The Feast of Booths

This morning we are going to be looking at the seventh Feast of Yahweh which is the Feast of Booths. This will be an addition to the study we have already done on this Feast. Please go and watch that one so you'll have a more complete picture.

Let's start out with a quick overview of the Feasts of Yahweh. The Seven Feasts of Yahweh were appointed times of worship for Israel that would serve as "dress rehearsals" of prophetic events that were to happen in the future. Through these Feasts Yahweh was showing Israel what He was going to do. They were pictures of their coming Messiah and His work. These Feasts were both literal Feasts celebrated in Israel every year and TYPES of God's prophetic calendar of events for the Church. These feasts are a study in typology. What exactly do we mean by a type? Wick Broomall has a concise statement that is helpful: "A type is a shadow cast on the pages of Old Testament history by a truth whose full embodiment or antitype is found in the New Testament revelation" (Baker's Dictionary of Theology, p. 533).

When you study the Feasts of Yahweh, you will see that there are seven of them listed in chronological order in Leviticus 23. There are four Spring Feasts—Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits and Pentecost. These four Feasts were a prophetic foreshadowing of the First Coming of the Lord Yeshua. They spoke of His death, deliverance, resurrection, and the advent of the New Covenant.

Then there is a four-month gap which represents the 40-year Exodus. The feasts of Yahweh actually convey two forty-year exodus periods which provide the type and the antitype. The first exodus period concerns Israel's removal from bondage in Egypt at Passover and the physical journey through the wilderness to a physical promised land. More significantly, however, is the anti-type—the spiritual exodus. This exodus runs from the Cross to AD 70. In this exodus, Israel, after the Spirit, left its bondage to the Law of the sin and the death (Ro. 8:2) and began a forty-year spiritual journey to a spiritual inheritance—the Kingdom of God or the New Heavens and New Earth.

The remaining three feasts are the Fall Feasts, which were a prophetic foreshadowing of the Second Coming of Christ. The Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Booths. The Fall Feasts took place in the month of Tishri on the Hebrew calendar, which would be September or October on our calendar. These three Feasts speak of the consummation of redemption after the outpouring of God's wrath and of the New Heaven and Earth, typified by the Feast of Booths.

Today we want to focus on this Seventh and final Feast. Three portions of Scripture outline the biblical observance of the Feast of Booths. The people were to live in booths and rejoice before Yahweh with branches. (Lev. 23:33-43). There were to be many daily, sacrificial offerings (Numbers 29:12-39). In a sabbatical year, the Law was to be publicly read during Booths (Deut. 31:10-11).

And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, "Speak to the people of Israel, saying, On the fifteenth day of this seventh month and for seven days is the Feast of Booths to the LORD. Leviticus 23:33-34 ESV

This is the seventh Feast on the seventh month, and it was to last for seven days. The number "seven" is the biblical number of completion. This is the grand finale in God's plan of redemption; it is Yahweh dwelling with His people.

The Feast of Booths is the most joyful and festive of all Israel's Feasts. Mentioned more often in Scripture than any of the other Feasts, it is also the most important and prominent Feast. The Feast of Booths is known by at least two names in Scripture. Most often it is referred to as "Sukkot" or "booths or Tabernacles."

This Feast is frequently translated "Feast of Tabernacles." This is somewhat misleading because the word "tabernacle" in the Bible refers to the portable Sanctuary in the desert ("mishkan" in Hebrew)." The Hebrew word "sukkah" (plural: "sukkot") refers to the temporary booths that people lived in and not to the Tabernacle.

This Feast was to be an annual reminder of God's provision during the 40-year wilderness sojourn when Israel lived in similar shelters. This final Feast of the year is also known in Scripture as the "Feast of Ingathering" because it was observed after all crops had been harvested and gathered.

You shall keep the Feast of Harvest, of the firstfruits of your labor, of what you sow in the field. You shall keep the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in from the field the fruit of your labor. Exodus 23:16 ESV

The Feast was celebrated with great joy. The joy was twofold: it commemorated God's past goodness and provision during their wilderness sojourn, and it commemorated God's present goodness and provision with the completion of harvest.

