to have been a token of triumph upon other occasions (Joh 12:13), and is alluded to, Rev 7:9. The eighth day some make a distinct feast of itself, but it is called (Joh 7:37) that great day of the feast; it was the day on which they returned from their booths, to settle again in their own houses. (4.) They were to rejoice before the Lord God during all the time of this feast, Lev 23:40. The tradition of the Jews is that they were to express their joy by dancing, and singing hymns of praise to God, with musical instruments: and not the common people only, but the wise men of Israel, and their elders, were to do it in the court of the sanctuary: for (say they) the joy with which a man rejoices in doing a commandment is really a great service.
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2. As to the design of this feast,
(1.) It was to be kept in remembrance of their dwelling in tents in the wilderness. Thus it is expounded here (Lev 23:43): That your generations may know, not only by the written history, but by this ocular tradition, that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths. Thus it kept in perpetual remembrance, [1.] The meanness of their beginning, and the low and desolate state out of which God advanced that people. Note, Those that are comfortably fixed ought often to call to mind their former unsettled state, when they were but little in their own eyes. [2.] The mercy of God to them, that, when they dwelt in tabernacles, God not only set up a tabernacle for himself among them, but, with the utmost care and tenderness imaginable, hung a canopy over them, even the cloud that sheltered them from the heat of the sun. God's former mercies to us and our fathers ought to be kept in everlasting remembrance. The eighth day was the great day of this feast, because then they returned to their own houses again, and remembered how, after they had long dwelt in tents in the wilderness, at length they came to a happy settlement in the land of promise, where they dwelt in goodly houses. And they would the more sensibly value and be thankful for the comforts and conveniences of their houses when they had been seven days dwelling in booths. It is good for those that have ease and plenty sometimes to learn what it is to endure hardness.
(2.) It was a feast of in-gathering, so it is called, Exo 23:16. When they had gathered in the fruit of their land (Lev 23:39), the vintage as well as the harvest, then they were to keep this feast in thankfulness to God for all the increase of the year; and some think that the eighth day of the feast had special reference to this ground of the institution. Note, The joy of harvest ought to be improved for the furtherance of our joy in God. The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof, and therefore whatever we have the comfort of he must have the glory of, especially when any mercy is perfected.
(3.) It was a typical feast. It is supposed by many that our blessed Saviour was born much about the time of this feast; then he left his mansions of light above to tabernacle among us (Joh 1:14), and he dwelt in booths. And the worship of God under the New Testament is prophesied of under the notion of keeping the feast of tabernacles, Zac 14:16. For, [1.] The gospel of Christ teaches us to dwell in tabernacles, to sit loose to this world, as those that have here no continuing city, but by faith, and hope and holy contempt of present things, to go out to Christ without the camp, Heb 13:13, Heb 13:14. [2.] It teaches us to rejoice before the Lord our God. Those are the circumcision, Israelites indeed, that always rejoice in Christ Jesus, Phi 3:3. And the more we are taken off from this world the less liable we are to the interruption of our joys.
II. The summary and conclusion of these institutions.
1. God appointed these feasts (Lev 23:37, Lev 23:38), besides the sabbaths and your free-will offerings. This teaches us, (1.) That calls to extraordinary services will not excuse us from our constant stated performances. Within the days of the feast of tabernacles there must fall at least one sabbath, which must be as strictly observed as any other. (2.) That God's institutions leave room for free-will offerings. Not that we may invent what he never instituted, but we may repeat what he has instituted, ordinarily, the oftener the better. God is well pleased with a willing people.
2. Moses declared them to the children of Israel, Lev 23:44. He let them know what God appointed, and neither more nor less. Thus Paul delivered to the churches what he had received from the Lord. We have reason to be thankful that the feasts of the Lord, declared unto us, are not so numerous, nor the observance of them so burdensome and costly, as theirs then were, but more spiritual and significant, and surer sweeter earnests of the everlasting feast, at the last in-gathering, which we hope to be celebrating to eternity.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv33–36 And the Lord spake unto Moses,.... Concerning the feast…
And the Lord spake unto Moses,.... Concerning the feast of tabernacles here repeated and enlarged upon:
saying; as follows.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv34, 36 Of tabernacles - Of tents or booths or arbours.…
Of tabernacles - Of tents or booths or arbours. This feast was appointed to remind them of that time when they had no other dwellings in the wilderness, and to stir them up to bless God, as well for the gracious protection then afforded them, as for the more commodious habitations now given them; and to excite them to gratitude for all the fruits of the year newly ended, which were now compleatly brought in.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On v34 Verse 34. The feast of tabernacles] In this solemnity…
Verse 34. The feast of tabernacles] In this solemnity the people left their houses, and dwelt in booths or tents made of the branches of goodly trees and thick trees, (of what kind the text does not specify,) together with palm-trees and willows of the brook, Le 23:40. And in these they dwelt seven days, in commemoration of their forty years' sojourning and dwelling in tents in the wilderness while destitute of any fixed habitations. In imitation of this feast among the people of God, the Gentiles had their feasts of tents. Plutarch speaks particularly of feasts of this kind in honour of Bacchus, and thinks from the custom of the Jews in celebrating the feast of tabernacles, that they worshipped the god Bacchus, "because he had a feast exactly of the same kind called the feast of tabernacles, σκηνη, which they celebrated in the time of vintage, bringing tables out into the open air furnished with all kinds of fruit, and sitting under tents made of vine branches and ivy." - PLUT. Symp., lib. iv., Q. 6. According to Ovid the feast of Anna Perenna was celebrated much in the same way. Some remained in the open air, others formed to themselves tents and booths made of branches of trees, over which they spread garments, and kept the festival with great rejoicings.
"Sub Jove pars durat; pauci tentoria ponunt;
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Sunt, quibus e ramis frondea facta easa est.
Pars sibi pro rigidis calamos statuere columnis;
Desuper extentas imposuere togas."
Ovid, Fast., lib. iii.
Concerning this feast of tabernacles, See Clarke on Joh 7:37; and "Joh 7:38"; and for the various feasts among the Jews, See Clarke on Ex 23:14.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On v36 Lev 23:36. Ye shall offer — A several offering…
Lev 23:36. Ye shall offer — A several offering each day. The eighth day — Which, though it was not one of the days of this feast, strictly taken, yet, in a larger sense, it belonged to this feast, and is called the great day of the feast, Joh 7:37. And so indeed it was, as for other reasons, so because, by their removal from the tabernacles into fixed habitations, it represented that happy time wherein their forty years’ tedious march in the wilderness was ended with their settlement in the land of Canaan, which it was most fit they should acknowledge with such a solemn day of thanksgiving as this was.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv34, 36 Seven days - Like the Passover, the feast of…
Seven days - Like the Passover, the feast of tabernacles commenced at the full moon, on the fifteenth day of the month, and lasted for seven days. The week of the feast was followed by an eighth day, forming strictly no part of it Lev 23:36, Num 29:35; Neh 8:18, which was a day of holy convocation, and appears to have been generally distinguished by the word translated “solemn assembly” Deu 16:8; 2Ki 10:20; Isa 1:13; Joe 1:14; Joe 2:15. From its derivation the word in the original appears strictly to denote a closing festival, and this rendering would apply with the most perfect fitness to the day after the week of the Feast of tabernacles, as the conclusion of the series of yearly festivals.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv34, 36 Seven days, during which the people were bound to…
Seven days, during which the people were bound to rejoice, but not to abstain from servile work; except on the first and eighth day. (Tirinus) --- Tabernacles: Greek Scenopegia; because, during the octave, the Jews lived in tents, or booths, made of branches, &c., ver. 42.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On v34 the feast of tabernacles, for seven days unto the…
the feast of tabernacles, for seven days unto the Lord--This festival, which was instituted in grateful commemoration of the Israelites having securely dwelt in booths or tabernacles in the wilderness, was the third of the three great annual festivals, and, like the other two, it lasted a week. It began on the fifteenth day of the month, corresponding to the end of our September and beginning of October, which was observed as a Sabbath; and it could be celebrated only at the place of the sanctuary, offerings being made on the altar every day of its continuance. The Jews were commanded during the whole period of the festival to dwell in booths, which were erected on the flat roofs of houses, in the streets or fields; and the trees made use of are by some stated to be the citron, the palm, the myrtle, and the willow, while others maintain the people were allowed to take any trees they could obtain that were distinguished for verdure and fragrance. While the solid branches were reserved for the construction of the booths, the lighter branches were carried by men, who marched in triumphal procession, singing psalms and crying "Hosanna!" which signifies, "Save, we beseech thee!" (Psa 118:15, Psa 118:25-26). It was a season of great rejoicing. But the ceremony of drawing water from the pool, which was done on the last day, seems to have been the introduction of a later period (Joh 7:37). That last day was the eighth, and, on account of the scene at Siloam, was called "the great day of the feast." The feast of ingathering, when the vintage was over, was celebrated also on that day [Exo 23:16; Exo 34:22], and, as the conclusion of one of the great festivals, it was kept as a sabbath.
Next: Leviticus Chapter 24
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv34, 36 THE FEAST OF INGATHERING, Lev_23:33-44.
THE FEAST OF INGATHERING, Lev_23:33-44.
34. The fifteenth day of this seventh month — This was the seventh month of the ecclesiastical, and the first of the civil, year. It corresponds to a part of our September and a part of October. This feast was at the full moon next the autumnal equinox.
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The feast of tabernacles — Its name indicates its historical significance, impressively setting forth the fact that Israel dwelt in temporary abodes in the wilderness forty years. It is probable that in the first part of the wilderness sojourn, before tents could be provided, the people lodged in booths. But their abodes are called tents when they are referred to. Lev_14:8. From its agricultural reference this feast was called the feast of the ingathering, or thanksgiving for the garnered harvest. Deu_16:13-15. The sacrifices pertaining to this festival are enumerated in Leviticus 29:12-38. In the sabbatical year the public reading of the law by the priests was enjoined as a part of this festival. Deu_31:9-13. The last reference shows that women and children were expected to be present, and not the males only. Huts or booths formed of boards, and covered with the boughs of trees tied with willows, were afterward constructed on the annual return of this feast in every nook and corner of Jerusalem, in the courts and on the roofs of houses, in the court of the temple, in the street of the Water Gate, and in the street of the Gate of Ephraim, other streets being left open for the convenience of the public. The entire suburbs must have been one vast camp of joyful sojourners. The occasion was adapted to a cultivation of the social nature, to strengthen the bond of national unity, and to quicken the devotional feelings. Though Christianity requires no such vast assemblies of believers, yet it is found that a wonderful spiritual momentum comes from the massing together of a great multitude for several days of continuous religious worship.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv33, 36 33–36. The Feast of Tabernacles (P). Cp. Num_29:7-11; Deu_16:13-15;…
33–36. The Feast of Tabernacles (P). Cp. Num_29:7-11; Deu_16:13-15; Ezr_3:4. Deu_31:10 f. directs that in the sabbatical year the Law should be publicly read at this Feast, the carrying out of which regulation is recorded in Neh_8:18.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv33–36 (33) And the Lord spake unto Moses.—Like the festivals…
(33) And the Lord spake unto Moses.—Like the festivals of new year and the day of Atonement (see Lev_23:23; Lev_23:26), the feast of Tabernacles, which is discussed in Lev_23:34-43, is introduced by this special formula, thus indicating that it was a separate communication.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On v33 Vers. 33-36. The third of the great festivals, the…
Vers. 33-36. The third of the great festivals, the Feast of Tabernacles beginning on the 15th of Tisri, as the Feast of Unleavened Bread began on the 15th of Nisan lasted seven days, and was followed by an octave; on two days, the first day and its octave, there is to be an holy convocation, and on these no servile work is to be done. The eighth day is also a solemn assembly. The meaning of the word atzereth, translated a solemn assembly, is doubtful. It occurs ten times in the Hebrew Scriptures, and appears to signify
(1) the last day of a feast; (see Joh_7:37, where mention is made of "the last day, that great day of the feast
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(2) a solemn assembly held on the last day of a feast; whence it comes to mean
(3) a solemn assembly. The Jews gave the name to the Feast of Pentecost, as being the close of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. On each of the seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles was to be offered an offering made by fire unto the Lord. The sacrifices to be offered are enumerated in Num_29:12-38. There were to be sacrificed two rams, and fourteen iambs, and bullocks diminishing by one a day from thirteen on the first day to seven on the last. These formed the burnt sacrifices. The sin offering on each day was one kid of the goats. On the eighth day the burnt offering consisted of one bullock, one ram, seven lambs, and the sin offering, as before, of one kid of the goats. Thus there were offered in all, in the eight days, seventy-one bullocks, fifteen rams, one hundred and five lambs, and eight kids, beside meat and drink offerings.
vers. 33-43The pilgrim spirit as illustrated in the Feast of Tabernacles.
