Brother, it’ll be the Feast of Tabernacles in a little while. The autumn feasts have already approached.
The weather is getting cool. Well, I have a question. A friend of mine who attends another church talks much about Thanksgiving Day. Is it the same as the Feast of Tabernacles?
No. Although many people think that the two are similar because both are kept in autumn, they are totally different. The Feast of Tabernacles is God’s feast that leads us to salvation. But Thanksgiving Day is just a day men made. Moreover, it is not recorded in the Bible.
Thanksgiving Day is not in the Bible?
No, it’s not. Thanksgiving Day was created hundreds of years ago in America. In 1620, when about one hundred Puritans of the United Kingdom moved to America, the new continent, to seek freedom of faith, more than half of them died in the early days due to extreme cold and food shortages. Indigenous people in the Americas taught the Puritans in trouble how to cultivate corn and how to fish. The Puritans, who had harvested the next year with the help of the native tribes, gave thanksgiving to God and invited the Native Americans to share their food. This is the origin of Thanksgiving Day.
Now I can see that Thanksgiving Day is an American holiday like Chuseok in Korea. Then, why is it that other countries than America too keep Thanksgiving Day?
Thanksgiving Day was officially established as an anniversary of the United States in 1789, and its date was changed a number of times, abolished and re-established. After several changes, it gradually became a tradition of American society. Then it was passed on to countries that follow American customs, and now most churches around the world celebrate Thanksgiving Day.
Obviously, however, even though many churches keep it, the man-made day cannot be a feast of God. By man’s commandments, we can never worship God rightly. Jesus made it clear about this.
“ ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.’ ”
Matthew 15:8–9
Since I know what Thanksgiving Day is, I am now curious about the origin of the Feast of Tabernacles.
The Feast of Tabernacles is specified in the Bible as the ordinance established by God Himself.
“Say to the Israelites: ‘On the fifteenth day of the seventh month the LORD’s Feast of Tabernacles begins, and it lasts for seven days.’ ”
Leviticus 23:34
God freed the people of Israel from Egypt and gave them tablets of stone where the Ten Commandments were engraved. But when the people committed the sin of idolatry, Moses broke the tablets of stone; they lost the Ten Commandments. After that, when the people repented, God forgave their sins and gave the Ten Commandments for the second time.
For seven days, the people gathered gold, silver, wood, and animal skins with a thankful heart toward God, and built a tabernacle to keep the Ten Commandments. God established the Feast of Tabernacles and let them celebrate it year after year to commemorate the work of building the tabernacle. After that, the Israelites took branches, built booths, and dwelt there, rejoicing for seven days at the Feast of Tabernacles.
Then, do we also have to collect branches and build booths during the Feast of Tabernacles?
No, we don’t need to do so. The Feast of Tabernacles that we keep is not of the Old Testament, but of the new covenant which Jesus completed.
But when the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles was near … On the last and greatest day of the Feast (of Tabernacles), Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive.
John 7:2–39
Jesus completed the Feast of Tabernacles by worshiping and preaching.
The day when the Israelites gathered the materials for the tabernacle in the Old Testament times became the origin of the Feast of Tabernacles. It is a prophecy about finding and gathering God’s people who are represented as the materials for the temple in the New Testament times.
Are God’s people the temple materials? What does that mean?
It is the same with the ordinance of gathering branches and building booths. In the Bible, God’s people are represented by trees.
“… I will make my words in your mouth a fire and these people the wood it consumes.”
Jeremiah 5:14
Just as people gathered wood at the Feast of Tabernacles which is the feast of gathering the temple materials, we, God’s people, who are represented as wood, are gathered one after another and the heavenly temple is completed.
Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?
1 Corinthians 3:16
You are built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord.
Ephesians 2:20–21
As it is written above, we are built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus as the chief cornerstone. That is why we are keeping the truths such as the Feast of Tabernacles, which Jesus told us to keep and the apostles and prophets kept.
Wow! We must keep the Feast of Tabernacles in order to receive the Holy Spirit from God and become the materials of the heavenly temple.
Right. Remember that the Feast of Tabernacles and Thanksgiving Day are completely different from each other in origin and meaning. Please keep the Feast of Tabernacles with sincerity and receive much blessing from God.
Sure. I’d like to. I need to tell my friends about the Feast of Tabernacles, the feast of God.
