Sadly, under the circumstances at this time, I am unable to travel to visit our brethren to keep and celebrate the Lord’s Feast of Tabernacles 2025.
However, I personally keep and celebrate it at home. Yet, how many nominal
Christians throughout the world have even so much heard the word “tabernacle” ──
or let alone, the Feast of Tabernacles?
So very few of today’s “nominal Christians” even realize that our Lord Jesus Christ,
His apostles, along with His New Covenant/New Testament Church, have kept and
celebrated the Lord’s Feast of Tabernacles from the very beginning. How come it is,
then, that those who profess to be Christians do not follow our Master, Savior,
and Elder Brother’s example by keeping and celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles
annually, along with the other Holy Days? Instead, they continue to keep and
celebrate this world’s holidays such as Christmas, Halloween, St. Valentine’s Day,
and even New Year's ── which originated from ancient paganism!
“The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2) ‘Speak to the children of Israel, and say to
them: ‘The feasts of the LORD, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations,
these are My feasts.’”
These instructions came from the LORD God. When referring to the holy seventh-day Sabbath, the LORD’s Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Day of
Pentecost, the Feast of Trumpets ── a memorial of blowing of trumpets ── the Day
of Atonement, the Feast of Tabernacles, and the Last Great Day, the LORD calls
them, “the feasts of the LORD.” “So Moses declared to the children of Israel the
feasts of the LORD.” – vs. 44.
Why is it then that the overall vast majority of “nominal Christian” ministers teach
their members that these God-ordained feasts and holy days are nothing more than
“Jewish feasts” ── and teach their people that they don’t need to keep or celebrate
them, because they're only for the Jews?
Notice that in this same chapter of the Book of Leviticus, the LORD clearly
commands His people to “do no work on the seventh day, because it is a Sabbath
── it is the Sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings.” In four separate places
within His living and immutable word is commanded, “it shall be a statute forever
throughout your generations in all your dwellings.” – verses 14, 21, 31, 41.
The Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament renders the word “forever” ──
1631a (‘ ôlām) forever, ever, ever-lasting, evermore, perpetual, old, ancient, world, etc. (RSV similar in general, but substitutes “always” for “in the world” in Ps 73:12 and “eternity” for “world” in Ecc 3:11). Probably derived from ‘ alam. 1
“Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 34) ‘Speak to the children of Israel,
saying: ‘The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the Feast of Tabernacles
for seven days to the LORD. 35) On the first day there shall be a holy convocation.
You shall do no customary work on it. 36) … On the eighth day you shall have a
holy convocation, … It is a sacred assembly, and you shall do no customary work
on it.’” – verses 33-36.
Surely, because the LORD commanded that “for seven days you shall offer an
offering made by fire to the LORD,” people have concluded amongst themselves that
the seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles are no longer supposed to be kept, since
animal sacrifices are no longer commanded within our Lord Jesus’ New Covenant, cf. Hebrews 8:6-13. The passage emphasizes that our Lord Jesus offered a better
sacrifice than what was commanded by the Old Covenant. The New Covenant is
based on the blood and sacrifice of our Savior and High Priest, being established
upon better promises, as in the promise of eternal life.
Yet, that conclusion is not based upon sound reasoning. Animal sacrifices were
actually offered unto the LORD on every day of every week (cf. Numbers 28:3-4),
not just during the Feast of Tabernacles. Our Lord Jesus’ ultimate sacrifice for us
absolutely ended the sacrifice of animals ── He is our Passover Lamb (cf. John
1:29).
“ … For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. …” – 1 Corinthians 5:7.
But our Lord Jesus’ sacrifice for us did not do away with the LORD’s annual feasts
and holy days. His sacrifice did not mean that His followers were no longer to keep
His weekly seventh-day Sabbath, or His yearly Sabbaths.
Again, notice in what month in God’s Sacred Calendar the Feast of Tabernacles is to
be kept and observed ──
“’ On the FIFTEENTH DAY of the SEVENTH MONTH, you shall have a holy
convocation. You shall do no customary work, and you shall keep a feast to the
LORD seven days.’” – Numbers 29:12.
The seventh month of God’s Sacred Calendar corresponds roughly with the
Gregorian Calendar’s September/October.
It’s to be kept forever after the great fall harvest ── “’ You shall observe the Feast
of Tabernacles seven days, when you have gathered from your threshing floor and
from your winepress. 14) And you shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and
your daughter, your male servant and your female servant and the Levite [the LORD
God’s ministers and pastors], the stranger and the fatherless and the widow, who are
within your gates.’” – Deuteronomy 16:13-14.
Even though there are awesome meanings behind keeping and celebrating this
glorious Feast, we are truly to rejoice in keeping and celebrating the Lord’s Feast!
