Feast of Booths

THE FEAST OF BOOTHS

John 7:1-9

Starting here in John 7 the hostility of the Jews toward Jesus steadily grows. In fact, in vs. 1 John tells us that the Jews were seeking to kill Him and this hostility will eventually lead to Jesus being crucified.

So Jesus is hesitant to go to Jerusalem, not because He is afraid, vs. 6, ‘but because “His time is not yet at hand.”
If you look at the end of vs. 6 what Jesus is saying is, “men work on one time table, but Jesus works on God’s time table.”
God is Sovereign and when it is time, according to God’s schedule and God’s divine purpose, Jesus will go to Jerusalem to be put to death at the hands of the Jews.
And we will see that as we go through the rest of John’s gospel.

But this may seem a little strange but what I would like to do this morning is focus on vs. 2 and the Feast of Booths or the Feast of Tabernacles or the Feast of the Ingathering.

The Jews would refer to it as the “sook kaw.”
And the reason I would like to focus on the Feast of Booths is because the Jews in this passage are in the process of making the same mistake again that their fathers made many years before.
And that many people still make today.
Let me explain.

The Feast of Booths or Feast of Tabernacles is a pilgrimage feast meaning it was required of Jewish males living within a certain distance to travel to Jerusalem to celebrate the feast.

That is why in vs. 10 Jesus’ brothers go and why Jesus goes a little later.

Did you pick up on that: Jesus has brothers!

Why is that significant? Because there is in our society a doctrine that teaches that Mary, Jesus’ mother, was a perpetual virgin.
In other words, she was a virgin before Jesus was born, she was a virgin when He was born, and she was and still is a virgin after He was born.
The fact that Jesus had brothers, and in Matthew 13:56 the fact that Jesus had sisters,, disputes the teaching that Mary was and is a perpetual virgin.
But back to the Feast of Booths.

The Feast of Booths is a fall festival intended to honor God and for celebrating the final harvest of the year; it was celebrated in the 7^th month starting on the 15^th day of the Jewish calendar or for us it would be about mid -September.

Not only was it a celebration of the final harvest of the year but it also commemorated the 40 years that the Jews wandered in the wilderness after the Exodus.

Here is what God says about it in Leviticus 23 starting in vs. 39.

Lev 23:39-44 ‘’On exactly the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the crops of the land, you shall celebrate the feast of the LORD for seven days, with a rest on the first day and a rest on the eighth day.

So, you have the Sabbath or a day of rest on each end of this celebration with the feasting in between.

40’Now on the first day you shall take for yourselves the foliage of beautiful trees, palm branches and boughs of leafy trees and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God for seven days.

Now, vs. 41: ‘You shall thus celebrate it as a feast to the LORD for seven days in the year. It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations; you shall celebrate it in the seventh month. 42’You shall live in booths (tabernacles, tents, temporary shelters) for seven days; all the native-born in Israel shall live in booths, 43 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.’ ”

So, the Feast of Booths was to celebrate God’s blessing them with a good harvest, but it was also a reminder that God had the people live in “booths when God brought them out of Egypt.”

Now, why did God have them “live in booths when He brought them out from the land of Egypt?”

Obviously, God wanted them to remember this because they were to do this every year.
So, here In John 7, 1400 years after the Exodus, they are still commemorating the event!
Why? What is the story behind this?
Let me give you the history of what happened.

When God brought His people out of Egypt it should not have taken anywhere close to 40 years for them to get to the “promised land.”

Less than 2 months after they left Egypt they came into the wilderness of Sinai and camped at the foot of the mountain where they received the Law or 10 Commandments and all the ordinances.
God kept them there for a little over a year, not only to give them the law but to teach them some things.

These people had been living in Egypt for over 400 years and they had been influenced by the Egyptian culture; perhaps picked up on some Egyptian ideas and practices.

But now they are a new nation.
They are no longer governed and ruled by the Egyptians.
They have a new King, One they cannot see; One that is Holy and Righteous.
They are excited but things will be much different now.

So God, through Moses had a lot to convey to the people.

