The Feast of Tabernacles
“go forth unto the mount, and fetch olive branches, and pinb branches, and myrtle branches, and palm branches, and branches op thick trees, to make booths.” — neh. vin. 15.
“in the last dat, that great dat of the feast, jesus stood and cried, saying, if ant man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.” — john yil 37.
“jesus went unto the mount op olives. and early in the mobninq he came again into the temple, and all the people came unto
him; and he SAT DOWN, AND TAUGHT THEM.... THEN SPAKE JESUS AGAIN UNTO THEM, SAYING, I AM THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD: HE THAT FOLLOWETH ME SHALL NOT WALK IN DARKNESS, BUT SHALL BLVVE THE LIGHT OF LIFE.” — JOHN VIIL 1, 2, 12.
LEV. xxin. 39-43.
Although the first of these verses relates to the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, it is manifest, from the context, that the proclamation “Go forth to the Mount,” intimated the revival of an old and sacred anniversary, — the restoration of a venerated festival, — which, indeed, dated its true pedigree from the wilderness of Sinai, but which, like other things during the dismemberment of the kingdom at the time of the Babylonish captivity, had fallen into desuetude. We may, therefore, in point of chronological sequence, appropriately assign to the Feast of Tabernacles the next place in the Olivet Memories.*
We believe it may without qualification be asserted, that, of all the joyous festivals in the old city of Jerusalem, the most joyous by far, was this annual celebration. It was the great holiday of the nation, at which people of all ranks and professions vied with one another in their demonstrations of gladness. From every village and city, from Dan to Beersheba, (as on the occasion of the other two principal anniversary feasts,) there poured forth jubilant multitudes to the city of Solemnities. It was the closing and crowning festival of the year. The whole land had yielded its increase. The harvest had been reaped by the sickle
* For several of the historical facts of this chapter, I am indebted to A full and interesting article in Smith’s Bible Dictionary.
from the valleys and plains of Palestine, and stored away in the granary. The berries had been plucked or “shaken” from the silver-leaved olive, and the oil laid up in “baths.*’ The palm had yielded its luscious dates. The vineyards on the terraced hills had resigned their purple clusters, and been trodden in the wine-press. The juice of the grape had been deposited in cask, or leathern bottle, or ample amphora. In one word, the vast and varied produce of another season had been gathered in; and, with one accord, the whole Hebrew nation, under a mellow October sky, hastened to their Temple-courts — the nation’s central Sanctuary — with votive offerings and tributes of thanksgiving to Him who had “crowned the year with His goodness” and made all its “paths drop fatness.” Hence a synonyme for the Feast of Tabernacles was “the Feast of Ingathering.” It was a grand national harvest-home, in which they sought to combine exuberant natural joy with the solemnities of a holy convocation.
Independently too of the crowds that thronged street and suburb, Jerusalem herself was arrayed in gayest holiday attire. All the woods in the vicinity were laid under contribution. But on the 14th day of the month Tisri, or seventh month, the axes were heard to resound specially, among the thickets and groves which then covered the Mount of Olives. Palm and citron, vine and olive, pine and myrtle and weeping-willow, were stript of their branches; and next morning at daybreak, when the rising sun looked down from the heights of the Mount, lo! the city had been transmuted, as by the hand of an enchanter, into a mimic forest. The flat-terraced roofs of the houses
had, for the time being, been transformed into a congeries of arbours or booths. The courts of the Temple were studded with the same; and all along the narrow valley of the Kedron, climbing up the flanks of Olivet, temporary huts or tabernacles were reared for those whose numbers would not admit of their being accommodated in vacant ground within the walls. On the occurrence of the other great festivals, the Mount was crowded with tents of black goats* hair, brought along with their caravans, for the use of the Pilgrims during their sojourn in the Holy city. But on this occasion these were forbidden: — no covering, no architecture was permitted, save the primitive hut made of interlacing bough: ‘*And ye shall take you on the first day, the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook,” (Lev. xxiiL 40.) The minute and specific directions given, in regard to the construction of these, is remarkable. They were (according to a writer quoting from the Mishna) to be separate and apart ;-^to be dependant for support on no adjoining wall or building; — even the shade of a tree rendered the erection of a booth underneath inadmissible; — and whatever might be the inclemency of the weather, no oilskin or cloth was permitted to form part