Tabernacles: Kingship, Temporary Dwellings, and Worship

This feast is when the anticipated rulership and kingship of our Elohim and Messiah will begin, which will ultimately and effectively restore the kingdom back to Israel and fulfill Yah's everlasting covenants. The Feast of Tabernacles is a seven-day feast of rejoicing, praising, and celebrating all the things that Yahweh has done and will do for us. As we eagerly await with great anticipation for this mind-boggling event, we can only imagine what that day will be like. Why did God command the people of Israel to dwell in temporary places for seven days every year throughout the generations? One primary reason is Yahweh wanted Israel to always remember that it was only by His mighty arm and hand that He brought them out of the land of Egypt. Secondly, every year on the Feast of Tabernacles, Elohim wholeheartedly desires us to remember that both the earth and our mortal bodies are temporary dwelling places or tabernacles.

It is written, "For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." (2 Corinthians 5:1, John 14, and Revelation 21 and 22). Now, let us discover a couple of foreshadows of the Feast of Tabernacles and how this prophetically correlates to Messiah's millennial reign on the earth. As it is written, Elohim declares the end from the beginning. Therefore, we have to understand the beginning and the prophetic foreshadows in order to have a glimpse at the end of the age. From the foundation of the world, God's ultimate salvation plan has been to dwell or tabernacle among mankind, which symbolizes what the Feast of Tabernacles is all about: dwelling with His people forevermore. In the book of Genesis, we find the first Feast of Tabernacles as God tabernacled among Adam and Eve until the fall. We also find symbolism of this feast with the patriarch Jacob.

It is written, "And Jacob journeyed to Sukkot, built himself a sukkah or house and made booths for his livestock." Therefore, the name of the place is called Sukkot. Sukkot means tabernacle, tent, booth, or temporary dwelling place, to say the least. I find that very interesting since Jacob fathered the 12 tribes of Israel, which is exactly who received the commandments, who received the commandment at Mount Sinai of dwelling in booths every single year, which was the 12 tribes of Israel. At Mount Sinai, God commanded Moses and the people of Israel to build a sanctuary or tabernacle so He could dwell among them as well. They commenced to build the tabernacle on the Feast of Tabernacles. Okay, so we've gone through this before. If one doesn't know the story of the book of Exodus, Exodus 12 was the new month, new moon, new month. Exodus 12 was the Passover as well. And if you keep reading, Exodus 20:19-20, that's Mount Sinai.

Exodus 20, they received the commandments, or the first 10 words. And then Moses ascended up the mountaintop for the first 40 days. So, they received the Ten Commandments on Shavuot, as you can see on the calendar. Then Moses went up for 40 days by himself to receive the tabernacle instructions on how to build the tabernacles for 40 days. So, then when you read Exodus 32, that's when they built the golden calf because they were not patient for Moses to come down from the mountain. They built the golden calf, and then that's when he had to go back up because he came down on the 40th day and saw the golden calf. He broke the calf. 3,000 people died. He ascended back up for another 40 days. So, to the 18th of the fourth month, the 18th of the month, and then he returned down on the 30th as well. So, came back down 40 days later. There was no reassurance. And then he went back up on the month of repentance, on Elul 1, the sixth month, and came back down on Yom Kippur, which was five days ago.

So, he came back down on Yom Kippur. Here's the new tablets. Everything's forgiven. And then, as you can read in the scriptures, they started building the tabernacle. Everybody started bringing the materials that they got from Egypt, by the way, to build the tabernacle. Isn't that amazing? So, what they built the tabernacle with, I mean, they were slaves, okay? They didn't have anything. They were in bondage in Egypt. So, remember, the Egyptians gave them all of these things because God told them that they were going to have favor from the Egyptians. So, they gave them all of the tabernacle furnishings, because how else would they receive them? And then they went on this journey not knowing what they were going to use them for. And then they used them for the tabernacles. It says in the story that the people gave so much that Moses says, "Quit giving all this stuff. We don't need all these things." So, that's where their heart posture was after the sin was forgiven on Yom Kippur and what they were did with the golden calf, that the people were giving everything that they owned, and Moses, if you read the story, said, "Hey, we don't need all this stuff.

You know, keep all this stuff." So, again, that shows you where their heart posture was once they were forgiven on Yom Kippur and given the righteous rendered verdict, amazing actually. But all of those materials that they had, they came from Egypt. And that's what built the tabernacle. Remember, King Solomon, when he built the temple, he got the cedar from Lebanon. The cedar, we all know about the cedars of Lebanon, right? How beautiful they are. Well, they built the tabernacle, the temple. Solomon's temple and his house. Pretty amazing. So, again, God can use foreign pagan nations for His purposes. Lebanon, Egypt, Babylon, you name it, for His own purposes. So, pretty interesting story. So, anyhow, He came back down on Yom Kippur, and they started to build the tabernacle on the Feast of Tabernacles, and then six months later, on Nisan 1, they erected it, just like it says in the scriptures.

So, if we can understand the book of Exodus and understand Leviticus, we're going to see a beautiful story of purification and deliverance and homage and worship and the right way to worship, and also what happened with the judgment and all of these things that happened. But they got to that point. So, again, the story of Exodus is really from year to year, and really goes beyond that, but it's really Exodus 12 on to the first of the following year where they set the tabernacle up. So, their lives changed in one year from Nisan 1 to Nisan 1. Basically, they saw the new month, they saw the Passover, they left, and then the following Nisan 1, the tabernacle was erected from Yom Kippur and the Feast of Tabernacles. It's pretty amazing when you look at these things, my friends. But we have to understand the calendar and the understanding of the feast days to put all these things together to understand what the scriptures are saying, because the scriptures are going to go by the calendar.

The calendar of the scriptures, they just work together in all these beautiful anointings. So, it's really amazing, friends, when we look at it. But I forgot the points that I was trying to make, but that's really the trajectory that they were on. Moses came down on Yom Kippur with the new two tablets, said, "Everything's good. Everything's cool. We're all forgiven. He's not going to destroy y'all. And here, let's go build the tabernacle." And the people responded with the outpouring of love for their heart positions with the tabernacle. If you read it, I mean, Moses says, "Quit bringing all this stuff because it was too much." So, it's a beautiful story of redemption. And the people did understand that God did give them the righteous rendered verdict on Yom Kippur, and they showed homage back to the Most High. Beautiful. So, they commenced to build the tabernacle on the Feast of Tabernacles.

We know this because Moses came down with the new commandment tablets on the Day of Atonement. Subsequently, they began to build the tabernacle during the divine and holy feast, as Elohim's forever plan was to dwell with His people. It is written, "And let them make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them, according to all that I show you, that is the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all of its furnishings, just so you shall make it." Six to seven months later, on Nisan 1, which begins the biblical Exodus calendar, the tabernacle was set up, just like I was mentioning before. Interestingly, in the book of Deuteronomy, all of the males of Israel were required to be in Jerusalem three times a year, which included the Feast of Tabernacles. In Deuteronomy 16:16, it says this: "Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord your God in the place which He chooses: the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles; and they shall not appear before Me empty-handed." Amen.