Psa_39:12 Heb_11:13 1Pe_2:11. The seventh month was a very celebrated one in the Jewish year. It was the sabbatic month, so to speak, when religious services of the most important character took place. The Feast of Trumpets introduced the month, and joyful were the anticipations of blessing. Then on the tenth day, came the great ritual of atonement, with its penitential sadness. Then came, on the fifteenth day, the beginning of the Feast of Tabernacles. In the rainless harvest-time the people were expected, even after their settlement in Canaan, to spend a week in booths or tents, and with boughs of goodly trees, with palm branches, and with willows of the brook to rejoice before God. Now this least was
I A CELEBRATION OF THE PILGRIMAGE OF THE WILDERNESS. It was "that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt" (verse 43). It is most important to keep a great deliverance in mind. Hence the people were enjoined once a year to become pilgrims again, as their fathers had been. We should never forget how the Lord has led his people in every age out of bondage into pilgrimage and freedom as the avenue to rest.
II IT WAS A CELEBRATION OF THE DIVINE PROVISION IN THE WILDERNESS. For it was a harvest festival, and the fruits of the earth had been gathered in before the feast began. Before them lay, so to speak, the bounties of God"s providence, just as the manna lay morning by morning before their fathers. God was praised, therefore, for crowning the year with his goodness, as their fathers praised him for crowning with his goodness each day. It was consequently an eucharistic service in the highest degree.
III IT WAS A CELEBRATION OF THE STRANGER AND PILGRIM SPIRIT WHICH GOD FOSTERS IN ALL HIS PEOPLE. The voluntary leaving of their homes for a season to live in a "tented state" was a beautiful embodiment of the stranger and pilgrim spirit to which we are called. God in the wilderness dwelt as the Great Pilgrim in a tent with his pilgrim people; and year by year he enjoined his people in their generations to become literally "strangers with him", (Psa_39:12) as their fathers had been. And the same danger threatens us, to feel at home in this world and to give up the pilgrimage. Hence the apostle"s warning is ever needful: "Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul". (1Pe_2:11) If the world does not seem strange to us, it is because we are not living as near as we ought to God. The more access we have to him, the greater will be our moral distance from the world.
IV THE JOY OF THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES WAS ENHANCED BY THE HOME-GOING WHICH LAY BEYOND IT. The "tented state" is not intended to be permanent. Its value lies in its temporary nature. Canaan lay in sunlight beyond the wilderness, and the thought of" home" there encouraged them in their pilgrimage. The week"s camping out after Canaan had been reached made them enjoy their home life all the more. In the same way, while we confess like the patriarchs to be "strangers and pilgrims upon the earth," we are seeking, and rejoicing in the prospect of yet reaching, a better country, with a city of God and permanent abodes. (Heb_11:13-16) The pilgrimage is joyful because it is destined to end in the everlasting home. Perpetual pilgrimage no man could desire, for this would be perpetual exile from legitimate home joys. A long pilgrimage can he welcomed if it lead towards everlasting joy in the Father"s house.
And is there not an element of triumph associated with such a celebration as this Feast of Tabernacles? It indicates victory over worldly feeling through faith in God. No wonder, then, that palm branches and goodly boughs were waved by joyous ones before the Lord. It is into victorious joy he summons all his people as the earnest of the everlasting joy with which he is yet to crown them. R.M.E.
Vers. 23-25. The Feast of Trumpets.
"The Old Testament," says Augustine, "when rightly understood, is one grand prophecy of the New." The New Testament is the key to the Old.
I THE MOON WAS A SYMBOL OF THE CHURCH.
1. Its luster sets forth her beauty.
(1) Even in our Northern climate the moon is a beautiful object; but in Oriental skies she is remarkably so. Solomon compares the beauty of the bride to that of the moon (Song of Son_6:10).
(2) She shines in a light borrowed from the sun. So is the luster of Jesus the loveliness of his Church. (see Isa_30:26; comp. Mat_5:14 with Joh_8:12 Rev_12:1 Rev_21:23)
(3) As the moon enlightens the darkness in the absence of the sun, so is the Church the light of the world in the absence of her Lord. (see Mat_5:14 Joh_1:4 Joh_9:5 Php_2:15) All men should be attracted to the communion of the Church by the charms of her beauty. Professors should beware how they may hinder this issue by their inconsistencies.
2. Its changes set forth her vicissitudes.
(1) The renewals of the moon will represent the dispensations through which she passes. Thus the patriarchal, which is divided into two ages, viz. that before the Flood, and that which followed. The Mosaic, which also is divided into two ages, viz. that of the tabernacle and that of the temple, the latter being more eminently the age of prophecy. The Christian dispensation likewise is distributed into two ages, viz. the present militant and suffering age, and the triumphant age of the millennium to come. Perhaps the seventh moon may then anticipate the celestial state to follow. (see Isa_60:19, Isa_60:20)
(2) The phases through which each moon pasts will represent corresponding minor changes in the Church. She too has her waxings and wanings. Sometimes she is brightened by revivals of purity and zeal, which are followed by seasons of apostasy and degeneration. Sometimes she rejoices in seasons of peace and prosperity; then suffers persecutions and reverses.
II THE SEVENTH WAS DISTINGUISHED AMONG THE MOONS.
1. It was a high sabbath.
(1) The new moons were all observed as sabbaths. No servile work was done in any of them. (see Amo_8:5) They were memorials of the believers" rest from servility to Satan.
(2) But this moon was the beginning of the civil year, and is believed to be the time of the Creation, when vegetable nature was in perfection. It gratefully commemorated the old Creation. It joyfully anticipated the new.
2. It was a holy convocation.
(1) The people assembled for worship. This is God"s order. Those who neglect public worship under the pretext of "worshipping the God of nature in the fields," follow their own order.
(2) In company, they heard the Word of God. (see 2Ki_4:23 Isa_66:23 Eze_46:1 Amo_8:5)
(3) They feasted together upon the sacrifices. (Num_28:11-15) Thus they anticipated the spiritual festivities of the gospel, and the glorious festivities of heaven.
(4) They rejoiced in the light of the moon. (Psa_81:3 Psa_89:15, Psa_89:16) If the Psalmist rejoiced in the anticipation of the light of the gospel moon, how much more should we rejoice under that light?
3. It was a memorial of blowing of trumpets.
(1) The trumpets were blown upon every moon, but on the seventh so signally that it thence became distinguished as the Feast of Trumpets. The trumpeting began at sunrise and continued till sundown. This moon not only ushered in the new month, as the others did, but also the new (civil) year.
(2) The trumpets were sounded over the sacrifices. These were in greater number. There were net only the daily sacrifices, which were never superseded, and the ordinary sacrifices of the moons, but burnt offerings, meat and drink offerings, and a sin offering, proper to this feast. (Num_29:2-6) The sounding of the trumpets over these indicated the preaching of the gospel to be the preaching of the cross of Christ. (see Isa_27:13)
(3) The trumpeting was in memorial. If it referred to the giving of the Law, we are reminded of the trumpet that then sounded from Sinai; and the gospel law was sounded out from Sion. If the memorial referred to the Creation, then we are reminded that the Psalmist calls the word by which God made the world, "the voice of his thunder". (Psa_104:7) We are also reminded of the singing of the morning stars and shouting of the sons of God. (Job_38:6, Job_38:7) The shouting and thundering at the Creation and at the giving of the Law and the preaching of the gospel are but the echoes of the voices and trumpeting of the Judgment of the great day. "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." When the last trumpet is sounded, it will be, as on the Feast of Trumpets, at the finishing of the gathering of all the fruits of the earth. J.A.M.
Vers. 33-44. The Feast of Tabernacles.
This was the last of the great annual festivals of the Hebrews. It was a season of great joyfulness. Let us notice
I THE REASONS OF ITS APPOINTMENT.
1. It was to assure them of God"s return to dwell with them.
(1) This reason is not given in the text, but may be gathered from the history. The commission to build the tabernacle of witness, which had been suspended in consequence of their rebellion, was renewed to Moses in the mount. When he brought them these good tidings, he directed them to construct booths, for they were to abide in their present encampment until the work should be accomplished.
(2) In due time the Shechinah possessed the tabernacle. This glorious event foreshadowed the sublime mystery of the incarnation. (comp. Joh_1:14) How wonderful is that grace of the gospel according to which believers become the shrines of Deity! (1Co_3:16 1Co_6:19 2Co_6:16)
2. It was to remind their children that their fathers camped in the desert.
(1) The condition of Israel in the wilderness described the Christian in his journey through the world in quest of the heavenly Canaan.
(2) The dwelling in booths exhibited the changeful and. unsettled nature of earthly things. (see Heb_11:9) This fact is obvious; yet we need to be reminded of it.
(3) The Hebrews dwelling happily in Canaan were not to forget the humble state of their fathers. Prosperity leads us to forget the day of humility; therefore this Divine institution recurring annually to counteract that tendency. In the review of the barbarity of our ancestors, we may feel more grateful to God for the blessings of civilization.
3. It was to be a yearly national harvest thanksgiving.
(1) This is here specified in the note of time, viz. "when ye have gathered in the fruit of the land" (verse 39). The vintage as well as the harvest was then gathered in. (see Exo_34:22 Deu_16:13) The goodness with which God crowns the year should ever be celebrated by us with grateful hearts.
(2) In Exodus the Feast of Tabernacles is called the Feast of Ingathering. (Exo_23:16 Exo_34:22) Thus viewed, it was an anticipation of the Resurrection. The general resurrection is that final ingathering at the end of the world"s a real year, of which the resurrection of Christ was the firstfruit. (1Co_15:20)
(3) This thanksgiving was on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, five days after the Day of Atonement, on which the people had afflicted their souls. The joys of salvation follow upon the sorrows of repentance. The joys of the Resurrection rise out of the horrors of Calvary.
II THE MODE OF ITS CELEBRATION.
1. It began and ended with a holy convocation.
(1) The first day, perhaps the fourteenth day of the seventh month, the eve of the feast, was kept as a sabbath from servile work. God should be served in our everyday employments; yet must there be cessation from those employments for his more especial service. Great importance is attached to social worship in Holy Scripture.
(2) The eighth day also was a sabbath. This was distinguished as" that great day of the feast". (see Joh_7:37) Upon it the fall round of sacrifices were offered (verse 37). On this day also the people of God returned to their houses, and so celebrated their entrance into Canaan after the toils of the wilderness, and anticipated the rest of heaven. The freedom from servile work on this day showed that at the last day all toil will terminate in the glorious rest of eternity.
(3) This was the day on which "Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst," etc. (Joh_7:37, Joh_7:38) The occasion appears to have been that of the priest"s pouring out as a libation water which he had drawn from the pool of Siloam in a golden flagon. This ceremony was not prescribed in the Law. Jesus calls off attention from human ceremonies to himself.
2. On the fifteenth day they gathered the boughs for their booths (verse 40). (l) This employment had its obvious economic use. They needed the shelter which their tabernacles afforded.