It is significant that the mood of Sukkot was joyous time for celebration. The progression proceeded from repentance on the Feast of Trumpets and the forgiveness and atonement on Yom Kippur to the time of rejoicing and gladness during Sukkot.

You shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow who are within your towns. For seven days you shall keep the feast to the LORD your God at the place that the LORD will choose, because the LORD your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you will be altogether joyful.  Deuteronomy 16:14-15 ESV

Please notice that everyone, including Gentiles (sojourner), were commanded to rejoice during Sukkot. The word "sojourner" here is ger which means "a foreigner:—alien, sojourner, stranger." This is a non-Israelite, a goy, worshiping Yahweh like a native. He has attached himself to Israel and is worshiping Yahweh. So non-Israelites ("Gentiles"), could worship Yahweh, but only through Israel.

The Feast of Booths was also called "Chag Ha Goyim" (the Feast of the Nations) by the Israelites because it was also for all the nations. During the dedication of the first Temple, which took place during Sukkot, the foreigner is given a special blessing (1 Kings 8:41-43).

"Likewise, when a foreigner, who is not of your people Israel, comes from a far country for your name's sake (for they shall hear of your great name and your mighty hand, and of your outstretched arm), when he comes and prays toward this house, hear in heaven your dwelling place and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to you, in order that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your people Israel, and that they may know that this house that I have built is called by your name. 1 Kings 8:41-43 ESV

Zechariah taught that all the nations would come up to Jerusalem in pilgrimage to celebrate Sukkot.

Because of the joy associated with the Feast of Booths, it became the most prominent of Israel's holidays. It was referred to simply as "the holiday" by the ancient rabbis. The importance of the Feast of Booths is also seen in its inclusion as one of the three pilgrim feasts, Passover and Pentecost being the other two. Three times during the year, all Jewish males were required by Yahweh to appear before Him in the Temple.

Further importance is seen in the great number of required sacrifices during the Feast week. Each day one goat, 14 lambs, two rams, and a number of bulls (13 on the first day, decreasing by one each day) were offered in the Temple.

"On the fifteenth day of the seventh month you shall have a holy convocation. You shall not do any ordinary work, and you shall keep a feast to the LORD seven days. And you shall offer a burnt offering, a food offering, with a pleasing aroma to the LORD, thirteen bulls from the herd, two rams, fourteen male lambs a year old; they shall be without blemish; Numbers 29:12-13 ESV

The text goes on for 27 more verses to list what they are to sacrifice each day. The total number of Bulls that were to be sacrificed added up to 70 (13+12+11+10+9+8+7). What is the significance of the 70 bulls? Why was Israel to offer 70 bulls? In tractate Sukkah 55b Rabbi Elazar stated: "To what do those seventy bullocks correspond? To the seventy nations…" We'll talk about these 70 nations in a minute.

One amazing thing about this seventh feast of Sukkot is the sacrifices being offered during the period (Numbers 29). When the offerings are grouped or counted, their number always remains divisible by seven. There are 182 sacrifices (70 bullocks, 14 rams, and 98 lambs (182 is divisible by 7). The meal offerings totaled 336 tenths of ephahs of flour which is also divisible by 7. It is no coincidence that this seven-day holiday, which takes place at the height of the seventh month, has the perfect number of seven imprinted on its sacrifices.

Dr. Noga Ayali Darshan in a published journal article, published in 2015 called "The Seventy Bulls Sacrificed at Sukkot: Numbers 29:12-34 in Light of a Ritual Text from Emar" connects these 70 bulls to the 70 nations and to the 70 gods over those nations. But she thinks that the Israelites actually offered 70 bulls as sacrifices to these other gods.

