Here is an excellent perspective of how Jesus fulfilled the Feast of Tabernacles. It was written by an administrator on the SeekGod forum and posted by permission:
Quote:
I want to share on my view of the Feast of Tabernacles explaining how I see it already being fulfilled when Jesus came .Many Messianics teach that this feast is still to be fulfilled and I’m wondering how one could add to what already has been done.
Lev 23:23 And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying,
Lev 23:24 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall you have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation.
Lev 23:25 You shall do no regular work on it: but you shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD.
The feast of tabernacles was also called the feast of ingathering. It was a harvest festival so to speak, where the final crops for the year were harvested. However it also served a commemoration to the years that Israel served in the wilderness.
Lev 23:34 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the feast of tabernacles for seven days unto the LORD.
Lev 23:35 On the first day shall be a holy convocation: you shall do no regular work on it.
Lev 23:36 Seven days you shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD: on the eighth day shall be a holy convocation unto you; and you shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD: it is a solemn assembly; and you shall do no regular work on it.
Lev 23:39 Also in the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruit of the land, you 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 23:40 And you shall take on the first day the fruit of choice trees, branches of palm trees, and the boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God seven days.
Lev 23:41 And you shall keep it as a feast unto the LORD seven days in the year. It shall be a statute forever in your generations: you shall celebrate it in the seventh month.
Lev 23:42 You shall dwell in booths seven days; all that are born Israelites shall dwell in booths:
Lev 23:43 That your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.
We see the primary reason for celebration is to commemorate the Exodus from Egypt.
As a Christian we know this symbolised the exodus from Sin. Just as the Passover Lamb is the Lamb of God .So Tabernacles symbolizes our sojourning in the world/wilderness on our way to the Promised Land.
After being delivered from bondage in Egypt, the people weren’t suddenly transported to the Promised land.
Paralleling our lives, they spent 40 years in wilderness dwelling in tents and God was with them in a cloud by day and a pillar of fire at night.
Following our acceptance of Jesus and his redemption from sin we aren’t magically transported to the real promised land either but we go through the wilderness, in our bodily tents.
During their time in the wilderness, they were not alone. He also fulfilled Tabernacles by tabernacling physically among us
Joh 1:14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
Not only did He tabernacle with us 33 years on the earth ,he does so now with us and in us in this earthly sojourn.
Joh 14:23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man loves me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
2Co 6:16 And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? for you are the temple of the living God; as God has said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Eze 37:26 Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them forevermore.
Eze 37:27 My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people
In the NT we learn that Jesus was that Rock that gave them water, a theme that Jesus then takes up when during the feast of tabernacles he said that whoever wanted Living water had to go to Him for it.
1Co 10:4 And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.
The manna symbolized Jesus
Joh 6:47 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believes on me has everlasting life.
Joh 6:48 I am that bread of life.
Joh 6:49 Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead.
Joh 6:50 This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die.
Joh 6:51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.
He also was there as the light
Exo 13:21 And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them in the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night:
Neh 9:19 Yet you in your manifold mercies forsook them not in the wilderness: the pillar of cloud departed not from them by day, to lead them in the way; neither the pillar of fire by night, to show them light, and the way in which they should go.
In NT at the feast of Tabernacles commemorating this time in the wilderness Jesus comes up and says He is the true Light of the world. In our wilderness of this world, Jesus is the light that we follow to show us the way we should go.
Now after all that does Jesus fulfill Tabernacles or not, is he the goal of what the physical exodus from Egypt represented.
Is what God requires today keeping the feast of tabernacles in the physical sense ie dwelling in booths and offering sacrifices?
Ezr 3:4 They kept also the feast of tabernacles, as it is written, and offered the daily burnt offerings by number, according to the ordinance, as the duty of every day required;
Or wouldn’t He rather you had been redeemed inwardly, accepted Jesus for the redemption of sins, and were now walking with Him ,our real pillar of light, who gives us real living water that will not cause us to thirst on your way to the Promised Land.
Heb 11:16 But now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly: therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he has prepared for them a city. [end quote]
Written by Rose of Shushan
Yes, Yahshua (Christ Jesus) fulfilled aspects of this feast and many others, but there still is a partial fulfillment to come…”The Last Great Day” for example. Has Christ returned to dwell with us for eternity yet? Have we put on immortality yet? Are we living as a resurrected being in the kingdom of heaven now? Are we in the “new Jerusalem” or “promised land” that we have been promised after this life is done as we speak? Or is this still to come? When one obeys Christ’s command (remember He was the one who gave us these commandments on mount Sinai, and He’s the same yesterday, today and forever) to keep this and other feasts, he’s not telling us to “add” to what he’s done on earth, he’s telling us to obey and remember his working with us (Israel) in the past, now, AND in the future. Yes, he wants us to be redeemed inwardly, which includes repentance, but we are not to forsake the assembling for all the Holy assemblies He commanded us to do. Christ is our light, our manna/bead of life, and our river of living water. Remembering and observing this feast during this time promotes our reflection on all these things that Christ is in the
context of a promise given, fulfilled and more to be fulfilled. In our first paragraph you say that you see the feast as already “being fulfilled when Jesus came”. Your english is used correctly here because “being fulfilled” is different from “having been fulfilled”. Yes, this was being fulfilled then and is being fulfilled still now with us, His body, here on earth now represented by us. Are we not His body? Remember also, he said that not a” jot or one tittle” will pass from the law till “ALL” is fulfilled…and this won’t happen till the present heaven and earth pass away. Matthew 5:18 and context: “For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Has heaven and earth passed away? I have a friend that says they both have passed away, but I think he needs a little psychological help. Thank you for reading my reply.
T Hoppe,
Yes, Jesus completely and fully fulfilled all the feasts. He lives with us eternally when we believe on Him [John 14:23]. He was the sacrifice for sin that was required for each feast [Heb 8]. We have already been translated into His Kingdom [Col 1:13]. Jesus is the promised land [Phil 3:20].
Jesus is the same because He is the Savior and that will never change. Read Heb 13 in context and you will see that it is referring to our behavior if we are in Christ, and then talks about how He shed His blood for us.
We have the NT to remind of us of what Christ did. It is in Him that the fulfillment of the feasts is realized. The feasts were just a shadow – a pattern of what was to come. Once Christ came there was no need for the feasts. The feasts were incomplete, did not give a full understanding that Christ would die for sin. The feasts were dependent on animal sacrifices for sin, which was an incomplete view of the sacrificial sacrifice of Christ.
I did not write the article. It was written by “Rose”. She is using the past tense of “being fulfilled”, not a present and future tense.
Matt 5:17-18 does *not* say that heaven and earth won’t pass away because there are still parts of the Law that are unfulfilled. The text says that they won’t pass away until all the Law is fulfilled. Which Jesus did. He says so Himself in Luke 24. He is saying that Heaven and earth will not pass away until all ifs fulfilled, but does not say that when all is fulfilled it’s the end of earth time. Let me put it another way. Jesus said that the earth time would not end before He went to the cross. But we know that earth time is still here, so He accomplished what He said He would do! He explains it more clearly in Luke:
Luk 16:17 And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail.
Hope that helps!
sheep