Appointed Times: The Fall Feasts
We’ve covered Yom Kippur past and Yom Kippur present, what about Yom Kippur future? Once again we see God’s timetable expressed in His ordained observances. After Rosh Hashanah, after the last trump comes the fullness of the revelation—the Great and Awesome Day of the Lord. Let’s let Scripture speak for itself.
- The sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. (Joel 2:31)
- The LORD utters His voice before His army; Surely His camp is very great, For strong is he who carries out His word. The day of the LORD is indeed great and very awesome, and who can endure it? (Joel 2:11)
- Behold, the day of the LORD is coming, cruel, with fury and burning anger, To make the land a desolation; And He will exterminate its sinners from it. (Isaiah 13:9)
- Near is the great day of the LORD, Near and coming very quickly; Listen, the day of the LORD! In it the warrior cries out bitterly. A day of wrath is that day, A day of trouble and distress, A day of destruction and desolation, A day of darkness and gloom, A day of clouds and thick darkness, A day of trumpet and battle cry Against the fortified cities And the high corner towers. (Zephaniah 1:14-16)
- “For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; and the day that is coming will set them ablaze,” says the LORD of hosts, “so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.” (Malachi 4:1)
No one wants to be waiting around for the last Yom Kippur. Woe to those whose Savior is not Christ the Lord!
Sukkot, the Feast of Booths
Sometimes called “booths” or “tabernacles,” Sukkot is the last of the Fall Feasts.
Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, “On the fifteenth of this seventh month is the Feast of Booths for seven days to the LORD” (Leviticus 23:34).
Sukkot commemorates the 40 years the Israelites spent wandering in the wilderness, living in makeshift tents. For four decades, the Hebrew nation relied entirely on the providence of God. Their shoes did not wear out; they did not lack for food (manna) for themselves, nor grazing land for their flocks. God provided everything.
You shall live in booths for seven days; all the native-born in Israel shall live in booths, so that your generations may know that I had the sons of Israel live in booths when I brought them out from the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God (Leviticus 23:42-43).
Everything about they way God dealt with the Jewish nation can be a picture for us of a spiritual truth. For example, many believers at some point in their faith-walk find themselves wondering and wandering. They wonder if they are doing everything God requires or wants from them, and in this wondering, end up wandering through their own spiritual wilderness. I’ve met Christians who tell me they’re going through a spiritual wasteland where they aren’t sure God is even listening to them anymore, if He cares, or if He’s simply moved on to interact in someone else’s life, abandoning him or her.
Category: Biblical Studies, Winter 2000
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