“’ Seven days you shall keep a sacred feast to the LORD your God in the place which
the LORD chooses, …’” – meaning, where He places His Name. “ … ‘because the LORD your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands,
so that you surely rejoice.’” – Verse 15.
Truly, during the Feast of Tabernacles, the LORD God’s people are to have a type of
cornucopia of wonderful foods and wine or similar drink, for whatever your heart
desires; “you shall eat there before the LORD your God, and you shall rejoice, you
and your household.” – Deuteronomy 14:22-29.
Also, three times a year, the LORD God’s people are commanded to make offerings
as they are able in thankful appreciation to the ultimate Giver of all life ── the
LORD God.
“’ Three times a year all your males [the leader of your household] shall appear
before the LORD your God in the place which He chooses: at the Feast of
Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks [Pentecost], and at the Feast of
Tabernacles; and they shall not appear before the LORD empty-handed. 17) Every
man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the LORD your God which
He has given you.’” – Deuteronomy 16:16-17.
Truly, truly I tell you ── when the children of Israel faithfully obeyed the LORD
God, kept and properly celebrated the Lord’s feasts and holy days, they were
immensely blessed and prospered in all the work of their hands. They were also
protected from foreign invasion ── including an invasion of illegal immigrants. Yet,
sadly, the children of Israel didn’t keep and properly celebrate the Lord’s
commanded feasts and holy days very long ── even including changing the dates
and times ── and the LORD God allowed the Gentile nations to invade, capture,
and enslave them – cf. Ezekiel 20:12-24.
Sadly, the Northern Kingdom ── the kingdom of Israel ── was ultimately taken
into captivity by the Assyrian Empire in about 721 BC. The “lost ten tribes,” or rather
“the dispersed” of Israel, never returned to their homeland in Palestine. The Southern
Kingdom ── the kingdom of Judah ── after their 70-year captivity from the third
invasion (587 BC), did eventually return to the land of Palestine.
Coming to realize that their fathers had gone into captivity because they quit
keeping and celebrating the Lord’s commanded feasts and holy days, the returning
Jews began to keep the feasts and holy days again.
“And Nehemiah, who was the governor, Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites
who taught the people said to all the people, ‘This day is holy to the LORD your
God; do not mourn nor weep.’ For all the people wept, when they heard the words
of the Law. …” – Nehemiah 8:9-12.
Our Lord Jesus Christ Kept the Feast of Tabernacles
The Apostle Paul ── under divine inspiration ── has told us that to the Jews “were
committed the oracles of God” – Romans 3:2, which included the keeping and
celebrating of the Lord’s feasts and holy days. And, the Jews had begun to keep and
celebrate them for the next 500 years, even until the time of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
He, too, kept and celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles and the Last Great Day. I spoke
of this in my last article, “Let Us Observe the Feast of Tabernacles!”
We find our Lord Jesus’ activities during the Feast of Tabernacles in the Book of
John, chapters 7 through 9.
“After these things Jesus walked in Galilee; for He did not want to walk in Judea,
because the Jews sought to kill Him. 2) Now the Jews’ Feast of Tabernacles was at
hand. …
14) Now about the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and taught.” –
John 7:1-2, 14.
Then, “On the last day, that great day of the feast [the evening of the 21st of Tishri],
Jesus stood and cried out, saying, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.
38) He who believes [on] Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow
rivers of living water.’ 39) But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those
believing [on] Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because
Jesus was not yet glorified.” – John 7:37-39.
However, it behooves me to mention ── Not one place in all of the New Testament
do we see our Lord Jesus directly participating in any of the Old Covenant various
Jewish customs and religious rituals that grew up around the holy Feast of
Tabernacles. And I know that’s probably a blasphemous statement to say, but the
scribes, Pharisees, and Sadducees were practicing customs and religious rites that
the LORD God had never told the children of Israel within the Old Covenant to keep
or celebrate. We are to keep and celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles and the Last Great Day in a more heightened and spiritual manner, not with Old Covenant customs and
religious rituals.
The Apostles Kept the Feast of Tabernacles
God’s living word clearly reveals to us that the apostles continued keeping and
celebrating the feasts and the holy days of the Lord’s after the establishment of Jesus
Christ’s Church, which began in A.D. 31.
The Apostle Paul ── an apostle to the Gentiles ── also kept the Lord’s feasts and
holy days. Notice ──
“And on the Sabbath day we went out of the city to the riverside, where prayer was
customarily made; …” – Acts 16:13.
“But we sailed away from Philippi after the Days of Unleavened Bread, …” – Acts
20:6.
“ … for he was hurrying to be at Jerusalem, if possible, on the Day of Pentecost.” –
Acts 20:16.
“And he [Apostle Paul] came to Ephesus … 20) When they asked him to stay a
longer time with them, he did not consent, 21) but took leave of them, saying, ‘I
must by all means keep this coming feast [the Feast of Tabernacles] in Jerusalem.” – Acts 18:19-21.
