The Feast of Tabernacles

Thank you, Mr. Evans. Here, I've been complaining that I look kind of old, but not bad for 150-some years old, right?

Well, it's amazing. Sometimes you plan a message for a special occasion, which I enjoy getting to do that. You can take inspiration by what's happening or a special location. And that was the case with this one. And I wondered when I found out we weren't going to be over at Lake White, should I change my introduction? I thought, no, they've all got imaginations. So just imagine we're sitting at that picnic shelter. This is the way I have it written. Isn't it amazing how we can come into a place like this that is not at all designed for Sabbath services? And how quickly make it seem like that's what it's here for? I thought I'd get some chuckles out of that. Of course, it wasn't intended to be funny when I wrote it. And I said, we've been...and I was going to comment on how we've made this place, our congregation's home, for just a couple of hours. And we would be there for a few more. But then we'll move on, and it'll go just back to being a picnic shelter. Well, right now it's not being used for any of those things now. But I do remember when we were there last time in May, several people talked about how, you know, as we scrambled to set things up and we put a sound system and decided how to arrange things. And we realized that we were kind of out of practice. We've been blessed here in the Portsmouth congregation with having a stable home for years and years, a more or less permanent meeting hall. A lot of congregations would love to have what we have here. And so it is a tremendous blessing. But it's crossed my mind, and I've learned some lessons lately about how things that we think might be a permanent home aren't always as permanent as we think. I had to deal with a water problem in my basement two or... I was going to say a week or so ago. It's probably been a little longer than that now. It seems like it just happened. But I went in the basement and found, you know, kind of a wet spot on the wall and a little mold growing. And, you know, it was kind of a mess. But to deal with it, I wanted to find the source of that leak. So I got out the shovel and started digging at the outside of that corner. And went down and actually exposed the whole front corner of that foundation. And I thought, wow, it's really something to, you know, see that corner poking out that's underneath the house. Now, I'm sure I could have gotten to the footer. It had to be nearby. But I realized that little stream of water that was causing problems, given enough time, it could destroy the whole foundation. And the whole house could come down. It's amazing the things that cross your mind while you're... If you could have seen me up to my waist, you know, the other way around, down in that hole, feeling around trying to find things. And then it occurred to me, you know, the water's taken a long time. I've done an awful lot with this shovel in a pretty short amount of time. I'll bet I could take care of the foundation in the house a lot more quickly with some determined effort. I'm glad I didn't do that. But it reminded me that some buildings that we think are very strong and stable, in the long term, they're not so permanent.

We've all seen ancient ruins, at least pictures of them. One of the most famous is the Colosseum in Rome. I'm sure... I'm guessing everybody here has seen at least pictures of that. I was blessed. I've been able to go in and tour parts of it. And it's interesting, you think, wow, how stable this is. It's been here for thousands of years. But when you get up close, you realize it's somewhat fragile. What's there is just a skeleton of what used to be. It looks imposing in some ways, but they have to have scaffolding in some places. They protect some parts. You can't even come close to using it for what it was designed for, because its time has passed on. It's tottering, and it's not so permanent and strong as they intended. The same goes for many other ancient ruins. The Greek Parthenon is a skeleton. Even, I was thinking, the pyramids are pretty stable. But they formerly had a nice exterior that was really brilliant and beautiful, they say. Now it's a pile of rocks. Probably most of you see where I'm going with this. We live among a lot of temporary things. And we, as physical creatures, are temporary things. That's the center of our religion when it comes down to it. Unlike many others who believe that there's some essence in us that lives forever, we believe the Bible teaches that we do not have an immortal soul. We believe that we're all subject to death. Just as it says in Romans 6.23, the wages of sin is death. And of course, it reminds us the second part of that, where it says, the gift of God is eternal life. That's something. We don't have immortality on our own, but our Creator God can give us life that will not end. He can give us immortality. And we celebrated a festival annually that focuses largely on this lesson. We call it the Feast of Tabernacles, the Feast of Temporary Dwellings. Let's look at some of the instructions for us on this particular festival. I do realize that we're not at the Feast now, but it's good to think and plan a little ahead. I want to go to Leviticus 23. Leviticus 23, and I'll begin in verse 33. As many of us know, this chapter lists all of the annual Holy Days in one chapter. Let's look at the instruction for this particular one. Let's look at it in verse 33.

Now, I'm going to leave discussion of that eighth day for another time. It could cause some confusion if we didn't realize. We didn't realize that it is a separate festival. Of course, it says, there's a festival that lasts seven days. And he says, well, on the eighth day. Well, eighth is not part of seven. It means the very next day afterwards there's another Holy Day.

