Who, What, When, Where and Why

I've often wondered, you always see a minister get up after the special music, and they say it's hard to follow. I thought there'd been many times I said, well, I'm glad I don't have to do that. But somebody has to do it sometimes, so after that, you'll have to listen to me for a little while.

And it might be hard to believe, and I think Mr. Howell mentioned, that the Holy Days are on the way. Actually, it's a lot less hard to believe with the weather we've had the last few days. The cold front comes in, it's getting darker a little earlier. Football's back on television. I don't know how many big football fans here. I like to follow the pros. Of course, living in Columbus, you hear more about the Buckeyes than you ever cared to.

So many of us have already started planning. I'm sure a lot of you are. We've been planning for the feast. One of the things that, to me, is a hallmark, and it has been since I was a little boy, is that sometime before the feast, you hear, or it's very common to hear the pastor get up and give one of those pre-feast sermons. I always just love those because it gets you thinking about that. I said, I want to give one of those. I'd never gotten to give a pre-feast sermon because it always seemed like the job for the pastor. So when you're an elder or a deacon speaking, you leave that for the boss to do. So I said, now's my chance. I thought, well, wait a minute. I like hearing those, but I never thought about how do you organize one of those. There's so much disparate information, and you want to inspire it, but you want to talk about practical points. I was sort of floundering around and trying to figure out how to put this together, and then it dawned on me to look back to my old teaching in English composition class. It was similar to something that I've had in journalism, where they talk about covering the five W's. I don't know if you've done that. The five W's, if you've got to do an exposition, the who, what, why, where, when. Is that five? Who, what, why, where, when? And sometimes how? I say sometimes, because to me the five W's always sort of fit in with the five vowels. When you're teaching someone to read and write, you get the A-E-I-O-U and sometimes why. Oh, I know why it's not funny. I was thinking, when I was in choir in college, we would sometimes have to sing that. We would always say, A-E-I-E-I-O-U. And I'd always want to sneak in, and sometimes why. So, I'm putting in the sometimes how, because how is important to this one, but we're going to come to that later. Let's get in. Now that I've given away the very simple organization I have, let's start with what. The most basic question, or what today, is pretty simple. It's the feast. Of course, now all the annual Holy Days are feasts. I'm going to focus primarily on the Feast of Tabernacles. And partly because there are special requirements with the Feast of Tabernacles. It's a Holy, well, there's a Holy Day in the feast, but it's different than some of the others. It's going to last seven days and it has some special requirements. Some of those special requirements are very enjoyable. So, let's start off by going to the Essential Feast chapter in Leviticus 11. That's the Meets chapter. Leviticus 23, what I call the Essential Feast chapter. We'll go to Leviticus 23 and we'll begin in verse 24. I'm not going to lose track of the time this time, if I can help it. Leviticus 23, beginning in verse 24, there's God's instructions, of course, to Moses when he sends them out and tells him this. He says, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a Sabbath rest, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. You'll do no customary work on it, and you shall offer an offering made by fire unto the eternal. And then he spoke to Moses in verse 27. He says, Also the tenth day of this seventh month shall be the day of atonement.

It shall be a holy convocation for you. You shall afflict your souls and offer an offering made by fire to the Lord, to the eternal. Let's skip down to verse 34. Here he says, Speak to the children of Israel, saying, The fifteenth day of the seventh month shall be the feast of tabernacles for seven days to the eternal.

On the first day there shall be a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work on it. For seven days you shall offer an offering made by fire unto the eternal. Now we can stop there. It's an interesting point. It's a seven-day feast. Or we use the term festival sometimes interchangeably. But of those seven days, only the first is a holy convocation. The first out of seven is kept out as a Sabbath. But there on the rest of the verse we see something else. It says, On the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation. You shall offer an offering made by fire unto the eternal. It is a sacred assembly, and you'll do no customary work. Now, he gave names to the others. The memorial blowing of trumpets, the day of atonement, feast of tabernacles. We in this modern era, since this eighth day, it's obvious it's a separate feast. The feast of tabernacles was seven days, but then the eighth day, he says it's a solemn assembly. It's a sacred one. So we call that the last great day. I didn't necessarily plan to go into the details of why we call it that. But as far as we get to the what, again, these are holy convocations. What they are is holy days. Sacred times set aside by God for specific purposes. Now, we can get some more instruction about the feast of tabernacles, because that's the one we're focusing on here, especially. Not that the others are unimportant. If you'll drop down to verse 39, he comes back to this feast of tabernacles. And we get some of why it's called that.

And you shall dwell in booths for seven days. All who are native Israelites shall dwell in booths. Now, booths, you could just call it a shelter or a hut. That's what all those branches were about. And I thought, it's easy if you hadn't seen it. You might think, okay, we're getting branches, and there's dwelling in booths. Especially when I was a college student in Big Sandy, we had these little metal buildings that we called booths. And I thought, that's what a booth was. It took me a long time to figure out that leafy branches, that there was a combination, and that they were calling those metal building booths named after this. Anyways, I'm getting sidetracked. But he says, because I brought the children, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, they dwelled in booths. Now, tabernacle could be interchangeable for booths. Tabernacle's a fancy sounding, somewhat religious word, but it means essentially a temporary dwelling. That's a temporary shelter. We like to use that term today because we want to distinguish that from where we normally live. Now, in my prior job, I had to arrange to rent large tents. And sometimes, we'd have to have a permit to come in and be able to put up this big tent. And we'd have to talk to government officials. It became very clear to me, there's a distinct difference between a temporary structure and a permanent one. And the building codes have all these different requirements. Now, and what I'm getting to on this, we want to realize it's the symbolic meaning of that temporary dwelling that matters. That's why we don't build necessarily booths out of leafy trees anymore.

Now, I should say, you still can. If that's the kind of thing you'd want to stay in for the Feast of Tabernacles, you're welcome to it. But when we do get into the symbolic meaning and why we're dwelling in temporary dwellings, we see it doesn't matter if it's a temporary shelter made out of leafy branches. It could be a canvas tent. It could be a hotel room or a rented house. But it needs to be the place you don't normally live.

I got bogged down there. But let's turn to Deuteronomy 16, and we're going to begin in verse 13. I want to get something else about the Feast of Tabernacles. It's very important as far as what it is.

Once again, remember, we're looking at what it is. We have these fall festivals, and they're holy days.

