Church of God News

The Feast of Tabernacles begins at sunset September 29, 2023.

The ”Feast of Tabernacles” is a 7-day Biblical pilgrimage festival, also known as the Feast of Booths, the Feast of Tabernacles, or ”Tabernacles (it is immediately followed by an eighth day, so normally it is considered to be a pilgrimage of at least 8 days).

Can Christians keep it? Must it be kept in palm-branch booths in Jerusalem? How would Christians keep it now in the 21st century?

Jesus, His apostles, and their faithful immediate followers kept it. It is documented that it was kept for centuries by Christians after Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Christians point out that Jesus kept the Feast of Tabernacles. This is discussed in detail in John chapter 7:

10 But when His brothers had gone up, then He also went up to the feast, not openly, but as it were in secret. 11 Then the Jews sought Him at the feast, and said, “Where is He?” 12 And there was much complaining among the people concerning Him. Some said, “He is good”; others said, “No, on the contrary, He deceives the people.” 13 However, no one spoke openly of Him for fear of the Jews. 14 Now about the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and taught. 15 And the Jews marveled, saying, “How does this Man know letters, having never studied?” 16 Jesus answered them and said, “My doctrine is not Mine, but His who sent Me. 17 If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on My own authority. 18 He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who seeks the glory of the One who sent Him is true, and no unrighteousness is in Him. 19 Did not Moses give you the law, yet none of you keeps the law? Why do you seek to kill Me?” 20 The people answered and said, “You have a demon. Who is seeking to kill You?” 21 Jesus answered and said to them, “I did one work, and you all marvel. 22 Moses therefore gave you circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath. 23 If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath, so that the law of Moses should not be broken, are you angry with Me because I made a man completely well on the Sabbath? 24 Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.” 25 Now some of them from Jerusalem said, “Is this not He whom they seek to kill? 26 But look! He speaks boldly, and they say nothing to Him. Do the rulers know indeed that this is truly the Christ? (John 7:10-26)

Jesus kept the Feast and taught on what we tend to refer to as “the Last Great Day” (see also The Last Great Day: ‘Shemini Azeret).

The Apostle Paul, after the Christ’s death and resurrection indicated that it was important to keep the Feast in Jerusalem–and this may have been the Feast of Tabernacles. As it is noted in Acts 18:21:

21 I must by all means keep this coming feast in Jerusalem; but I will return again to you, God willing.

So, the Apostle Paul traveled to keep the Feast. Jesus kept God’s Feasts (Luke 22:8,14-16) and traveled to do so (John 7:11-39).

Jude wrote “to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints”(Jude 3)–and keeping the Feast of Tabernacles was part of that original faith as even many Roman Catholic scholars have acknowledged.

In modern times in the 7th day Church of God groups, the Feast of Tabernacles is one of the most important holy days as it lasts the longest and normally requires a great deal of preparation and travel to be able to attend (see also Christians are to Be Strangers and Pilgrims?). But it is normally the physical and spiritual highlight of the year for those that do observe it.

he late Dr. Herman Hoeh wrote:

What the Jews did — and didn’t — know

Out of all the tribes of ancient Israel only the Jews preserved the Hebrew Scriptures. The Jews knew the will of God because they preserved the Book of God.

“Then what advantage has the Jew?… Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews are entrusted with the oracles of God” (Rom. 3:1-2, RSV).

In those oracles are the annual festivals of God. Among them, the Festival of Tabernacles. The Jewish nation knew God commanded His people to observe this Festival at the time of the giving of the law at Sinai.

God’s first instruction about the Festival is found in Exodus 23:16, RSV, “You shall keep the feast of ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in from the field the fruit of your labor.”

The Festival is here first revealed under the name “feast of ingathering.” It is a harvest festival celebrated at the close of the agricultural year in the northern hemisphere. The ancient Israelites focused in on the literal harvest of crops. They did not see its significance as a type of a final spiritual harvest of human beings.

Only the few, whom God was calling to salvation, understood. Later that summer at Sinai God commanded through Moses, “And you shall observe the feast of weeks, the first fruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year’s end” (Ex. 34:22, RSV).

Or, as the Jewish Publication Society translation more specifically renders it, “the feast of ingathering at the turn of the year.” The original Hebrew for “turn of the year” is tekufah, meaning the (autumnal) equinox. This was not to be a midsummer festival, celebrated before the grapes and fruits were fully ripe. It is to be celebrated at its proper season, at the beginning of autumn.

In contrast, the Feast of Weeks (Firstfruits or Pentecost), is to be celebrated at the end of spring at the completion of the barley, wheat and spelt harvest. Through the centuries the Jews have known of these two harvest festivals.