And as I said, we'll talk about that later. Today I want to talk a little bit about the Feast of Tabernacles. We in the church are used to using that word, tabernacle. That's another one. I was thinking lately of words that if you say them enough, they start sounding funny. Tabernacle, tabernacle, tabernacle. I'm not sure how many times I could say it before I couldn't say it. But, you know, while we're used to it, to most people it's this obscure, religious-sounding word. It might just mean religion or something.

But it's easy to understand. It's translated from the Hebrew word sukkot. And some people pronounce it the T-H at the end, and some people pronounce it like a hard T, sukkot. That's why many Jews currently call that festival the Feast of Sukkot, which means the same exact thing. A sukkot, its literal definition is hut. Or, I was interested to see in the lexicon, it could mean hut or animal lair.

Lair, as in a place an animal goes, usually a hole in the ground where the animal digs to live. It could also mean pavilion, such as the one we're not in right now, but would have been. It could mean a booth, a cottage. Modern translations like to use the word tent. And this surprised me when I looked into it, and it surprised me as much that I hadn't heard this before as anything else. But the Hebrew word that's most often in the Bible translated as tent is not sukkoth, but ohel. O-H-E-L. And the reason they don't use that is, ohel is often translated into the word home, because it literally means dwelling place.

The reason I focus on that is, it was not uncommon in the times we read about in the Bible for some people to live permanently in rather substantial tents. A tent was where many people lived most of their life. Okay, well, we're not keeping a feast that is necessarily meant to be in tents, especially if they could be permanent dwellings. No, it's the Feast of Sukkoth, particularly...

I might as well slow down if I'm going to say the word anyways. It was meant to be a feast of non-permanent dwellings. Non-permanent dwellings. I'm pausing because I wrote a note here that I can't read. Yeah, and for some people, tents were permanent. Now, non-permanent could be a tent. It could be an animal's lair. It could be a booth. It could be a hut. It could be a hut made out of tree branches and such. And I do want to go back to Leviticus 26, assuming you still have your Bible open there, and start reading in page...

or in verse 39. In verse 39, it says, Also on the fifteenth day of the seventh month... that's again the start of the Feast of Tabernacles... When you've gathered in the fruit of the land, you shall keep the Feast of the Eternal for seven days. Interesting. It's not called Feast of Tabernacles here. It's just referred to as the Feast of the Eternal for seven days.

On the first day, there shall be a Sabbath rest. And again, the eighth day is another Sabbath rest. And you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of beautiful trees. I should say, by fruit, it means the product. Because you can't do with fruit what it's about to describe. But it does say, take branches of palm trees, boughs of leafy trees, willows of the brook, and rejoice before the Eternal your God for seven days. Keep it as a Feast of the Eternal for seven days in the year. It'll be a statute forever in your generations.

You shall celebrate it in the seventh month. Now, you might wonder, and I thought it interesting, because I already knew in my mind what you're going to do with those branches. But from what you just read here, all it says is, celebrate. Get those branches. I thought, boy, if I didn't know where I want to go next, which I want to go to Nehemiah chapter 8.

If you want to begin turning there, you'll be ahead of me. But without reading that, you might say, well, it just says, take those branches and celebrate. What do you do? Just wave them around and go, woohoo! We got leafy branches!

No, those are for a reason, and we'll see that demonstrated in Nehemiah chapter 8. Nehemiah 8 will begin in verse 14.

And of course, the use of those is tied into the name Sukkoth. Sukkoth could be a hut, and that's what the branches are for. Nehemiah 8 and verse 14.

Now, this is, of course, after the children of Israel had returned to the Holy Land, worshipping God again the best they could, and they were studying the Bible and learning some things that many of them had either never known or lost sight of.

It says, The word there for booth is Sukkoth, or huts. And that they should announce and proclaim it in all their cities and in Jerusalem, saying, go out to the mountain and bring olive branches, branches of oil trees, myrtle trees, palm trees, and branches of leafy trees to make booths as it is written. So, as I said, they're not to wave around and just feel good about the sound the leaves fluttering makes, but to make these booths.

The people went out and brought them and made themselves booths, each one on the roof of his house or in the courtyards in the courts of the house of God. And in the open square of the Watergate and the open square of Ephraim sold a whole assembly of those who had returned from the captivity, made booths, and sat under the booths. For since the days of Joshua, the son of Nun, until that day the children of Israel had not done so. And there was very great gladness. I'm astounded in some ways.

I'm not sure if I should be more happy to read of this great example of the children of Israel enthusiastically doing what they need to do to keep the feast. Or to be sad to note that for hundreds and hundreds of years they had not kept it. That's kind of astounding to me. Even when they had good kings of Judah, even under King David, under Hezekiah, under Josiah, apparently they didn't fulfill this part of the command.