(2) But there was a religious import in what they did; and the trees were emblematical. The thick shady trees, such as the oak or beech, afforded shelter and protection, and suggested the protection and shelter of the covenant of God. The" palm" was an emblem of victory. (Rev_7:9) The "willows of the brook" represented the thriving condition of the happy. (Isa_44:4) The olive was a symbol of peace. (see Neh_8:15) When Jesus proved himself to be" the Resurrection and the Life" by his miracle upon Lazarus, the people acknowledged it by the boughs of trees. (Joh_12:13)
3. Sacrifices were offered which were reduced in number each succeeding day.
(1) (For the account of the sacrifices, see Num_29:12-38)
(2) Could the reduction in the number be intended to foreshow that the typical sacrifices were destined to vanish away?
Jacob seems to have anticipated this feast on his entering into Canaan. (see Gen_33:17) Anticipations of the Law, as well as of the gospel, are often seen in the history of the patriarchs.
After the plague upon the enemies of Jerusalem in the last days of the Gentiles, the remnant will turn to the Lord, and keep the Feast of Tabernacles. (see Zec_14:16) The gospel teaches us now to go out to Christ without the comp. J.A.M.
Vers. 33-43. Joy before the Lord.
The idea that, under the ancient Law, Israel was a peculiarly severe and gloomy nation, is essentially false. Gravity rather than light-heartedness may indeed have characterized them: they may have had much "seriousness of soul;" but they were familiar with joy, and sometimes gave themselves up to great and continued gladness of heart. It was radiant sunshine in Israel during the Feast of Tabernacles. The whole engagements of the sacred festival suggest to us
I THAT SORROW IS OFTEN FOLLOWED BY JOY, AND THAT SACRED SORROW IS THE SOURCE OF PUREST JOY. It is significant that this Feast of Tabernacles came only five days after the Day of Atonement, the day on which they were commanded to "afflict their souls" (see verses 27, 34). How often does a very small interval divide joy and. sorrow! so checkered are the scenes of our mortal life, that no man in brightest circumstances can ensure to himself five days" prosperity, and that no man under the darkest cloud need despair of seeing the sun break speedily and. shine serenely on his path. And when sorrow is hallowed by reflection, submission, prayer, there is laid the foundation of purest joy. The happiness which is born of submission to the will of God is something which "satisfies and sanctifies the mind." It is a joy that lasts.
II THAT PROSPERITY DOES WELL SOMETIMES TO TURN A BACKWARD LOOK ON THE ADVERSITY IT HAS LEFT BEHIND. (Verses 40, 42, 43.) It was well for Israel, dwelling in strong and comfortable houses, to spend one week in the year in the "booths," which took them back in thought to the tents of the wilderness. When God gives either to a man or to a nation to rise out of obscurity and hardship into prominence and comfort, to pass from spiritual destitution to a state of abounding privilege and opportunity, nothing is more desirable than that he (or it) should occasionally revert to the old days of toil or want, and have his (its) heart filled with thankfulness to him who plants our feet upon the rock, who lifts us up to the high place of prosperity and power.
III THAT HAPPINESS IS SAFE ONLY WHEN IT IS SANCTIFIED. The Hebrew nation was to "rejoice before the Lord seven days" (verse 40). The heart of the people was to be filled with overflowing gladness, but it was to be poured out "before the Lord so it was safe and salutary. Happiness, success, attaining the height of our hopes, this is very apt to run into
(1) unrestrained mirth, or
(2) proud complacency of spirit, or
(3) unchristian selfishness.
So it becomes a curse to him who should be blessed. Let us take care to "rejoice before the Lord," to turn joy into gratitude, to go with our gladness into the sanctuary of the Lord, to consecrate our substance to his service, to consult his will in the way in which we shall use our power or our opportunity; then will our increase and. elevation, of whatever kind it he, prove a blessing, and not a bane to ourselves anti to our neighbours.
IV THAT EARTHLY JOY IS THE JOY OF HAPPY PILGRIMAGE. Our earthly house is but a tabernacle; (2Co_5:1) it is to be soon taken down and to give place to a "house in the heavens." We are, as the Hebrew nation, dwelling in booths. This is but a transitory condition; we must not think and act as if it were our "continuing city." Such joy as pilgrims have, who are ever looking forward to a blessedness to come, we may permit ourselves. But alas! for him who "has his reward" here, and looks for none hereafter, whose only heritage is in the "world that passeth away." Well is it for him whose holy happiness is a preparation for, and an anticipation of, the blessedness which is beyond, which abides and abounds for ever. C.
Vers. 33-44. The Feast of Tabernacles
(cf. Neh_8:17 Zec_14:16)
I PRAISE FOR ACCOMPLISHED REDEMPTION AND THE BOUNTEOUS GIFTS OF PROVIDENCE. Reminiscences of the wilderness life. Fact that Israel neglected the feast from Joshua to Nehemiah, even in the time of great national prosperity in Solomon"s reign, very instructive, pointing to ingratitude and unbelief. The religious life and the natural life blended. The joy of praise binding families together, and so nations and the world.
II The symbolical meaning of the feast THE GLORY OF ISRAEL AND THE ULTIMATE RESTITUTION OF ALL THINGS. The prophecy of Zechariah (Zec_14:16) not to be taken literally, otherwise its significance is narrowed; but as a spiritual anticipation of the enlargement of the true Church until it shall embrace the world. The gospel invites men to rejoice in the Lord.
III The feast on earth A FORETASTE OF THE HIGHER LIFE OF HEAVEN. Dwelling in booths temporary, frail, withering, yet by their nature, as pleasant places of shadow, pointing to the rest that remains for the people of God. The wilderness life leads on to the life of Canaan; the earthly festival to the heavenly; the frail tabernacle to the "city of habitations," "having foundations," etc. R.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v34 The Feast of Tabernacles.
Lev_23:34-42
The Feast of Tabernacles.
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The Feast of Tabernacles
I. It was a protracted religious meeting.
II. It was a thanksgiving for Gods bounty in a completed harvest.
III. It was a commemoration of mercies attempering hardships and dangers.
IV. It was an expression of the joyful side of religion,
V. It was a type of a greater feast now preparing for all gods true people. (H. M. Grout, D. D.)
The Feast of Tabernacles
The three distinguishing features of this feast were the dwelling in booths, the offerings, the festivities. The first served to vividly recall their forty years of pilgrimage; the second--a sacrifice of bullocks, rams, and lambs, with the accompanying flour and drink-offerings--was, as usual, a recognition of Gods demands and a plain, willing answer on their part to whom He had given everything; but the third--the universal hilarity and religious cheer-fulness--was its chief characteristic. Very naturally, in the time of Christ this latter purpose had been more than fulfilled. Many additions had been made by the Rabbis. Ceremonials most august then, and which gave occasion to two of His most blessed utterances--the pouring of the water from Siloam and the brilliant illumination of the Temple--were not in the Mosaic instructions. Prescriptions as to the style and workmanship of the booths; as to the kind, bearing, and disposition of the boughs; as to the order of procession and chanting of psalms, had made the feast quite a different affair from its original form. Each and all, however, were devised to impress upon both actor and beholder the happy condition and fortune of the Lords people.
I. The true servant is glad in reviewing Gods dealings with him. Happiness is always involved in the simple doing of the will of God, now no less than in Eden. It is awakened, too, by occasional and sober review of His guidance and care. No life has much symmetry which neglects this. Way-marks, inscribed Remember were set up all along the course of Israels journey. Their law-givers and leaders were often enjoining it. The backward look was quite as profitable as the forward to encourage and arouse. Faith would increase that no ill could betide them in the future. And the leafy bowers under which they now camped must vividly reproduce the days when such hasty coverings were all they had, and yet were ample for shelter. The fair roofs of the town were no more sufficient protection in the pilgrimage they were making upon the earth. Whether in the desert or behind lofty and massive walls of the defenced city, they should alike be heard exulting: The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand: the sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night. So, as we turn aside into the frail retreat built on any housetop, in any chamber, and there calmly retrace the course along which the Lord has led us, there is the well-remembered hour when He broke the chains which held us to the worlds claims, ideas, and rewards, and bade us set forth with all we had toward the better land. What revelations of His power and compassion were given then! How did He bring us into straits, and open, as we advanced, a way from peril of which no hint had been given, and how did we vow never to doubt His wisdom more! With what strange but wholesome truths, fresh every morning, did He feed and sustain us!
II. The true servant is glad in seeing Gods present care for him. The Jew must not then fail to show his delight, whatever his station or purse. At the meal which followed the free-will offerings, the poor, the stranger, the Levite, were welcome guests. Equality of supply and fortune had for the time its graceful illustration then, as among those wearing the wedding garment, in the parable of the Christ. So may we all alike think of ourselves as having one precious inheritance and provision. Rightly it has been said: It is a sin not to be happy, for gloominess is a reflection upon the Christ. Our Christianity cannot hope to dominate the world till it shall have shown itself possessed of the secret of happiness. Laments and groans never won a sinner to a service which would chiefly voice itself in them. Through all the scale, from the poverty of the God-fearing Waldensian peasant to the popular, artistic life of the great composer Haydn, there have always been some whose hearts respond to his words, as the string of the piano to its kindred tone: When I think upon God, my heart is so full of joy that the notes dance and leap, as it were, from my pen; and since God has given me a cheerful heart, why should I not praise Him with a cheerful spirit?
III. The true servant is glad in beholding Gods future provisions for him. The temporary resting beneath green boughs of palm and willow and myrtle; the holiday scene in which life lost something of its pressure and sternness, did but symbolise the days when even such protection would not be needed in the country beyond the Jordan. That way lay Canaan, of which this earthly land flowing with milk and honey was but a faint type. This side the river, too, every devout soul filled with the hope of Israel found, in victories and progress already gained, the pledge of a surpassing joy and glory in the near future. Messiah might appear any hour, and with Him all that could satisfy a longing heart or nation. The unattained, if believed to be attainable, has vast power of inspiration. None can tell what great occasions may come any moment to the ready, watchful servant of God. He may be given to speak the word which shall determine whether the philosophy of the age shall be atheistic or not. Some mighty reform may be waiting his voice or deed, some striking answer to prayer, some raising of a sanctuary whence shall proceed influences to regenerate remotest peoples. The precious abiding word, the present Saviour, the enduring Church, the unfolding kingdom, are His inalienably. They grow richer, plainer, more certain. Yet, compared to the freedom and splendour of the future life, this, with all its joy and liberty, is but as a jungle, through whose tangle and heavy marsh and sudden dangers one struggles on, seeing in the distance the open spaces and lofty arches of the wood, and beyond, the fair greensward where the sunlight falls and flowers bloom and noble mansions stand--his own henceforth. So bright and dazzling was the temple of Diana, that the door-keeper always cried to them that entered: Take heed to your eyes. A full disclosure of all God has provided for them that love Him would quench mortal sense. Celestial organs only are fitted for celestial scenes. (De Witt S. Clark.)
The Feast of Tabernacles
I. The time and manner of its observance.
1. The time (Lev_23:34). Five days after the Day of Atonement.
2. The manner (Lev_23:35-36; Lev_23:40-43).
(1) The duty and privilege of assembling for Divine worship.
(2) The duty and privilege of being joyous in our recognition of Gods care.
II. Its typical meaning.
1. The reality of deliverance from sin.
2. The joy of deliverance from sin.
3. The assurance of Gods care over all whom He delivers from sin.
Lessons:
1. The value of memorial days,
2. The duty of gratitude.
3. The eternal blessedness of the feast of tabernacles awaiting Gods children in the land of final deliverance. (D. C. Hughes, M. A.)
The Feast of Tabernacle
s:--This festival derived its name from the fact that during the first seven days for which it lasted, the children of Israel went out of their habitations, and dwelt in booths or tabernacles, until the eighth day, when they returned unto their houses. It was also called the Feast of Ingathering, because it was celebrated after all the fruits of the land were gathered in, as we ;learn in the thirty-ninth verse of the chapter before us. This festival, like the rest, was partly commemorative, and partly prophetical or typical; like them we shall find that it exhibits things past, present, and to come.