of the canopy. Nor was there any respect of persons in the celebration; from king and prince to the humblest citizen, all were, for the sacred week, dwellers within these fragile leafy walls. It must have seemed as if the ruthless hand of some conqueror had sacked and gutted house and palace, hall and temple in the adjoining city, and a homeless population had been driven, by stern necessity, to endure the extremities of camp life,-taldng the sbiggy yestments with which nature had clad the ‘mountains round about Jerusalem’ as a temporary shelter and screen from the fiery sun by day and drenching dews by night. The joyous accents, however, which were heard rising, gave evidence that it was no harsh or coercive enactment which had driven to these leafy abodes — these wooded Tabernacles. The moving masses seen swarming in every direction, bore in their hands a token of rejoicing. For seven whole days, each Hebrew, young and old, clad in festive attire, carried in his left hand some fruit of the citron, and in his right a bunch, or green bouquet, composed of palm, entwined with willow and myrtle and fastened with gold and silver strings.* The procession swept in a continuous stream through the Temple-courts; as they passed, the altar, the conspicuous palm-branches were waved in the air, and “HosANNAH! Save! we beseech Thee!” was shouted by the exulting crowd. At intervals — twice each hour — the trumpets of the Temple sounded to inspire and stimulate the national joy.
At the time of the morning sacrifice, on each successive day,f one of the most interesting incidents in connexion with the festival took place. The altar of burnt-offering was wreathed with sprigs of willow; and as the partitioned victim was laid upon it, a chorus of voices was heard approaching through the water-gate from the southern slope
* Home’s Introduction.
+ We picture the celebration as it took place at the close of the Jewish dispensation; and the Rabbinical writings may be accepted as sufficiently trustworthy guides in the description of a purely historical occurrence.
of Mount Moriah. The procession was headed by a priest, bearing in his hand a golden ewer or pitcher from the pool of Siloam. His appearance on the flight of steps was greeted by a blast of the Temple trumpets, also by the shout of the assembled crowd, re-echoing the words of the great Prophet, “With joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.” * Reverently he ascended the steps; and into one of two silver basins, adjoining the altar on its west side, he poured the contents of the flagon. Into the other he emptied a quantity of wine, — both of which were conveyed by separate pipes or conduits to the Kedron below. An acclamation of joy again burst forth; and as the smoke of the morning sacrifice arose, an appointed choir of musicians sang in full chorus the great Hallel. It is specially mentioned by the Rabbins, that at different parts (particularly of their favourite 118th Psalm) “f they waved in triumph their branches of palm. They, did so at ver. 1, “0 give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: because his mercy endureth for ever.” Again at ver. 25, “Hosannah! Save now, I beseech thee, Lord. Lord, I beseech thee, send now prosperity.” Again at ver. 29, “give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.” The whole concluded with the offering of fresh sacrifices and songs of praise.
Nor did the shades of evening terminate the celebrations; — all night long the jubilant festival continued, and the still air was melodious with these grand choral symphonies. Impressive must this midnight scene have been to witness. In the centre of one of the Temple-courts, two colossal
Isa. xii. 3. + See Thrupp on Psalms, in loco.
golden candlesticks or candelabra were erected. Immediately after the offering of the evening sacrifice, these were lighted, and the wooded dells and slopes of Olivet on the one hand, and the streets of Jerusalem on the other, were brilliant with the glare. These two gigantic Illuminators did not stand alone. The bunch of flowers carried by day, was now, in the case of many, exchanged for torches and flambeaux; a band of Levites, seated on the fifteen steps leading to the court, sang or chanted the “Songs of degrees,” extending from the 120th to the 134th Psalms inclusive. We can barely form an idea of the magnificence of this scene, distinctively and by pre-eminence called, in the Rabbinical books, “The Festival” The exuberant, and, in later years, the almost extravagant, if not unwarrantable joy which attended it, was in strange contrast with the holy celebration which, by five days, it was preceded, — the Day of Atonement, — which is described as a day of profound humiliation — a day “for a man afflicting his soul.*’ As it was said of the latter in a Jewish proverb, “A man had never seen sorrow who never saw the sorrow of that day,” so was there a corresponding proverbial saying, “He who has never seen the rejoicing at the pouring out of the water of Siloam, has never seen rejoicing in his life.”