But that's not our main point here. The main point is that God does command us to inhabit temporary dwellings for the feast. Now, I'm going to address the point where you might say, well, He doesn't say temporary dwellings. He says, booths. It says huts made out of leaves. And He says to do so even if the site for the feast is in your own town. Notice these people were in Jerusalem. They were already at the place where they were to keep the feast. They didn't need the booths because they were away from home. That's an important point.

They didn't need it because they couldn't stay at home. Their home was there. But they did still build these. And it says they sat under them. If they were following the practice that modern Jews in Jerusalem do today, what they probably did is they probably...some might have slept, but apparently mostly they went in and took meals in the booth. Like they would take their food out. Instead of sitting around the kitchen table, they'd go out there and eat.

They'd recognize the command that this was a festival of temporary dwellings. So there's a spiritual lesson there. As I said, it's not a matter of needing to find a place to stay because of being away from home. What's the point of this? The point is that God wants to remind us that our whole lives, right now, are of a temporary nature.

Our whole lives are temporary. Even if you're young and healthy and you think you can keep going on forever... I still remember that feeling. Most of us, once you turn past the age of about 50, you start thinking, oh, I thought this body would last forever, but you start feeling it wearing down. But even also if your life is pretty stable, everything's secure, nothing's upset, you feel like things are going to stay on even keel for a long time, God wants us to remember it's only temporary, even when it's at its most stable.

Peter made use of this metaphor in 2 Peter 1, if you'll turn there with me. 2 Peter 1 will begin in verse 13. As I said, we start... no matter how stable things are, as time goes by, we start thinking, uh, I'm just not going to make it forever in this physical body. Peter says that I should get to the first chapter. 1 Peter 1 verse 13, he says, therefore... no, wait a minute...

oh, I'm sorry, 2 Peter. I have 2 Peter written in my notes, and I said 1 Peter. 2 Peter 1 beginning in verse 13. He says, yes, I think it's right. As long as I am in this tent, if you have the older King James, it will say tabernacle, to stir you up by reminding you, knowing this, and knowing that shortly, I must put off my tent, just as our Lord Jesus showed me. Peter... now, some people might think it's just because years were catching up, and he was realizing, hey, I'm not going to live in this body forever.

But he also knew Jesus Christ had personally told him he was going to have a martyr's death. He knew that time was approaching. He says, moreover, I will be careful to ensure that I have always a reminder of these things after my decease. That you always... I need to start using these things. Anyways, I mostly wanted to read verse 13 and 14. Knowing shortly I must put off my tent or tabernacle, just as the Lord Jesus showed me.

Peter realized, as we all do, our bodies aren't going to last. But that's only the first part of the lesson, though. That's important to remember. So far I've been saying, look, we're going to run down.

You're not going to live forever. Well, if I just stop there, I said, oh, let's go eat. That would leave us feeling the way the Apostle Paul summed it up in 1 Corinthians 15. I won't turn there, but if you want to note it. 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 19, Paul wrote that, if in this life only we have hope in Christ, then we are of all men most miserable or pitiable. If this is all we've got to hope for, how miserable is that?

But that should help us to consider the big point about the Feast of Tabernacles is not so much that we're mortal and eventually we'll die. The big point is for us to focus on what's coming next, to focus on what's so much better. We want to realize that this is temporary, but this isn't all God had in mind. I do want to turn to 2 Corinthians 5.

2 Corinthians 5. We'll read the Apostle Paul commenting on that very fact, what we're looking forward to.

As I said, the intent of focusing on the temporariness of life, our temporary dwellings, isn't just to get us depressed because it's going to end, but to focus on what comes next. 1 Corinthians 1. Now, did I say first or second?

Okay. I turned to 1 Corinthians. I'm glad you're already there. Now I'm there.

For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed, with our habitation which is from heaven. Now, Paul starts mixing metaphors, and I want to make the point, he's referring to the fact that God is in heaven and is planning to give us a spirit body. I don't know that he has the body sitting up there in storage somewhere that he's going to bring, but even if he did, that would sort of fit what he's talking about. But as I said, he mixes metaphors. He talks about clothing and this tent. He says, we who are in this tent groan because we're a temporary nature, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, we don't want to die, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life.

Now, he has prepared us for this very thing as God, who also has given us the spirit as a guarantee. He's given us the spirit as a guarantee, and some translations say an earnest or a down payment. God's Holy Spirit in us is just a little bit of what he's planning. He's planning to give us eternal life, as I said, life in a spirit body.