She contends that Yahweh told the Israelites to offer these 70 bulls to other gods! That makes no sense to me. Israel is not to worship other gods. Speaking of judgment that was to come upon disobedient Israel, Moses said:

all the nations will say, 'Why has the LORD done thus to this land? What caused the heat of this great anger?' Then people will say, 'It is because they abandoned the covenant of the LORD, the God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt, and went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods whom they had not known and whom he had not allotted to them. Therefore, the anger of the LORD was kindled against this land, bringing upon it all the curses written in this book, Deuteronomy 29:24-27 ESV

These gods that Israel worshiped were "not allotted to them" but to the nations. So, I cannot see these 70 bulls being offered to other gods.

Michael Heiser sees Sukkot as picturing deliverance. He states: "Sukkot, which celebrates the deliverance from this place—from these entities, from these supernatural forces that want death and destruction and chaos for Israel. That's what Sukkot is about."

Milgrom, in his Commentary on the Book of Numbers, says: "You find that on Sukkot, Israel offers to Him [God] seventy bulls as an atonement for the seventy nations."

This makes sense to me. I see the Feast of Booths as a reminder to Israel of her mission to the nations of the world. This is the reason 70 bulls were sacrificed during the feast. There was one bull for each of the 70 nations which originally composed the nations of the world before the tower of Babel when Yahweh turned these nations over to lesser gods and called Israel to be His people. But I also see it as Heiser does as a picture of deliverance. It pictures Israel's deliverance, but they sacrificed the 70 bulls for the deliverance of the nations to which they were called to be a light.

he says: "It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth." Isaiah 49:6 ESV

Israel was to be a light to the nations.

Let's review the Divine Counsel Viewpoint in order to understand who these nations were. As earth's population grew it became wicked as a result of a divine rebellion as per Genesis 3 and 6. Man began to worship the watchers instead of the watchers' creator, Yahweh. This rebellion of man culminated in the building a ziggurat at Babel.

So, the LORD dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore, its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth. And from there the LORD dispersed them over the face of all the earth. Genesis 11:8-9 ESV

Things are in a state of chaos. They are in rebellion against God, and they are judged. They would not follow Him, so He disbursed them and turned them over to lesser deities. This is a very significant text and seen in Deuteronomy 32.

"When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, When He separated the sons of man, [Adam] He set the boundaries of the peoples According to the number of the sons of Israel. Deuteronomy 32:8 NASB

The English translations, based on the traditional Hebrew text of the Tanakh, read "sons of Israel" (as the NASB does here). But there is a variant rendering of this passage. It's based on the 3rd-century BCE translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek, the Septuagint, as well as Hebrew manuscripts of Deuteronomy found among the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran.

When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God. Deuteronomy 32:8 ESV

Here is this same passage as it was rendered by Sir Lancelot C.L. Brenton in his, 1851 translation of the Septuagint into English:

When the Most High divided the nations, when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the nations according to the number of the angels of God. DEUTERONOMY 32:8

In the Septuagint the Greek phrase "aggelon theou" is translated: "angels of God." This interpretive phrase is found in nearly all the extant Septuagint manuscripts. However, several earlier manuscripts have instead "huion theou," or "sons of God." This is a literal rendering of the Hebrew phrase beney 'elohim found among the Dead Sea Scroll copies of Deuteronomy 32:8.

The Septuagint translators plainly understood that the "sons of God" (beney 'elohim) spoken of in Deuteronomy 32:8 and elsewhere were spirit beings ("angels"), and rendered it that way several times (Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7) in order to clarify the meaning. Thus, we have the textual change from "huion theou" to "aggelon theou."

Commenting on Deuteronomy 32:8-9, John Walton wrote, "These verses are intended to contrast the fact that the Lord has set Israel apart unto himself from among all the nations, and Israel is not numbered with them. The nations have their own 'gods,' who are mortal, but they do not have Yahweh, who alone does not die and is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent." (John H Walton ,Professor of Old Testament, Wheaton College), Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary (Old Testament) Volume 1: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy; Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2009), 516

In Genesis 10, the table of nations, Yahweh divides Noah's descendants into 70 different nations.