And it is an interesting thing surely for us to remember, that our blessed and adorable Lord witnessed these strange and jubilant festivities, — that His eye fell on the cluster of leafy encampments on Olivet, — ay, and that His ear heard those words, whose profound meaning was unknown to those who uttered them, “Hosannah! Save now!” (or, “Come, Saviour 1”) What were these? but ten thousand prayers for the advent of Him who, though they knew Him not, was standing in their midst! We infer, from what is said in the 7th chapter of St John, that He was present in the crowd at that exciting moment of the day’s festive joy, when the water of Siloam was being carried in the golden goblet, and that He made touching use of the dumb symbol to proclaim His own everlasting gospel; — “In the last day, that great day of the Feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.” The Jews interpreted (and, as we shall presently see, they interpreted rightly) the primary meaning of the typical figure to be, a commemoration of the fetching of the water from the Rock in the Sinai desert. But our blessed Saviour combines the two types; * 1/ says He, ’ am that Rock 1 I am that living water. Your fathers drank of that spiritual Rock which followed them, but that Rock was Myself.’ Oh, as His loving omniscient eye looked around, that moment, on the festive throng — apparently all outward joy — He could penetrate deeper. He saw, doubtless, that underneath that holiday attire there was many a trembling agitated spirit. There were many with these bouquets, (types of mimic mirth in their hands,) whose hopes were withered flowers. There were many parched souls seeking to quench their thirst at a deeper than earthly fountain or cistern. The golden goblet, with the water from Siloam’s pool, gives Him an appropriate text. He had, a short time previously, pointed a lone spirit at the well of Jacob to the same type, and made it discourse of nobler verities, — “Whosoever shall drink of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst.” Now He has a vaster audience: — now, instead of one Samaritan woman, He has a whole temple-crowd, to whom, if we may paraphrase His words, He addresses the earnest invitation and remonstrance, — * Israel! Children of Zion! this of yours is a false and counterfeit joy. If this festival-mirth is all your happiness, then are you chasing shadows. That Siloam water, though in golden goblet, is the type of all earthly joy: it is from a broken cistern, and, spilt upon the ground, it cannot be gathered again: it returns to its earth, or is borne away and commingled in the waters of that dark murmuring brook below. But look to Me! — tum to Me, “The fountain of living waters.” ’ “Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink !^’* Nor was this alL We have again to notice, how our blessed Lord in His teachings often makes selection of outward passing events and scenes to engraft upon them great spiritual lessons. He continued that same discourse, recorded in John vii, early on the following morning. He came at break of day to the Temple-courts, just as, we may imagine, the two colossal lights were being extinguished, or as the sun, climbing above the mountains of Moab, was quenching them with his superior beams and gilding the Temple summit with a coronal of glory. As the Water suggested a text for the one day, so do these extinguished and waning Lights for the following. Amid the blare of trumpets and the gleam of flambeaux. He saw that there were many anxious souls, groping after gladder sounds and truer light than any mere gorgeous ceremonial could impart. * Behold Me! * He seems again to say to the listening multitudes, —” * I am the Light of the wobld.*
* See Stier’B “Words of the Lord Jesus,” in loco.
Your typical dispensation is passing away. As that natural sun is dimming with his lustre these artificial Temple lights, so do I, the true Sun of Righteousness, quench, in the brightness of my rising, this now obsolete and shadowy ritual; — all lesser glories are to be lost and extinguished in the glory which excelleth Look to Me as the Light and Illuminator of your darkened souls. The darkness is past and the true Light now shineth! ““I am the Light of the world; he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” “0 house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the Lord.”