So that's, as I said, a lot of the point of the Feast of Tabernacles, reminding us that, okay, we're temporary. We have a temporary life. We live in temporary dwellings in our body, but we're looking forward to something much better. That's what comes next. Now, there's part of me that says, well, it's a little ironic because about this time of year, we start getting excited about the Feast of Tabernacles, excited about going to the feast. And not so much because the temporary dwellings are bad, right? Hopefully we're going to have something nice. But that's okay. Because the Feast of Tabernacles focuses on many blessings. As I said, we want to go there and not focus on the temporary nature as much as what comes next, on the tremendous blessings of eternal life and a life of abundance, of prosperity, of comfort. So we start looking forward to all of that now. And that's why I wanted to speak on the subject today, to remind us that we're in the phase of planning and preparing. And it's even all the better because God gives us a financial plan for being able to keep it. He commands us to set aside a tithe of our income that belongs to Him, but He wants us to use it to worship Him in this particular way. Now, because of that, many of us are looking forward to staying in some pretty nice places. I hope many of us have already made our reservations, and it's not for the cheapest, lousiest dump you could find because you want to be reminded how miserable it is to have a temporary existence. You don't have to do that. The lesson will be there. Whether we're staying in a luxury resort, you might be staying in a really nice RV, a house, a rented condo, we're still going to learn that the accommodation, the pleasures of this world are temporary. It's the reign of Jesus Christ, the kingdom of God that we look forward to. That's what we want very much to come. Now, I wanted to point this out because I have met and heard from some people in certain groups that think because of the message of the temporary dwellings, we shouldn't stay in comfortable or luxurious accommodations during the feast. Some have gone so far to say we need to build Sukkot out of leafy branches. That's what the Bible describes happening. Well, it does describe that, but I think it's important for us to remember the spiritual lesson that was intended. Now, I've had the experience of actually building a couple Sukkot out of branches. A few years ago at Camp Heritage, when I was teaching the Wilderness Skills class, I was showing the campers how to build a shelter using a tarp and rope and such. But I said, you know, I want to show them that you can do it without any of that equipment. You can go break off branches. And, of course, I had my handy scout manual and survival books to show me how to do it. And it was an interesting adventure and exercise to do it. I went out and I broke them and I built a frame and thatched it all up. I was very proud of it, actually. I did it a couple different times. And the point is, though, I was showing the students how they could do this to preserve their life.

This could save you if you're stranded out in the wilderness. But how to preserve physical life isn't the point of the Feast of Tabernacles. The Feast also is not focused on botany lessons. Which trees produce the best foliage for building this type of shelter? We don't focus on that, and that's not what God meant. The big lesson is the temporariness of physical life. Actually, I did get a little bit of that out of those shelters, because I was surprised, you know, for as many Boy Scouts as come through that facility during the summer, after I built one, the next year I came and the skeleton was still there. But all the leaves had come off. It was kind of eerie looking. Kind of like when you find the skeleton of a dead animal out in the woods, only this was a dead shelter. But even that, it was very, definitely temporary. I wouldn't have stayed in it then without all the leaves.

But as I said, our big lesson of the feast isn't about how to build a hut out of leaves. It's the temporariness of physical life and what comes next. We remind ourselves that immortal life in God's kingdom is what we're seeking. We should plan for the Feast of Tabernacles knowing that it's pointing us to that. Now, most of us have learned that no matter how nice a hotel room we have at the feast, no matter how nice the restaurants, almost all of us, after a week or so, are ready to go home. And I found that as I get older, that happens more quickly. So I'm not sure if that's a factor of age or what, but I see some of you who are old are nodding your heads, and you say, yeah, after a week or so, you want to go home. I think it's the same spiritually. Spiritually, we want to go home. Turn with me to Hebrews 11, if you will. I'm going to read a few scriptures out of the faith chapter, not focusing on the example so much as the motivation for some of these people. Hebrews 11, beginning in verse 13, after it discusses Abraham and Sarah and Isaac and some of the others, it says this, These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, were assured of them, embraced them, and confessed they were strangers in pilgrims on the earth. That's an important lesson, as I said, tabernacles. We are in temporary dwellings. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. They seek a home. They want to go home spiritually. And that, when I say they, that should include us. We want to go home. And it's amazing because it's going home to a home we haven't experienced before. But we realize on this earth we're not at home spiritually. Satan has been leading this world and deceiving people, and it's not suitable as a home for Christians. But it will become that. So we're looking forward to Christ coming and making this a home for us and for all mankind eventually. As it says, truly if they'd have called to mind that country from which they'd come out of, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better. That is a heavenly country. And hopefully we desire that as well. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, and He has prepared a city for them. God is preparing a home. And that lesson's not diminished by what type of accommodations we stay in during the feast. As I said, it doesn't have to be in a grass and leaf hut. You know, we can stay in fairly nice accommodations because they're not home. They're temporary. So having said that, let's go ahead and get excited. It's time to get ready for the feast. I'm not going to go through all the details, but it's good for us to plan, and we can enjoy the nice accommodations. I'm guessing most of us have already made reservations. We've found temporary dwellings. Some of us might still be up in the air and looking for that. But it's good to then go forward to plan some of the other things. It's wonderful when family can get together, or friends and acquaintances. Oh, we're going to be at the same site. And you start scouting for things that you'll want to do. I'm amazed. I wonder how we ever kept the feast without the Internet. Because now you can get online and you can start looking and seeing what interesting things there are to see. What special restaurants you want to go to.