I. It had a commemorative or eucharistic meaning; it was designed to celebrate the mercy of the lord in bringing the nation safely through the wilderness, and giving them possession of the promised land. The journey through the wilderness was celebrated when they went out of their habitations, and the whole nation, leaving their settled dwelling-places, dwelt in tents or tabernacles throughout the land. And the happy termination of their wanderings was also celebrated in this festival, for on the eighth day, when they returned to their habitations, they were to have an holy convocation, they were to do no servile work therein, but they were to keep a Sabbath unto the Lord (Lev_23:36; Lev_23:39). It was a season of national rejoicing, as the ordinance that preceded it had been one of humiliation and mourning. Such was the eucharistic bearing of this ordinance, upon which we need not farther dwell; I will only observe, that in this view of its import we can see a propriety in the season at which it was celebrated--after they had gathered in all the fruits of the earth; a suitable occasion this on which to commemorate the goodness of the Lord.
II. But I believe the Jewish application of this feast is not only retrospective, but prospective also--that it was designed to exhibit in typical representation that which we so often read of in oral predictions, their final settlement in the promised land, and complete conversion unto God. We are led to expect such a reference from the analogy of the two preceding festivals of this month--the Feast of Trumpets and the Day of Atonement-both of which refer to Gods purposes of future mercy to the Jewish nation. The Feast of Trumpets referred more particularly to their gathering together from all the countries in which they are scattered, and their restoration to the land of Israel. The Day of Atonement exhibited their conversion unto God after their restoration, when He shall take away the stony heart, and give them hearts of flesh, and they shall look upon Him whom they bare pierced and mourn for Him. And now we have the Feast of Tabernacles which crowns the whole, and represents, as I believe, their final settlement in the peaceful and happy enjoyment of the land of promise. It would appear that the Jews themselves had some idea that this festival was designed to set forth the future mercies which the nation were to receive at the hands of the promised Messiah. It was customary at the celebration of it to make the compass of the sacrifices, bearing the branches of palm-trees and ether goodly trees in their hands; and as they thus went on in joyful procession, they sang the twenty-fifth verse of the hundred and eighteenth Psalm, Save now [Hosanna], I beseech Thee, O Lord: O Lord, I beseech Thee, send now prosperity; and on the seventh day they compassed the altar seven times, singing in like manner, and this was called the Great Hosanna.
III. But the typical import of this festival belongs not merely to the Jews; it also, in common with the rest, applies unto the church of this dispensation, both in its present character and future glory. The eighth day, which, as we have seen, shadows forth the time of Judahs salvation, and of consequent earthly blessedness, refers also to heavenly and eternal things. It is the first day of a new week, and therefore reminds us of resurrection; and coming at the end of the complete period of seven days, it brings us to the day when time shall be no longer--the eternal day of resurrection glory. And to the Church this day shall commence when the kingdom of God is established in the world. Let us endeavour, then, to trace the type in the several particulars of its application; and--
1. On the first day there was a holy convocation, and the children of Israel went forth from their houses, and made them tents to dwell in. Just realise the scene; all the families of Israel leaving their houses, giving up their employments, and devoting themselves to the service of the Lord. So it is with the Church of Christ, the heir of promised glory. Beloved, the gospel calls us out from this evil world, and makes us strangers and pilgrims here. The gospel finds our intellects clogged with the filth of earthliness, our mind and thought concentrated upon the pursuits and occupations of this life--the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the lust of other things; and it disentangles us from the meshes of worldliness; it fills them with the glorious realities of eternity. It assembles us, as it were, in holy convocation, to offer sacrifices unto the Lord. Just as the children of Israel dwelt in tabernacles during seven days, looking forward to the eighth day when they were to enter into rest, so it is with the Israel of God; the Church is a stranger here, looking forward to the day of coming rest.
2. But this was a feast of joy; when the children of Israel throughout the land were to rejoice before the Lord they cut down the branches of palm-trees, and of other goodly trees, and carried them throughout all their coasts, in token of triumphant joy. And so with those whom God has called out of their habitations, they are called to rejoice before the Lord. If the gospel has called us out from this world, it is that it may open to us springs of never-failing joy of which the world knows nothing, which it can never give, and can never take away. They do greatly err who imagine that religion cuts off all our present happiness. But mark, if we would taste the joy we must come out of our habitations: if we would wave the palm of triumph in the land, we must dwell as strangers there. This joy is not as the world gives, nor is it founded upon earthly things, and therefore if we keep the feast, it must be the Feast of Tabernacles; if we would rejoice before the Lord, it must be in the position of those who are looking forward to their rest. Observe, too, these palms are the emblems of victory--the symbols of triumphant joy. The rejoicing Christian will ever be in the attitude of the conqueror, always conflicting indeed, but not overcome in the conflict against the devil, the world and the flesh. The character of the Christian, as described in Scripture, is that of the victor--of one who is evermore victorious, overcoming by the blood of the Lamb.
3. But the great day of the feast was the eighth day, the type of rest in resurrection glory. On this day the children of Israel struck their tents, and rested again in their habitations; on this day they drew the water from Siloam, and watered therewith the sacrifices, with songs of joy; on this day the priests made the compass of the altar seven times, bearing with them the branches of palm-trees, and of other goodly trees, and singing as they went, Hosanna in the highest. So shall it be with the Church of Christ in that great day--the sun whereof shall never set in darkness--the everlasting day. Then the tabernacle of God shall be with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God. Then the mystery of the water which was poured upon the sacrifices shall be fulfilled., when He who is the Alpha and the Omega, shall proclaim, It is done. I will give to him that is athirst to drink of the water of life freely. Then He who at the Feast of Tabernacles invited sinners to come to Him and drink, shall lead His redeemed people by living fountains of waters, and make them drink of the river of His pleasures. Then, too, the symbol of the palm branches shall be accomplished in the final victory of the redeemed over Death and Hades; and they shall realise the blessed fulfilment of the promise, He that overcometh shall inherit all things. (J. B. Lowe, B. A.)
The Feast of Tabernacles
(a New Years sermon
):--
I. Let us observe this season as a feast of thanksgiving. Review the mercies of the past year--of all your past life.
1. There are the common blessings, enjoyed by all, of continued life and unceasing bodily sustenance. Then we have had houses and raiment. Most have been favoured with good health, and with all the happiness of good credit and friendly intercourse. As Englishmen, we have cause for thankfulness in our civil rights and political privileges, and our present exemption from war. As Christians, we have enjoyed every advantage that could be devised for our spiritual edification and Scriptural instruction.
2. Then there are special benefits, which individuals have received in particular experiences or exigencies. One man has been singularly prospered in his business or profession, another rejoices in the advancing respectability of his children. Perhaps an additional arrow has been given to the quiver, or the feeble child has been made strong, the dissolute one has been reclaimed, or the absent one restored.
3. Then there are spiritual mercies, such as the joy of conversion, succour in temptation and trouble, triumph and progress in labours of philanthropy and love. All of these demand thanksgiving and praise.
II. Commemoration. At this season we should reflect on the short and uncertain term of our existence upon the earth. Our life below is a journey through a wilderness where we dwell not in enduring habitations, but in temporary tents. We shall one day die, and ought not to rejoice in growing older, unless we are conscious of an increasing preparation for a better world. Heaven is nearer than it was, and it behoves us to address ourselves with greater ardour and zeal to the prosecution of our pilgrimage thither.
III. The last constituent of our spiritual feast is A renewed consecration of ourselves to the service of God. This implies a deep study of Gods law. Our growth in holiness demands this effort and attention on our part, and we must not rely on the spontaneous and uncultured growth of our souls in religion. The commencement of a new year is a fitting time for reviewing our progress in Divine knowledge and adopting fresh plans for the future. (Anon.)
The Feast of Tabernacles
1. This feast was to be kept in remembrance of their dwelling in tents in the wilderness. Thus it is expounded here (Lev_23:43). That your generations may know, not only by the written history, but by this ocular tradition, that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths. Thus it kept in perpetual remembrance
(1) the meanness of their beginning, and the low and desolate state out of which God advanced that people. Note--those that are comfortably fixed ought often to call to mind their former unsettled state, when they were but little in their own eyes.
(2) The mercy of God to them that when they dwelt in tabernacles, God not only set up a tabernacle for Himself among them, but with the utmost care and tenderness imaginable hung a canopy over them, even the cloud that sheltered them from the heat of the sun. Gods former mercies to us and our fathers ought to be kept in everlasting remembrance. The eighth day was the great day of this feast, because then they were returned to their own houses again; and remembered how, after they had long dwelt in tents in the wilderness, at length they came to a happy settlement in the land of promise, where they dwelt in goodly houses. And they would the more sensibly value and be thankful for the comforts and conveniences of their houses, when they had been seven days dwelling in booths. It is good for those that have ease and plenty sometimes to learn what it is to endure hardness.
2. It was a feast of ingathering, so it is called (Exo_23:16). When they had gathered in the fruit of their land (Lev_23:39), the vintage as well as the harvest, then they were to keep this feast in thankfulness to God for all the increase of the year; and some think that the eighth day of the feast had special reference to this ground of the institution. Note--the joy of harvest ought to be improved for the furtherance of our joy in God. The earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof; and therefore whatever we have the comfort of lie must have the glory of, especially when any mercy is perfected.
3. It was a typical feast. It is supposed by many that our blessed Saviour was born much about the time of this feast; then He left His mansions of light above to tabernacle among us (Joh_1:14), and He dwelt in booths. And the worship of God under the New Testament is prophesied of under the notion of keeping the Feast of Tabernacles (Zec_14:16). For--
(1) The gospel of Christ teacheth us to dwell in tabernacles, to sit loose to this world as those that bare here no continuing city, but by faith and hope, and a holy contempt of present things, to go out to Christ without the camp (Heb_13:13-14).
(2) It teaches us to rejoice before the Lord our God. Those are the circumcision, Israelites indeed, that always rejoice in Christ Jesus (Php_3:3). And the more we are taken off from this world the less liable we are to the interruption of our joys. (Matthew Henry, D. D.)
The Feast of Tabernacles
The use was--
1. To remember them of their estate when they had no houses, but lived in tents, or tabernacles, or booths, made with boughs; no fields, no lands, but lived in the wilderness; and so to stir up a thankfulness for their happy change.
2. To remember them of the Lords great works in driving out the Canaanites and giving that fruitful land unto them. Then they were a prey to all men, but now a terror to all men, wheresoever the fame of them came.
3. It served to preach unto them the doctrine afterward delivered by the apostle, to wit, that here we have no biding city, but should reckon of our houses as but of tabernacles for the time, our true hope being for houses and dwellings, and everlasting tabernacles not made with hands in heaven, &c. And may not we consider on our feast days all these things, although we have not now the same ceremonies? May not we remember our state past under superstition, cruelty, and bondage? May not we remember burnings and killings, and most hateful handlings of persecutors? May not we remember great wars and dissensions in this our native country, the fall of our friends, and the change of many houses? May not we remember great impositions and payments, and, in one word, very many miseries and calamities? Laying them to the present times, wherein we enjoy truth and liberty of conscience without either death or danger, or so much as any fear, what a change is this to a man or woman that knoweth and feeleth the blessing! Oh, that we may send up to God most thankful thoughts for it while we live! Now, again, we enjoy peace, such as no nation hath bad the like. We are not eaten up with heavy and continual payments, but we live as in heaven by comparison to former times. The Lord hath driven away the Canaanites that would have invaded and conquered had not He resisted for us and overthrown them. He hath made us a terror to our foes and a refuge or sanctuary for our friends, when erst foreign nations were lords over us. And, for the last point, we bare no more certainty of abode here than they had, but look for the same end of faith, an enduring house in heaven. (Bp. Babington.)
Keep a feast unto the Lord.