And the Feast of Tabernacles in particular is a holy day, a festival of seven days where we dwell in temporary structures. Deuteronomy 16, beginning in verse 13, says, You shall observe the Feast of Tabernacles seven days when you've gathered from your threshing floor and your winepress, and you shall rejoice in your feast. You and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant and the Levite and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are within your gates. That's a lot of people.

Seven days you shall keep a sacred feast to the eternal your God and the place which the eternal chooses, because the eternal your God will bless you in all the produce and in all the work of your hands. Surely you will rejoice. Okay, so that's interesting. What this is, it's a festival, and it's a happy occasion. That's a time when we're told to rejoice. Now we keep it in a particular place, it says, because you're going to be blessed. Remember, God was giving these instructions to Moses when they were still at Mount Sinai. He's basically saying, when you come to the place you're going, I'm going to bless you, and so I want you to keep this festival, and you're going to rejoice because of it. But you might notice in reading these scriptures, we've already started to cross over into a couple of the other W's. I've been trying to address what, but the question of why has started to come up, and also where. Those five W's get a little intermingled, which is, it's okay. It's alright if they overlap and come together. But let's move on to why. Why are we doing this? Now, I want to do a disclaimer here, because at the feast itself, and indeed on all the holy days, you get sermons that are explaining the spiritual meaning. Deep meaning of why these days are important, what they mean. So today, I'm not going to go into that as much. I want to say there is deep spiritual meaning, but today I want to focus on the basic aspects and more of the physical elements, especially so that we can prepare and we can keep the days when those come. So I'm limiting myself mostly to the simple reason, the most simple reason of why we keep the feast. And that simple reason is because God tells us to do it. God says, I want you to keep the feast. Let's look again here where we're at in Deuteronomy 16. In verse 13, he says, you shall observe the Feast of Tabernacles. You shall do it. And then down in verse 14, he says, and you shall rejoice in your feast. It reminds me, I've heard people do bad German, or copies of German accents. And sort of like where you see the Nazis come in and say, you shall keep the feast, and you shall rejoice. They're going to keep that feast, and you're going to like it. Now, if you're like me at all, though, when you hear something like that, I remember when I was young, one of the most frustrating things that could ever happen to me would be for my mother to tell me to do something. And I'd say, well, why? And she would give me the answer, well, because I said so, that's why.

Because that always led me to say, well, why did you say so? Now, I want to assure you that God will give us a much more satisfying answer than because I said so. He didn't just arbitrarily say, I'm going to make some days and have them keep those. But I think it's important for us to stop and consider that for us, if that's all we had, that should be enough. Even if we didn't know the deeper meaning, the fact that God says to do it can be enough for us to at least start. And that's the way it has been before. Let's turn to Psalm 111. Psalm 111, and we'll read verse 10.

It's a handy scripture we pull out sometimes, but it's one well worth looking at.

And considering it, as I said, there's that deeper meaning, but we didn't always know what that deeper meaning was.

Psalm 111, verse 10, says, The fear of the eternal is the beginning of wisdom. A good understanding have all those who do his commandments. His praise endures forever. So, a good understanding have all those who do his commandments. Now, it doesn't say those who already have a good understanding will then proceed to do his commandments. But rather, it indicates that if you're obeying God's commandments, that will develop a good understanding.

And that was the case many, many years ago. Most of you are familiar with the story of how Mr. Herbert Armstrong began the modern work that we're a part of today. And he began into it when his wife challenged him about the Sabbath. She said, this woman explained to me that the seventh day is the Sabbath. It's on Saturday, not Sunday. And he thought that was crazy. And he delved into his Bible to prove that she was wrong. And the more he studied, the more he saw that she was right. The Sabbath is still something Christians should keep. And so he began attending a church that kept the Sabbath, and meeting with them, and studying, and learning more and more. And interestingly, as he studied, he came across some other days. Some of the days that we were just reading about in Leviticus 23. And he came to some people and said, why aren't we keeping these days? And they had become convinced that they were part of the sacrificial system and weren't binding anymore. But as he studied them, he said, no, I don't see that. I understand why we don't do sacrifice, because Jesus Christ's sacrifice takes that away. So he said, we need to keep these days. And at first, it was he and Mrs. Armstrong. We're the only ones that he knew of keeping these seven annual holy days. And they had no idea of what they meant. He said, there might be some reason we're doing this, but he was doing it simply because God said so.

For years and years, they would keep it and they would teach whoever would meet with them that the Bible says we have to keep these days. And then as they were keeping them over the years and continued studying, and they learned more of the scripture, he began to or God began to reveal to him a much deeper meaning. The entire plan of God for mankind is revealed through the holy days. And that's where I say we're going to delve into that a lot in the holy days.

By keeping them, we start to understand how God created man and how we are sinful. And Satan has led us astray and we need the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. And then with God's Holy Spirit available, we can overcome sin and put it out of our lives. And we understand that we're the firstfruits of many to come. And of course, we're going to study about how Jesus Christ will return with the fulfillment of the proxies and revelation with the trumpets. Satan will be put away and will be reconciled to God and there will be a great millennium. All that meaning is built into the holy days. But it's important to keep the holy days so that you can go to understand all those things.

Now, let's move on to some other important W's. I thought that why I wanted to stop a little bit and say, even if we didn't understand all the deeper meaning, God telling us we have to do those is important. Let's combine where, when, and who, because all these mix together a little bit. Now, Leviticus 23 and Deuteronomy 16 already reminded us of the dates. All of these fall festivals occur in the seventh month. And God told Moses, okay, the seventh month, the first day is trumpets. And he said, okay, then the tenth day is a day of atonement. The fifteenth through the twenty-first is the Feast of Tabernacles. And then the twenty-second would be what we call the last great day. Now, these dates are all given, though. You might wonder, okay, I looked at my calendar recently, and it's September. We're in the ninth month. The seventh month is already well past. And I know most of you are looking at me saying, okay, uncle, we've been around a long time. We know these things. The seventh month is referring to what we call the Hebrew calendar. Or some call it the Jewish calendar, as opposed to the calendar that I've got a little version in my pocket and one on my bulletin board at home. That's the Gregorian calendar. And it's named for actually the pope that was in power when it was, when we moved to that in, I think it was 1754 or 55. Before that, it was considered the Julian calendar. It's important for us to realize there are people out there who believe that we should keep the Holy Days, but they object to using the Hebrew calendar. And I've learned there are more of those people than I realize. They don't believe how it should be calculated. They say, we should do something different.

