HOW THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES SHOWS CHRISTIANS ARE PILGRIMS IN THIS WORLD
Eric Snow, sermonette, 10-13-07, Ann Arbor, MI, UCG
Most of us have just came back from the Feast of
Tabernacles. We have interesting, even
exciting, stories to tell each other. But
the Feast isn’t a mere vacation. What
is the symbolic meaning of living in temporary dwellings for eight days? We know what the Feast of Tabernacles in
type foreshadows in God’s master plan for the human race. It represents the general prosperity and
spiritual knowledge the world will have during the millennium. But what is the Christian living meaning of
the Feast? Let’s briefly consider what
we symbolize while briefly living in hotels, motels, or even tents during the
Feast.
S.P.S.: By ritualistically
living in temporary dwellings during the Feast of Tabernacles, Christians
symbolically confess that their temporary physical lives aren’t important
compared to spiritual life in the kingdom of God.
What’s the hardest lesson of faith? It likely concerns actively living this life
on the basis that the unexperienced next life is more important than this
presently experienced life. Do we
emotionally, psychologically, and financially really believe that? Or do we hedge, just in case there is no God
and no resurrection? Do we keep one
foot in the church, one in the world, as a backup plan because of our (secret)
doubts? Do avoid observing the Feast
because we fear losing jobs or failing
classes? Is it because we didn’t save
the money, the second tithe, which God requires of us. This financial self-sacrifice puts our money
where our mouths are, to walk the talk about the next life being more
important. If we don’t save it, we’re
ritualistically admitting that we think this life is more important than the
next. But as Mr. Fisher said in a
sermon during the Feast, we shouldn’t sacrifice the world tomorrow for the
world today.
What is the Christian living principle and meaning of the
Feast of Tabernacles? We know that for
the Days of Unleavened Bread that it symbolically represents getting sin out of
our lives. By removing physical
leavening from our homes, we’re ritualistically confessing that we should
conscientiously commit to obeying God’s law.
Likewise, the Christian living principle of the Feast of Tabernacles is
that we’re pilgrims temporarily passing through this world during this present
physical life. It isn’t ultimately that
important compared to the next life.
I Chronicles 29:14-19
David said this while gathering the materials for building
the temple. It shouldn’t be seen as a
mere coincidence that the temple was later dedicated by Solomon during the
Feast of Tabernacles. The temple built
of stone in Jerusalem was a physical place for God to dwell among His physical
people of Israel. Likewise, our bodies
are a dwelling place for the Spirit of God, by which God dwells in His
spiritual people, true Christians.
Now, if we are aliens and pilgrims on the earth, just
passing through this world, how should we live? We Christians should live as ambassadors of the kingdom of God
while living in our respective nations.
Mr. Fisher’s question during the Feast in Jamaica: How many of the Americans here came to Jamaica
during the Feast because they are Americans?
His overall point was that as Christians our nationality as Americans,
Jamaicans, Canadians, etc., is unimportant compared to our identity as true
Christians. Should God’s law and man’s
law conflict, we must obey God rather than men.
I Chron. 28:2-3
Because he had killed many men in battle, David was not allowed by God to build the temple. That’s because David’s life in type, as a foreshadowing, didn’t represent properly the meaning of the building. The temple of God symbolically represents peace, as Solomon’s reign later had on earth. It would be wrong in type to have a great warrior build a temple to the Eternal that symbolically represents God’s peaceful resting place. Similarly, we Christians have to avoid getting caught up in the world’s politics and military conflicts. One of Roman Catholicism’s greatest errors was to commit fornication with the kings of the earth symbolically by using the power of the state to achieve its spiritual and physical goals. As the church and state increasingly unified from the fourth century on, the state corrupted the church doctrinally and spiritually much more than it had been before the time of Constantine and the Edict of Milan (313 A.D.) Example: Writer in independent church newspaper saying true Christians should be willing to go to war against radical Islam. That’s the same error as saying we should wage war against Communists or Nazis in prior decades: Our job as true Christians is to stand apart from this world, and live lives that point to God’s kingdom as the ultimate solution to the world’s problems. Since the end doesn’t justify the means, Christians shouldn’t compromise with evil, which is inevitable in human politics. How many people say, they are voting for the lesser of two evils when choosing one candidate instead of another? They are still voting for evil then, right? The world thus shows it is a product of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, a mixture of both. We should choose the tree of life instead, not this tree that still brings death.
Conclusion: Most of
us have just returned from the Feast of Tabernacles. But are we willing to go on to live the tabernacles life? We ritualistically lived in temporary
shelters. We symbolically confessed
that we’re just mere strangers in this world, just pilgrims passing
through. We should avoid getting caught
up pursuing materialistic goals or serving this evil world’s political and
military systems. We shouldn’t give up
the world tomorrow for the world today.