A festival kept to the Lord
From the earliest ages of which any records remain mankind have been accustomed to commemorate joyful events, and to express the joy and gratitude which such events excited, by the observance of anniversary festivals. As the all-wise God well knew how difficult it would be to wean men from the observance of such festivals, and as they were capable of being rendered subservient to His own gracious designs, He saw fit under the ancient dispensation to give them a religious character, by directing His people to observe them in commemoration of the favours which they had received from His hand, and as an expression of their gratitude for those favours. Of these Divinely appointed festivals, several are mentioned in the Levitical law, but our only concern at present is with that which is prescribed in our text--When ye have gathered in the fruit of the land, ye shall keep a feast unto the Lord. What, then, we may and ought to inquire--what is it to observe this day in a right and acceptable manner? The best answer which I can give to this question is furnished by our text. It is to keep or observe it as a festival unto the Lord. To keep a festival unto God is to observe it with a view, not to please ourselves, but to please and honour Him; to regard it as a day sacred to His special service, and to spend it in contemplating and praising His perfections, recollecting and thanking Him for His favours, rejoicing before Him in His existence, His character, His govermnent, and His works, and thus giving Him the glory which is due to His name. We shall attempt--
I. To give you a view of the manner in which this festival should be observed by us, considered simply as Gods intelligent creatures; and--
II. Of the manner in which we should observe it, considered as sinful, guilty creatures, to whom his grace and mercy are. Offered through a redeemer.
I. That the first of these proposed views may be placed before you in the clearest and most interesting light, let me request you to suppose that our first parents, instead of falling as they did from their holy state, had continued in it, until they were surrounded by a numerous family like themselves, and that in these circumstances they had set apart a day to be observed as a festival to their Creator and Benefactor. It is evident that if we can conceive of the manner in which they would have observed such a day we shall learn in what manner this day ought to be observed by us, considered simply as Gods intelligent creatures. Let us suppose the morning of their appointed festival to have just dawned. No sooner do they wake to a returning consciousness of existence than a recollection of the Author, Preserver, and Sustainer of that existence, and of their numberless obligations to His goodness, rushes upon and fully possesses their minds. No sooner do their eyes open than they are raised to heaven with a look expressive, in the highest degree, of every holy, affectionate emotion. Each one perceives, with clear intuitive certainty, that he is indebted to God for everything--that God is his life, his happiness, his all. These views fill his heart with adoring gratitude--gratitude, not like ours, a comparatively cold and half-selfish emotion, but a gratitude pure, fervent and operative, which carries out the whole soul in a rapturous burst of thankfulness and renewed self-dedication to God. Though invisible to their bodily eyes, He is not so to the eye of their minds; they perceive, they feel His presence; they feel that His all-pervading, all-enfolding Spirit pervades and embraces their souls, breathing into them love, and joy, and peace unutterable, and wrapping them up, as it were, in Himself. Thus each individual apart commences the observance of their festal day, and enjoys intimate and sweet and ennobling communion with the Father of spirits in solitary devotion. But man is a social being, and the social principle which God has implanted in his nature prompts him to wish for associates in his religious pleasures and pursuits. It is proper that he should wish for them, and if possible obtain them; for when a festival is to be kept unto the Lord, when thanksgiving and praise are to be offered, two are better than one. United flames rise higher towards heaven, impart more heat, and shine with brighter lustre than while they remained separated. If private, solitary devotion be the melody of religion, united devotions constitute its harmony, and without harmony the music is not perfect and complete. Mark the feelings with which they approach and meet. Every eye sparkles with delight, every countenance beams with affection; there is but one heart and one soul among them all, and that heart and that soul is filled with holy gratitude and love, tempered by adoring admiration, reverence, and awe. Fresh excitements to the increase of these emotions are furnished by their meeting. Each one sees in his rational, immortal fellow-creatures, a nobler work of God, a brighter exhibition of his moral perfections, than the whole inanimate creation could afford. And while each one contemplates this image of God in his fellow-creatures, he is ready to exclaim, If these miniature images of God are so lovely, how infinitely worthy of love must the great original be? If there is so much to admire in the streams, what admiration does the fountain deserve? Nor is this all. In the various relations and ties which bind them together they see new proofs of all-wise benevolence, new reasons why they should love and thank Him who established these relations and formed these ties. Under the influence of these affections the yet stammering child is taught the name of its Creator and Benefactor, while to the attentive ear of those who are a little farther advanced in life the history of the creation and of all that God has done for His creatures is recounted; His commands, and their obligations to obey them, are stated; the nature and design of the festival which they are observing are explained; and they are taught to perform their humble part in its appropriate services. In these services all now join; and oh, with what perfect union of heart, with what self-annihilating humility, with what seraphic purity and fervency of affection, do they present their combined offering of thanksgiving and praise! Suffice it to say that the ear of Omniscience itself can discern no shade of difference between the language of their lips and that of their hearts unless it be this--that their hearts feel more than their lips can express. These sacred and delightful services being ended, they prepare to feast before their Benefactor; but this preparation is made, and the feast itself is participated with the same feelings which animated their devotions; for whether they eat, or drink, or whatever they do, they do all to the glory of God. On such an occasion they may, perhaps, place upon their board a greater variety than usual of the fruits of Paradise; but if so, it is not so much with a view to gratify their appetites as to exhibit more fully the various and ample provision which God has made for them, and thus, through the medium of their senses, to affect their hearts; for man has not yet begun to consume the bounty of Heaven upon his lusts. No; the blessing of God is implored and His presence desired as the crowning joy of their feast, without which even the fruits of Paradise would be insipid and the society of Paradise uninteresting. Thus while they feast upon the fruits of His bounty their souls feast upon the perfections which those fruits display. Thus God is seen and enjoyed in everything, and everything leads up their thoughts and affections to Him, while He sits unseen in the midst of them, shedding abroad His love through all their hearts and rejoicing with benevolent delight in the happiness which He at once imparts and witnesses. Meanwhile their conversation is such as the attending angels, who hover around, would not be ashamed to utter--nay, such as God Himself is well pleased to hear. The law of kindness is on all their lips, for the law of love is in all their hearts. If such is the manner in which innocent creatures would keep a feast unto the Lord, then such is the manner in which we should aim to keep this annual festival. We should desire and aim to exercise the same feelings, to worship God with the same sincerity, fervency, and unity of affection, and to converse and partake of His bounty in the same manner. Having shown how we ought to keep this festival, considered simply as Gods intelligent creatures, we shall now, as was proposed--
II. Attempt to show how we should keep it, considered as sinful creatures, under a dispensation of mercy. In attempting this we shall pursue the same course which has been pursued in the former part of the discourse. We will suppose that the holy and happy community, whose festival we have been contemplating, fall from their original state and become sinners like ourselves. Now suppose that these creatures, in this sinful, guilty, wretched, despairing state, are placed under a dispensation, in which the grace and mercy of God are offered them through a Redeemer, and that just such a revelation is made to them as has been made to us in the New Testament. Suppose farther, that after they are placed under the new dispensation they resolve to observe a religious festival. What would be necessary, what would be implied in their keeping it as a feast unto the Lord? I answer, the first thing necessary would evidently be a cordial reconciliation to God. Until such a reconciliation took place they could neither observe a religious festival nor perform any other religious duty in a right and acceptable manner. Indeed, they would have no disposition to do it, nor any of the feelings which it implies and demands. But reconciliation to God necessarily involves hatred of sin and self-condemnation, sorrow and shame on account of it. The exercise of faith in the Redeemer, through whom grace and mercy are offered, is also indispensably necessary to the right observance of a feast unto the Lord. And now let us suppose the community, which we have already twice contemplated, first as perfectly holy, and then as sinful, guilty, and undone, to be a third time placed before us, reconciled to God, exercising repentance and faith in Christ, and engaged in keeping a religious festival like that which we this day observe. They still feel, though in an imperfect degree, the same affection which we saw them exercise toward God in their original state; but these affections are, in a considerable degree at least, excited by different objects and variously modified by the change which has taken place in their situation. They still feel grateful to God for their existence, for their faculties, and for the various temporal blessings which surround them; but they now view all these things as blessings which they had forfeited and lost, and which had been repurchased for them by their Redeemer, and freely bestowed upon them as the gifts of His dying love. Hence they seem, as it were, to see His name on every blessing, and every blessing reminds them of Him. They still, as formerly, see and admire Gods perfections as displayed in the works of creation; but their admiration and their praises are now principally excited by the far brighter, the eclipsing display which He has made of His moral perfections, in the Cross of Christ, in the wonders of redemption. Loud above all their other praises and thanksgivings may be heard the cry, Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift! Thanks be unto God and the Lamb for redeeming level Even while observing a joyful festival, tears, the fountain of which is supplied by godly sorrow for sin, and gratitude to the Redeemer; tears, which it is delightful to shed, are seen on the same countenances which glow with love and hope, and beam with holy, humble joy in God. And when they sit down to the table of Providence, to feast upon His bounty, the exercise of these emotions is not suspended. They feel there as pardoned sinners ought to feel, and as they would wish to feel at the table of Christ, for the table of Providence is become to them His table; they remember Him there; they remember that whenever their daily food was forfeited by sin, and the curse of Heaven rested upon their basket and store, He redeemed the forfeiture, and turned the curse into a blessing. Hence they feast upon His bounty with feelings resembling those which we may suppose to have filled the bosoms of Josephs brethren when they ate and rejoiced before him. (E. Payson, D. D.)
Harvest thanksgiving
A wise man was once asked a difficult question. He had been gazing at some ancient structure which had long since fallen into ruins. And as he stood by those ruined walls overgrown with ivy, he was asked the question: What is it which soonest grows old? What is it which is most quickly forgotten, and is the soonest out of date? The answer was summed up in one simple word--it was gratitude. That which soonest grows old is thankfulness. Now there is a great deal of truth in that answer, for we are all of us so ready to forget the giver as soon as we have received the gift. And this spirit of unthank-fulness for every-day mercies is no recent thing. It has always been so. It was just the same when our Lord was upon earth. You will all remember the story of the ten lepers: only one returned to give thanks. Or look again, at the example of the Israelites in the wilderness. See Gods constant care for them. On every page of their history we read, not of thankfulness--but of murmuring and discontent. It was to these same Israelites that the words of the text were spoken. We have just gathered in the fruits of the land, and to-day we are keeping--in a bright and hearty Thanksgiving Service--a feast unto the Lord. Let us now look a little more closely into this subject of Thanksgiving. As we keep our feast to-day, let us look at some of the things for which we ought to be grateful, and then see how we can show our thankfulness in our daily life. In our general thanksgiving prayer, we thank God at every service for our creation. That is the first thing to be thankful f-or. God created us in His own image, and sent us into this world to live for His glory. Every one of us--even in the quiet round of every-day duties--can do something, if we try, to leave the world better than we found it. From first to last--in all its varied employments and in all its Christian duties--life is a work for God. What a charm of sacredness is thus thrown over the most menial duty or the most trifling occupation! Let us remember whose we are and whom we serve in our every-day life. Your lot may be very humble--the circle in which you move may be very small--the work that you may be able to do very trifling, but still it is Gods work. Let your lot be ever so humble, still it can be a noble one, if you are only true to yourself and your God. A noble life needs no adornment of wealth or position. Look, for example, at that life which closed amid loneliness and desertion within the embattled citadel of Khartoum. One little sentence written by that simple-hearted soldier--whose allegiance to his Queen was only equalled by his devotion to Christ--gives the key-note of his life. Speaking of Egypt, he said, It is Gods work and not mine--if I fail, it is His will--if I succeed, it is His work. And then there are other reasons for thankfulness in our preservation and all the blessings of this life, but above all, for the gift of Jesus Christ. This is the highest cause for thanksgiving, for what would earth have been without a Saviour? And as we thank God to-day for the late harvest, which is to provide us with our daily bread, let us also thank Him for the gift of His dear Son--the Bread of Life, which has come down from heaven--for the salvation and strength of our immortal souls. When we care very much for any one, how anxious we are to show our love by doing what we know will please them! And it should be just the same in our love for God. We should always be anxious to do what will please Him. But now, let us see how we may best show our gratitude for all that God sends us. The Prayer-Book tells us of two ways in which our thankfulness may be shown, not only with our lips, but in our lives. The first way, then, to acknowledge God as the Giver of all good things, is by giving actual thanks. By words of gratitude in our prayers and by songs of praise and thanksgiving, such as we have joined in to-day. We have seen others called aside and laid upon a sick-bed, and God in His mercy has given us health and strength. But we are to render thanks, not only with our lips but in our lives. Thankfulness can be shown by a proper enjoyment of Gods gifts. We are not to lay them by in a miserly manner. If God blesses us with the good things of this life, we are not to be selfish and think only of ourselves. In taking a proper enjoyment of things, we can also try to do good to others. But the highest of all gratitude is for us to realise that we are Gods stewards. Let us give of our substance to any who are worse off than ourselves, ministering especially to those who, through sickness or adversity, are in need of our help. To do good and to distribute, forget not, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. (Philip Neale.)