God would establish priesthood, and a religious system; and He would give them a tabernacle where God could be with them.
And God would provide for them, and feed them, and protect them.
And God would teach them to rely on Him; and to trust Him so that when they reached the land that God has promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, they would be ready to receive the land by faith.

So, for over a year God, through Moses, taught and prepared these people and finally, on the 20^th day of the 2^nd month (Num. 10:11) and the 2^nd year after they left Egypt they broke camp and set out for Canaan.

And after a period of about 50 days they reached the wilderness of Paran and God instructed Moses to send spies into the land of Canaan to see what it was like.

After about 40 days the spies came back; 2 of the spies said that the land was “truly flowing with milk and honey” and even though the inhabitants of the land were strong they could be defeated; but 10 of the spies gave an evil report and said that they inhabitants were of great stature and could not be defeated; and as a result the vast majority of the people determined in their hearts not to trust God.
And because of their unbelief God sent them back into the wilderness to wander for an additional 38 years.

And that is how the Feast of Booths came to be. The people were to live in booths, small tabernacles, small rudimentary shelters perhaps made of tree branches (Lev. 23), as they wandered in the wilderness.

And the Feast of Booths mentioned here in John 7 was something they did every year to remember those 38 years of wandering in the wilderness.

Now why would God require them to remember those 38 years? Why would He require them to remember all those days and weeks and years of wandering in the wilderness?

What is it that God wants us to learn from this?

First of all, I think God wants them to remember the fact that we bring so much unnecessary hardships, problems, and turmoil into our lives through our simple unwillingness to trust and obey the LORD.

For 40 years these people wandered in some of the most desolate, remote, harshest land in the world; moving from one place to the next.
And during the 40 years that these people became bitter, quarrelsome, and openly rebellious.
And the majority of them died in the wilderness!
And they didn’t have too.
And isn’t this true today?

How much grief, and pain, and turmoil do people, perhaps even some of us, bring into our lives because we refuse to trust in and obey the Lord?

And we don’t have to!

And the grief and pain and turmoil often lasts and lasts for years and years.

For many of these Israelites it lasted for 40 years; but actually for those who were over 20 years old and who refused to trust God, who grumbled against God, who treated God with contempt, it lasted for the rest of their lives because they died in the wilderness; Numbers 14:20-25.

And for those who were younger than 20 years old, and even the few that were faithful to the Lord (Joshua and Caleb and their families) for 40 they still suffered the consequences of those who refused to trust God before God finally led them into the Promised Land; Numbers 14:26-35.

The innocent often suffer for our unbelief.

And the tragedy is they were so close to the Promised land!

The grief, the hardship, the pain, the problems due to our refusal to trust in God and obey Him can and often does last a lifetime…and our refusal can affect our children and their children as well.

And that is what God wanted these people to remember when they celebrated the Feast of Booths.

He didn’t want them to make the same mistake their forefathers did.
And unfortunately that is exactly what they did when they rejected Jesus.
Everything up to this point in John’s gospel, all the miracles, the prophets, God Himself has and is saying that Jesus is the source of eternal life; He is the way and access to the Promised Land…and just like they did at the time of the Exodus some 1400 years earlier they refuse to trust in and obey God.
And just like them, if we do the same our lives will be filled with heartache, pain, and problems and we will die in the wilderness.

And there is another reason why God wanted them to commemorate the Feast of Booths and that was even in their unbelief, God remained faithful.

During that additional 38 years of wandering after the people failed to trust in God, God kept providing the manna for them, and He kept protecting them and responding to them.
And on the negative side, He kept His word to those who rejected Him, they died in the wilderness just as He said.
But then on the positive side, those who trusted Him, just as He promised He eventually took them to the Promised Land.

Look at what the apostle Paul says in 2 Timothy 2:13: If we are faithless, He remains faithful; for He cannot deny Himself.

God doesn’t just act faithful; He is faithful; even when we aren’t.

God will keep His promise! His word is trustworthy! If He says that your unforgiven sins will condemn you to die eternally…you know the will.

If He says that your sins can be forgiven through faith and obedience to Christ, you can go to heaven, they can and you will.

But like these people, if we refuse to trust in God then we too will eventually die in the wilderness.

The tragedy is, we don’t have to.

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