These are the clans of the sons of Noah, according to their genealogies, in their nations, and from these the nations spread abroad on the earth after the flood. Genesis 10:32 ESV

Chapter 10 of Genesis is the backdrop for Moses' statement in Deuteronomy 32:8 that Yahweh is responsible for the creation and placement of the nations (Heb. goyim). In fact, variations of the same Hebrew root word parad ("separate") are used in both Genesis 10:32 and Deuteronomy 32:8.

The idea that the separation of mankind into 70 nations at the Tower of Babel was by and for the angelic "sons of God" is supported by the ancient Book of Jasher (which is mentioned in Joshua 10:13, "Is it not written in the book of Jasher?" and in 2 Samuel 1:18, "it is written in the book of Jasher.")

And they built the tower and the city, and they did this thing daily until many days and years were elapsed. 32 And God said to the seventy angels who stood foremost before him, to those who were near to him, saying, Come let us descend and confuse their tongues, that one man shall not understand the language of his neighbor, and they did so unto them. JASHER 9:31

If in Deuteronomy 32, Moses was indeed referencing Yahweh's separation of the nations according to Noah's offspring (specifically their physical separation at the Tower of Babel), it is important to note that Israel is not listed in the index of the 70 nations found in Genesis 10. The nation of Israel did not yet exist at that time. Therefore, the statement that God "set the boundaries of the nations according to the number of the children of Israel" clearly seems out of context here.

Literary and conceptual parallels discovered in the literature of Ugarit, however, have provided a more coherent explanation for the number 70 in Deuteronomy 32:8 and have furnished powerful ammunition to textual scholars who argued against the "sons of Israel" reading in MT. Ugaritic mythology plainly states that the head of its pantheon, El (who, like the God of the Bible, is also referred to as El Elyon, the "Most High") fathered 70 sons, thereby setting the number of the "sons of El" (Ugaritic, bn 'il). An unmistakable linguistic parallel with the Hebrew text underlying the LXX reading was thus discovered, one which prompted many scholars to accept the LXX reading on logical and philological grounds: God (El Elyon in Deut. 32:8) divided the earth according to the number of heavenly beings who already existed from the time of creation.

Man's disobedience through their building of the tower of Babel caused Yahweh to divide them up and give them to the lesser gods. They were to worship the lesser gods because Yahweh was done with them. Man continued to reject Yahweh and served other gods so Yahweh gave them up.

Because of Israel's sin, they ended up wandering in the wilderness for 40 years, the territory of other gods. To the Israelites, the desert would not only be a place forbidding of life but as ground outside the camp of Israel and Yahweh, the source of life. There would have been a clear association with chaos. Leviticus 17:7 suggests that the Israelites saw the desert as spiritually sinister.

So, they shall no more sacrifice their sacrifices to goat demons, after whom they whore. This shall be a statute forever for them throughout their generations. Leviticus 17:7 ESV

They were scared of the outside world, the wilderness realm, because it was a place associated with death, with Mot, with the underworld, with hostile spiritual forces. This was spiritual warfare. They had to trust Yahweh to provide for them while they were in the worst possible situation. Sukkot is about their deliverance from this situation. They were trusting God to provide for them. Sukkot is a celebration of the deliverance from the supernatural forces that wanted death and destruction and chaos for Israel. It pictures their rest in the promise land, Yahweh's land.

Zechariah prophesied of this deliverance and tied it with the Feast of Booths.

Behold, a day is coming for the LORD, when the spoil taken from you will be divided in your midst. For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken and the houses plundered and the women raped. Half of the city shall go out into exile, but the rest of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Zechariah 14:1-2 ESV

This was fulfilled when the Roman legions and auxiliaries, consisting of a vast array of ethnic groups from all over the known world attacked and destroyed Jerusalem in A.D. 70. Let's drop down to verse 16.

Then everyone who survives of all the nations that have come against Jerusalem shall go up year after year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Booths. And if any of the families of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, there will be no rain on them. Zechariah 14:16-17 ESV

This is a reference to after the fall of Jerusalem. What did Yeshua say would happen when Jerusalem was destroyed? He told us that Heaven and Earth and the Law were connected. And as long as the Law existed, so would heaven and earth.