And you can find special entertainment opportunities. If you're going back to a feast site you've attended before, remember that place you wanted to try, but you didn't get time to? Now you can. Or just think, if you've been there and you have some friends who haven't, I'm wondering how many of you have had that special opportunity to take someone to a restaurant that you knew they were going to love, but they wouldn't have found it on their own.

That's a great feeling at the feast. It's also a great feeling to meet brethren from other congregations that you don't see very often, or new friends you haven't known, and you know you're looking forward, we're all looking forward to going home together spiritually. But we can really enjoy the special time we have now. So I want to encourage us, it's not bad. Let's get excited about the feast. Let's start planning. And of course, the fact that our temporary dwellings can be pretty nice, that we are to enjoy the best of the best during the feast, reminds us of some other important lessons.

We're symbolizing life in God's kingdom, when we'll be kings and priests, when we can enjoy the life of abundance that Jesus Christ said he was coming to bring. That's a pretty special thing. Another thing, of course, while you're in the planning stage, because we do travel to the feast, in most cases, you might be able to take advantage of seeing special things or having special experiences on the way there or on the way back.

That's not the purpose of the feast, but it's not at all a bad thing to enjoy doing that. I've got many special memories of doing that a number of times as a teenager. For some reason, the one that always sticks out in my mind the most is, one year when I was probably 13 or 14, I think we were going down to Virginia Beach, and we stopped at Monticello in Virginia.

I don't know if we ever would have made that trip just for that. But this is before I decided I was going to be a history teacher when I grew up, but I was amazed looking at, you just have this neat thing to see. As a matter of fact, I hadn't noted it. I remember my very first feast of tabernacles. We went to the Lake of the Ozarks. On the way, we drove through St.

Louis, and we saw that arch, and Mom pulled off the exit. We said, we're going to stop and see this thing. We had to go up inside. How many of you have been up there? You get that elevator, it's like a washing machine, and you turn, turn, and you look out those windows that are this big.

It's neat to enjoy those special things. God wants us to enjoy those special things for the feast, I believe. Many church members have more travel experience, a wider fund of knowledge and a breadth of experience than they would otherwise, because we're required to make a trip each year for the feast. So, this talk about traveling to a distant feast site reminds me of another opportunity for us to learn a valuable lesson for the feast, though. As I said, we dwell in temporary dwellings because of the main meaning of the feast, not because it happens to be at a distant location.

As I said, the lesson is there whether we're traveling to Australia for the feast or to Cincinnati. But the fact that we don't keep the feast in the same place where we normally have SABAS services does provide other valuable lessons and opportunities. Our meeting place also will be temporary. So, let's think about that, if we will. If you'll turn to Deuteronomy 14, I want to review some of the important scriptures on this subject.

Deuteronomy 14, beginning in verse 22. Deuteronomy 14, verse 22. Now, my point in reading this isn't about saving second tithe, although this is the place we usually go to for that. So, you shall truly tithe all the increase of your grain that the field provides each year. You shall eat before the Lord your God in the place where he chooses to make his name abide.

The tithe of your grain and your new wine and your wile, the firstborn of your herds and flocks, that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always. And if the journey is too long for you, so you're not able to carry your tithe, and I make note of this, of course, normally our tithe is something we have to give. It was given then to support the Levites and the work of the temple.

Now we give it to support the work of the church. So, this can't be the same tithe. Obviously, it's another separate tithe. And if the journey is too long, you know, exchange it for money. Take the money in your hand and go to the place where the Lord your God chooses and spend that money for whatever your heart desires. For oxen or sheep or wine or similar drink, for whatever your heart desires. And you shall eat before the Lord your God and you shall rejoice, you and your household.

Notice it doesn't say if the place is too far to take all of that tithe. Well, don't bother going. No, it says make adjustments so that you can go. Now, my purpose isn't to say that, you know, there aren't some reasons that we don't travel. We know some people are sick or infirm or have other limitations that do affect them. That's outside of the point I'm making here. So, I'm not dwelling on it, but I do realize that's a subject for another time.

I want to make the point that this doesn't say where that place will be. It'll be at the place where God chooses to put His name. We know that would eventually be Jerusalem, but it wasn't always there. And it wouldn't continue to always be there.

Really? The place where God puts His name can change? Well, yes, it certainly can. We can quickly see that in the example of the Passover. I'm not going to turn back to Exodus, the early pages of Exodus, but if you'll remember, the very first time a Passover was kept, God told all the children of Israel for each family to take a lamb. If your family is too little, go in together with that family next door, but kill it right there, put its blood on your doorpost and lindles, and go inside.