I have problems with some of those groups, though, because I have yet, and I've studied it quite a bit. When the split first came with worldwide about 15 years ago, I discovered a whole lot of teaching from other groups and such. And I delved into it. So I wanted to learn about postponements and the moleed and the new moon. I haven't found any other groups that have what I consider an authoritative and reasonable substitute. Let's turn to the book of Romans, chapter 3. The United Church of God's teaching is that we can use the Hebrew calendar as preserved by the Jewish people today.

Let's look at just a little bit of why. Now, we could give a whole sermon on this subject, and to be honest, I don't think it would be that interesting, except for a few people who are into that kind of thing. So I just want to touch on it briefly. But here are the Apostle Paul. He's not talking about the calendar, but he's talking about his relationship with the Jewish people. Remember, one of those tribes, actually mostly two tribes, the Jews and the Benjamites with some of the Levites mixed in. And Paul asks this rhetorical question. What advantage then has the Jew, or what prophet's circumcision? And he answers, well, much in every way and chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God. To the Jews were committed, meaning put into their trust the oracles of God. That's the word of God, God's writing. That primarily means they kept the scripture. We have all of the Old Testament today because the Jewish people preserved it, and they were very careful about how it was copied. And I've read through some of the rituals, how they would do one letter at a time. You'd read it and you'd chant it several times as you went and had to be copied very precisely.

And studies have shown scholarship, when they found the Dead Sea Scrolls, much, much older than any of the older versions they had matched up with the scripture that the Jews had preserved. Well, the Jewish people, although centuries also preserved a calendar, not only centuries, but thousands of years. I trust the Holy Scripture, and I trust that calendar as well. They've been keeping it a long, long time, and they were keeping track of the Holy Days before we knew what they were.

And I'll mention also, we read in Leviticus where God told Moses, the first day of the seventh month is a Holy Day and the tenth day. God didn't say, by the way, this is the seventh month, and I've got to explain to you how to keep a calendar. God gave Moses those dates, assuming that he knew when the seventh month and when the tenth day and the other days of those months were. So God assumed, you have a calendar, I'm giving you the days on those.

Now, it's important for us to remember also that those days are calculated. Well, God's way of reckoning is that the day begins at sunset. So when he says the tenth day of the seventh month is the day of atonement, we'll begin fasting on the ninth when sunset comes. I think we are all familiar with that. There are some scriptures we could look at, but I'm not going to go to those right now.

Now, these months, this Jewish calendar is set up on a lunar cycle. That means it follows the moons, and that's one of the reasons it doesn't match up precisely with our current calendar. A new moon comes approximately every 28 point something days. Sorry, I forget what the point was, but about every 28 days, meaning it's a 360-day calendar year, so every few years they have an extra month that comes in to balance things up. That's the reason we're having the Feast of Tabernacles fairly late this year, and then it'll be a little earlier next year and a little earlier the next, and then suddenly it goes late again and sometimes earlier, but it all works perfectly. Now, some of the people that don't trust the Jewish calendar believe that we should throw that aside and we should trust on visual sighting. And I've read material from them. They say somebody has to be in Jerusalem and look for when the new moon happens.

And when you can see that sliver of the new moon, then you declare that it's the day, the Feast of Trumpets. Now, the problem is sometimes it's cloudy. They don't trust that the heavens work on a particular schedule. And I want to say the heavens do work on a particular schedule. Not only do I trust that calendar that the Jews have preserved, but scientists have proven and shown many years we can calculate thousands of years from now when the new moon will come. The sun and the moon and the stars move in a particular way because God designed them that way. And I didn't write down the Scripture, but we know in Genesis it says during that recreation week, let there be lights in the heaven and let them be for days and years and months for signs and seasons.

So we know that we can calculate in advance, and even if it's a cloudy day, we'll know when the seventh month comes. And we can know when the Holy Days will be.

As a matter of fact, I've got my notes saying, this is a long way of saying that we've got a calendar we can trust. We can know when the Holy Days will be. And if you're wondering, I've got it jotted down here in my notes. September 29th will be the Feast of Trumpets. And by the way, we'll have services right here that day at 10.30.

So I'm looking forward to being here, and Sue will be down here with me.

The Day of Atonement will be October 8th, and that falls on a weekly Sabbath. It's one of those years where the Holy Day and the Sabbath fall at the same time.

The first day of the Feast of Tabernacles is October 13th, and the last great day will be October 20th.

So that Sabbath in between, we won't have services here. But I will say, I do plan on being here on October 22nd, so all of you who weren't able to travel to the Feast will be back here for Sabbath services right after the Feast.

And those of you who do travel, if you're back in time, we'll be glad to see you here.

Well then, that was a whole lot about when, and probably longer than I needed to, but it brings up the next question.

Let's talk about who. Who keeps these days? Let's go back to Leviticus 23.

Leviticus 23, and we'll look at verse 27.

Interesting. Some of the detail comes out when he's describing the Day of Atonement. I think because the Day of Atonement is the Day of Fasting, he gives a little more detail, because a day that you can't eat, you're more particular. Who isn't exactly that can't eat? When exactly does that day start?

Here in Leviticus 23, verse 27, it says, That person I'll destroy from among this people. Now, when he says any person, I think that seems to be encompassing everyone.

I think we can extrapolate. He's not saying that everybody has to keep the Day of Atonement, but only some people have to keep the other feast days. It's for everyone.

Now, I've got a small disclaimer. Everyone does need to afflict their souls on the Day of Atonement, and we do that by fasting.

We do realize that there are health reasons why some people are not able to fast the entire time.

There are people who might be diabetic, or very elderly, or pregnant, or nursing, but everyone should afflict their souls.

And exactly how that's carried out can vary in some cases, but for the vast majority of us, it's no food and no water from sunset to sunset, and it's for all of us.

Now, let's turn to Deuteronomy 16 again. We want to look at some other comments on who's keeping the feast. This one's not directed at Atonement, but the Feast of Tabernacles.

Deuteronomy 16, we've read this already, but let's come back to it.

I'm listening to the rustling.

Deuteronomy 16, beginning in verse 13, here is the Nazi coming out again.