What did the Apostle Paul mean by, “You observe days and months and seasons
and years”?
A great many people misunderstand the meaning of the Apostle Paul’s statement in
Galatians chapter 4 and verse 10 concerning “days and months and seasons and
years.”
Here is what our beloved Apostle Paul wrote to the Galatians ──
“But then, indeed, when you did not know God, you served those which by nature
ARE NOT GODS. 9) But now after you have known God, or rather are known by
God, how is it that you turn AGAIN to the weak and beggarly elements, to which
you desire again to be in bondage [the bondage of paganism]? 10) You observe days and months and seasons and years.” – Galatians
4:8-10.
So, what is the Apostle Paul saying here? Notice again, “You [Gentiles; because he
is speaking to Gentile converts] observe days and months and seasons and years.” Is
the Apostle Paul saying that they observe the Lord’s feasts and holy days? No.
Keep in mind, the Apostle Paul is talking to Gentile Galatians who had never kept
or observed the Lord’s commanded feasts or holy days. They were, however,
observing ── as were the other Gentile nations ── certain days, months, seasons,
and years of… as he had said earlier… of, by nature ARE NOT GODS. The Apostle
Paul was admonishing the Gentile converts, “I am afraid for you, lest I have labored
for you in vain.” – verse 11. Brother Paul was bemoaning the Galatians’ lusting to go
back to their former ways and hold to their former pagan customs and observances.
Another verse within God’s living word that is often misunderstood or twisted is
Isaiah 1:14 ── “’ Your New Moons and your appointed feasts My soul hates; They
are a trouble to Me, I am weary of bearing them.’”
Well… critical commentators and critics alike overlook the plain and understanding history of the
children of Israel and their Gentile neighbors. Our Eternal God said, “’ I hate, I
despise your feast days, And I do not savor your sacred assemblies. … 8:10) I will
turn your feasts into mourning, And all your songs into lamentation; I will bring
sackcloth on every waist, And baldness on every head; I will make it like mourning
for an only son, And its end like a bitter day.’” – Amos 5:21; 8:10.
“’ I will also cause all her mirth to cease, Her feast days, Her New Moons, Her
Sabbaths ── All her appointed feasts.’” – Hosea 2:11.
The LORD was not speaking of divinely appointed feasts and holy days, but man-made New Moons and appointed feasts and sabbaths that were ── and many of
which continue to be ── observed in the nations descended from the children of
Israel. These New Moons and appointed feasts the LORD hates! The children of
Israel did not continue keeping and properly observing the Lord’s feasts and holy
days. They ultimately refused His statutes and judgments (Ezekiel 20:18). Rather,
they began to keep and celebrate pagan feasts, New Moons, and holidays of their
surrounding neighbors. Not only does secular history show us this ── but God’s living
word tells us this!
There were major changes with the Law of God, when Israel divided into two
separate kingdoms ── “[King] Jeroboam ordained a feast on the fifteenth day of
THE EIGHTH MONTH, like the feast that was in Judah, and offered sacrifices on
the altar. … 33) So he made offerings on the altar which he had made at Bethel on
the fifteenth day of THE EIGHTH MONTH, in the month which he had devised in
his own heart. …” – I Kings 12:32, 33.
That was the beginning steps in which the kingdom of Israel began to depart
from the Lord’s Law. So, to keep his people from going down to Jerusalem to offer
sacrifices in the house of the LORD ── he feared that the people might then, in their
heart, turn back to Rehoboam king of Judah ── he built and constructed two golden
calves and altars to sacrifice upon unto the LORD.
Thereafter, the kingdom of Israel began to keep New Moons, and their self-appointed
feasts unto the LORD. They changed the LORD God’s Sabbath into the idolatrous
day of the sun ── which is called Sunday. Now, something to keep in mind ── the
kingdom of Israel partially retained a perverted version of the original feast days –
II Kings 17:8.
Now… when “the dispersed” of the kingdom of Israel is next found in our secular history,
now as the nations of Northwestern Europe, they are fully keeping the day of the sun
── Her Sabbath. So, the Eternal LORD our God never hated nor abolished His appointed feasts and holy days. However, the LORD certainly hated ── and hates
today ── all the different New Moons, feasts, and holidays which the nations that
are descended from the kingdom of Israel celebrate!
Why do I keep and celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles?
First and foremost, because the LORD calls His Sabbaths, feasts, and holy days,
‘The feasts of the LORD. These shall be a statute forever in all your dwellings
throughout your generations.’