So, the place where they had to kill the Passover then was at their home. But if you turn over a chapter, Deuteronomy 16, Deuteronomy 16, verse 5, we'll see that God changed the location. God reserves the right to change where He wants us to do certain things. Here, in verse 5, He says, "...you may not sacrifice the Passover within any of your gates, which the Lord your God gives you." Now, so in other words, He's saying, don't do it the way I told you to do it that one year. But at the place where the Lord God chooses to make His name abide, there you shall sacrifice the Passover at twilight, the going down of the sun.

So, there was a change. Go to do it at the place where God put His name. While Israel wandered in the wilderness, that place happened to be wherever that pillar that was fire by night and cloud by day happened to stop. I'm not going to turn there, but I've always found it interesting, of course. It says, you know, the pillar came down, they set up the tabernacle right under that.

You know, the tabernacle was not made out of leafy branches, by the way, but it was an elaborate tent, like a portable temple. And it says, you know, that the cloud would go up, they'd pack. And whichever way it went, that's the way they'd go. And when it'd come down and they'd pitch tents there, and they said, sometimes they'd stay there one day, sometimes they'd stay there a year or more.

But the place was wherever God put His name right then and there. But God's name didn't stay that way forever. They eventually entered the Promised Land. They set up the tabernacle in one place, a place called Shiloh. And it stayed there for a long time. But then it changed. God allowed David to move the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem, and then allowed David's son Solomon to build an elaborate temple. Interesting. Once again, a permanent structure that's not there anymore. It was permanent only as far as permanent can be. But when God was about to let Judah go into captivity, He explained that, you know, my name's been here a long time, hundreds of years, but it's not going to be for long.

If you'll turn with me to Jeremiah 7, we'll see that. I like to refer to this particular passage because it shows us that we shouldn't be attached to any one place or object. Jeremiah 7, verse 4, this is when Jeremiah's warning the children of Israel that Jerusalem would fall and that temple would be destroyed. It says, don't trust in these lying words, saying, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these.

If you'll drop down to verse 12, it says, But go to my place which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at the first, see what I did to it, because of the wickedness of my people Israel. It says, you know, you're talking about how the temple is here, but remember, it wasn't always here.

It used to be at Shiloh, but look what happened there. And in verse 14, it says, So God said, I put my name here, I put my presence, but it's not going to stay. Matter of fact, I recently reviewed this. If you want to turn over to 2 Corinthians, sorry, 2 Chronicles, okay, I'm going to put my glasses on so I actually read it properly. 2 Chronicles 7, we'll see when that temple was first finished, it was very evident that God did place His name there, because the glory of God, what the Hebrews call the Shekinah glory, entered that temple, and it was beyond any doubt or dispute.

2 Chronicles 7 in the first verse, Solomon, of course, at the dedication, they offered a great deal of sacrifice, and he said a very, very beautiful, eloquent prayer, and when it was finished, here in 7 verse 1, when Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the eternal filled the temple. The priest couldn't enter the house of the eternal because the glory of the eternal had filled the eternal's house.

There was no mistaking, and God put His name there. His presence was there. But now, if you'll turn with me over to Ezekiel, chapter 10, we'll see that God made it known that that was going to change. We just read in Jeremiah the Word saying so.

Here Ezekiel is given a vision from God. Ezekiel was actually hundreds of miles away in Babylonian captivity, but he went into, we could say, a trance. God gave him a vision, and in the vision, he brought him to the temple, and he saw that great destruction was about to happen.

He saw a great profanation, I must say, pollution of the temple. And what I note is there's some certain passages that show that God would remove His glory. Ezekiel 10, verse 18, says, "...then the glory of the eternal departed from the threshold of the temple and stood over the carabin." So it leaves the temple and goes up, and it says, "...the carabin lifted up their wings and mounted from the earth in my sight.

They went out, and the wheels were beside them, and they stood at the door of the east gate of the eternal's house, and the glory of the eternal was above them." This is sort of picturing God had put His glory in the temple, but now it lifts up, and it says, "...these carabim, which are earlier described as having this throne that moves about, they went up to meet Him." Across the page in chapter 11, verse 23, chapter 11, verse 23 says, "...the glory of the eternal went up from the midst of the city and stood on the mountain, which is on the east side of the city." God's glory left the temple, it left the city, it headed out, and it didn't come back.

And that's sort of an aside. I got this, I've been, as I said, I've been living in the major prophets, preparing for class, but I thought, what a contrast to God's glory coming in. His name is there. That's the place to go. Remember, the children of Israel who were keeping the feast built their huts there at their house, but it wouldn't always be that way. So we don't go to Jerusalem to keep the feast.