You shall observe the Feast of Tabernacles seven days when you gathered in from your threshing floor and your winepress, and you shall rejoice in your feast.

You and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, and the Levite and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow, that's pretty much everyone.

Actually, I was reading over this again last night. I said, hmm, he says, you and your son and daughter doesn't say anything about your wife, but I'm guessing the wife gets to rejoice, too.

I think this is his way of saying, the Feast of Tabernacles is for everyone.

The stranger in your gate, anybody that will keep it with you, these feasts are for everyone. All of you keep it.

Now, the particular reason I wanted to read this first is because we're familiar with Deuteronomy 16, verse 16. We read this three times a year.

Actually, we tend to read it seven times a year, but it says, three times a year, all your males shall appear before the Lord your God in the place which he chooses.

And they shall not appear empty, but they'll give an offering as they're able.

Now, you might say, well, wait a minute, if everybody has to keep the feast, why is he here saying, you know, the men come before God?

Well, I think it's best to look at that as a minimum requirement. Everyone has to keep the feast, but only the men are required to travel and to make the offering.

That might raise the question, though. Well, is it wrong for the women and children to go to the feast? You know, are they overstepping their bounds, getting involved in something they shouldn't?

Well, if so, then probably a lot of you have been to feast sites where you saw a lot of women and children. So I'll just say, the answer to that question is no, it's not wrong.

And I'm not just saying that because I just want women to be able to go to the feast. I think there are a couple of biblical examples that show it pretty clearly. So let's take a look at those. Let's look first in 1 Samuel. 1 Samuel, and we'll go to the first chapter.

This is one of my favorite stories. I ask your pardon. I'm reading kind of quickly, and that's sort of the way I do, but I wanted to get through all five W's. They say it's a danger when you tell how many points you have in a sermon. If you go along in one of them, people know that you should get to all of those points.

Anyways, 1 Samuel will begin right at the beginning of the book.

Now there was a certain man of Ramatham Zophim of the mountains of Ephraim. His name was Elkanah, the son of Jehoram, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zophaniphramite. He had two wives. Right off the bat, he was having a problem. We're not going to focus on Elkanah's problem, that he had two wives. One of the wives had a problem. The name of one was Hannah, the name of the other was Penaena. And Penaena had children, but Hannah had no children.

And this man went up from his city yearly to worship and to sacrifice to the Lord of Hosts at Shiloh. Okay, and it talks about the two sons of the priests there, but they went up yearly. And as we read this account, we're pretty certain that they were going up to keep the feasts. At least one of the annual holy days, they were going up. And of course, there's one annual holy day where you have to dwell on temporary dwellings.

So they went up, and they kept this feast. They rejoiced. Let's go down to verse 7. So it was year by year, when they went up to the feast of the Eternal, that she provoked her. And I skipped over the fact, remember Penaena had children and Hannah didn't, so Penaena would tease Hannah. And basically run her down, and Hannah felt really bad. She didn't have children, and it was devastating in that society to not be able to have children.

And Elkanah, her husband, said to her, Hannah, why are you weeping? Why don't you eat? And why is your heart grieved? She said, am I not better to you than ten sons? So Elkanah's trying to cheer her up. So Hannah arose after they'd finished eating and drinking in Shiloh. Now Eli, the priest, was sitting on the seat by the doorpost of the tabernacle. She was in bitterness of soul and prayed to the Eternal and wept in anguish. And the story continues. From here she prayed and asked God, please give me a son. And we know what happened, or you might not know, but the story continues. She prayed dearly and said, if you give me a child, I'll dedicate him to serving you. And she became pregnant, and she would give birth to the man named Samuel, who the book is named after. And she promised she'd devote him to service of the Lord. She said, I'm going to do that. He would be a Nazarite, and so he could serve in the temple all of his life. Now, this tells me one thing. We know God answered her prayer, and we know that Eli, the priest, when he saw her there praying, now at first she was praying silently. The story goes, she saw her mouth moving, but no sound, so we thought she was drunk. He said, Woman, put away your wine. You're drinking too much. And she said, No, no, I'm not drunk. I'm making my request to God. And he said, May the God grant your request. So this is a long way of saying, if women and children weren't supposed to be at the feast, God probably wouldn't have been listening to her prayer and answering it. You know, it was fine that the women and children were at the feast. The men were required. It was okay for the women to be there. But, in certain circumstances, it's also okay for the women to not go up. If we look beginning in verse 21, this is after Samuel was born. It says, Now the man Elkanah and all his house went up to offer to the eternal at the yearly sacrifice, and his vow. But Hannah did not go up. So this time Hannah's not going. For she said to her husband, Not until the child is weaned, and then I'll take him, that he may appear before the eternal and remain there forever. So Elkanah her husband said, Well, do what seems best to you. Wait until you've weaned him. Only let the eternal establish his word. And the woman stayed and nursed her son until she had weaned him. Now when she had weaned him, she took him up with her with three bulls, an ephah, a flower, and a skin of wine. And she brought him to the house of the eternal in Shiloh. And the child was young. And it went on, and she brought him to Eli the priest and said, Do you remember me? I'm the one that was praying for a child. Here he is. Now he's staying with you. Which I still wonder. I wonder if Eli was taking a little aback. He was pretty old at this time. Now he's got a little child to take care of. But it worked out all right.

So we can see here, once again, the minimum requirement. The men are required to travel to the feast. Women and children may go to the feast, but if for some reason they can't, such as they're nursing a child and the travel would be difficult, it's all right if they don't. Let's look at another example in the book of Luke. Luke chapter 2.

Luke chapter 2, and we'll begin in verse 40. This is an example of an even more important proportion, I think.

No wonder I'm looking at the wrong chapter. Luke 2 and verse 40.

Now it says, The child grew. Now from what we read before, that child, speaking of, is Jesus Christ. He was a young child. It says, The child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him. His parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of Passover. And when he was 12 years old, they went up to Jerusalem according to the custom of the feast.

And when they had finished the days, as they returned, the boy Jesus lingered behind in Jerusalem.

And Joseph and his mother did not know it. Now I'm not going to go on and read all the story, because we know what happened is, they started heading home thinking he was with the whole family somewhere in the group. And when they realized he wasn't, they had to go back and find him. And he was at the temple, thinking he was ready to start doing his father's work.