Yet they have not grasped the spiritual significance of the two harvests — that this is not the only time of salvation. It was at the beginning of the following spring (compare Ex. 40:17 with Lev. 1:1) that the Lord revealed to Moses the name by which we commonly know the festival. In the King James translation of Leviticus 23:34 we read of “the feast of tabernacles” and in the Revised Standard Version “the feast of booths” — “tabernacles” in the footnote. And — you guessed it! — the Jew’s by New Testament times had focused on the literal booths, rather than on their purpose and meaning. …

The Millennium revealed

We take for granted today, in the Church of God, the knowledge of the Millennium — the 1,000 years of God’s rule over the earth through His Son Jesus Christ. But there was a time when this great truth was not fully revealed.

Not one of the prophets of old defined the length of the Messiah’s rule over the nations, bringing them salvation. They knew there would be a coming spiritual harvest of human beings. They prophesied the gentiles would seek the Messiah. They knew the Feast of Tabernacles pictured that coming day. But all they could say was that it would be fulfilled “in that day.” (Hoeh H. The Feast of Tabernacles – Its MEANING for New Testament Christians. Good News, August 1980)

Christians have cited the following passages from Deuteronomy 14:22-27 (which has similarities to chapter 12) to explain how this festival attendance should be financed and to show that others are to be assisted with this financing:

22 “You shall truly tithe all the increase of your grain that the field produces year by year. 23 And you shall eat before the Lord your God, in the place where He chooses to make His name abide, the tithe of your grain and your new wine and your oil, of the firstborn of your herds and your flocks, that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always. 24 But if the journey is too long for you, so that you are not able to carry the tithe, or if the place where the Lord your God chooses to put His name is too far from you, when the Lord your God has blessed you, 25 then you shall exchange it for money, take the money in your hand, and go to the place which the Lord your God chooses. 26 And you shall spend that money for whatever your heart desires: for oxen or sheep, for 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. 27 You shall not forsake the Levite who is within your gates, for he has no part nor inheritance with you.

Most Christians who observe the Feast of Tabernacles save 10% of their income (normally referred to as second tithe or simply festival tithe) to finance this. They also point to those verses in Deuteronomy to show that they are to feast and rejoice during this time, which they feel points to the time when Jesus will reign on the Earth for a thousand years. A time they say will be filled with great prosperity–a glimpse of which they get when they spend approximately 10% of their annual income for an eight-day (plus travel time) festival (sometimes, portions of that 10% are used for the other biblical holy days; see also Is Second Tithe and Third Tithe Still Valid Today?).

This saving of funds is something many who claim Christ do not do for many reasons. They lack faith. Many do not take the words of Jesus or James seriously enough:

31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. (Matthew 6:31-33)

14 What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? 17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

18 But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. 19 You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe — and tremble! 20 But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? 22 Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? 23 And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God. 24 You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only. (James 2:14-24).

Faith without action is not real faith. Want more faith? Here is a link to something that can help: Faith for Those God has Called and Chosen. Of course, people will normally claim that they do have faith, so they make up excuses for not keeping the Feast of Tabernacles. Consider the following:

11 Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience. 12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. 13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account. (Hebrews 4:11-13)

People do NOT ‘get away’ with disobedience, though they like to think that they do.

Christians who observe this festival believe that part of the reason that there will be peace during the millennium is that people will all be taught the law of God. Notice that teaching the law of God was an important part of this feast during the days of the children of Israel:

10 And Moses commanded them, saying: “At the end of every seven years, at the appointed time in the year of release, at the Feast of Tabernacles, 11 when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God in the place which He chooses, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing. 12 Gather the people together, men and women and little ones, and the stranger who is within your gates, that they may hear and that they may learn to fear the Lord your God and carefully observe all the words of this law, 13 and that their children, who have not known it, may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God as long as you live in the land which you cross the Jordan to possess.” (Deuteronomy 31:10-13).

Related to the reading of the law, an article of related interest may be The Feast of Tabernacles: A Time to Learn the Law.

Christians who observe this festival sometimes point to the following in Zechariah, which they believe provides evidence that it has not been done away with:

16 And it shall come to pass 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. 17 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. 18 If the family of Egypt will not come up and enter in, they shall have no rain; they shall receive the plague with which the Lord strikes the nations who do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. 19 This shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. (Zechariah 14:16-19)

Since it is clear that the Feast of Tabernacles is to be kept in the future, this is another reason to consider that Christians should be keeping it now (f0r more about Egypt, please check out the article Egypt in Prophecy).

The Feast of Tabernacles is to be kept every year (Zechariah 14:16; Deuteronomy 16:16).

The Feast of Tabernacles also helps give us a glimpse into the coming millennial Kingdom of God which motivates us to live as Jesus wants us to and to teach what Jesus wanted proclaimed. That Kingdom is closer than it ever has been before and will become reality in the 21st century.

The Continuing Church of God wants to mention the following sermon from its ContinuingCOG channel:

1:09:46