This was a long way of getting to there. Well, where do we go? How do we know where to keep it? Well, there's one scripture I'll cite to show that. That's in Matthew 16 and verse 18. Matthew 16 and verse 18.

Curious, is anyone else warm or is it just up here? Okay. Maybe I should be a little more animated to keep you awake. When it gets warm and you're comfy, it's easy to get drowsy, which makes me glad I had that cup of coffee before services. Okay. Matthew 16. This is the famous scripture, of course, where Christ asked the disciples, who are people saying I am and they're saying one thing or another? And Peter says that he's the Christ.

He says, yeah, flesh and blood hasn't revealed this. My father has. And he goes on to say, you're Peter, you're Petros, but on this Petra, this rock, I'll build my church. So Jesus promises he's going to build the church and the gates of the grave will never prevail against it. And I'll give to you, you apostles, the keys of the kingdom of heaven. I'm going to give you keys and whatever you bind on heaven or whatever you bind on earth will be bound on heaven.

Whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. He was saying, I'm going to give you a lot of authority to make some decisions and judgments. He doesn't spell them all out here, but I believe and most of us, I believe, believe. I should have chosen those words differently. Most of us agree that God has given the church the authority to decide places where we can go keep the feast.

And what we do, I believe, is we ask God to place his name there. We can't force him to do that, but we say, Father, we've got a really good rate on a hotel and a convention center at Pigeon Forge.

Would you mind placing your name there for the fall festivals? And I believe God would do that because Christ promised, what you bind on earth, I'll bind in heaven. God is not the author of confusion. He doesn't tell us, each one of you choose your own place to go keep the feast. We wouldn't accomplish a lot of what we want to do with the feast if that happened. So the leaders of the church, they could choose just one. And I wasn't around back then, but I've heard stories about when there used to be one place, Big Sandy, Texas. And I wonder, the ancient rabbis would have said, Big Sandy, Texas. But it was a good place for the feast.

Now we have a number of sites, for convenience sake, which works very well. And members of the church can choose one that fits their own taste and style. Some of us are going to go to Florida. Some of us will go to Pigeon Forge. Some of us are going to go to Georgia, including me. I know a couple of us are going to Canada. I don't know if more than two.

That's going to be an interesting trip. Aside from getting to experience those neat things traveling to a different place, and having a significant amount of money to spend while you're there, are there some special benefits to us that come from gathering together in relatively large groups in a temporary location? I was posing that as a question. We're going to go to a place where we don't normally have services, where we don't have a routine, we don't have established roles. Are there benefits in that? I think there are. Think about the organization it takes to establish a festival site. Actually, and the work that goes into it.

I made a note here. Last year I learned more about that than I realized there was to learn. Sue and I coordinated in Cincinnati, and it's probably the easiest place to coordinate a site. It was actually pretty easy, but a lot goes into it. And it takes a lot of help. One minister can't make a feast site happen, not even a handful. For a feast site to function, many people need to cooperate and participate.

There are opportunities to volunteer and to serve. And many opportunities that we wouldn't have if we just met at our regular place, especially in small congregations. I was thinking, we don't need ushers here. Certainly not in Prestonsburg. You know, there's enough seats for everybody, and everybody pretty much knows where they're going to sit. But at a lot of feast sites, we could use some ushers.

Likewise, we don't need parking direction out there. We don't even have painted stripes. We don't need them. But some places need that, so you might go there, and you can pitch in and have a chance to serve in a new way, learn new experiences. We don't have people doing security here. Well, actually, sometimes we have Mr. Call and Mr. Rose sit downstairs and make sure the terrorists don't come in. And I'm very thankful for that.

Actually, it's good to have some type of security, but we don't need it to the level that we do at feast sites. So these provide opportunities not only for fun activities, but service. We often also have Sabbath school lessons that we'll meet. We have children's choirs, adult choirs. We have more special opportunities for many more people to get involved in to serve than we do normally. And how many times have you heard, the feast just seems to go better and is more fulfilling when you serve? You've heard that because it's true.

And if you haven't learned it, you will try it. And I'm sure many of you would hold up your hand and say, Well, I learned that years ago. It is. You really get something more out of it when you go and you serve. My personal feeling is that a lot of these special responsibilities provide experience and training for more than just what we're up to right now.

I think they may well provide us a preview for what it will be like in the millennium. And of course, the feast represents the millennium. There's going to be a lot of new organization and a lot of people to serve during that time. Of course, we know we're not being born into God's kingdom just so we can sit back and relax and enjoy the blessings.

