The Feast of Tabernacles Is a Family Affair
For God's people around the world, the Feast of Tabernacles is the
happiest time of the entire year! In large part that's because God
ordained the Feast to be family oriented. It is a special, week-long
opportunity for the entire family to be together in celebration of the
coming wonderful world tomorrow.
Both parents and youths of God's Church look forward to the Feast with great anticipation all year long.
For the children, the Feast is full of activities and new things to
see. For the adults, it's a wonderful change of pace and an opportunity
to be spiritually rejuvenated and rededicated, and
to rejoice with our spiritual Family our
brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ, with whom we arc going to spend
eternity.
Let's review several basic scriptures about the Feast to see why God
emphasizes family unity and rejoicing together at this annual commanded
assembly.
1. What is the divinely set
theme for the Feast of Tabernacles? Deuteronomy 1613-15. (Notice the
words surely rejoice in verse 15. The Revised Standard Version renders
this "be altogether joyful.") Does God intend for
everyone regardless of age, social strata or economic level - to
rejoice during the Feast? Verse 14.
God tells us that the Feast of Tabernacles is to be a happy, wonderful
time. For the congregation of ancient Israel — God's physical.
Old Testament Church in the wilderness (Acts 7:18) — it was a
time of rejoicing because the abundant winter's store of food was
harvested just before the Feast. But the Feast has far greater
significance For God's spiritual Church today.
The Feast of Tabernacles pictures — is a foretaste of the
prosperity, happiness, joy and universal peace that will come about in
the Millennium under the righteous rule of Jesus Christ. Obedience to
God's laws and revealed way of life will make the world tomorrow a
supremely happy place.
2. Does God intend for the
husband to take his wife and children with him to rejoice together at
the Feast? Deuteronomy 12:5, 7, 1 2,16:14. Are they to live in temporary dwellings at the place designated by God for the observance of this Feast? Leviticus 23:42.
3. Did Jesus Christ, as a
young child, keep God's (not man's — Leviticus 23:1 2) annual
festivals with His human family? Luke 2:41-42. Did He continue to keep
these days as an adult? John 7:1-2, 10-11, 14.
Jesus Christ observed all of God's annual festivals from early
childhood. Joseph, His human guardian, and Mary, His mother, obediently
kept all the annual festivals together with Jesus and Jesus' younger
brothers and sisters. Jesus rejoiced with His human family at the Feast
of Tabernacles, just as He, the Lord God of the Old Testament, had
commanded ancient Israel to rejoice.
4. But will it sometimes be
impossible to take all of our family members to the Feast of
Tabernacles with us? Matthew 10:36.Of course it is not always possible
for all of God's people to be with their physical families at the
Feast, especially if some family members have not yet been called by
God and therefore do not want to observe God's festivals. But God
expects His people to attend this week-long feast with their immediate
families, if at all possible, so they may rejoice together.
5. Are only families to rejoice at the Feast of Tabernacles? What
about those who, for one reason or another, are alone at the Feast?
Deuteronomy 16:14,The Feast is not a time to go off away from others
and have a private vacation. God commands all of His people to come
together to be taught, to fellowship and to rejoice, whether or not
they are married and have children even if we don't have physical
relatives with us. we can still experience the joy and abundance of
this festival with other members of God's Church
For those with physical families, the
Feast of Tabernacles is a wonderful time to show Christian love by
fellowshipping with the widows, orphans and others who are alone at the
Feast.
The Feast of Tabernacles is a time of real fun for young and old alike.
It is an occasion for families to be together for more than a week, in
addition to travel time to and from the Feast. It is a time of
concentrated teaching by God's ministers.
The Feast is also a time for fellowship with brethren from different
parts of the country and even other nations. Christians at the Feast
demonstrate now, by the way they live together in harmony, what this
entire world could be like if everyone followed God's laws — and
what the world will be like after Jesus Christ returns!
Clearly, keeping the Feast is a great opportunity our heavenly Father
gives us, in which many of us can strengthen relationships with our
physical families and where we can all develop family ties with many of
our spiritual brethren. Not only does the Feast picture the Millennium,
it is also a foretaste of being in the universe ruling Kingdom of God
— of sharing eternity together as glorified members of the Family
of God.
6. Does God plainly show that it is His purpose to increase His
divine Family by bringing many spiritual children into it? II
Corinthians 6:18, Hebrews 2:9-10, Revelation 21:7.
7. Is Jesus Christ actually the firstborn of many children
of God'' Romans 8;29, Colossians 1:18. Jesus Christ is God's
firstborn Son and our Elder Brother because we, too, if we are true
Christians, can be born into the Family of God at the resurrection.
Notice further.
8. Are Christians already called the children of God the Father?
1 John 3:1-2. But even though Considered God's children, arc they now
only "heirs" — ones who shall, in the future. become inheritors?
Galatians 4:6-7. Romans 8:14-17. Why are they only heirs today? I Peter
1:3-4.
Those who have been called by God (John 6:44) to be a part of His
spiritual Family are
now only begotten children begotten by God's
Spirit, but not yet horn of God's Spirit (John 3:1 -8). It is when they
arc born of God at the resurrection that they become inheritors of
God's Kingdom — divine, eternal members of the Family of God.
9 How does one become "begotten" of God'' Acts 2:3K. Does the
receipt of God's Holy Spirit then make him or her a true Christian?
Romans 8:9-10.
When God gives you the precious gift of His Holy Spirit, you become a
begotten son or daughter of God His very own child, actually begotten
of Him by His Spirit entering your mind, joining with the ''spirit of
the man" (I Corinthians 2:9-12).
God then becomes your heavenly Father (Matthew 6:9). Not figuratively,
just because He created all mankind, but in reality. Just as a human
father gives his physical characteristics to his
children when they are begotten, God gives His
spiritual characteristics to His Spirit-begotten children (II Peter
1:4). And just as a human father's children are humans, God's begotten
children will one day be Gods!
When begotten by God's Holy Spirit, we enter a family relationship with
our Father in heaven and Our Elder Brother, Jesus Christ (Matthew
28:19. Hebrews 2:11-12).
But just as an unborn physical child must grow large enough to be born
of its human mother, so the begotten Christian must grow
spiritually in
the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ and in the fruits of
God's Spirit (II Peter 3:18, Galatians 5:22-23). With God's help, he is
to overcome sin and develop spiritual character before he can be born
into the heavenly Father's spiritual Family at Jesus Christ's return.
10. While we are in the spiritually begotten state, who does the Bible
show is our spiritual mother? Galatians 4:26. How does she feed,
nurture, guide and protect the Spirit-begotten children of God the
Father? Ephesians 4:11-13, I Peter 5:1-3.
God's Church is the "mother of us all." As a human mother carries her
unborn child where it is protected and nourished, God's Church, through
God's called and chosen ministry, instructs, teaches, counsels, advises
and protects from spiritual harm its members before their spiritual
birth. At the Feast of Tabernacles, as well as at God's other annual
festivals and weekly Sabbaths, begotten children of God meet together
to receive spiritual nourishment from their spiritual mother
Soon God's children will gather at dozens of Feast sites around the
world to be fed spiritual food. And an essential part of that spiritual
nourishment comes from concentrated Christian fellowship with our
physical families and our one great spiritual Family.
So let's all rejoice at the Feast of Tabernacles — especially
with God our Father, Christ our Elder Brother and with our Spirit
begotten brothers and sisters, many of whom we will have the pleasure
of meeting for the first time!
MiniStudy Prepared by Richard H. Sediacik Good News MAgazine September 1984
