Let Us Go Up To Keep The Feast

As you know, we do things differently in the Church of God, like not keeping Sunday, or holidays like Christmas, Easter, Halloween, Valentines. We keep the weekly Sabbath on Saturday. We keep the seven annual Holy Days that come up during the year.

This world does not keep these days. They're steeped in keeping the non-Biblical days. But God forbids us to keep these pagan days. Jesus never kept Christmas or Easter, and neither did the early New Testament Church. Jesus Christ kept the Sabbath and the Holy Days, and the early Church as well kept these days. Earlier this year we kept Passover, Feast of Unleavened Bread, Pentecost. Now we come to the Fall Holy Days, Feast of Trumpets this Tuesday, Day of Atonement, 10 days later, and then Feast of Tabernacles, and the Eighth Day. So yes, the Fall Holy Days are near. And so I'd like for us to direct our attention to them today. There are going to be some things here that we already know, and many things in fact, but I believe there will be some new things for us to think about as well. It's time for us to say, and this is going to be the title of the message, let us go up to keep the feast. Let us go up to keep the feast. How are we to keep God's Holy Days? How are we to come before God in a manner that is pleasing to Him? What kind of heart and attitude should we have? So let us go up to keep the feast is the title. I want us to begin by turning to Zechariah chapter 14, and notice that the Feast of Tabernacles, one of God's Holy Days, is going to be required in the Millennium. Let's turn to Zechariah chapter 14. And this chapter is talking about the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, and it mentions Him fighting against the nations in the early verses of this chapter. In verse 9, it goes on to say that the Lord shall be king over all the earth in that day. We have a world government that is coming, and Jesus Christ will be the King over all the earth, all nations. But notice in verse 16, it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King. Why do they come to worship the King, the Lord of Hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles? It shall be that if any families of the earth do not come up. What if the Chinese don't want to come? What if the Egyptians say, we're not coming to Jerusalem? Well, they have no reign, it goes on to say, no reign. The Egyptians don't come, no reign. They shall receive the plague with which the Lord strikes the nations who do not come to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. And so that would be the punishment of Egypt, and all nations that don't come up to keep the Feast. I imagine I can envision the Egyptians not wanting to come. I can envision the Chinese, but you know, then they have no reign. And Jesus Christ says, I want you to reconsider coming up to keep the Feast. They begin to get hungry, no crops, no food, you know, that will soften their attitude. Notice that Christ doesn't wipe them out, He doesn't destroy them, but He does require them to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.

So, we notice here that the Feast of Tabernacles, keeping the Feast of Tabernacles, is not optional, is it? It is required. It is required. You know, today we look at it the same way. Keeping the Feast is not optional. You know, that's true also. If we have any that might not be able, because of health or some other reason, not to go to, let's say, Daytona Beach or Panama City Beach or Lake June, Alaska, or one of our festival sites, if you are at home, you have eight days. Every day is a day of worship. Every day is a special day. The first and the eighth days are high days.

Holy days. So, we hope that, of course, that most of us are able to go up with brethren in an assigned festival site and keep the Feast there. But our members must take keeping the Feast of Tabernacles an eighth day in, well, trumpets and atonement. We must take these days seriously.

Notice the purpose for keeping the Feast in verse 16 is to worship the Lord of Hosts. The Lord of Hosts, that expression, what does it mean? It's the Lord of a mass of people, a huge company or army or multitude. You know, throngs of people are going to go up to the Feast to worship the great God. We have not felt that every man, woman, and child is going to come to Jerusalem from all over the earth, but representatives of all nations are going to come.

With millions and millions of people, maybe tens and hundreds of millions, eventually it'd be kind of hard for everybody to come to Jerusalem. But nations will all be represented there. Some of their leaders will be there every year. And there's going to be a huge company then, throngs of people. But truly, our God is the Lord of a huge company or army.

