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by Lane Rogers
Since I have several other articles on this subject on our web-site I will try and be brief as possible. The "Feast of the Tabernacles" (Lev. 23:33-34) began on the seventh day of the seventh month and lasted for seven days (v.34). It is known as the "Feast of Booths" and the Feast of the Ingathering. During this festival, Israel was to live in booths made of branches of palms and willows or other trees as a reminder of the time Israel spent in the wilderness wanderings of Exodus. In this case, as the harvest is gathered in, this becomes a time of great joy and celebration.
As with other week long festivals, the first and the last days are to be observed as Sabbaths to the Lord. Once again, the "eighth day" following these days is to be a "sacred assembly" (v.36a) it is "the closing assembly" (v.36b). There is to be no work carried out on these days. The unique term in this chapter "aseret" means to shut up or to close. Thus the final day of the Feast of Tabernacles is just that, final.
The same term is used in the Feast of Unleavened Bread in Deut. 16:8. Josephus noted that the concluding day at the "Feast of Pentecost" was also called the "asartha" which means to close.
The last day of the feast, or as in the Gospel of John "the Great Day" (John 7:37), is so labeled because of the solemnity of the assembly.
The Sadducess understood that the branches were to be used for making temporary booths or shelters, but the Pharisees and most adherents of modern Judaism, tie one branch of palm, three branches of myrtle, and one branch of of willow together. These they carry in their right hand but in their left hand they carry a branch of citron. With these they form a procession to their synagogues on each of the seven days marching around reading books as Joshua did around the wall of Jericho.
On the Last day of the feast which the rabbis call "the great Hosanna," they process seven times around the same areas, as their ancestors did around Jericho.
Another ceremony on this occasion is the pouring out of water. One of the priests takes a golden pitcher to the pool of Siloam or Bethesda and after filling it with water returns by the gate on the south side of the Temple, which became known as the "water gate" from this very event. Silver trumpets sound to announce the priest's arrival. He advances directly to the top of the altar where two basins stand, one with wine for the ordinary drink offering and the other for the water that he brings. The priest pours the water into an empty basin and then mixes the wine and water together (blood and water) and pours out both as a libation. Nothing in the Mosaic law reflects this practice but Isa. 12:3 is used for authority.
But what does all this mean?
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"With joy you will draw water/from the wells of salvation" (NIV). It is this event that Jesus probably refers to in the Gospel of John. "On the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood and said " If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me as the Scripture says, streams of living water will flow from within him (John 7:37-38). See also the Mikvah (Living Water) Thus the feast depicts the end! The end of the physical and spiritual harvest. Most beautifully what joy there will be at the end. The Typical significance of the feast is discussed in Zechariah 14. (Zech. and Jesus is coming soon) There is coming a day when the Lord will return and we will meet Him in the air (I Thess. 4:17ff) , all enemies of the Lord's will be demolished. His divine name will be the only name. All nations will then keep the Feast of Tabernacles and the words "Holy to the Lord" will be on everything. Thus, the Feast of Tabernacles is the end of the world and the final return of the Lord.
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