For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Matthew 5:18 ESV

The phrase "until heaven and earth pass away" refers to the duration of the whole Tanakh's authority. Yeshua said that not a single item of the Law, the Tanakh, would ever be changed until heaven and earth passed away. Is that what Yeshua said? So, if "heaven and earth" have not passed away, then all of the Law, all 613 commands, are still in effect. Every bit of it. Are all these 613 Laws still being obeyed by Israel today? Not at all. When did Israel stop obeying these 613 Laws? In A.D. 70 when their Temple was destroyed. Do you see the connection here? When the Temple was destroyed by the Romans in A.D. 70, it became impossible to follow the Law of Moses. Therefore, the destruction of the Temple was the ultimate sign of the fulfillment and subsequent passing away of the Law.

If we take "heaven and earth" in a literal sense, then the Law would still have to be in effect. But it is not. Either Yeshua was wrong or "heaven and earth" is not to be taken in a literal sense.

Following the A.D. 70 destruction of the Temple, the observance of this Feast, as all the Feasts, was radically altered. Without a Temple and sacrificial system, these Feasts could no longer be observed. Clearly, these Feasts ALL ended with Jerusalem's destruction and the return of Christ in A.D. 70. There are no more rehearsals because the rehearsals ended when the antitype arrived. The prophecies that they were rehearsing have been fulfilled.

So as modern-day Israel goes through the motions of the rehearsal of this Feast, they continue to miss the reality by two thousand years. They no longer sacrifice on Sukkot. No more goats, no more lambs, no more rams, and no more bulls are sacrificed as prescribed in the Torah. Because all was fulfilled in A.D. 70 when Yeshua returned in judgment on Jerusalem, resurrected His saints, and indwelt His church, there is no longer a need of a Temple or a priesthood.

And if the family of Egypt does not go up and present themselves, then on them there shall be no rain; there shall be the plague with which the LORD afflicts the nations that do not go up to keep the Feast of Booths. Zechariah 14:18 ESV

The Feast of Booths pictures deliverance. All believers have been delivered. The plague here is on unbelievers. All who don't know Christ are under a curse.

The Anti-type of the Feast of Booths.

What did Yahweh do after he dispersed the nations and put them under the authority of other gods? What happens in Genesis 12?

Now the LORD said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." Genesis 12:1-3 ESV

Yahweh had just disinherited the nations, and as soon as he called Abram, he told him that "in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." It was to be through Israel/Yeshua that all the nations of the earth would be blessed. Israel was to be a light to the nations. But the Israelites did not get this. They had grown to hate the people around them. They were so pro-Israel that they had nothing but disdain for the surrounding nations.

As we come to the New Testament, we see at Pentecost that Yahweh began to reclaim all the nations for Himself. Yahweh, in other words, had not forever abandoned the nations to the watchers.

After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go. Luke 10:1 ESV

Why 72 here? The NASB has 70. In Genesis 10, the nations ad up to 70. The Septuagint, however, has 72. Therefore, the rendering depends on whether the translator used the Masoretic text or the Septuagint.

What is the significance of "seventy"? Since Luke viewed the Gospel as God's plan for reclaiming the nations that He disinherited at Babel, the number of disciples in Luke 10:1 was meant to match the number of nations to reinforce this symbolism.

Yeshua's inauguration of the Kingdom meant that these 70 disinherited nations were being reclaimed. Sending out 70 disciples expressed this theological message.

The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, "Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!" And he said to them, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. Luke 10:17-19 ESV

In conjunction with the successful mission of the "seventy," Yeshua declares the expulsion of Satan from God's presence. Satan is being defeated, and the nations are being made part of the Kingdom of God.

The fullness of this Feast in the seventh month was experienced at the coming of Christ at the destruction of Jerusalem. This was a time of great joy for all believers.

The Feast of Tabernacles was to celebrate and commemorate (1) The end of the wanderings in the desert of the children of Israel and (2) a celebration of their inheritance of and entry into Canaan—the Promised Land.