The word for worship in the Hebrew is shakah, S-H-A-C-H-A-W. It means to bow down. It means to do reverence, to show honor and obedience, to prostrate in homage to God. You know, the reason we go to the feast is the same as people then will come. The purpose they come is to worship. To worship Christ, to worship God our Father. That's why we go to the feast, to show honor and obedience. That's why we go today. It must be our first and primary reason to keep the feast, to worship our great God, to fellowship with our great God. 1 John 1 and 2 bring out that truly, our fellowship is with God. But our fellowship is also with one another. And you think about it.

God wants relationships, obviously. He wants us to love Him with all of our heart, mind, and soul, and being the first great commandment. The second great commandment is also about relationships. He wants us to love each other. And what better way to develop relationships than at a festification? So God throws festival days during the year and says, I want to get to know you, and I want you to get to know me. I want you to enhance your relationship with me as I enhance mine with you. Well, you know, every father wants that kind of relationship with his own children. He wants to continually be close, drawing close to his children and his children to draw close to him. And so God, our Father, uses holy days. Can you think of any better way to develop a relationship than at a festification like the holy days? And like the Sabbath day each week. The Sabbath day, by the way, also is for that same purpose to develop these two relationships.

And don't we at the holy days, not only do we enhance our relationship with God in that first great commandment, but we also enhance and grow in our relationships with one another. And we come to know one another and others come to know us. You cannot think of a better way to develop relationships of these two great commandments than the holy days and the Sabbath day weekly and the holy days annually. So that's what we should keep in mind as we begin to look forward to the fall holy days. This coming Tuesday, then, is to grow in our fellowship and in our relationship with our Heavenly Father. Number one. Number two, it is to grow in our relationship with one another as well. And those two great commandments, those two great commandments, regulate our two relationships that we the whole Bible is concerned about. That's what that's the purpose of the Scriptures is to help us to develop those relationships. So what a wonderful thing this is. I don't want to just have Tuesday and the other holy days this fall come along and not consider that, hey, this is to help me draw closer to God. This is to help me to come to know God and for God to know me, to know that my heart is in the right place. And I hope that each and every one of us will, you know, keep the holy days, will come up to keep the feast with this in mind, developing the relationship with with our Father and Jesus Christ and the relationship with one another. Well, let's notice some other verses that certainly point in that direction, then, that that's what God has in mind. Let's also see how important there's one point that really stresses how important these holy days are. We'll get to that in just a moment. Deuteronomy chapter 12. Let's go back and read a few scriptures admonishing us to enjoy developing these relationships. How are we to approach, you know, wherever we may be developing a relationship, a closer relationship with God and a closer relationship to one another? And wouldn't the holy days be in vain?

Going to your festival site, wherever it might be, traveling there, all the effort you put into it. If you did not come home having grown and developed these two relationships, wouldn't that be in vain? You would not have really worshipped God with results. You would not have the results that God wants. He wants the results to be there, that we draw closer to Him and Him to us and closer to each other. God wants that. So, it would be in vain if we don't come back closer to God and to one another. In Deuteronomy chapter 12 and verse 10, when you cross over the Jordan and God gives you the land, gives you rest, there will be a place where the Lord your God chooses to place His name. There you bring your tithes and offerings. You shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your sons and your daughters. We are to rejoice as we then keep the holy days. This is a joyous time, a joyous occasion.

You may not eat within your gates the tithe of your grain or new wine. This tithe is one that you yourself eat. And we know that the first, what we call the first tithe, went to the Levites. And today it goes to the church. For this is a tithe that you and I eat.

You must eat them before the Lord your God in the place which the Lord your God chooses, you and your son and your daughter, your manservant, your maidservant, the Levite. And you shall rejoice. We see that this is an occasion of rejoicing. And as we come for this special worship at the holy days, let's go to Deuteronomy chapter 14 now.