Ye shall dwell in booths seven days.--
Sojourning in booths
It was commemorative (see Lev_23:43). It was significant of--
I. Christ tabernacling in the flesh. Three facts are suggestive here of Christs incarnation being foreshadowed in this feast.
1. Johns use of the idea, The Word dwelt (tabernacled) among us, full of grace and truth (Joh_1:14).
2. The peoples gathering of palm branches when persuaded of His Messiahship (Mat_21:8-9).
3. Christ chose the great day of the feast, of this very Feast of Tabernacles, to identify Himself with one of its incidents. While the waters of Siloam were being, on that eighth day, poured on the altar steps, Jesus stood and cried, If any man thirst let him come unto Me and drink (Joh_7:37-38).
4. Yet His tabernacle life was not permanent. Booths are for pilgrims, not residents. And Jesus was here but for a season. Yet a little while I am with you.
II. Mans insecure tenure on the Earth.
1. A booth of boughs and palms would quickly wither; so does our frail tabernacle. What are these bodies but tents of drooping flesh?
2. It was, moreover, occupied but a few days; and we are resident in this body only a brief season. Think not to stay long here.
3. The materials of the booths were of the earth and returned to the earth: mere growths from the soil, soon to decay and go back to the soil. Even so, dust thou art, &c., of the earth earthy.
III. A Christians pilgrim career. Israel dwelt in booths through their journey from Egypt to Canaan (see verse 43).
1. Christs redeemed are pressing through a wilderness. It is not their goal.
2. Rest and content are not to be sought here. A temporary accommodation is enough.
3. Earths discomfort gives zest to desire for the city of habitation. And as Israel, weary with their booth life, craved the sure abodes of Canaan, so we earnestly desire to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven; for in this we groan, being burdened.
4. Gods ordinance of a booth life was a pledge of the certainty of Canaan. It assured them that He desired them to journey forward to the goodly land. And He would have us set our face Zion-ward. (W. H. Jellie.)
Dwelling in booths
I. The text reminds us of conditions of life very like this dwelling in booths.
1. A feeble body, answering its purpose many years, is like dwelling in booths. Every birthday from the first anniversary has seemed as though it must be the last; but they will be gathered to their graves fall of years, as a shock of corn fully ripe. The cedar has fallen, but the fir-tree stands; the flower of the grass has withered, but some of the most tender blades survive. Verily, looking at the frailty of the body, God makes some of us to dwell in booths.
2. Providing by slender means all that is really needful for a large family is like dwelling in booths.
3. A morbidly sensitive spirit kept sound is like dwelling in booths. To the border-line of madness many come who are not permitted to cross.
4. A nature prone to gross evil and kept from the power of temptation is like dwelling in booths.
5. A church preserved in peace and unity, with the elements of evil within it and evil influences around it, is another example of God making to dwell in booths. While human nature is what it is, you cannot have association of any kind without the elements of mischief and the seeds of dissolution. Where there is continuance and unity and peace in a religious community, we have another illustration of God making to dwell in booths.
6. To have lived in a day of small things, and gradually to have come into a day of great things, is to have been made to dwell in booths. The once contracted business now extensive, the once limited profession now a wide and broad practice, and the once tiny house now a large establishment, are illustrations.
II. The text exhibits god as sufficient for us in the most necessitous and dangerous circumstances.
1. God hath in Himself all that is necessary for the working out of His will. He is not a cistern which may be broken, but He is an everlasting fountain. Whatever life, knowledge, wisdom, or power are needful or desirable, are in Himself.
2. God uses agents and instruments, but is not dependent upon any of the agents and instruments which He employs. His connection with all such does not bind or embarrass Him. It is nothing with Him to help, whether with many or with few, or with them that have no power.
3. God is conscious of His sufficiency. He thinks of Himself as sufficient, and feels to be sufficient. God had no more care of Israel when they dwelt in booths than when they abode in fenced cities. He had no misgiving about bringing the children of Israel through.
4. There is but one thing which prevents our fully experiencing the sufficiency of God, and that is sin--wilful and persistent sin. This shortcuts the arm of God, and this closes His ear.
III. The text points out a duty of remembrance which we are all liable to neglect. This direction has chief reference not to the generation which actually dwelt in the booths, but to successive generations, and to these after they had become tenants of the cities of the Holy Land. Now if we are to keep in remembrance Gods goodness to our ancestors, how much more should we keep in mind Gods mercy to ourselves! There is a point here, however, which we may not overlook. Gods mercy to a family in previous generations places the present members of that family under obligation. The same remark will apply to a nation and to a church--to any community or association. (S. Martin, D. D.)
Moses declared . . . the feasts of the Lord.--
Pleasant ministries
And Moses declared unto the children of Israel the feasts of the Lord. What a change in his great ministry! Never was man charged with the delivering of so many disciplinary and legal words. It is time that he had something to say with easier music in it, conveying a pleasanter appeal to the imagination and the whole attention of Israel. It was a new mission. The lips of Moses must have grown hard in the delivery of hard speeches. It was his business always to deliver law, to recall to duty, to suppress revolution, to command and overawe the people whose fortunes he humanly led. What wonder if the people dreaded his appearance? That appearance might have been equal to a new Sinai, a new Decalogue--a harder speech of law and duty and servitude. It was a pleasant thing for Moses, too, this change in the tone of his ministry; he is now speaking of feasts, of festivals--times of solemn rejoicing--yea, some of the very feasts which were instituted were designated by names the roots of which signified to dance and be glad with great joy. An awful fate for any man to be merely the legal prophet of his age! A most burdensome mission always to be called upon to rebuke and chastise, to suppress, and to put men down to their proper level, and call them up to their proper obedience I Thus the Lord varies the ministry of His servants. He says, There will be no utterance of new law to-day, but this very day shall be a day of feasting and music and dancing; He will have a home in the wilderness--a glad, warm, happy home: all troublesome memories shall be dismissed and one overmastering joy shall rule this festal day. That is the speech He has been longing to make; but we would not let Him. He never wanted to make any other speech; we ourselves forced the hard terms from His reluctant lips. A complete ministry is terrible and gracious. It is terrible by the necessities of the case. Consider the nature with which the ministry of heaven has to deal: there is none righteous, no not one; we have turned aside from the right way, and are far from the centres of light and rest and peace; sometimes nothing will reach us but fear, terror, awful denunciation of anger, and judgment. But the ministry is also gentle: there is no gentleness like it. The true ministry of Christ is marked by surpassing and ineffable grace: its eyes are full of tears; its great trumpet-tones are broken down by greater sobs; it pities the weak; it speaks a word of hope to the fallen; it tells the farthest off that there is time for him to get home before the nightfall, or if he be overtaken with the darkness the light will be in the house he has abandoned; it pleads with men; it beseeches men to be reconciled to God; it writes its promises in syllables of stars; it punctuates its speech with fragrant flowers; it breaks down into the omnipotence of weakness by clinging to the sinner when all men have abandoned Him in despair. We must establish a whole ministry. The mountain must have two sides: the side where the darkness lingers; the side where the light plays and dances in many a symbolism. This is human life. The two sides must go together. When the ministry thunders its law, it must be upheld; when it breaks down in tears over the Jerusalem that has rejected it, it must be regarded as the very heart of God. Notice the time when the feasts were spoken of. Let us regard the very position of the text as instructive. We have now read up to it; beginning with the bondage in Egypt, dwelling tearfully and sympathetically upon that pagan servitude, watching the children of Israel led forth by a mighty hand, we have noted the discipline which afflicted them educationally; by this time we have become familiar with their hardships, now it is a welcome relief to the reader to come upon festival, dancing, joy, delight--one touch of heaven in a very wilderness of desolation. This is the day we have longed for. There was a hope hidden in our hearts that, by and by, golden gates would swing back upon happy places and offer us the liberty of heaven. We have come to that Sabbatic time; now we are in times of jubilee and Sabbath, release, pardon, rapture, praising God all the time, having found a temple without a roof, a sanctuary without a wall, an infinite liberty vast as the Being which it adores. Notice whose feasts they were, and how joy is ennobled by solemnity. And Moses declared unto the children of Israel the feasts of the Lord. They were not fools revels; they were not inventions even of Moses and Aaron; they were as certainly Divine creations as were the stars that glittered above. Is feasts not a word too frivolous to associate with the name of the Lord? No. If we are to judge by analogy, No. The God of flowers may be the God of feasts. We know the flowers are His; we know that no Solomon has ever arrayed himself in equal beauty; He who made those flowers must have made a feast somewhere--a feast of reason, a feast for the soul, a luxury for the inner taste, an appeal to the larger appetency. He who made the birds may surely be the God of the souls music. The birds sing so blithely, without one touch of vanity; so purely, so independently, without pedantry, without sign or hint of human education; the God who set their little throats in tune may surely be the God of all pure music--the mothers broad laugh over her little one, the fathers tender voice in the presence of distress and need; and He who made the birds throat may have put it into the mind of man to make the trumpet, and the cornet, and the flute, and the harp, and the sacbut, and the psaltery; they may be His judging by the happy analogies of nature. He who made summer, may have made heaven! There is but a step between them. (J. Parker. D. D.)
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The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v33 "And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto…
THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES
Lev_23:33-43
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"And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, On the fifteenth day of this seventh month is the feast of tabernacles for seven days unto the Lord. On the first day shall be a holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work. Seven days ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord: on the eighth day shall be a holy convocation unto you; and ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord: it is a solemn assembly; ye shall do no servile work. These are the set feasts of the Lord, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, to offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord, a burnt offering, and a meal offering, a sacrifice, and drink offerings, each on its own day: beside the sabbaths of the Lord, and beside your gifts, and beside all your vows, and beside all your freewill offerings, which ye give unto the Lord. Howbeit on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when ye have gathered in the fruits of the land, ye shall keep the feast of the Lord seven days: on the first day shall be a solemn rest, and on the eighth day shall be a solemn rest. And ye shall take you on the first day the fruit of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook; and ye shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days. And ye shall keep it a feast unto the Lord seven days in the year: it is a statute forever in your generations: ye shall keep it in the seventh month. Ye shall dwell in booths seven days; all that are homeborn in Israel shall dwell in booths: that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God."
The sin of Israel having been thus removed, the last and the greatest of all the feasts followed the feast of tabernacles or ingathering. It occupied a full week (Lev_23:34), from the fifteenth to the twenty-second of the month, the first day being signalised by a holy convocation and abstinence from all servile work (Lev_23:35). Two reasons are indicated, here and elsewhere, for the observance: the one, natural (Lev_23:39), the completed ingathering of the products of the year; the other, historical (Lev_23:42-43), -it was to be a memorial of the days when Israel dwelt in booths in the wilderness. Both ideas were represented in the direction (Lev_23:40) that they should take on the first day "the fruit of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook," fitly symbolising the product of the vine and the fruit trees which were harvested in this month; and, making booths of these, all were to dwell in these tabernacles, and "rejoice before the Lord their God seven days." And to this the historical reason is added, "that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt."
