Every year there are many lessons we learn from observing the Feast of Tabernacles (Leviticus 23:33-44). God commands we “dwell in booths for seven days” during this Festival (Leviticus 23:42, All scriptures quoted are from the New King James Version unless otherwise noted). The Hebrew word translated “tabernacles” in verse 34, and “booths” in verses 42 and 43, is sukkah 5521: “1) thicket, covert, booth 1a) thicket 1b) booth (rude or temporary shelter)” The Online Bible In this article we will explore the lessons learned from living in a temporary shelter during the Feast of Tabernacles.

Strangers and Pilgrims

For the children of Israel staying in booths during the Feast of Tabernacles was a reminder that God made them “dwell in booths when [He] brought them out of the land of Egypt” (Leviticus 23:43). The Feast was a continual reminder to Israel of its forty years of wandering in the wilderness (Numbers 32:13; Leviticus 23:42-43). During those years the Israelites had no permanent home. They were “aliens and pilgrims” (1 Chronicles 29:15), strangers and sojourners (Psalm 39:12) in the lands they traveled through. They were merely heirs to the land God promised to give them (Numbers 34:2, 13, 29; Joshua 11:23), not yet inheritors. Each year the Feast was a reminder of this period of time when they were sojourners and strangers.

The forefathers of the children of Israel, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob also lived in temporary dwellings as heirs, but not inheritors of this same promised land (Hebrews 11:8-9). The patriarchs knew that “they were only strangers and pilgrims on the earth” (verse 13).

Like the children of Israel and the patriarchs, Christians are “sojourners and pilgrims” (1 Peter 2:11) in the wilderness of this world. This is not our world or society (John 17:14, 16). We are just passing through to a better world to come. As Christians we are only heirs of God, not yet inheritors of our permanent dwelling place the promised Kingdom of God (Matthew 25:31, 34; 1 Corinthians 15:50-54; James 2:5). Staying in a temporary dwelling during the Feast of Tabernacles teaches us that this physical life is only temporary; that we are now sojourners in this world waiting to inherit the Kingdom of God.

Abstaining From Fleshly Lusts

Spending time in a booth or tabernacle during the Feast is also A reminder that as “sojourners and pilgrims” during this life, we must “abstain from fleshly lusts” (1 Peter 2:11), keeping ourselves “unspotted from the world” (James 1:27). How? By not become friends with this world (James 4:4). We must not love this world and what it has to offer, the “lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” (1 John 2:15-17). As pilgrims and sojourners during this “present age,” “we should live soberly, righteously, and godly,” while we deny “ungodliness and worldly lusts” (Titus 2:12).

Putting Off the Fleshly Tabernacle

Living in a temporary shelter helps us to understand that our present physical life is comparable to a tent or tabernacle. With this tent replaced by a permanent spiritual house when Jesus returns. In the apostle Peter’s final letter he likens his life to a “tabernacle” “that shortly [he] must put off” (2 Peter 1:13-14 King James Version). The apostle Paul compares our physical bodies to an “earthly house of this tabernacle” that if dissolved, changes into a “house not made with hands, eternal,” a “house which is from heaven” (2 Corinthians 5:1-6 King James Version). The resurrection of the dead in Christ happens at the sound of the last or seventh trumpet announcing Jesus’ second coming. Those Christians still living then are changed (Revelation 11:15; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; 1 Corinthians 15:51-52). We will receive powerful, glorious, incorruptible and immortal bodies, replacing our weak, corruptible and mortal ones (1 Corinthians 15:42-43, 53-54). The physical “natural body, it is raised a spiritual body” bearing “the image of the heavenly Man” Jesus Christ (verses 44, 49).

Additional Lessons to Learn

The Feast of Tabernacles teaches us about Jesus’ first and second comings. When Jesus came to this world as a human, He was the Word who “became flesh and tabernacled among us. And we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and of truth” (John 1:14 Green’s Literal Translation). The Greek word translated as “tabernacled” is skenoo 4637: “1) to fix one's tabernacle, have one's tabernacle, abide (or live) in a tabernacle (or tent), tabernacle 2) to dwell” The Online Bible. The King James Version and New King James Version translate this word as “dwelt.”

The coming thousand year reign of the Kingdom of God (Revelation 20:1-6) is an important theme of the Feast of Tabernacles. Jesus as LORD “will return to Zion, and dwell in the midst of Jerusalem” (Zechariah 8:3), His “tabernacle also shall be with them” (Ezekiel 37:27). These are just a couple of the many Old Testament scriptures dealing with the Messianic age to come. Living in a temporary shelter during the Feast helps us to foresee when Jesus will tabernacle and dwell on earth.

Also dwelling in booths helps us to focus on the future after the thousand years. The time of the “new heaven and a new earth (Revelation 20:4-21:3), when God the Father will come to earth and tabernacle with mankind: “And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God” (Revelation 21:3).

Conclusion

There are several lessons we learn from living in temporary shelters during the Feast of Tabernacles. Israel’s wandering in the wilderness for forty years is a type of our life in this world today as a stranger and pilgrim waiting to inherit the kingdom of God. As sojourners in this life, we must not become involved with this world and its ways. Our bodies are like a physical tent that will become a spiritual house when Christ returns. When Jesus first came to earth as a human being, He tabernacled in a mortal body. After His return Jesus will tabernacle with humanity. Finally, after the creation of the new heaven and new earth, God the Father will come to earth and tabernacle with mankind.