And verse 22. Deuteronomy chapter 14 and verse 22. You shall truly tithe all the increase of your grain that the field produces year by year. You shall eat before the Lord your God. You know, if we were invited to eat with, let's say, someone in high office, then we would consider that a real privilege. I said that maybe a mayor of a city or governor of the state. But here we eat before the God of the universe. Do we keep that in mind as we go to the feast? We should. We eat then before the Lord our God. And we eat what? The tithe. Well, the tithe is 10 percent. Does God put much stress then upon keeping the festivals in this place he chooses? He has us to save aside a sizable chunk of our money, 10 percent of our increase. Now, we do believe that a tithe is calculated on the increase after business expenses, anything of that type. But on the true increase, 10 percent is a first tithe that goes to the Levites today, the work of the church. 10 percent also is saved aside to go to the place that God chooses for keeping his festivals. 10 percent. That's a sizable amount of money. To me, that shows the stress, the importance that God places upon the Holy Days, that we will save aside that much money. And we should be faithful in it. That money really is set aside for a holy purpose, isn't it? Can we break into it? If we have a financial hardship, we can't pay a bill? No, we can't. I remember as a student at Ambassador College, I had not learned that lesson. I'd saved my second tithe, but something came up where I needed to save my second tithe. I broke into my second tithe. I guess I don't know if I'm the only one that's ever done that or not, but I did. And you know, I noticed that the blessings were taken away a little while. I learned a lesson from that. But I saved my second tithe now, so I can go to the festivals, just as you do. We should be faithful in it. But again, it doesn't 10 percent underscore the importance God places on the Holy Days, because he knows that that is the time that he will be able to help us to grow and develop our relationship with him and him with us.

Building relationships. That is a time that God is building a closer relationship with his children. So I tell you, this is important. These Holy Days that are coming up like Tuesday and the others this fall, we don't want them just to chance upon us. We want to truly bow down and do reverence to God and have fellowship with him and with one another and grow in these relationships. Well, in verse 23, they are to eat the people then. This is not the Levites. And many commentaries recognize that this is talking about a tithe, a second tithe, an additional tithe, not just the first one. But they were to eat a tithe of their firstlings, of their herds and flocks. And why? Last part of verse 23, that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always. You know, we learn to respect. We learn to do reverence. This fear is a healthy kind of fear. And we would fear not to keep the Holy Days and keep the Holy Days to grow in our relationships. We just hate to or fear to let God down.

After all, He gives us life and He wants to give us eternal life. Well, verse 24, if the journey is too far, you can turn it into money. Verse 25, exchange it then for whatever. Well, verse 26, for whatever near the end of that verse, well, first part of that verse, you can spend it for whatever your heart desires. You shall eat there before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice you and your household. And don't you like that? God says, when you come to my feast, you know, leave all your sadness and things behind, you are to rejoice. And I say this year, we've had a heavy year. Last year was a heavy year. COVID has been striking. Our own country has been going through such turmoil, racial rioting, out of control crime, the southern border wide open, and now Afghanistan, the discouragement there of the way that was handled. So, you know, in spite of all that, let's go to the feast and rejoice. Rejoice. Leave this world behind in a way, and be thrust into the wonderful world tomorrow. So, eat before the Lord your God, and rejoice. That word rejoice keeps cropping up, doesn't it? We are to rejoice. So, I hope we will do that. Rejoice. I'm going to strive to keep that in mind. Don't watch news all the time when you're at the feast. It's okay to keep up with news. Don't watch news all the time. It'll be too discouraging. You won't rejoice if you do that, but you can certainly keep up with the news. What's going on? So, we save aside 10% of our money to go for this special worship at the Holy Days. This is the way we keep the Holy Days today, saving 10% for special worship. And this is the way nations in the world tomorrow. How will they come up to Jerusalem? How will they keep festival sites? I would imagine that this is not defined in the Bible, but I would imagine that people that don't have a special come up to Jerusalem every year will go to localized festival sites like we do now.

But that's how they will afford to keep the feast in the millennium.

I want to have a couple of quotes just how important the Feast of Tabernacles is. To us, that is probably the favorite Holy Day of the Year. This is a quote from the temple.