No one need feel any difficulty in seeing in this a connection with similar harvest and vintage customs among other peoples of that time. That other nations had festivities of this kind at that time, was surely no reason why God should not order these to be taken up into the Mosaic law, elevated in their significance, and sanctified to higher ends. Nothing could be more fitting than that the completion of the ingathering of the products of the year should be celebrated as a time of rejoicing and a thanksgiving day before Jehovah. Indeed, so natural is such a festivity to religious minds, that-as is well known-in the first instance, New England, and then, afterward, the whole United States, and also the Dominion of Canada, have established the observance of an annual "Thanksgiving Day" in the latter part of the autumn, which is observed by public religious services, by suspension of public business, and as a glad day of reunion of kindred and friends. It is interesting to observe how this last feature of the day is also mentioned in the case of this Hebrew feast, in the later form of the law: {Deu_16:13-15} "After that thou hast gathered in from thy threshing floor and from thy winepress thou shalt rejoice in thy feast, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are within thy gates, and thou shalt be altogether joyful."
The chief sentiment of the feast was thus joy and thanksgiving to God as the Giver of all good. Yet the joy was not to be merely natural and earthly, but spiritual; they were to rejoice (Lev_23:40) "before the Lord." And the thanksgiving was not to be expressed merely in words, but in deeds. The week, we are elsewhere told, was signalised by the largest burnt offerings of any of the feasts, consisting of a total of seventy bullocks, beginning with thirteen on the first day, and diminishing by one each day; while these again were accompanied daily by burnt offerings of fourteen lambs and two rams, the double of what was enjoined even for the week of unleavened bread, with meal offerings and drink offerrings in proportion. Nor was this outward ritual expression of thanksgiving enough; for their gratitude was to be further attested by taking into their glad festivities the Levite who had no portion, the fatherless and the widow, and even. the stranger.
It is not hard to see the connection of all this with the historical reference to the days of their wilderness journeyings. Lest they might forget God in nature, they were to recall to mind, by their dwelling in booths, the days when they had no houses, and no fields nor crops, when, notwithstanding, none the less easily the Almighty God of Israel fed them with manna which they knew not, that He might make them to "know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every thing that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Deu_8:3." There is, indeed, no better illustration of the intention of this part of the feast than those words with their context as they occur in Deuteronomy.
The ceremonies of the feast of tabernacles having been completed with the appointed seven days, there followed an eighth day, -an holy convocation, a festival of solemn rest (Lev_23:36, Lev_23:39). This last day of holy solemnity and joy, to which a special name is given, is properly to be regarded, not as a part of the feast of tabernacles merely, but as celebrating the termination of the whole series of sabbatic times from the first to the seventh month. No ceremonial is here enjoined except the holy convocation, and the offering of "an offering made by fire unto the Lord," with abstinence from all servile work.
TYPICAL MEANING OF THE FEASTS OF THE SEVENTH MONTH
We have already seen that the earlier feasts of the year were also prophetic; that Passover and Unleavened Bread pointed forward to Christ, our Passover, slain for us; Pentecost, to the spiritual ingathering of the firstfruits of the worlds harvest, fifty days after the presentation of our Lord in resurrection, as the wave sheaf of the firstfruits. We may therefore safely infer that these remaining feasts of the seventh month must be typical also. But, if so, typical of what? Two things may be safely said in this matter. The significance of the three festivals of this seventh month must be interpreted in harmony with what has already passed into fulfilment; and, in the second place, inasmuch as the feast of trumpets, the day of atonement, and the feast of tabernacles all belong to the seventh and last month of the ecclesiastical year, they must find their fulfilment in connection with what Scripture calls "the last times."
Keeping the first point in view, we may then safely say that if Pentecost typified the firstfruits of the worlds harvest in the ingathering of an election from all nations, the feast of tabernacles must then typify the completion of that harvest in a spiritual ingathering, final and universal. Not only so, but, inasmuch as in the antitypical fulfilment of the wave sheaf in the resurrection of our Lord, we were reminded that the consummation of the new creation is in resurrection from the dead, and that in regeneration is therefore involved resurrection, hence the feast of tabernacles, as celebrating the absolute completion of the years harvest, must typify also the resurrection season, when all that are Christs shall rise from the dead at His coming. And, finally, whereas this means for the now burdened earth permanent deliverance from the curse, and the beginning of a new age thus signalised by glorious life in resurrection, in which are enjoyed the blessed fruits of lifes labours and pains for Christ, this was shadowed forth by the ordinance that immediately upon the seven days of tabernacles should follow a feast of the eighth day, the first day of a new week, in celebration of the beginning season of rest from all the labours of the field.
Most beautifully, thus regarded, does all else connected with the feast of tabernacles correspond, as type to antitype, to the revelation of the last things, and therein reveal its truest and deepest spiritual significance: the joy, the reunion, the rejoicing with son and with daughter, the fulness of gladness also for the widow and the fatherless; and this, not only for those in Israel, but also for the stranger, not of Israel, -for Gentile as well as Israelite was to have part in the festivity of that day; and, again, the full attainment of the most complete consecration, signified in the tenfold burnt offering-all finds its place here. And so now we can see why it was that our Saviour declared {Mat_13:39} that the end of this present age should be the time of harvest; and how Paul, looking at the future spiritual ingathering, places the ingathering of the Gentiles {Rom_11:25} as one of the last things. In full accord with this interpretation of the typical significance of this feast it is that in Zechariah 14 we find it written that in the predicted day of the Lord, when (Zec_14:5) the Lord "shall come, and all the holy ones" with Him, and (Zec_14:9) "the Lord shall be King over all the earth; the Lord one, and His name one," then (Zec_14:16) "everyone that is left of all the nations shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles"; and, moreover, that so completely shall consecration be realised in that day that (Zec_14:20) even upon the bells of the horses shall the words be inscribed, "HOLY UNTO THE LORD!" But before the joyful feast of tabernacles could be celebrated, the great, sorrowful day of atonement must be kept, -a season marked, on the one hand, by affliction of soul throughout all Israel; on the other, by the complete putting away of the sin of the nation for the whole year, through the presentation of the blood of the sin offering by the high priest, within the veil before the mercy seat. Now, if the feast of tabernacles has been correctly interpreted, as presignifying in symbol the completion of the great world harvest in the end of the age, does the prophetic word reveal anything in connection with the last things as preceding that great harvest, and, in some sense, preparing for and ushering in that day, which should be the antitype of the great day of atonement?
One can hardly miss of the answer. For precisely that which the prophets and apostles both represent as the event which shall usher in that great day of final ingathering and of blessed resurrection rest and joy in consummated redemption, is the national repentance of Israel, and the final cleansing of their age-long sin. In the type, two things are conspicuous: the great sorrowing of the nation and the great atonement putting away all Israels sin. And two things, in like manner, are conspicuous in the prophetic pictures of the antitype, namely, Israels heartbroken repentance, and the removal thereupon of Israels sin; their cleansing in the "fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness." As Zechariah puts it, {Zec_12:10; Zec_13:1} "I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication; and they shall look unto me whom they have pierced: and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son"; and "in that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness." And the relation of this cleansing of Israel to the days of blessing which follow is most explicitly set forth by the Apostle Paul, in these words concerning Israel, {Rom_11:12; Rom_11:15} "If their fall is the riches of the world, and their loss the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness? If the casting away of them is the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?"
So far, then, all seems clear. But the feast of trumpets yet remains to be explained. Has Holy Scripture predicted anything falling in the period between Pentecost and the repentance of Israel, but specially belonging to the last things, which might with reason be regarded as the antitype of this joyful feast of trumpets? Here, again, it is not easy to go far astray: For the essential idea of the trumpet call is announcement, proclamation. From time to time all through the year the trumpet call was heard in Israel; but on this occasion it became the feature of the day, and was universal throughout their land. And as we have seen, its special significance for that time was to announce that the day of atonement and the feast of ingathering, which typified the full consummation of the kingdom of God, were now at hand. One can thus hardly fail to think at once of that other event which, according to our Lords express word, {Mat_24:14} is immediately to precede "the end," namely, the universal proclamation of the Gospel: "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a testimony unto all the nations; and then shall the end come." As throughout the year, from time to time, the trumpet call was heard in Israel, but only in connection with the central sanctuary; but now in all the land, as the chief thing in the celebration of the day which ushered in the final sabbatic month, precisely so in the antitype. All through the ages has the Gospel been sounded forth, but in a partial and limited way; but at "the time of the end" the proclamation shall become universal. And thus and then shall the feast of trumpets also, like Passover and Pentecost, pass into complete fulfilment, and be swiftly followed by Israels repentance and restoration, and the consequent reappearing, as Peter predicts, {Act_3:19-21 R.V} of Israels High Priest from within the veil, and thereupon the harvest of the world, the resurrection of the just, and the consummation upon earth of the glorified kingdom of God.
Of many thoughts of a practical kind which this chapter suggests, we may perhaps well dwell especially on one. The ideal of religious life, which these set times of the Lord kept before Israel, was a religion of joy. Again and again is this spoken of in the accounts of these feasts. This is true even of Passover, with which we oftener, though mistakenly, connect thoughts of sadness and gloom. Yet Passover was a feast of joy; it celebrated the birthday of the nation, and a deliverance unparalleled in history. The only exception to this joyful character in all these sacred times is found in the day of atonement; but it is itself instructive on the same point, teaching most clearly that in the Divine order, as in the necessity of the case, the joy in the Lord, of which the feast of ingathering was the supreme expression, must be preceded by and grounded in an accepted expiation and true penitence for sin.
So it is still with the religion of the Bible: it is a religion of joy. God does not wish us to be gloomy and sad. He desires that we should ever be joyful before Him, and thus find by blessed experience that "the joy of the Lord is our strength." Also, in particular, we do well to observe further that, inasmuch as all these set times were sabbatic seasons, joyfulness is inseparably connected with the Biblical conception of the Sabbath. This has been too often forgotten; and the weekly day of sabbatic rest has sometimes been made a day of stern repression and forbidding gloom. How utterly astray are such conceptions from the Divine ideal, we shall perhaps the more clearly see when we call to mind the thought which appears more or less distinctly in all these sabbatic seasons, that every Sabbath points forward to the eternal joy of the consummated kingdom, the sabbath rest which remaineth for the people of God. {Heb_4:9}
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v33 Lev 23:33 - Lev 23:44.
Leviticus
THE CONSECRATION OF JOY
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Lev 23:33 - Lev 23:44.
These directions for the observance of the great festival at the close of harvest are singularly arranged. Lev 23:33 - Lev 23:36 give part of the instructions for the Feast, Lev 23:37 - Lev 23:38 interrupt these with a summary of the contents of the chapter, and Lev 23:39 - Lev 23:44 pick up the broken thread, and finish the regulations for the feast. Naturally, this apparent afterthought has been pointed out as clear evidence of diversity of authorship. But a reasonable explanation may be given on the hypothesis of the unity of the section, by observing that Lev 23:33 - Lev 23:36 deal only with the sacrificial side of the feast, as worship proper, and thus come into line with the previous part of the chapter, which is occupied with an enumeration of the annual ‘feasts of the Lord’ {Lev 23:4}. It was natural, therefore, that, when the list had been completed by the sacrificial prescriptions for the last of the series, the close of the catalogue should be marked, in Lev 23:37 - Lev 23:38, and that then the other parts of the observances connected with this feast, which are not sacrificial, nor, properly speaking, worship, should be added. There is no need to invoke the supposition of two authors, and a subsequent stitching together, in order to explain the arrangement. The unity is all the more probable because, otherwise, the first half would give the name of the feast as that of ‘tabernacles,’ and would not contain a word to account for the name.