And it's important here, they traveled to the feast, and they all went. Men, women, and children. And obviously, Jesus Christ wouldn't have been going if it's supposed to be only the men, and the others aren't allowed. Now this doesn't deal with the question of they're going up to the feast for Passover, not at the Feast of Tabernacles. Now it doesn't say they didn't travel to the Feast of Tabernacles. It would be okay for us to travel to an appointed place for other feast days. And there was a time in the history of the church when that was done. In early times of our modern era, many people would go, and they would go in the spring and keep Passover and stay for all the days of Unleavened Bread, and then return home.

But the reason we stopped doing it is a little impractical, and the Bible doesn't require anyone to stay in temporary dwellings during the other feast. Feast of Tabernacles does have that requirement. Now, all this reminded me of a story I wanted to share, because some of this we're talking about who keeps it, and then we'll start getting into a little bit of the where. But last fall, Sue and I had a similar question, looking at this. And Keith, please, you probably had the similar thing. You're due and you're supposed to have a baby at any time, and you're saying, can we keep the feast? Sue's doctor told her, no way are you traveling to West Virginia and going up on top of a mountain several hours away from a hospital. And I read all this. I said, well, Sue's not required to go, but it says all the men go up to the feast. So I was contemplating, okay, how do I do this? Do I go on just the high days? I was thinking about going to Wisconsin and seeing how fast could I get back if I get a call saying she's in labor, and how long would it take me to drive to the airport and fly? Because I knew I needed to keep the feast. And then one of the elders in our area said something to me that changed my whole outlook. And he said, Frank, I understand what you're doing. He said, do you know there are over 20 people in Central Ohio that aren't going to be able to go to the feast, either because they have bad health problems or because they've been out of work and they have no money because they didn't have any money to tithe on? He said, if you stay here, you can serve them. You can keep the feast and help them to keep the feast. I'd never thought of it that way. And so that's what we did. And I talked to our pastor because I didn't want to do this just on my own. But we set up what we could call a mini-feast site in Grove City, Ohio, the suburb of Columbus. And we were able to log on with the cybercast to the services that were in Snowshoe, West Virginia. We got the computer and plugged it into our big flat-screen TV. And we rearranged the chairs and we had a mini-feast site. And I'll come back to that in a moment. But I will mention we had 22 people there for the first feast day. Matter of fact, close to the number we have here, I think. It was a little more crowded in my living room, I guarantee you, but it was an enjoyable time. But that does bring up the question, where do we keep the feast?

Where do we keep the feast? If you have to travel... Now, in Luke 2, verse 42, we just read that they went up to Jerusalem. When we were in 1 Samuel chapter 1, they went to Shiloh. Deuteronomy 16, verse 16, we read that and it says, The place where the Lord shall choose. Well, there's some variety there. And we wonder. Now, there have been times when it was easy to know where God chose. If you think to ancient Israel wandering in the wilderness, they had a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night.

And wherever that pillar went, they went. That was the place where God chose, quite literally. Now, when Israel entered the Promised Land, and we often think about the Temple, but for hundreds of years before there was the Temple, there was the tabernacle, that tent that they'd build out in the wilderness. They set it up at a place called Shiloh. Shiloh was where Elkanah and Penaena and Hannah went.

And that was the place where God had put His name. The tabernacle was there, the Ark of the Covenant, and it stayed there for hundreds of years. Later, the Ark would be moved to Jerusalem. And then Solomon would gather materials and build a beautiful temple, you know, as a monument to God, where God could put His name. So the question might come up. Do we need to go to Jerusalem now? And I'll tell you, there are people in the world that would say, absolutely yes, you have to go to Jerusalem to keep the feast.

But let's turn to Jeremiah 7. Jeremiah 7 gives some interesting insight into that. I'm going to read several chapters here, but we need to get them all together. And the background of this, of course, is Jerusalem and the kingdom of Judah were under attack from the Babylonians. And it was looking like the kingdom might fall, and some people were saying, well, Jerusalem will never be captured because the temple is here, and God wouldn't let it happen.

And God sends Jeremiah to tell them, you better think twice about that. So in Jeremiah 7, beginning in verse 1, it says, The word that came to Jeremiah from the eternal, saying, Stand in the gate of the eternal's house, that's the temple, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the eternal, all ye of Judah, who enter in at these gates to worship the eternal. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, amends your ways and your doings, and I'll cause you to dwell in this place.

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. So people were saying, it's because the temple of the Lord is here. And God is saying, don't trust in that. He says, For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, and if you thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor, if you don't oppress the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and do not shed blood in this place, or walk after other gods, you're hurt.

So if you do the right thing, then I'll cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers. He said, Okay, so if you obey me, live my way, you'll be okay. But, He says, Behold, you trust in lying words that can't profit. Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know? And then come and stand before me in this house that's called by my name, and say, We're delivered to do all these abominations? In other words, He's saying, You're doing all this stuff, and then coming here because it's my house.

Are you going to do that? Do you think there's some special privilege because I put my name here once? In verse 11, Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of thieves in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, says the Lord. But now, go to my place that was in Shiloh. Shiloh is where the tabernacle had been. Where I set my name at the first, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people. And now, because you've done these works, says the eternal, and I spoke to you rising early and speaking to you, but you didn't hear, and I called you, but you didn't answer.

Therefore, I will do to this house, which is called by my name, in which you trust, and to this place, which I gave to you as your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh. And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, the whole posterity of Ephraim. As I said, there's a lot of words there, but basically he's saying, you know, my name used to be in Shiloh, and it's not there anymore.

Because the people of Israel, the northern kingdom, forsook me, I moved my name to Jerusalem, and God was warning them, saying, I can move my name again. Don't think that I established it in Jerusalem, and that's it. That's the only place it can ever be. But he said, that's not the case. And it wasn't. The temple would fall. Jerusalem would be sacked and burned. Now, later they would return and build another temple, and Jesus Christ would come to that temple.

But not all that long after Christ was sacrificed, that temple would be destroyed. So we don't have the Ark of the Covenant anymore, and we don't have a physical temple. So the question might be, then, where is God's name? Where is the place where He chooses that we have to keep the feast? Well, I'll mention, there are several places in the New Testament. If you want to note one, which I'm not going to turn to, in 1 Peter 2, verse 5, the church is referred to as the Temple of God.