We're going to have a job to do. Matter of fact, if it's anything like serving in the ministry today, you're going to have a number of jobs to do and you're going to have to juggle them. And that's not necessarily bad. Let's turn to Revelation 20. We might as well read this, or maybe I shouldn't say it that way. We ought to read this. This is worth reminding ourselves of. Revelation 20, verse 4. This is, of course, when Jesus Christ has come down and established His kingdom, Satan has put away. He says, And I saw thrones, and they sat on them. They? And judgment was committed to them.

Who is them? I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus, and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or in their hands. This can relate back to both of Mr. Call's most recent messages. We need to be on high alert. We need to be ready to refuse that mark. And if we do, we'll be among those who says, They lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. Lived and reigned. It doesn't say sit, lived and watched, but reigned. We're active.

We know from Jesus Christ's example that a leader is not someone who barks orders, but a leader is a servant. Serving and helping and providing for other people. Raining is probably going to include a lot of hard work. And the feast is a great opportunity to practice that in a way. To practice it in a way and in a scale that we just can't do when we're in our normal routine. As I said, I don't know that it's required for that reason, but I could see that. We get something out of that. Not only are we in temporary dwellings for where we sleep and eat, but we're at a temporary gathering place for those holy convocations.

Let's consider another millennial prophecy in Isaiah chapter 30. I will be very surprised if we don't all hear this again while we're at the feast. Isaiah 30 and verse 20. The first part of this refers to the fact that there would be persecution and suffering before the millennium, and then it turns, and it's addressing the children of Israel, the physical Israelites who will be alive at that time.

It says, This is the way. Walk in it. Whenever you turn to the right or left, or whenever you turn to the right hand or whenever you turn to the left, this is the way. Walk in it. Now, I think I discussed this in class not long ago with the students at ABC, and I was pointing out how I remember as a kid, I always thought of this as being sort of in the millennium, someone would be about to do something wrong, you know, like shoplift or something, and they hear right behind this voice, Stop!

This is the way! Walk in it! Then you jump up and down and probably wet your pants and, you know, not... But I don't think that's at all what this implies. See, those of you who are sleeping, I caught you up there. That's saying your eyes will see your teachers, not just hear a booming voice when you're about to go wrong, but they'll be there all along demonstrating, saying, This is the way. I'm teaching you. It's probably not going to be a one-time thing. It's going to be regular meeting and regular instruction. We should expect to be those teachers. God is preparing us now to be teachers in the kingdom of God to help people, to teach those who need to learn.

What better opportunity is there for us to prepare for that than the Feast of Tabernacles? Now, we should be preparing all along. That's our walk in life, is to prepare to be those teachers. But at the Feast, we learn about the time that it'll be happening. And we have more time to study than usual. We can prepare some of the study into the things that we want to teach. We might even have opportunity to practice. Some of us might be participating in some of the, as I said, the Sabbath school lessons.

We might get together with friends or with new friends that we just met and have interesting discussions over a meal. How many of you have learned, or at least exercised your mind in contemplating God's way when in interesting discussion with brethren at the Feast? That's one of the best things about it. And I'll tell you, it's sort of like a school of higher education. When I was in grad school, we'd get together and we'd compare the different things we read, and it really stimulated our minds, comparing theories and interpretations.

But that was just talking about history. Discussing God's Word and His plan. How much more exciting is it for us to get together and discuss that? The festival is a great time for that. So I could go to many more references in the millennium of what we'll be doing, but my plan was to keep this message short because I figured it'd be hot out in this picnic shelter. It's hot here in the building. Of course, we're at the hottest time of the year. The weather is going to turn very soon.

But I want to remind us again, now, before it comes, that is, before the feast comes, let's plan and prepare for those things. Now is a good time to prepare to serve our brethren. We can also remember our brethren that won't be able to travel. Now is a good time to put that reminder in. Get that list of names and addresses and have materials. Maybe get some stationery or... well, a lot of times you want to buy postcards when you're there, but take some stamps so that you can write letters of encouragement. Or get the phone number so you can give someone a ring. Also, keep in mind when you're at the feast, get that camera ready. You know, I was looking at the schedule, we've got a post-feast social coming up, when we'll want to see, you know, that mini-movie that you make of your experience. It's a service to the brethren to do that. And I don't know how many other things I could list, but as I said, the time is drawing short. We're going to run out of time to plan for the feast.

But let's not let that time go by without having done that planning, without getting ready. It's an exciting time. And looking around us, you know, even though this is where we always meet, it's still somewhat temporary. Not as temporary as we originally planned today, but it's good for us to think about the temporary nature of things. And that helps us to remember the one festival of the year when we're commanded to go to a special place and stay in temporary dwellings. And the focus is that our lives are temporary, but that's not meant to be depressing. We don't go there to contemplate that we're all going to die. We go to contemplate the immortality that God has planned for his family, that he wants to extend and offer to all people. We really look forward in strong anticipation to the kingdom of God. And let's celebrate that soon in the Feast of Tabernacles.