Although we have so far anticipated, this Memory op Olivet, with these leafy arbours studding its slopes, would not be complete, without adverting, with greater definiteness, to the more special purposes which the Feast of Tabernacles was designed to subserve.
I. Its main design, as we have seen, was a thanksgiving for the concluded Harvest
“Thou shalt observe the feast of tabernacles seven days, after that thou hast gathered in thy corn and thy wine.... Seven days shalt thou keep a solemn feast unto the Lord thy God in the place which the Lord shall choose: because the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all thine increase, and in all the works of thine hands; therefore thou shalt surely rejoice,” (Deut. xvL 13.) In connexion with this Eucharistic or Thanksgiving-festival for the bounties of outer nature, it is very striking to note, that there were vastly more bloody sacrifices offered at it, than at any of the other similar holy convocations. “Ye shall offer a burnt-offering, a sacrifice made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the Lord; thirteen young bollocks.“* If we follow the detailed narrative in this same chapter, we shall find that no less than seventy bullocks were sacrificed in the course of the week. The greater number were oflTered the first day, the numbers diminishing by one, each successive day, till, on the seventh, they were reduced to seven. Besides these, there was, each day, an undiminished offering of two rams, fourteen lambs, and a kid for a sin-offering. What do these rivers of blood in connexion with a Harvest thanksgiving teach us? Is it not this great truth, that even for the bounties of daily providence (the very fruits of the earth) we are indebted to the cross of Calvary? — that when the golden corn is reaped by the sickle and gathered into barns — God” preparing,” from nature’s ample storehouses, “of His goodness for the poor “— it is for us to bring Him, not like Cain, a deist-offering of the fruits of the ground, but, rather, like Abel, of the firstlings of the flock: — to own that for these, as well as mightier boons and mercies, we are indebted to “the blood of sprinkling” — that blood without which, this bounteous earth could not have survived the Fall one hour; — without which, no harvests could have waved or seasons revolved. It is delightful thus, for the true believer, to connect all outward worldly blessings with the atonement of his dear Lord; to see the very fields of harvest — the shocks of yellow corn, as they sway in the autumn breeze — doing obeisance to a Greater than the material sun which has matured and ripened them, and in their dumb inarticulate language, taking up the old Jewish festive anthem, * Hosannah! Hosannah! blessed is He who came to save I”
* Num. xxix. 13, 16.
Moreover, amid all these bloody offerings, it is striking to see how great and universal was the joy. It seems at first a singular combination — this aggregate of sacrifice — along -with such an outburst and demonstration of gladness! But is there not a great truth underlying the coincidence? Is there not the greatest, the truest joy in the heart that looks most intently and undividedly on Christ, “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world”? Is it not from His allsuflScient sacrifice we have our lips tuned to their loftiest themes of praise? It is when the live coal of pardon — the pledge of forgiveness, taken from the altar of atonement — touches our lips, that we can most joyfully wave the palm-branch of triumph, and sing, “Hosannah! blessed be He that cometh in the name of the Lord. Hosannah in the highest!”
The Jew held his feast of ingathering specially with re-, f erence to the gathered fruits of the earth. But we need not confine it to this. Whatever be our ingatherings or increase, let God have the glory of them. Let us joy before Him, according to this joy of the Feast of harvest. We ought surely, ever and anon, personally and as households, to keep our ‘Feast of tabernacles.’ “The voice of rejoicing and salvation” should be “in the tabernacles of the righteous.” * When the Lord is giving any fresh tokens of His favour, — pouring into the lap the horn of plenty, — vouchsafing imexpected successes in business, worldly advancements, domestic and family blessings, — or even no more than the continuance of ordinary and everyday mercies, giving “neither poverty nor riches,” but feeding us with “food convenient for us,” — we may well mark out our stakes, erect our booth, and sing our grateful anthem,
* Psalm cxviii. 15.
—the Hallelujah of rejoicing hearts, — “give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endurethfor ever /”
A second object of the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles, was to commemorate the Pilgrim life of their Fathers in the wilderness. “Ye shall dwell in booths seven days; all that are Israelites born shall dwell in booths: that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt,” (Lev. xxiii. 42, 43.)
