The Feast Of Tabernacles Post #26 CHAPTER 11 - TABERNACLES - THE FEAST OF REST 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: on the first day shall be a sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a sabbath (Lev. 23:39). THE SABBATH FEAST All the Feasts of the Lord were observed in connection with sabbath days, for they were a time when Israel (in type) must cease from their own works, and rest in the work of Christ. However, the Feast of Tabernacles is the real Feast of Rest, of which the others were but the earnest and foretaste. In the first place it was in the seventh month, even as God rested on the seventh day from all his work. The first day of the Feast was the fifteenth, and it was observed for seven days. The last day of the Feast was therefore the twenty-first day of the seventh month, twenty-one being a triple of seven--Rest in the absolute sense, Gods Rest which remaineth for the people of God. Then the next day was likewise a sabbath (the eighth day of the Feast); and though it was connected in some measure with the Feast, it was not one of the seven days of their festivities. The eighth day would speak, no doubt, of the completion of Gods purposes in the Church, and the beginning of a new day. O child of God, if we only had eyes to see and ears to hear what the Spirit would say unto the churches. God has unspeakable things that He would like to declare unto us by the Spirit, but we cannot receive them now. Unspeakable, because there is no earthly language by which He could describe them to us, and therefore we would have to be caught away in the Spirit like the apostle Paul in order to receive them. The plans and purposes of God for the Church are far, infinitely far, beyond our highest imaginations. That in the ages to come, said Paul, He might show the exceeding riches of his grace, in his kindness toward us, through Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:7). How we need the spirit of wisdom and revelation and to have the eyes of our understanding enlightened that in some small measure at least we may be able to grasp and understand the secret--which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. THERE REMAINETH A REST It is noteworthy that as we begin to read the ordinances of the Feasts in Leviticus 23, God reminds the saints of the sabbath--the weekly sabbath--Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the sabbath of rest, a holy convocation (Lev. 23:3). Then immediately He begins to give the order of the Feasts, and the sevenfold events involved in the Feasts: 1. The Passover 2. The Unleavened Bread 3. The Sheaf of Firstfruits 4. The Feast of Pentecost 5. The Blowing of Trumpets 6. The Day of Atonement 7. The Feast of Tabernacles And so, just as the weekly sabbath was the end of Israels week of toil and labor--so the Feast of Tabernacles is the end of the Churchs week of strife and turmoil: the Feast of all Feasts, the Sabbath of all Sabbaths. The natural, weekly sabbath means nothing now, because the Substance has been revealed. There remaineth therefore a rest (A Sabbath) to the people of God (Heb. 4:9). RIGHTLY DIVIDING THE WORD Again, we feel we should exhort the saints concerning the rich heritage that is theirs in the Word of God. So many have denied themselves the joy and glory of the Word because of the myth that has been raised around Pauls advice to Timothy, when he exhorted this young minister to rightly divide the Word of truth. It is commonly taught that Paul was exhorting Timothy to draw a line of demarcation between various dispensations, and not to confuse one with the other. In other words, according to this teaching, the Old Testament is practically all for Israel, and must not be applied to the Church. In the first place, when Paul gave this exhortation to Timothy, he was not urging him to take a course in theology; but what he said was study. In other words, give diligence... as he said in another place, Study to be quiet... Let that be your desire and ambition. And if you want to know what Paul meant by rightly dividing the Word of truth, all one has to do is to examine his own epistles and see how he applied the Old Testament. Over and over and over again he takes an Old Testament scripture completely out of its context as men would say, and applies it to some glorious Church truth which he is expounding. We could give many, many examples of this. For instance we read much of the blessing of the nations through Abraham; and until this day Bible expositors will insist that this must apply only to the blessing of natural nations through natural Israel. And yet Paul does not hesitate to quote directly from the book of Genesis, and apply these Scriptures to this Gospel Day, and to the Gentiles who are to be justified by faith in Christ. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the Gospel unto Abraham, saying, in thee shall all nations be blessed (Gal. 3:8; Gen. 12:3; 18:18). Again, men will insist that the seed of Abraham is natural Israel, and that the promises are for them; whereas Paul tells us, Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ (Gal. 3:16). Then again, Isaiah 54, speaking of the fruitfulness of Zion, must only apply to natural Israel; but Paul quotes the first verse and applies it to men of faith, Jew or Gentile: Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not... (Gal. 4:27). And then we have Isaiah 52, speaking of the glory of Jerusalem: Awake, awake, put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city... That means Israel and not the Church, we are told. Strange is it not, that four of the New Testament writers apparently didnt know this, and actually made as many as twelve references to it, or quotations from it. There remaineth therefore a rest (A Sabbath) to the people of God (Heb. 4:9). We could go through the Old Testament and cite many examples of Gods rest, and show how they typify this heritage of the saints in the Spirit which God has prepared for this hour. But space would not permit a detailed study of them all. We could mention the seventh day of Gods creative work, when He rested from all His work which He had made, and show how this rest was but a type and shadow of this glorious rest of the believer--the one who ceases from his own works and rests in the finished work of Christ. We could mention Noah, whose name signifies repose and show how the dove which he sent forth from the ark found no resting-place for the sole of her foot; and how God smelled an odour of rest when Noah offered up the sacrifice on the top of the mountain. We could mention Ruth, and Boaz her kinsman-redeemer who would not be in rest until he had completed the transaction and redeemed Ruth, that she might become his bride. We could deal at length with the ark of the covenant, and show how it typified the presence of God and the Holy Spirit, and how God would direct it on ahead of the children of Israel in the wilderness journeyings, searching out a resting-place for the people of God. We could mention how David prepared a place for the ark when his kingdom was established, and pitched for it a tent--and how they invited the God of glory to come into their midst. And then later, how the temple succeeded the tent of David, and how Solomon prayed on the occasion of the Feast of Tabernacles: Now therefore arise, O Lord God, into thy resting place, thou, and the ark of thy strength: let thy priests, O Lord God, be clothed with salvation, and let thy saints rejoice in goodness (2 Chron. 6:41). In fact, from Genesis to Revelation we would discover how God has not only ordained rest for the people of God, but how He has called us to precede from rest to rest, from glory unto glory, even unto the very fullness of rest itself.
Posted on: Fri, 17 Jan 2014 14:08:20 +0000
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