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N. The Feast of Tabernacles

Christ is the Feast of Tabernacles (John 7:2).

1. The Passover Being the Initiation

John in his Gospel refers to us firstly the Feast of the Passover as the beginning of our enjoyment of Christ for the initiation of God's redemption judicially.

2. The Feast of Tabernacles
Being the Consummation

Then he also refers to us the Feast of Tabernacles, signifying the consummation of God's full salvation organically. After the full harvest of their crops from the good land, the Jewish people observed the Feast of Tabernacles to worship God and enjoy what they had reaped (Deut. 16:13-15). Actually, their coming together was a real picture of blending. All of the people of Israel were required to go to Jerusalem three times a year for this blending. The last time was in the fall after the harvest to enjoy their produce from the harvest of the good land in their praise to God with adoration, to bless God and speak well of God.

God ordained the Feast of Tabernacles so that the children of Israel would remember how their fathers, while wandering in the wilderness, had lived in tents (Lev. 23:39-43), expecting to enter into the rest of the good land. Everyone had a tent, and God had a tabernacle among these tents, so the Feast of Tabernacles was a remembrance of God's story. This points to what the Lord said when He established His table. He told us to eat the bread and drink the wine in remembrance of Him (Luke 22:19-20). The Lord's table is a remembrance just as the Feast of Tabernacles was a remembrance.

This feast is a reminder that today people are still in the wilderness and need to enter into the rest of the New Jerusalem, which is the eternal tabernacle (Rev. 21:2-3). Although the New Jerusalem will be solidly built with gold, pearls, and precious stones, it will be called a tabernacle. The New Jerusalem is the tabernacle for the remembrance of how the overcomers, before the consummation of the New Jerusalem in the kingdom age, were still living in tents; they were not settled yet. When they enter into the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth, they will no longer be living in tents, but they will still call their eternal dwelling place the tabernacle in remembrance of what they experienced. When we enter into the New Jerusalem, we will have many eternal and joyful memories of what we experienced. The reality of the Feast of Tabernacles is a time of enjoyment in remembrance of how we experienced God and of how God lived with us. We lived in tents, and He lived in a tabernacle. Eventually, our Feast of Tabernacles will be the enjoyment of the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth. That will be the real consummation of all the harvest of our experience of God.


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Crystallization-Study of the Gospel of John   pg 38