Prayer 101 - Part 79: Dry Bones No More
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Outline
Ezekiel 37
Ezekiel 37: 24-28 speaks of the tabernacle.
Zechariah 14:16-20 - The Feast of Tabernacles will continue throughout the Millennium.
THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES
Lev 23:33-44
Num 29:12
Deut 16:13
2 Chr 8:13
Ezra 3:4
Jn 7:1-21 Jesus reminded His listeners that He healed the paralytic on the Sabbath 18 months before in Jn 5:1-18
The Feast of Tabernacles is also known as the Feast of Booths. 15th day of Tishri(7th month). In September or October each year.
THE FEAST OF BOOTHS
Booths made of boughs as a shelter
Gen 33:17
Lev 23:39-42
Neh 8:14-18
SUKKOT - speaks back to Gen 33:17
Sukkot is a city east of the Jordan River, identified as tell Deir-Alla, a high debris mound in the plain north of Jabbok and about one mile from it (Joshua 13:27). The identification is based on a passage in the Jerusalem Talmud (compiled in the 4th century CE), in which biblical Sukkot was identified with a settlement called Dar'ellah. This is where Jacob, on returning from Padan-aram(modern day Iraq) after an interview with Esau, built a house for himself and made sukkot (booths) for his cattle.
Sukkot is plural for sukkah which is a temporary hut constructed for use during the week-long Jewish festival of Sukkot. It is topped with branches and often well decorated with autumnal, harvest or Judaic themes. The book of Leviticus describes it as a symbolic wilderness shelter commemorating the time God provided for the Israelites in the wilderness they inhabited after they were freed from slavery in Egypt. It is common for Jews to eat, sleep and otherwise spend time in the sukkah. Symbolizing the fragility and transience of life and one’s dependence on God.
The Feast of Tabernacles is a heavenly instituted celebration designed to help the children of Israel look towards the future and their coming salvation.(Hos 5:15; Zech 12:10; 13:8,9)
As I consider the Feast of Tabernacles I am drawn to the much larger Tabernacle that was set in the midst of the people of Israel as they wandered throughout the desert.
THE TABERNACLE
Jesus would one day dwell in a tabernacle of flesh as seen in John 1:14 - ‘And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us. And we beheld His glory, glory as of an only begotten from the Father, full of grace and of truth.’
In the Old Testament the tabernacle was essentially a large tent that the Jews would set up in their camp where the LORD would dwell. So, after calling and saving his people from slavery in Egypt, we see God dwelling with his people in the tabernacle (a temporary dwelling place of God) while they wandered through the wilderness. When it speaks of Him as one who tabernacled among us it speaks of him pitching a tent amongst them. The Old Testament was where God moved in and lived with His people.
Jesus came into the world to save sinners. He dwelt amongst us, and now because of the resurrection we have been given the amazing opportunity to have him come and reside within this frail and fleeting tent within which we live by the power of the Holy Spirit. Born again because we have believed in our heart and confessed with our lips that Jesus Christ is our Lord.
Yet we must take care of this tabernacle, or as Paul calls it a temple. ’Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.’ 1 Cor 6:19-20
When I consider the valley of dry bones and the transformation which occurred to Israel I am also reminded that the day draws nigh that the decaying tabernacle(our present physical bodies) in which we currently reside will be transformed into a house which is from heaven - a brand new body.
2 Corinthians 5:1-10 King James Version
1 For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven:
3 If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.
4 For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.
5 Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.
6 Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:
7 (For we walk by faith, not by sight:)
8 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.
9 Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.
10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.
Titus 2:13 King James Version
13 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;
I don’t know about you, but I want to be around throughout the Millennium to see the outworking of the Feast of Tabernacles as recorded in Zech 14:16-20.