It's ministry and services by Alfred Edershine. He says here, The most joyous of all festive seasons in Israel was that of the Feast of Tabernacles. It fell at the time of the year when the hearts of the people would naturally be full of thankfulness, gladness, and expectancy. All the crops had long been stored, and now all the fruits gathered it was appropriate that there should be a harvest feast of thankfulness and gladness. The harvest Thanksgiving of the Feast of Tabernacles reminded Israel of their dwelling in booths. It pointed to the final harvest when Israel's mission should be completed and all nations gathered unto the Lord. Thus, sanctified nation could keep a holy feast of harvest joy unto the Lord just as it will be in that day when the Feast of Tabernacles shall be really fulfilled. So actually, this does envision the world tomorrow, this comment. From the Expositor's Bible commentary, here's an interesting quote on Leviticus 23. The Feast of Booths was an occasion of joy, a Thanksgiving Day. And how about this? Indeed, it is clear that when the Puritans proclaimed their Thanksgiving Day in New England, they had in mind the Old Testament Harvest Festival, the Feast of Tabernacles, when they established a day of Thanksgiving. I didn't realize that.

So the Feast of Tabernacles is a time of special joy. Let's read about that in chapter 16 and verse 13. Chapter 16 and verse 13, you shall observe the Feast of Tabernacles seven days when you have gathered from your threshing floor and from your winepress, and you shall rejoice. Again, that word keeps cropping up. You shall rejoice. We are to have a good time. We are eating before God, eating with one another, developing eternal relationships with God and one another. You shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter, your man servant, your maidservant, the Levite, the stranger. Verse 15, seven days you shall keep a sacred feast to the Lord your God in the place which the Lord chooses, because the Lord your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands so that you surely rejoice. Of course, we know that the eighth day is also mentioned, but not in this chapter. It's mentioned in Leviticus 23, but not here. So all eight days are days of festivity and rejoicing. You know, just to underscore how important it is, the Holy Days are. Smith's Bible dictionary brings out the value of the Holy Days. It mentions three very important areas. Number one is religious. The Holy Days preserve the religious faith of the nation and religious unity among the people. So it helps us, the Feast of Tabernacles helps us too to be unified in our doctrinal and our biblical beliefs. Number two, the festivals promote unity. Unity of the nation, as I was talking about Israel here, was preserved through the fusion of the tribes. The different tribes would come together, all 12 of them, and so that helped them to be united. It's like today. We have people, like if you go to Panama City Beach, if you go to Daytona Beach or Lake June, Alaska, or elsewhere, here you have people that come in from all different church areas, kind of fusing together, hearing the same messages and bibing the same fellowship in spirit. It does promote unity. And then number three, the keeping of the festivals promotes social relationships. I've already mentioned that a lot. Friendly intercourse in relationship with one another and also with God our Father. So there are many benefits of us keeping God's festivals. They unite us, help to unite us. They inspire us. They inform us. They keep us growing, and they provide wonderful fellowship. On top of that, we know that the Holy Days picture God's purpose. Pass over right on through the last great day. A wonderful plan of salvation. I think we're very familiar with that.

Very familiar. I want to read from our festival brochure here. I think we all received a copy of that. Feast of Tabernacles 2021. Our president writes here that we come together at the Feast of Tabernacles to rejoice. And he quotes what we just read in Deuteronomy 16. We rejoice even more as we envision the coming Kingdom of God freeing a world groaning in bondage because of war, poverty, disease, and corruption. And you know, if we do look forward so much to that time when Christ and the saints are going to straighten things out on the earth, we won't have all the suffering that we see going on in our own country. We won't have it like in Afghanistan, other parts of the world. You know, that's just one area. There's so much oppression. There's so much suffering, so much injustice, so many evils, and your heart goes out. Your heart really goes out. People even storms like we've had that struck in Louisiana all the way up. And isn't it amazing?