We need not, then, include the separating wedge, in Lev 23:37, in our present consideration. The ritual of the feast is broadly divided by it, and we may consider the two portions separately. The first half prescribes the duration of the feast as seven days {the perfect number}, with an eighth, which is named, like the first, ‘an holy convocation,’ on which no work was to be done, but is also called ‘a solemn assembly,’ or rather, as the Revised Version reads, in margin, ‘a closing festival,’ inasmuch as it closed, not only that particular feast, but the whole series for the year. The observances enjoined, then, are the public assembly on the first and eighth days, with cessation from labour, and a daily offering. We learn more about the offering from Num 29:12 et seq., which appoints a very peculiar arrangement. On each day there was to be, as on other feast days, one goat for a sin offering; but the number of rams and lambs for the burnt offering was doubled, and, during the seven days of the feast, seventy bullocks were offered, arranged in a singular diminishing scale,-thirteen on the first day, and falling off by one a day till the seventh day, when seven were sacrificed. The eighth day was marked as no part of the feast proper, by the number of sacrifices offered on it, dropping to one bullock, one ram, and seven lambs. No satisfactory account of this regulation has been suggested. It may possibly have meant no more than to mark the first day as the chief, and to let the worshippers down gradually from the extraordinary to the ordinary.
The other half of the regulations deals with the more domestic aspect of the festival. Observe, as significant of the different point of view taken in it, that the first and eighth days are there described, not as ‘holy convocations,’ but as ‘sabbaths,’ or, as the Revised Version gives it better, ‘a solemn rest.’ Observe, also, that these verses connect the feast with the ingathering of the harvest, as does Exo 23:16. It is quite possible that Moses grafted the more commemorative aspect of the feast on an older ‘harvest home’; but that is purely conjectural, however confidently affirmed as certain. To tumble down cartloads of quotations about all sorts of nations that ran up booths and feasted in them at vintage-time does not help us much. The ‘joy of harvest’ was unquestionably blended with the joy of remembered national deliverance, but that the latter idea was superadded to the former at a later time is, to say the least, not proven. Would it matter very much if it were? Three kinds of trees are specified from which ‘the fruit,’ that is branches with fruit on them, if the tree bore fruit, were to be taken: palms, ‘thick trees,’ that is thick foliaged, which could give leafy shade, and willows of the brook, which the Rabbis say were used for binding the others together. Lev 23:40 does not tell what is to be done with these branches, but the later usage was to carry some of them in the hand as well as to use them for booths. The keynote of the whole feast is struck in Lev 23:40: ‘Ye shall rejoice before the Lord your God.’ The leafy spoils come into view here as tokens of jubilation, which certainly suggests their being borne in the hand; but they were also meant to be used in building the booths in which the whole nation was to live during the seven days, in commemoration of God’s having made them ‘dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt.’ This is all that is enjoined by Moses. Later additions to the ceremonial do not concern us here, however interesting some of these are. The true intention of the feast is best learned from the original simple form. What, then, was its intention? It was the commemoration of the wilderness life as the ground of rejoicing ‘before the Lord.’ But we must not forget that, according to Leviticus, it was appointed while the wilderness life was still present, and so was not to be observed then. Was it, then, a dead letter, or had the appointment a message of joy even to the weary wanderers who lived in the veritable booths, which after generations were to make a feast of mimicking? How firm the confidence of entering the land must have been, which promulgated such a law! It would tend to hearten the fainting courage of the pilgrims. A divinely guaranteed future is as certain as the past, and the wanderers whom He guides may be sure of coming to the settled home. All words which He speaks beforehand concerning that rest and the joyful worship there are pledges that it shall one day be theirs. The present use of the prospective law was to feed faith and hearten hope; and, when Canaan was reached, its use was to feed memory and brighten godly gladness.
The feast of tabernacles was the consecration of joy. Other religions have had their festivals, in which wild tumult and foul orgies have debased the worshippers to the level of their gods. How different the pure gladness of this feast ‘before the Lord’ ! No coarse and sensuous delights of passion could live before the ‘pure eyes and perfect witness’ of God. In His ‘presence’ must be purity as well as ‘fullness of joy.’ If this festival teaches us, on the one hand, that they wofully misapprehend the spirit of godliness who do not find it full of gladsomeness, it teaches us no less, on the other, that they wofully misapprehend the spirit of joy, who look for it anywhere but ‘before the Lord.’ The ritual of the feast commanded gladness. Joy is a duty to God’s children. There were mourners in Israel each year, as the feast came round, who would rather have shrunk into a corner, and let the bright stream of merriment flow past them; but they, too, had to open their heavy hearts, and to feel that, in spite of their private sorrows, they had a share in the national blessings. No grief should unfit us for feeling thankful joy for the great common gift of ‘a common salvation.’ The sources of religious joy, open to all Christians, are deeper than the fountains of individual sorrow, deep as life though these sometimes seem.
The wilderness life came into view in the feast as a wandering life of privation and change. The booths reminded of frail and shifting dwellings, and so made the contrast with present settled homes the sweeter. They were built, not of such miserable scrub as grew in the desert, and could scarcely throw shade enough to screen a lizard, but of the well-foliaged branches of trees grown by the rivers of water, and so indicated present abundance. The remembrance of privations and trials past, of which the meaning is understood, and the happy results in some degree possessed, is joy. Prosperous men like to talk of their early struggles and poverty. This feast teaches that such remembrance ought always to trace the better present to God, and that memory of conquered sorrows and trials is wholesome only when it is devout, and that the joy of present ease is bracing, not when it is self-sufficient, but when it is thankful. The past, rightly looked at, will yield for us all materials for a feast of tabernacles; and it is rightly looked at only when it is all seen as God’s work, and as tending to settled peace and abundance. Therefore the regulations end with that emphatic seal of all His commands, to impress which on our hearts is the purpose of all His dealings with us as with Israel, ‘I am the Lord your God.’
III. We may note our Lord’s allusions to the feast. There are probably two, both referring to later additions to the ceremonies. One is in Joh 7:37. We learn from the Talmud that on each of the seven days {and according to one Rabbi on the eighth also} a priest went down to Siloam and drew water in a golden pitcher, which he brought back amid the blare of trumpets to the altar, and poured into a silver basin while the joyous worshippers chanted the ‘Great Hallel’ {Psa 113:1 - Psa 118:29}, and thrice waved their palm branches as they sang. We may venture to suppose that this had been done for the last time; that the shout of song had scarcely died away when a stir in the crowd was seen, and a Galilean peasant stood forth, and there, before the priests with their empty vessels, and the hushed multitude, lifted up His voice, so as to be heard by all, and cried, saying: ‘If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink.’ What increased force is given to the extraordinary self-assertion of such words, if we picture this as the occasion of their utterance! Leviticus gives no preeminence to any one day, but John’s expression, ‘that great day of the feast,’ may well have been warranted by later developments.
The other allusion is less certain, though it is probable. It is found in the saying at Joh 8:12: ‘I am the Light of the world,’ etc. The Talmud gives a detailed account of the illuminations accompanying the feast. Four great golden lamps were set up in the court, each tended by four young priests. ‘There was not a court in Jerusalem that was not lit up by the lights of the water-drawing.’ Bands of grave men with flashing torches danced before the people, while Levites ‘accompanied them with harps, psalteries, cymbals, and numberless musical instruments,’ and another band of Levites standing on the fifteen steps which led to the women’s court, chanted the fifteen so-called ‘songs of degrees,’ and yet others marched through the courts blowing their trumpets as they went. It must have been a wild scene, dangerously approximating to the excitement of heathen nocturnal festivals, and our Lord may well have sought to divert the spectators to higher thoughts. But the existence of the allusion is doubtful.
We have one more allusion to the feast, considered as a prophecy of the true rest and joy in the true Canaan. The same John, who has preserved Christ’s references, gives one of his own in Rev 7:9, when he shows us the great multitude out of every nation ‘with palms in their hands.’ These are not the Gentile emblems of victory, as they are often taken to be. There are no heathen emblems in the Apocalypse, but all moved within the circle of Jewish types and figures. So we are to think of that crowd of ‘happy palmers’ as joyously celebrating the true feast of tabernacles in the settled home above, and remembering, with eyes made clear by heaven, the struggles and fleeting sorrows of the wilderness. The emblem sets forth heaven as a festal assembly, as the ingathering of the results of the toils of earth, as settled life after weary pilgrimage, as glad retrospect of the meaning and triumphant possession of the issues of God’s patient guidance and wise discipline. Here we dwell in ‘the earthly house of this tabernacle’; there, in a ‘building of God . . .eternal.’ Here we are agitated by change, and wearied by the long road; there, changeless but increasing joy will be ours, and the backward look of thankful wonder will enhance the sweetness of the blessed present, and confirm the calm and sure hope of an ever-growing glory stretching shoreless and bright before us.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v33 The Feast of Tabernacles
The Feast of Tabernacles
v. 33. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
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v. 34. Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, The fifteenth day of this seventh month, of the month Tishri, corresponding to the latter part of our September and the first part of our October, shall be the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days unto the Lord, named the Feast of Booths on account of the temporary structures in which the children of Israel lived during that week, as described below.
v. 35. On the first day shall be an holy convocation; ye shall do no servile work therein, as on the other great festivals.
v. 36. Seven days ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord, in addition to the daily burnt offerings, as described Num 29:13-38. On the eighth day shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord; it is a solemn assembly, concluding the festivities of the week in a manner befitting their importance; and ye shall do no servile work therein.
v. 37. These are the feasts of the Lord, as enumerated in this Chapter, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, this being the feature which is stressed here, to offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord, a burnt offering, and a meat-offering, a sacrifice, and drink-offerings, the libations of wine, every thing upon his day;
v. 38. beside the Sabbaths of the Lord, and beside your gifts, and beside all your vows, and beside all your free-will offerings which ye give unto the Lord.
v. 39. Also in the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when ye have gathered in the fruit of the land, ye shall keep a feast unto the Lord seven days, for the Feast of Tabernacles was the festival of the completed harvest, not only of grain, but also of fruit. On the first day shall be a Sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a Sabbath, as stated above.
v. 40. And ye shall take you on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, literally, "fruit of ornamental trees. " whose long composite leaves would serve well for purposes of decoration, branches of palm-trees, and the boughs of thick trees, such with heavy foliage, and willows of the brook, all these being used in the construction of booths; and ye shall rejoice before the Lord, your God, seven days. Cf Neh 8:15 ff.
v. 41. And ye shall keep it a feast unto the Lord seven days in the year. It shall be a statute forever in your generations; ye shall celebrate it in the seventh month.
v. 42. Ye shall dwell in booths seven days; all that are Israelites born shall dwell in booths, the strangers being excluded in the ordinance, since the second purpose of the festival was to remind the Israelites of their dwelling in tents in the wilderness,
v. 43. that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt. I am the Lord, your God. The keynote of the festival, therefore, was joy to the point of exultation, since the contrast between the fullness of the blessings enjoyed in Palestine, as it appeared in every harvest, and the desolation of the wilderness was so marked. Cf Deuteronomy 8.
v. 44. And Moses declared unto the children of Israel the feasts of the Lord. The Feast of Tabernacles is probably symbolic of the everlasting festival of joy which we shall celebrate with all the elect in heaven, where our hosannas will rise to the throne of the Lamb in endless refrain.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv33, 35 fifteenth day of the seventh month
fifteenth day of the seventh month
This is near the beginning of October on Western calendars. (See: Hebrew Months and Ordinal Numbers)
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Festival of Shelters
This is a celebration during which the people of Israel lived in temporary shelters for seven days as a way to remember the time they spent living in the wilderness after they left Egypt. (See: Translate Unknowns)
translationWords
Yahweh
Moses
Israel
day
festival
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v34 23:34-43 During the Festival of Shelters, the Israelites lived…
23:34-43 During the Festival of Shelters, the Israelites lived in temporary shelters for seven days. This commemorated the time they had spent in tents and other temporary shelters during the wilderness wanderings and also recalled God’s faithfulness to them during those times. For a list of sacrifices to be offered each day, see Num 29:12-34.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.