And at times, we as individuals are referred to as the Temple, because God puts His Spirit in us in a way He didn't do with physical Israel before Christ sacrificed. So if the church is the temple, the church isn't all in one place. But we believe God has given the organization of the church authority to designate places where we'll ask God to put His name to keep the feast. Now, for... Well, I'm not going to turn there, because it's a very famous scripture, and I've read it recently in Matthew 16, verses 18 and 19.

That's the case where, remember, Jesus Christ was talking to Peter and He said, I'm not Peter, Petros, but on this rock, this Petra, I'll build my church. And He tells them, I'll give you authority, I'll give you the keys of the kingdom.

Whatever you bind on earth will be bound on heaven. Whatever you loose on earth will be loosed on heaven. And heaven. So this was God's way of saying, I'm going to give the church authority to do things like decide where the feast site will be. Have I taken a long way to get to that? But I wanted to base it scripturally. Let's go to Matthew 18. Maybe I should have turned to 16. Because this is another way of looking at it.

Because we want to gather where God puts His name. Matthew 18, verse 20. Because it is important, when we go to the feast, we want to make sure we've gone to the right place. And we're thinking, why, where, when? The where is important. And there Jesus Christ said, where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them. Because of God's Spirit, when His people gather together and worship Him in the right attitude, He'll be there. Now, and I know some of you have been in the church a lot longer than I have, and you might remember this.

There was a time when all the church met in one place. The first place was in Belknap Springs in Washington, when everybody could go and keep the feast together. And then they moved to Big Sandy, Texas, was the designated feast site. And I love hearing stories of the old days.

People driving from all over North America coming down to Big Sandy and camping in the piney woods. You know, and that redwood building that was designed so they'd keep every year moving the walls back to make it bigger to fit everyone in. And of course, then they built the big metal tabernacle building. But over time, they realized, well, and I've got a note. How many of you remember hearing stories about Bucks Bowl? Hmm? Oh, well, maybe not. Maybe because I spent time in Big Sandy.

There was talk, and they were literally starting to make plans to build a stadium that would seat 100,000 people there in Big Sandy. And there was a natural depression there near where the golf course is. I think there's still a golf course there.

And they said they were doing architectural drawings and figuring out how to build this huge stadium so everybody in the church could keep coming to Big Sandy for the feast. And then they said, boy, this is a nightmare already with several thousand people trying to get everybody to eat.

And I worked at the water plant there, and I can attest, getting rid of the garbage and handling the sewage is quite a job. So they said, okay, let's split up and start having different feast sites in different places. And that's the way it's been ever since. And we've had the feast in a lot of different places.

And I think we have some evidence that God has blessed that. If you've been to a feast site, you've felt God's Spirit. You've been encouraged. You've learned. You've seen, you know, Jesus Christ said, by their fruits, you'll know them. We know by the fruit of having the feast wherever we've had it if God has been there or not. And I'll come back to my mini-fist site in Grove City. I did seek approval from the administration of the church, and I literally prayed to God and said, please put your name here for this particular time.

And we had a very profitable feast. Now, this is starting to relate back to the who as much as the where or when. Because there are times when you have trouble going to a feast site. You know, a woman who's about to have a baby isn't going to get in her car and go off to some feast site. Modern technology has made it possible for us to see and hear what's happening at a feast site from almost anywhere in the country now.

But we all want to keep in mind, still, there's that fellowship at the feast. There's that rejoicing, being with brethren. That's an important part of the feast. I always say, if you can go to the feast, you should travel. If you're able to. If you're not, participate in the best way you can. And no matter what, remember, the Holy Days are holy days. Even if you can't be at the feast site, it's important to keep those days holy. You know, don't work.

Don't do regular activities. You know, if you have to keep the feast at home, I recommend gathering with brethren. Try to get that fellowship and that keeping the feast spirit as much as possible.

And the other thing, can you stay in a temporary dwelling? Leviticus 23 talked about building shelters, building those booths out of leafy branches and such. Matter of fact, let's go to Nehemiah chapter 8. Nehemiah is important. I'm looking for my watch and it's down there. Nehemiah 8 will begin in verse 13. This is an interesting description of how the Feast of Tabernacles was kept one particular year.

Nehemiah 8. Now, we're going to come back to this in a moment and fill in some, but I want to talk a little bit about what they realized. They were reading the law and they started realizing, oh, it's the Feast of Tabernacles. It says, It's interesting. They were already at Jerusalem. But still, they made these temporary dwellings. Now, we know now, and as I said, you'll learn more. We'll study this more as the Feast comes, that these temporary dwellings represent the fact that our life in the flesh is temporary.

These bodies last just so long and then they decay and they're gone. If we're going to have anything permanent, our permanent home has to be in the Spirit in God's Kingdom. That's why, even if you're at Jerusalem, the temporary dwelling is important. At the Feast, we stay in hotel rooms. Sometimes we camp in tents or we rent homes. What we did at our feast site in Grove City, Sue and I, our problem wasn't having second, that we didn't have enough second tithes.

So, her parents came up to be with us. You can imagine, she's about to have a baby. Her mom wanted to be nearby. So, Sue and I got a hotel room and they stayed in our home. So, they were in a temporary dwelling and we were in a temporary dwelling. I've known of some people who have trouble traveling to the feast who will switch homes with someone else for those seven days.

Or, do something special, at least the Orthodox Jews who are in Jerusalem, as I said, they build a booth and they eat their meals under that. They do something to make some part of their keeping the feast a temporary thing. When I was a college student, they would usually ask us to stay one of the day, one of the, every other year. And so, you have to stay. I said, well, I'm here all the time. So, we would sometimes switch dorm rooms. You know, I'll stay in your dorm during the feast and you stay in mine.

So, that can be an important aspect of making the feast special, even if you're not able to travel to where that goes. Now, we've covered pretty much the W's. I want to get to that how. I said we're going to come to that. How do you keep the feast?

Well, now there are two ways of answering that. One of the ways is, how do you keep it? Meaning, what do you do to keep it? Well, we've known it includes keeping the feast days of Sabbath. Don't work. Don't do your business. To keep the feast of tabernacles, live in a temporary dwelling. I've got a note here. As I said, the Orthodox Jews will do it at least for meals.