It did such damage and so many deaths in the northeast as well. We won't have things like that anymore. Mr. Kubik goes on to say, this last year has been a wake-up call for us. Change is coming to this world. So we know the festivals picture that change, beginning with the powerful Second Coming of Jesus Christ, and we will have more to say about that on Tuesday. That's what Tuesday is all about. It pictures the powerful Second Coming of Jesus Christ to begin to straighten things out on this earth. Change is coming, he says. This last year has also caused us to take more serious stock of our lives. I know it has me, and I hope it has you as well. This past year's events are drawing our attention to the sorry state of this world that needs to be replaced by the Kingdom of God. This should make us rejoice ever the more, and it does. We have hope. We don't need to be down. God is in control. I keep reminding myself of that, and He's got great patience, and He's not stepping in yet for a purpose, and He's doing it just right. Now, if I were in control, I'd be stepping in like yesterday, wouldn't you? But, you know, God knows better. He knows it needs to go to a certain point. He will step in at just the right time. I have that confidence.

He could step in right now, but He doesn't choose to do it, because it isn't for the best in His overall purpose and plan. There are a lot of things that we would have done different if we were God.

But, no, if we really were God, I believe we'd be doing it the same way He is doing it, in the very same way. I think we would allow the suffering of these 6,000 years. I think we'd allow things to go ahead and develop here at the end, where mankind would be ready to destroy himself. Then He would step in just in the nick of time before man would destroy all flesh on the earth. So, if we were God, I think we would be doing it the very same way. So, good comments by Mr. Kubik. You may want to read that entire article sometime. I'd like to read just a little bit from the E-News. Do you read these? The Church has these updates online at the ucg.org. You can go to the members section, look for updates.

You can find Mr. Kubik's letter that he writes to ministers and members every Thursday. Usually, he may miss a Thursday now and then. You can read his entire letter in the E-News that is published on the Church's website. He said, in just a few short weeks, we will collectively be celebrating the pinnacle of the plan of God, the awe-inspiring Kingdom of God. We will again personally experience a taste of how the Feast of Tabernacles pictures this incredible event. Because of the nature of this Feast, the Bible commands us, you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, seven days, and then the eighth day. Celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles in its modern form is a major blessing. During that eight-day period, we experience joy, renewed and new fellowship or friendship, rather. Great fellowship and much more. For many, it is the highlight of the year.

And it goes on to say that while we enjoy the physical rewards of the Feast, then the experience represents even more and foremost a spiritual experience. And that's what I'm underscoring here today. We want to enjoy the physical aspects of it. Enjoy your travel. If you're doing extra things before or after, and during the Feast, enjoy the physical aspects, the blessings. But most of all, it is to be a spiritual experience of our involving our relationship with God and one another. Mr. Cupid goes on to say that this year we need to be patient and flexible concerning COVID. We have in the world, I believe, we have had up to 60 festival sites in the past. I believe this year we're only able to have about 30. I believe about three or four of those have had to be canceled. This is worldwide because of COVID. We don't know what state and local regulations will be. There could be yet changes. There could even be a cancellation of a site. If COVID and its variants got too much out of hand, we'll have to see how that works out.

Regardless, even if we were not able to go to a festival site, then we are to keep the Feast at home. Catch a webcast every day. The Church will have two or more webcasts that you could catch each day. But hopefully we won't have that be praying about that we'll be able to have our our festival sites open. Mr. Kibbe encourages everyone, put on then, as God's chosen ones, he quotes from Colossians 3, put on as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another. And if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must also forgive. And above all, put on love which binds everything together in harmony.

So let us, we have about 8,600 people in United that have signed up for the festival sites.

So let us let us go up to keep the Feast. Let us be ready for the Feast when it arrives. I want to read just a little bit, or at least mention just a little bit here, one of our booklets that we all have, God's Holy Day Plan. And what I like to do, each Holy Day has a chapter. And what I like to do, like for Trumpets this coming Tuesday, is to read the chapter on Trumpets. Here it is, page 27. The Feast of Trumpets, Turning Point in Mankind's History. So I like to read it, even though I've been in the Church many years, I get benefit by doing so. So I encourage that. I won't take time to read that right now, but it would be something that you could read later, perhaps before the Day of Trumpets arrives.

