Messiah’s Return and the Feast of Tabernacles
As I mentioned in my previous post, the trumpets of the seventh month not only heralded the end of the harvest season, they also announced the return of a king to his kingdom. When battle season was over, kings would come home, trade their swords for scepters, sit on their thrones, and enter their rest. Kings brought with them the crowns of all the rulers they’d defeated so they could be crowned with many crowns in a glorious coronation ceremony. And so it will be at Messiah’s return.
For Israel, rest reigned in the seventh month—whether in the fields of battle or the fields of harvest. The Feast of Tabernacles, more than any of the other seven, looked most like what we’d think of as a feast. The other six carried a sense of solemnity, but God commanded this one to be celebrated with great rejoicing (Leviticus 23:40, Deuteronomy 16:14).
Joy Reigns at Messiah’s Return
There was reason for joy once each year’s battles were over and labors were done, but the Feast of Tabernacles also looked forward to a greater celebration to come. One day, their Messiah, the Prince of Peace, would put an end to all war, march home, and wipe their tears from their eyes. The Feast of Tabernacles gave God’s people an annual opportunity to practice how they’d welcome King Messiah when he came.
Even today, Jews construct temporary booths decorated with leafy and fruit-filled branches. They gather as families in these mini-tabernacles to feast and enjoy each other’s company for seven days. These remind them of the tents that sheltered their ancestors during their days of wandering in the wilderness. But the booths also cause them to reflect on the way the God of the Universe once stooped to dwell in a tabernacle of goat hair and linen in their midst. In those days, he was Emmanuel—God living with them—sharing in the dust and the heat and all the discomforts of traveling through a land that was not their own.
A millennium and a half later, Jesus appeared, God himself dwelling among his people in a tent of flesh. And when he arrived in Jerusalem in Matthew 21:9, the crowd sang Hosannas reserved for God’s promised Messiah. “Hosanna to the Son of David! ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’ Hosanna in the highest!”
Two Kings at Once
At his first coming, Jesus entered the city riding on a donkey as the Prince of Peace. But at Messiah’s return, he’ll come through the gates on a white horse, befitting his status as the conquering King of kings. These two types of royal entrances remind me of two who foreshadowed the Messiah in Israel’s history, David and Solomon.
David came first as a warring king. He knocked out rulers who opposed the Lord’s dominion and established the boundaries of the Land of Israel. Solomon, whose name is derived from the word shalom, followed him and reigned during a time of peace. As though in demonstration of “the last shall be first and the first shall be last,” Jesus flips the kingly order with his two appearances. He came first as Solomon, offering mercy and distributing peace. But at Messiah’s return, he’ll more resemble David, administering justice and establishing his kingdom.
On top of celebrating the end of the harvest and welcoming the king, the Feast of Tabernacles to come contains a final element. Once the final destruction of Babylon is announced in Revelation 19, a great multitude cries out, “Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns! Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.” So, to all the other festivities, a wedding feast is added.
A Wedding is Announced at Messiah’s Return
Messiah’s bride appears, arrayed in fine linen (Revelation 19:6–8), but within a few chapters, she is transformed into both a city and a tabernacle. The New Jerusalem comes down from heaven, “as a bride adorned for her husband,” and almost at once a loud voice declares, “The tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them” (Revelation 21:2–4).
Accentuating her role as God’s dwelling place, the city’s dimensions take on those of the Holy of Holies. She’s four-square—equally tall and wide and deep–just like the Holy of Holies. This interior part of the tabernacle was recognized as the throne room of God. But what was measured in cubic feet in the book of Exodus scales up in the book of Revelation to cubic miles (Revelation 21:16).
Being described as “the bride, the Lamb’s wife” in Revelation 21:9, this city/bride/holy of holies is filled with and illuminated by the presence of God himself. “I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light” (Revelation 21:22–23).
And so we reach the final day of the Feast of Tabernacles—the eighth day when the booths are taken down and everyone prepares to return home. But when we celebrate this feast at Messiah’s return, he’ll be bringing “home” with him. We’ll live and reign with him in the place he has prepared for us, and the kingdom of heaven will continue to expand until it fills the earth as the waters cover the sea.