One of the ways we keep the feast is by giving an offering. Deuteronomy 16, verse 16 says, every man will give as he is able. Certainly, don't give more than you're able. And we know God loves a cheerful giver. Also, we're commanded to rejoice. And the Feast of Tabernacles is one way, the one feast where it says, you're going to go there and for seven days, rejoice. Rejoice in that feast. I always say, if you're not rejoicing, you're not keeping the feast properly. One other important aspect, and I'm running through these because I want to get to another element that I think is important, but consider this.

There's not a command in the Bible that says it, but serving at the feast is a wonderful way to keep the feast. And the one thing I say, I've heard ministers say that a lot of times when I was a boy growing up.

And when I finally started getting the opportunity to serve, whether it might be ushering at services, participating in the choir, or not in an organized way, but saying, I'm going to go out of my way to try to help people. And sometimes just, as you say the saying, go and smile to someone, or say hi to someone who's looking down and shake their hand. Or if you see, there's often elderly people who have trouble moving around and visiting people, go to them. Go to the people that are in wheelchairs or such and visit with them at the feast.

That serving makes your feast better. But I want to get to that other aspect. How do we keep the feast? That question could be saying, how are you able to keep the feast? How do you do all this stuff? Go live in a temporary dwelling, go to where God puts His name. How can you do that if you're not rich?

And the answer, of course, is that God has a special savings plan for the feast. We use the simple term of second tithe, but let's review how do we get to that.

Let's go to the book of Leviticus, chapter 27. I'm going to make us jump a couple of scriptures here pretty quickly, so warm up your fingers. Leviticus 27 will begin in verse 30. I don't speak on tithing a lot, but I thought it's good. Let's look at the scriptures. When I'm saying all these things you have to do, let's look at them and review in our mind what we're doing.

This is near the end of the book of Leviticus, last chapter, near the end of that chapter in verse 30. Here's God's instructions. He says, All the tithe, and tithe is an old-fashioned word for one tenth. So all the tithes of the land, whether the seed of the land or the fruit of the tree, it is the eternals. It's holy to the eternal. If a man wants at all to redeem any of his tithes, he'll add one fifth to it.

And concerning the tithe of the herd or the flock, whatever passes under the rod, the tenth one will be holy to the eternal. So tithe is important. It's holy. Let's go move ahead now to Numbers, chapter 18. This is moving forward in the book or in the Bible. Numbers, chapter 18. And we're going to begin in verse 26. Oh, no, in 21, I'm sorry. Remember earlier we just said the tithe is God's.

How are you going to give it to God? Something I wonder, it's like, will God give me His address and I'll send it to Him, UPS, or I'll mail Him a check. Well, here He gives us an answer. In verse 21, He says, Behold, I've given the children of Levi all the tithes in Israel as an inheritance, and return for the work which they perform, the work of the tabernacle. Hereafter the children of Israel shall not come near the tabernacle of meeting, lest they bear sin and die, but the Levites shall perform the work of the tabernacle of meeting.

In verse 24, For the tithes of the children of Israel, which they offer up as a heave offering to the eternal, I've given to the Levites as an inheritance. So the Levites didn't get land like the other tribes, but they got a tithe. So, okay, tithing, it belongs to God. And if you look a little further down and say, well, the Levites, when they get all that, they have to give a tithe of what they have to the priests.

So everybody's still tithing. And we can confirm, if we go to the book of Malachi, the famous scripture when we talk about tithing, Malachi 3, verse 8. I'm establishing the principle here that tithing is important to God. He says, this tithe belongs to me. You can't use it for just whatever. You've got to give it to the Levites. Now, we'll address something about that later, but Malachi 3, verse 8. He says, Will a man rob God? He says, Yet you have robbed me. And he says, Well, how we robbed you. And tithes and offerings, you're cursed with a curse, for you've robbed me, even this whole nation.

And God says, Bring the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Try me in this, says the Lord of Hosts, if I won't open for you the windows of heaven, and pour out you with such a blessing, you won't have room for it. And God's saying, I take tithing as seriously. If you don't pay your tithes, you're stealing from God. So you can't use that tithe for just whatever. It's not yours. But now, in contrast, let's go back to the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 14.

Deuteronomy 14, we begin in verse 22.

Because this is something, it starts looking very different.

Deuteronomy 14 and 22 says, You shall truly tithe all the increase of your grain that the field produces. Okay, that doesn't sound any different. But the next verse, it says, And you shall eat before the eternal your God, in the place where he chooses to make his name abide, the tithe of your grain and your new wine and your oil, in the first born of your herds and flocks. Now, you might say, well, wait a minute. He said, I have to give it to the Levites.

But this says, keep that tithe and eat it. Now, if it's robbery for me to keep the tithe and not give it, why is this saying that? Well, and the answer we've come to is that this must be a different tithe. One tenth you give to the Levites to do the work, and must be another tenth that you save, and then you take it to the place where God chooses. That's where we came up with the term second tithe. Now, the Bible doesn't have the term second tithe in it, or third tithe, but we in the church have given these designations, and I'm not talking about third tithe today. But as I said, this must be a different ten percent.

Now, I don't want to get into the details of the change of the law, but in the book of Hebrews, we believe it's the apostle Paul writes a detailed explanation about how the administration of tithing has changed and explained that the priesthood of Melchizedek replaced the priesthood of Aaron and that the tithes didn't have to go to the Levites anymore, but instead it would go to the service of Jesus Christ. And that's why we send our tithes to the church to support the work.

You know, the tithe goes, preach the gospel, pay for the work, and all that. But what about that other tithe? If there's a second tithe that, you know, he said, you keep that and you eat that for yourself, was there a change in how that's administered? And the answer, from what I can see, there's nowhere where a change in that is explained. It seems that we're supposed to still use that tithe for the purpose it was given in the Old Testament.

Deuteronomy chapter 14, where we read in verse 24 to 26, is still valid. And let's continue reading. Deuteronomy 14...was I in 13 before? Okay. Well, let's continue reading here. Deuteronomy 14 and verse 24... Remember, he said, you eat that tithe there. He says, if the journey is too long for you so that you're not able to carry the tithe, and I would add, if you're not a subsistence farmer, you know, because he's...well, if the journey's too long, you're not able to carry it...yeah.

Then you shall exchange it for money, and then take that money in your hand and go to the place where the Eternal, your God, chooses. And you shall spend that money for whatever your heart desires, for oxen or sheep or wine or a similar drink, for whatever your heart desires. And you'll eat there before the Eternal, your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your household.