The anti-typical fulfillment of these feasts came at the end of the 40-year transition period (A.D. 30-70) when the Old Covenant came to an end, the New Covenant was fully consummated, and the inheritance of the New Heavens and the New Earth arrived (we "tabernacle there with God"). Booths depict the final harvest as well as the final rest. Remember that this was a 7-day feast with a Sabbath on the eighth day. Why was that Sabbath at the end of the Feast? It pictures REST! Yeshua the Christ is our Sabbath rest. He fulfilled the Old Covenant type. We, as believers, rest totally and completely in Him.

I said earlier in this message that the Feast of Booths is also known in Scripture as the "Feast of Ingathering" because it was observed after all crops had been harvested and gathered.

And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. Matthew 24:31 ESV

This harvest is a Day of Ingathering when God gathers His people unto Himself and burns the wicked like the chaff and stubble.

"For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the LORD of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. Malachi 4:1-2 ESV

The righteous among the Gentiles, too, were gathered to be with Yahweh.

Yahweh not only gathered His people, but He began to TABERNACLE in their midst:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. Revelation 21:1-3 ESV

This age in which we now live is the New Covenant age. We are the New Jerusalem; we live in the presence of Yahweh. We have access to the throne of God 24/7. As the saved of the nations, we walk in the light of this holy city. We are the light of the world today, a city set on a hill.

and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. Revelation 21:25-26 ESV

What does that mean? Look at the following:

Your gates shall be open continually; day and night they shall not be shut, that people may bring to you the wealth of the nations, with their kings led in procession. Isaiah 60:11 ESV

Here we see the reason that these gates are never shut—that men may bring into it the wealth of the Gentiles and their kings in procession. This is a reference to the power of the Gospel. The next verse tells us that only the elect can enter it.

But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life. Revelation 21:27 ESV

Salvation is always available; the gates are always open to this city. Look at chapter 22.

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. Revelation 22:1-2 ESV

Here the river of the water of life flows forth from the Temple to the nations of the world. The tree of life is there for the healing of the nations. The river of the water of life was predicted in the Tanakh in Ezekiel 47. This river comes forth from the New Jerusalem, the Church (Revelation 22:1-2). We are to be involved in taking the water of life to the nations. What is the water of life?

The Spirit and the Bride say, "Come." And let the one who hears say, "Come." And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price. Revelation 22:17 ESV

This is a call to salvation! If the New Heavens and the New Earth are the eternal state as Dispensationalism teaches, why is the invitation to salvation still going out? The New Heaven and Earth is the New Covenant, the Church. From the Church goes forth the water of life for the healing of the nations.

We are now living in the New Heaven and Earth. We are the New Jerusalem, the body of Christ. Yeshua and His Father are among us, and we need no Temple. We need none of the rituals and ceremonies of the Old Heaven and the Old Earth. We are in God's presence now and forevermore.

Israel wondered in the wilderness for 40 years under the attack of the lesser gods. Then Yahweh delivered them into the promised land. The New Testament church also had a 40-year wilderness experience of spiritual battle. The Feast of Booths pictures our deliverance and our dwelling with Yahweh in the eternal realm.  

The celebration of the Feast of Booths is tied to the dedication of the temple by Solomon (2 Chronicles 5) and to the covenant renewal ceremony of Ezra 3 and Nehemiah 8. In all three cases, a new beginning for the people is signaled.

The Feast of Boots destroys the Israel Only doctrine. Those who hold this false teaching say that the term "Gentiles" refers ONLY to the ten northern tribes of Israel, and thus the Bible is written solely and entirely to national Israel. Therefore, there is nothing in the Bible for US; it is all about Israel.

But we see from the Feast of Booths, which is also called The Feast of the Nations, that Yahweh has always had a plan for Gentiles. The 70 bulls sacrificed during Booths was to remind Israel that Yahweh wanted them to be a light to the nations. Yahweh loves Gentiles, and Yahweh saves Gentiles.