FEAST OF TABERNACLES -2013
FEAST OF TABERNACLES -2013
September 22, 2013, the Year of our Lord
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
The annual Jewish Feast of Tabernacles began on Sept. 19th and lasts 8 days. For Christians, Jesus Christ fulfilled all the Feast days, the tabernacle, the temple sacrifices and the Law.
The Feast of Tabernacles reveals the Lord Jesus Christ and the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Jesus is the Lord of this feast and the Booth in whom the Father lived, moved and has His being.
The full implication of the Feast of Tabernacles is that the Body of the believer will be changed to become the tabernacle of God.
Applied to the Christian, we receive the full adoption and redemption of our bodies, becoming a tabernacle for the fullness of God.
The Tabernacle as a whole speaks of:
- Christ the Head who was tabernacled in flesh.
- Christ the Body who is tabernacled in flesh (universally, locally, and individually).
Tuesday morning in our study of Isaiah, by the providence of the Lord, our study was on Isaiah 12. This is a Song of Faith known as the Believer’s Song of Redemption.
12: 1-5: “In that day, you shall say, ‘O Lord (Jehovah) I will praise you; though you were angry with me, your anger is turned away, and your comforted me. Behold, God (El) is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid; for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; He also is become my salvation. Therefore with joy shall you draw water out of the wells of Salvation.”
This song tells of the joys of the Feast of Tabernacles, (the Glory of God).
When we are clothed in His Glory, He becomes our PRAISE and SONG and STRENGTH. As we are learning the ways of the Lord in the realm of the Feast of Tabernacles, we will ever-increasingly grow and become HIS PRAISE and SONG and STRENGTH! We have put on Christ. We are in Christ. He will put us on
This is the realm of no anger of the Lord. The comfort and grace from the Mercy-seat is there in the Holiest of all. The civil war from within, the duality and all its frustrations and futility are left behind in the Feast of Pentecost (celebrated with leaven). The wells of salvation are the Holy Spirit in His sons, each of whom is a container and a dispenser, of the New Life of the New Covenant.
The water in the wells of salvation has become the voice of many waters. Jesus Christ the Head and the Body.
Rev. 14: 1-3: “I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on Mt. Zion, and with Him a 144,000 having His Father’s name written in their foreheads. I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder; and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps. They sung as it were a new song before the throne and before the four beasts, and the elders; and no man could learn that song but the 144,000, which were redeemed from the earth.”
The Feast of Tabernacles is figurative of the Shekinah Glory, the offerings were all washed and burnt by fire; the rest of God; He tabernacles in a people; the Appearing (Coming, Parousia) of the Lord whether in visitation; or His Second Coming.
Isa. 61: 10-11: “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorns herself with jewels. For as the earth brings forth her bud, and as the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.
The full implication of Tabernacles is that the Body of the believer will be changed to become the tabernacle of God. 11 Cor. 5: 1-5: “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven; if so be that ‘being clothed we shall not be found naked…”
A “Tabernacle” is a dwelling-place, building, sanctuary, house, structure. The one outstanding factor that makes the “Tabernacle” different from the heathen temples of other nations was and is the Presence of God, the Shekinah Glory.
God walked in the garden with Adam.
God visited the patriarchs.
He dwelt in the Tabernacle of Moses.
He dwelt in the Tabernacle of David.
His Glory was in the Temple of Solomon.
He dwelt in the restored Temple after the Babylonian Captivity.
Jesus was the Temple of God. The fullness of the Godhead bodily dwelt in Him.
The Church, the Body of Christ, has the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and we are clothed with the garments of salvation and covered with the robe of righteousness.
The completed House of the Lord – New Jerusalem –The Glory of God.
The Holy Spirit who resides in us is eternal. However, God has given Him to us now. He is continually working in us making us in the image of Christ that we may ever increasingly grow until He becomes our Praise, our Song and our Strength.
Every house increases in glory. Hag. 2:9 “The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, says the Lord of hosts, and in this place will I give peace, says the Lord of hosts.”
Ps. 93:1: “The Lord reigns, he is clothed with majesty; the Lord is clothed with strength, wherewith he has girded himself; the world also is established, that it cannot be moved.”
Ps. 104:1: “Bless the Lord, O my soul, O Lord My God; you are very great; you are clothed with honor and majesty.”
The seasonal rains in Palestine pertain to this Feast and are symbolic of the outpouring of the Word and Spirit.
This past week, the earth in Texas was blessed with a great outpouring of rain. This covered our dry and parched land from the West to the East.
The Latter Rain was the fall rain that brought the Fall Harvest (fruit) to maturity. (Zech 10:1; Hos. 6:3; 10:12; Jas. 5:7; Joel 2: 12-21). This speaks of the outpouring of the Word and Spirit upon the Latter-day church (end of this age); also the outpourings in the latter walk of the believer (Tabernacles).
George H. Warnock, Feast of Tabernacles: “…the Lord’s coming is a spiritual visitation in the midst of His people, as well as a literal and bodily visitation. James therefore associates the bestowal of the latter rain with the ‘coming of the Lord’. “Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold the husbandman waits for the precious fruit of the earth, and has long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; establish your hearts; for the coming of the Lord draws near.’ (James 5: 7, 8) The truth concerning the latter rain is sandwiched between these two statements concerning the ‘coming of the Lord’.
The word commonly translated ‘coming’ in the new Testament is ‘Parousia’, which signifies ‘presence’, or being along side…that the word signifies ‘presence’ more than the act of one’s arrival, is evident from 2 Pet. 1: 16,17. In this passage Peter describes the glorious visitation of God on the mount of transfiguration as the ‘coming’, the ‘Parousia’ the ‘presence’ of Christ. Now Christ had already come in the flesh; the four men had walked together up the mountain; but here was a ‘coming’ of the Lord not previously known. And so he says, ‘for we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received from God the Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory. This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased’. The apostle associates the power and coming of Christ with the glory of God that appeared in the hour of Christ’s transfiguration. In fact, the Lord Himself explains that this visitation of the Glory was in reality the very Kingdom of God. (Lk. 9:27.)
Matthew describes this as ‘the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.” (Mt. 16:28.) Mark refers to it as ‘the kingdom of God come with power.’ (Mk. 9:1.) And Peter combines the two statements in the words, “the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ’.”(George H. Warnock, Feast of Tabernacles, P. O. Box 652, Cranbrook B.C. Canada VIC 4J2)
The former rain and the latter rain in the first month (Joel 2:23) is the prediction of the outpouring of the book of Acts (early rain) and something more! From 1900-(Holy Ghost Baptism 1900-1906) to the present, we have seen the outpouring of restored truth, but this is but showers of blessing compared to what is coming.
The Feast of Tabernacles was a Feast of:
- Unity – Israel left all and came together (one, yet individual). (Eph. 4:13)
- Joy –for the harvest. (Rom. 14:17)
- Ingathering – final harvest. (Rev. 14:15)
- Rest – enter the land. (Heb. 3:18)
- Glory – of the new order. (Rev. 21:23)
- Restoration – as in the days of Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai, and Zechariah. (Joel 2:25)
- Appearing of the Lord –In the Church and then in the air. (1 Thess. 3:13)
Isa. 12:2-6: “Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid; for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; He also is become my salvation. Therefore with joy shall you draw water out of the wells of salvation. In that day, you shall say, Praise the Lord, call upon his name, declare his doings among the people, make mention his name is exalted. Sing unto the Lord; for he has done excellent things. This is known in all the earth. Cry out and shout, you inhabitants of Zion; for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee.”
Taught by: Pastor Carolyn Sissom
Eastgate Ministries, Inc.