So let's begin to summarize a few things. To get the most from God's Holy Days, a few things that we can do. Number one, we certainly can be faithful in saving our festival tithe and going up to keep the feast, not compromising. We can plan ahead. Very important that we're all, we do all the planning, get our vehicles ready for the trip to the feast, and be planning ahead so that you can have not any problems in getting to the feast site. And then, once there, show up. Remember, going up to the feast is not optional.

Be there. Attend every service, if you possibly can. Go to worship. That's why people in the millennium will come to Jerusalem and any local sites, if that's the way it's done. But certainly there to worship God and develop a closer relationship with Him, and also to fellowship with brethren and develop relationships with brethren.

Grow an understanding. Determine this year that you will grow. You will come back having grown an understanding of each holy day. Further your high calling. What is that? To reign with Jesus Christ. And we know that the saints are going to reign with Christ during the millennium. And rejoice and be thankful. Be thankful in spite of all the problems in the world. In some ways, we are to look up. We should be more filled with hope than ever before, because we see the need for God's kingdom and the message we preach about the kingdom of God being set up.

Certainly, we'd be ashamed to not rejoice, wouldn't it? So as we keep the feast of trumpets, day of atonement, feast of tabernacles, eighth day, let's grow. Let's be committed to our high calling. Be zealous in the work God has called us to do. Be closer to God than ever before, and closer to one another with teachable hearts of little children.

And rejoice together with thanksgiving and joy in our hearts as we appear before God to keep a feast to Him. We're going to end. So we're all ready to go. Ready, set, go for trumpets coming up on Tuesday, then about 10 days later on Thursday, a day of atonement, then feast of tabernacles, and eighth day, the last great day. The fall holy days picture a glorious conclusion to God's great plan. Let's conclude by reading two or three scriptures. Turning over to Isaiah chapter 25. Isaiah chapter 25. Here's a wonderful passage, and I think it has application to the feast of tabernacles, but also application to the eighth day, that day of salvation for masses of people during this age who have never understood but will at that time.

Isaiah 25 and verse 6. Here is a beautiful passage of scripture in Isaiah about the feast of tabernacles and the last great day. Isaiah 25 and verse 6, In this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all people, every nation, every human being, everyone that lives in the millennium, everyone that has lived during this age, never having understood.

He will make for all people a feast of churris pieces, a feast of wines on the leaves, of fat things full of marrow, of well-refined wines on the leaves. You know, it's talking about physical choice pieces, but these things represent spiritual truth and knowledge. In verse 7, He will destroy on this mountain the surface of the covering cast over all people. There's a covering on the world. They just are not given to understand about the kingdom of God, the veil that is spread over all nations.

Verse 8, He will swallow up death forever and the Lord God will wipe away tears from their faces, the rebuke of His people. He will take away from all the earth for the Lord has spoken. What a wonderful time it is of salvation for everyone, all nations, all peoples, all during the 1,000 years, those who have never understood in the Second Resurrection. What a wonderful thing we have to look forward to. In verse 9, it shall be said in that day, it's like the people during the millennium and people in the Second Resurrection are speaking out in verse 9, it shall be said in that day, Behold, this is our God.

At last they will come to know the true God. They will be introduced to the true God and His purpose for their lives. This is our God. We have waited. This world is waiting, and those in the Second Resurrection have had to wait. We have waited for Him and He will save us. This is the Lord. We have waited for Him. We will be glad and rejoice in His salvation. So people in the millennium speaking out in the Second Resurrection have had to wait.

They will at last see the salvation of God. Final Scripture. Let's turn to Psalm 95.

Psalm 95. Beautiful passage of Scripture. And, brethren, this shows the spirit and the attitude that we want to go up to keep the feast, the heart we want to have, right here. You can't say it any better than it's brought out right here in this psalm. Psalm 95 in verse 1. And let this be you and me actually speaking out. Oh, come, let us sing to the Lord. And we will sing at the Holy Days. Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving.

Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms. For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods. In His hand are the deep places of the earth. The heights of the hills are His also. The sea is His, for He made it. And His hands formed the dry land.

In verses 6 and 7 we'll conclude with these verses. Let this be us. Oh, come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker, for He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand.