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Deuteronomy 16: 13-17.( Read)
Historical
In Jewish tradition, the feast of the tabernacles is a joyous occasion. It’s a time to stop, and
take stock, and remember what God has done in their lives and to give thanks and praise to
the Source of Creation for the bounty they enjoy. The feast of the tabernacles is the last
and most joyful feast the Jews celebrates bin their calendar year. Sometimes known as the
feast of the ingathering, which refers to the culmination of the summer harvest and the
gathering of crops into the barn for winter. We celebrate it today and call it Harvest
Thanksgivng.
In fact, we are told that during this time that
"you shall have nothing but joy." [Deut. 16:15]
Covenant.
The Israelites had a special relationship with God called the covenant, and that God was the
one who blessed them with good land, and good crops, and he was the source of their
blessing.
Harvest booth.
The Jews would erect a sukkah, a harvest booth, in which they eat their meals, and
sometimes sleep, during the week-long festival. It is a reminder of the booths in which their
ancestors are said to have dwelled in during their forty-years of wandering in the desert.
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The sukkah is a temporary structure, hung with fruits and symbols of the harvest season. Its
roof is thinly covered with branches, admitting sunlight, starlight, wind, and rain, reminding
them of the precariousness of their existence in the face of the forces of nature.
But the sukkah is also a powerful reminder of the many reasons for which they feel grateful
to God, and also a reminder that for the other fifty-one weeks of the year they like us today
are blessed to have over our heads, clothes to wear, and food enough to fill our bodies.
Gathering in today.
Today, mostly we "gather" our food pre-packaged from the supermarket, cans of baked
beans, frozen chicken, baked bread from the bakery. For most modern believers they live
lives disconnected from God’s creation. In their technological world, they purchase
prepackaged, prepared food, ready in a minute at the zap of a microwave. They live in
climate-controlled houses that warm up at a press of the switch.
Increasingly, people work with information and data rather than the raw materials taken
from God’s good earth. This distanced prosperity can threaten to seduce people into a
spiritual arrogance, surpassing even that warned against in Deuteronomy 8. Where selfreliance comes in and the wealth we produce comes from our own hands.
One of the things I love about being part of this church is that I feel this place, is an
environment that helps foster my spiritual growth which I don’t think a city would have
been able to give me at this stage in our life. I have learnt a lot from my pastoral care visits
and have sat with people and learnt about their reliance in God for the rain for their crops,
for the wind to dry the crops, for God to meet their needs so that the farms they are on will
be blessed abundantly. It has been a privilege to pray with and for them. To expect God to
intervene in their lives.
Jim last week ( What was his last name) talked about how he shares with people in other
countries about Mike and Margaret Solaris place and how they broke the world record for
tonnage for their crop of … Talking with Mike he is not afraid to share with others the
reason why he breaks these records, that reason being God.
There have been scriptures that have come alive for me in the bible as being in a rural
setting has help me to engage with them in a deeper way of understanding.
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Looking around in barns I see old yokes hanging up on walls, and scriptures like my yoke is
easy and my burden is light become real, and God deepens my faith because of it.
Looking out for the poor
The passage in Deuteronomy provides a summary of the 3 essential feasts, in which all
Israelite men were required to travel to Jerusalem to celebrate. In this feast, God impresses
upon his people his enormous burden he has for the poor. The Israelites were scooping up
the harvest and storing great piles of grain and fruits, the Lord would use these feasts as a
reminder to share their abundance with the poor.
In v14 do you notice who is missed out. No one, isn’t that great, no one is left out of this
meal, it includes all. Children, servants, Levites (religious leaders), even those who are
disenfranchised in society, the aliens the fatherless and widows. Man don’t you just love
the father heart of God, it encompasses all.
Recently Kees and I went to Wanaka Warbirds and we were invited in to the VIP area. (Talk
about this)
This feast of tabernacles wasn’t just for the vip, the holy elite, it was for the apavip as far as
God is concerned (all people are very important persons). No one is to be left out. No one.
This meal was not just a reward for those that have succeeded in life. This was a feast that
was to incorporate, all life.
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God wants to dwell with us.
There are many themes that can be seen in the feast of the tabernacles and God desired to
dwell not just with his people, but in them as well. It has always been his desire to dwell
with his people, He will be our God, and we will be his people. (Exodus 6:7)
The Lord longs to tabernacle with us more than we desire to be with Him. The series we
just finished with Martha and Mary revealed this to us, he wants us to hunger for that
better part. Our lives are a bit like the patches in a patch work quilt. Each patch telling a
different story.
Can you see the thread God is sewing in our patch work quilts. Over these last few months.
Gods wanting for us to go deeper with Him. I’m in no doubt of that. Geoffs prophetic word
about splashing in the shallows, now launch out into the deep, has depths of meaning for
us in many different ways.
A chaplain in the US senate once said that in prayer God has equipped us to go
deep sea diving and instead we wade in bath tubs. This year ahead for each of
us, are we going to step into this prophetic word Geoff shared, and go deeper to
what God is calling us to? To hunger for that better part, to go the extra mile, to
cleanse our temple, to do only what the Father is telling us to do, to look beyond
the mud in peoples lives and see the masterpiece within, to recognise we like
Peter are sinners when we come into his presense, but that he doesn’t leave us
there, as we repent he make us whiter than snow, to be like Mary, Jesus mother
when faced with the impossible, she believed, to no longer blend in and be
camouflaged in the world, to stand out as Christians. If we are hungering as his
people to go deeper with him, then we need to live in this better part, and remain
in it, to tabernacle with the Lord
God indwells in us and tabernacles in our fleshly tents by His Holy Spirit. Are we opening
our tents for him? Open them wide and let the Holy Spirit flood in and dwell in you.
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God commands the Israelites to dwell in booths for 7 days, this was so they would
commemorate the wanderings in the desert. For 40 years the Israelites had no permanent
homes. God used this time to train them to find their security in God. There are certain
attitudes of Godly dependency that cannot be learned in a comfortable, permanent
environment. There are times where God leads us into a wilderness. Can you remember a
wilderness time you have had. How was it, what did god teach you in this wilderness. How
did this wilderness change you. (Ask someone, otherwise share about my wilderness with
hospital operations)
Where is God in the midst of this indwelling?
Some of us may think or have at times thought, that God is a distant God, who seems to be
far removed from his people, that he is way up there in some distant inaccessible place,
some sort of a Star Wars God in a galaxy far far away.... As you engage with the bible, this is
not the kind of God that is portrayed. Right from the start he dwelt with His people, we see
that in the Garden of Eden, and even after the fall. God identifies with the wanderings of
His people, always has and always will. And as he journeyed with the Isrealites, He never
asked for a house while his people lived in tents. He was humble enough to go from tent
site to tent site, a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.
As we celebrate the feast of the tabernacles we are rehearsing the unsettled condition of
strangers in a strange land, of wanderers, looking forward to something better. We live in a
broken , bust up world, but this home is only temporal, a day will come where we will live
in a world where there is no pain, no suffering, a world he calls the new Jerusalem coming
down out of heaven from God. Prepared as a bride, beautifully dressed, and god will dwell
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with the people, He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, there will be no more death,
or mourning or crying or pain as the old order of things has passed away.
Result of those neglecting the feast.
Zechariah 14:16-19 shows us that the punishment for those who neglect it, is that upon
them no rain shall fall.
While it was common for ancient people of that time to have great agricultural feasts,
Israel’s feasts are distinguished by the fact that they are linked to their salvation from Egypt.
The regular blessing of the land, therefore always reminds them that all their good depends
on that first salvation. And the summary in vs 16-17 is that the people should respond
generously to God in their worship, in light of his goodness to them.
Not being thankful
We have a lot to be thankful for, yet when we look around society, even in church we see so
many people living life as if there is no God, acting as if all that they enjoy is because of the
fruits of their own labour. We end up placing ourselves in the centre of the universe and
everything revolves around us, we are in control of our lives and what happens in them. This
self sufficiency we may have has to stop depending on us, and realign itself to who it should
centre on, God.
We are deluded to think that our life depends upon ourselves, and not of God.
God gives us a strong warning of self -sufficiency in the bible, and we need to wake up and
listen to this message, that stands the test of time.
Deuteronmy 8:17-19.
You may say to yourself, my power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth
for me. But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce
wealth.
Its about getting ourselves right before God, and society works best when we realise whose
creation it is, and who gives us the ability to produce fruit.
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When Israel has entered the land of plenty they may quickly forget the lessons of the desert.
Agricultural bounty, homes, fertile flocks and herds, monetary wealth—all YHWH’s blessings—
may dull Israel’s memory of its difficult past.
In short, they may become arrogant , relying upon their own efforts, taking for granted God’s
blessing. They forgot that, even in the land of plenty, they found themselves living in, that
“everything that comes from the mouth of God,” that is, that everything they enjoy is
God’s gift.
We have so much to be thankful for, but there is always a temptation to place ourselves in place
of God All good things come from God (James 1:17)
Seeing Gods provision
Seeing Gods provision in our lives is quite important, especially if we are to live a life where
which is to trust him for all that we are and all that we have.
Amen.