My ancestors are mostly from the tribe of Benjamin ── which my research shows, my paternal 6th great-grandfather travelled from Aberdeenshire, Scotland, to the shores of Virginia in 1696. Six ancestral regions are England & Northwestern Europe
(53%), Scotland (31%), Germanic Europe (7%), Denmark (4%), Sweden (3%), and
the Netherlands (2%). We in the Church of Jesus Christ Online Ministries believe
that the descendants of the kingdom of Israel traveled to many locations around the world. “BENJAMIN also seems to have been represented by the NORMANS” 2 A
portion of Mr. Yair Davidiy’s book reads, “Manasseh is especially evident in the
USA, and was once present in Scotland.”
I also, of course, keep and celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles because our Lord and
Savior, Jesus Christ, certainly did, setting us an example for all true believers who
follow in His steps. I also keep and celebrate this important and meaningful Feast
because the New Covenant Church of God did ── and continues to do so.
I keep and celebrate the Lord’s feasts and holy days because God’s living word
prophesies that during our Lord Jesus’ Millennial Reign all nations ── “’ whichever
of the families of the earth’” ── who do not come up to New Jerusalem to worship
the King, and who do not keep and celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles, those nations
shall be punished – Zechariah 14:16-19.
I keep and celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles because it also pictures the Millennial
great harvest of mankind on this planet, during the King of kings and Lord of lords’ rule!
I keep and celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles, because for 44 years I have known of
the Lord’s ordained Feast. My first Feast that I attended with my grandmother was
the Feast of Tabernacles 1984 in Eugene, Oregon, when I was 15 years old. I can still
recall Mr. Armstrong speaking to us via satellite on a huge projection screen from
Pasadena, California!
I keep the LORD’s wonderful Feast of Tabernacles because this is the fall season
when all of God’s true people get away from their daily cares, the hustle and bustle
of daily life, and certainly from the untold evils and vilest of Satan the Devil’s world,
and we physically and spiritually fellowship with our brethren ── God’s begotten
children who are of one accord for eight days!
Keeping & celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles and the Last Great Day, I can
“grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” – 2 Peter
3:18. For eight restful and rejuvenating days I can eat before the LORD our God
whatever my heart desires (of course, continuing to obey the LORD God’s food law),
and not forgetting God’s ministers, the strangers, the fatherless and the widows within our gates. Eight glorious days, also, to meditate and reflect on the LORD
God’s Way, of the living word of God, and of their great and awesome Master Plan…
From the Beginning for all mankind!
I also keep the Lord’s feasts and holy days because I reverently fear God, and I want
to continue “keep[ing] His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in
His sight” – 1 John 3:22.
The Whole World Will Eventually Keep & Celebrate This Feast!
God’s living & unmovable word ── the word of God that is living and powerful,
and sharper than any two-edged sword, that can pierce through even to the division
of body and spirit, of joints and marrow. A word that is a discerner of our very
thoughts & intents of the heart ── tells us that this present evil age will never
experience true and lasting peace and prosperity until the LORD God’s kingdom is
established upon this planet.
Surely, when God’s government is established upon the Earth, will mankind
continue going by the Gregorian calendar, celebrating their present pagan holidays such as Christmas, Halloween, St. Patrick’s Day, or St. Valentine’s
Day? Or, will they then … having been given a new heart and a new spirit, having
God’s Spirit within them… begin to walk in God’s statutes, keeping God’s
judgments ── including the keeping and celebrating all of the Lord’s feasts and holy
days? – cf. Ezekiel 36:24-32.
Yes! God Almighty Most High forever be praised!
“And it shall come to pass [at the beginning of our Lord Jesus’ Millennium Reign]
that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up
from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the Feast of
Tabernacles.” – Zechariah 14:16.
Now… what will happen if such nations as Gog and Magog (meaning, Siberia,
China, and the Russian Confederation) decide that they will not obey the LORD God
and will not come up from year to year to worship the King and to keep and celebrate
the Feast of Tabernacles?
“And it shall be that whichever of the families of the earth do not come up to
Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, on them there will be no rain.” – Verse 17.
If a nation refuses to worship the King of kings and the Lord of lords and keep this
meaningful and important Feast, that nation will receive “the plague with which the
LORD strikes the nations who do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.”
Today, in this present age ── on the Lord’s 3rd day of the Feast of Tabernacles ──
thousands of God’s begotten children are gathering together to keep & celebrate this
very meaningful Feast! It truly is a time of rejoicing in the LORD our God, of true
Christian fellowship, and it’s a glorious time to experience, even just a little, of what
the soon-coming kingdom of God will be like! – cf. Matthew 17:1-5; Mark 9:2-7;
Luke 9:28-35. □
1) Harris L. R., Archer, L. Gleason, Jr., and Waltke K. Bruce. Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, 1980,
#1631a, pg. 672.
2) Davidiy, Y. Hebrew Tribes: The Israelite Tribal Identification of Western Peoples, Russell-Davis Publishing,
Jerusalem, Israel, 2021, pg. 232.
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