Firstfruits from the Nations 6

The Imagery of the Feast of Tabernacles

When we read of the institution of this feast in Leviticus 23:24-44, we immediately notice several features which set it apart from the other feasts, as follows:

First, its timing as the last great feast of the year, and specifically, as the feast which took place immediately after the Day of Atonement, is significant. After the most solemn day of the year, in which Israel was to afflict herself, mourn for her sins, and offer a sacrifice of blood for those sins (Leviticus 23:27), the Jews then celebrated the most joyful feast of the year. This feast was a celebration of the ingathering of the harvest of grapes and olives, and so it is sometimes called the Feast of Ingathering (Exodus 23:16). But this ingathering of the harvest is only a small part of the significance of the celebration – for ultimately, the feast looked ahead to the ingathering of God’s people from all the nations, and their joyful celebration together in God’s presence (see Zechariah 14:16-21). The basic meaning of the feast, then, is to remember that, after the effective sacrifice of the Day of Atonement (fulfilled by Christ on the cross), there would follow the bountiful fruits of this sacrifice. Christ’s atonement would have the effects of bringing people from all over the world to rejoice in the presence of God. That is the essence of what the Feast of Tabernacles looked forward to.

Second, this truth is also fleshed out by the tabernacles, or booths in which the Jews were supposed to live during the days of the feast. These booths looked backward to when God first redeemed his people from Egypt, so that they had to put up crude booths for shelter (Leviticus 23:42-43); but also, they looked ahead to when God would “tabernacle” among his people, which he did in fact when he took upon himself human flesh, and dwelt in their midst (John 1:14); and even as the climax of redemptive history was the Son of God’s taking on human flesh to tabernacle among his people, and ultimately to give his life for them; so also the culmination of redemptive history will be when he comes again, to the thunderous pronouncement, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he shall dwell with them, and they shall be his people and he shall be God with them, their God!”. So in sum, the Feast of Tabernacles, coming at the end of the year, and immediately after the Day of Atonement, looked ahead to the day in which the final fruits of Christ’s great atonement would be enjoyed – and these fruits would be the gathering of a people from every nation to rejoice in the very presence of God.

Third, this feast is different from the others by virtue of the water-pouring ceremony, which marked the climax of the celebration on the last great day of the feast, so that it was said among the ancient Jews, “he that never saw the rejoicing of the place of drawing of water, never saw any rejoicing in his life” (Misn. Succa, c. 5. sect. 1, 4, cited in John Gill’s commentary on John 7:37). In this joyful ceremony, water was drawn from the pool of Siloam (which means “sent,” and corresponds to the ancient messianic term “Shiloh”, see Genesis 49:10) and taken in a golden vessel to the foot of the altar, where it was poured out. The Jews believed that this was done in fulfillment of Isaiah 12:3, “With joy you shall draw water out of the wells of salvation”; and furthermore, that it was representative of the life-giving Spirit who would be poured out upon all flesh for salvation, in the days of the Messiah. Hence, when Jesus stood up on this notable occasion and cried out for all who thirst to come to him and drink, promising to flood them with the Holy Spirit of life (John 7:37-39), he was claiming that he was “Shiloh,” the Messiah from whom salvation would flow, and from whom the life-giving Spirit would proceed, bringing joy to all who had been thirsty and dry.

And fourth, this feast was notable for its temple-lighting ceremony, in which four golden candelabras of magnificent height and brightness were lighted in the temple courtyard, so that from the temple a great light flooded the darkness round about, and all Jerusalem was enabled thereby to walk in light. This ceremony was likewise done in anticipation of the day of the Messiah, when would be fulfilled that promise of God to the Christ, in Isaiah 42:6-7: “I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness”. And also Isaiah 9:2: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined”. Hence, when Jesus cried out a little later, in conjunction with this feast, “I am the light of the world,” he was manifestly holding himself forth as the fulfillment of this ceremony, and hence, the Messiah who would bring to the people the light of life. So then, as we look to the nature of this feast and the sayings of Jesus during the course of its celebration, we see him as a wondrous fulfillment of its imagery, in these four notable ways: he was the one who would gather in the fruits of God’s full harvest from all the nations, in consequence of his bloody atonement for them on the cross, which would be a cause for great joy and feasting; he was the one who would tabernacle among his people, and so bring to them God’s presence, the heart of the covenant promises, forevermore; he was the one who would draw out water from the wells of salvation, flooding the people with his life-giving Spirit; and finally, he was the one from whom would shine, as the true Temple, that is, as God in visible, human form, the light of the world of dark and desperate men. In all these wonderful ways, we see Jesus as the great fulfillment of the great Feast of Tabernacles.

~~posted by Zioneer