I mentioned the subsistence farmers, because at first it says, take the tenth, and go there and eat it and rejoice. And if you can't take all this grain that you've raised in livestock, then exchange it for money, and then take the money and buy that stuff. Well, for most of us, our tithe is already money, but we get to go to the feast and have a good time.

Rejoice! That's part of how God commands us to worship Him. That's why I've always...one of the reasons we love the Feast of Tabernacles, and it's fun when you hear these sermons, because we look forward to that time, and we're thinking, yeah, it's going to be fun. Now, there are some important points about second tithes. I want to emphasize before we leave this.

One is, save it. If you have an increase, now, if you're on a fixed income and you're not working, you don't have an income that's titheable if you're living off of some other support, but if you have any income, don't slack. One of the points I like to make is that money, it might be for you to use at the feast, but it's not your money.

It's God's money that he says, use in this particular way. And I have to confess, one of the reasons I like to say it that way is because I'm a little tight with money.

My wife, Sue, has been very good for me in that way in getting me to open the wallet a little more readily. I'm always hesitant to spend, I like to save. But when it comes to feast time, I say, well, that's not my money. God says, take that 10% and spend it on what you like. So I do.

Now, what are some appropriate things to spend your second tithe on? Now, the Bible, it lists some things there. We're living in a modern era, so, you know, for one thing, of course, food and drink is one of the things we spend that tithe on.

And we spend it on some of the best. Things you can't normally afford. Fine wine, good steaks, whatever. Now, if you're like me and you like a fine whopper, I don't get those very often at the feast. Sometimes I want to go have a whopper. That's what my heart earnestly desires. Of course, second tithe, you'll also spend on traveling to the feast. Traveling there and back is certainly an appropriate use of second tithes. And your accommodations. We don't, you know, when you were taking leaves and boughs off of trees to make your booth, that was pretty cheap.

But temporary accommodations now are a lot more expensive, so use second tithes for that. Also, in some cases, for some clothing. Now, you don't buy a new wardrobe at the feast. But, well, I don't do it every couple years. I'll invest in a new suit because I'm going to wear it all at the feast, you know, and also on the Sabbath. And Sue likes to get a new dress for the feast days.

So, things like that. Gifts for others, if it's within reason, you know, we don't want to get in the way of thinking where the feast is kind of like another version of Christmas, where we spend all this money buying gifts for people. But, of course, buying some gifts for people to help them to rejoice. And, of course, you know it's more blessed to give than to receive.

So, you have that certain joy that comes from being able to give something to someone. And another important factor that we want to remember in how to use our second tithe is to help others to keep the feast.

While we're in Nehemiah, we were in Nehemiah. Sorry, let's go back to Nehemiah. I should have told you to keep a finger there. But this is an important point to look at, I think. Nehemiah, we'll go back to chapter 8.

Nehemiah is just before Esther.

We see an interesting reaction, because remember these people had come back to Jerusalem and they were largely ignorant of God's way of life. The priest had kept the law, but a lot of the people with them didn't fully know how they were supposed to live. So, actually, I'm going to start in verse 73 of Nehemiah 7. So, if you're looking at 8, it's the verse that leads into 8. So, the priests, the Levites, and the gatekeepers, the singers, and some of the people, and the ethnom, and all Israel, and the dwelt in their cities, when the seventh month came, then the children of Israel were in their cities.

So, it's the seventh month. Now, skip down to chapter 8 and verse 8, because all these people gather, and the priest starts reading the law. So, they read distinctly from the book in the law of God, and they gave them the sense and helped them to understand the reading. And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest, and the scribe, and the Levites, who taught the people, said to the people, Well, this day is holy to the eternal. They were reading the law and said, Hey, this is one of these days in the seventh month where we have to keep it as a holy day.

They said, This day is holy. Don't mourn nor weep. For all the people were weeping when they heard the law of God. They were realizing how much they had not been obeying God. But they were saying, No, this is not a day for weeping. This is a day for celebrating. In verse 10, they said to them, Go your way. Eat the fat. Drink the sweet.

Send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared. For this day is holy to our Lord. Don't sorrow, for the joy of the eternal is your strength. So the Levites quieted all the people, saying, Be still, for the day is holy. Don't be grieved. And all the people went their way to eat and to drink. And to send portions and to rejoice greatly, because they understood the words that were declared to them. So I like the fact that everybody not only ate and drank and rejoiced, but they went out of their way to send portions to others who didn't have as much.

We can and should use our second tithe to help others to keep the feast. And you might do that by various ways. If you know someone that has need, you can give it to them directly or anonymously. I was at church in Columbus a few years ago, and a fellow walked up to me and said, He gave me an envelope, and I looked and it had $200 in it. And he said, I want you to give it that person over there for the feast. I know they need some money, but I don't want them to know who it's from.

So go tell them this is an anonymous gift. Okay. That was pretty neat. You know, we, the church, administratively asked us to send in... Well, the recommended level is at one-tenth of our second tithe that they send, and they can use that to rent the buildings and to fund activities and things like that. So it's appropriate for that second tithe to go to help do those other things. And just, there's wonderful stories about people doing that. I still remember my very first feast of tabernacles.

You know, I was 11 years old, and my mother just started attending church. And it was my mother and my sister and I and my grandmother. And we decided we're going to go to the lake of the Ozarks for the feast. And we had $200 for four of us. And we went, and I was young enough, I didn't know what happened, but I found out later a lot of people helped us and bought us meals and provided food and such.

And we had this wonderful feast, and we went out there on faith, and it worked. I'm not going to say all this talk about the feast. It has me excited to go. I hope you are, too.

I know I've been talking a little fast, but maybe let's make the time go by fast, and we'll get to the feast quicker. Autumn is here, and the days are going to be here real soon. So we've reviewed some of the what, where, why, when, and only a little bit of the why. And that's where I want to make a teaser for what's ahead.

I focused on do it because God says so, but there is a much deeper, richer, spiritual meaning that's going to make us really glad we're keeping those feast days. We'll talk about that more here when we come to the Holy Days, but when the feast comes, we're going to get a lot of that. So, in closing, I just want to say it's an exciting time. It's a time we're going to be richly blessed. So let's all prepare, and let's keep the feast.