The occasion was thus specially designed to call to vivid remembrance, by a striking outward sacramental symbol, alike the deliverance of their fathers from the bondage of Egypt, and their remarkable and miraculous preservation, during their journeyings, through “the great and terrible wilderness.” The night of the Exodus was, in one sense, their birthday as a nation, and we do not wonder that in various ways, and at various times, they were appointed to call it into grateful remembrance. What could more powerfully and pictorially commemorate the breaking of the tyrant’s yoke and the forty years’ wandering, than resolving the whole nation, for seven days, into a temporary encampment? The palm branches are the first specifically mentioned among “the goodly trees,” and they occupied the most prominent part in the festival; — this appropriately so, as the tree most consecrated to their remembrance, in connexion with the wilderness and its scanty groves of Palm. The two great and most impressive incidents, already noted in the celebration of the Feast, were significant memorials of the Divine power and presence manifested in the Desert. The water fetched
THE FEAST OF TABEP^ACLES. 65
from the pool of Siloam was doubtless intended, primarily, to remind them of the stream from the Rock at Meribah. The colossal candelabra lights — illuminating the city and its environs — may we not take as designed to recall, with equal impressiveness, the Pillar of Fire which lit the camp of Israel and the adjoining desert with lurid grandeur? How forcibly would they have thus brought to remembrance the dependence of their Fathers on their covenant God — that God who had given them the cloud by day and the flaming column by night — manna from heaven, (the harvest of the desert,) and water from the flinty Rock!
May we not well have such a Feast of Tabernacles, — a joyous commemoration of God’s spiritual mercies? “We have already spoken of the Hebrew Festival as a Eucharistic feast for temporal bounties. But have we no Egypt-life in our own experience; — no chain of the oppressor that has been broken, — no Eed Sea that has been crossed, — no manna, no bread of life on which we have been fed, — no living streams of grace that have refreshed our fainting souls, — no cloud of shelter from the heat of prosperity, — no fiery pillar to light up the dark night of adversity? Yes! many of us, we trust, can commemorate more glorious blessings than golden sheaves and stored barns, and can say, with the Psalmist,” Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased,” (Ps. iv. 7.) Is it not well also that, like Israel, we can commemorate ever and anon our Pilgrim condition? — that, by solemn and impressive warnings of Providence, by the recurrence of touching anniversaries or stated sacramental seasons, we can vividly recall the truth so apt to be dimmed or ignored amid the world’s engrossments, — that here “we have no continuing city,” — that earth is often, at the best, but a camplife, made up of withering boughs — dying, fading, perishing — green to-day, shrivelled to-morrow, — the glaring torch and flambeaux of the night, lying, at dawn of mom, a piece of charred and blackened ashes: — the lights put out — the gay and festive scene over and gone! “The fashion of this world passeth away!”
Another object of this Feast, so intimately associated with the Mount and its olive branches, was to celebrate by a public thanksgiving the settlement of Israel in the land of Canaan.
Perhaps this was more peculiarly symbolised in the eighth day, which had its own speciaLjapointments, and was called “a day of holy convocation.” In the morning, the booths were taken down, and as many as had houses returned to them. Appropriate offerings were appointed for these concluding hours of the festival — viz., a bullock, a ram, seven lambs, and a goat for a sin-offering * The festivities of the long season were thus closed by the Hebrews within their own dwellings. The last notes of their rejoicing died away — not in the temporary booth, but in the permanent home, where was deposited the stored-up com and wine and oil.
And can we not, in a loftier sense, participate here too, in the joy of the old Israelite with reference to settlement and rest in a better Canaan, — the rest of grace now, and
* Num. zzix.; also Neh. viii 18.
the prospective rest of glory hereafter; — looking forward to God’s fulfilment of His own special promise by the month of Isaiah, “My people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting-places “? The temporary booth was an expressive type of the perishable body. “As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth: for the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.” But as we see the Jew, of old, dismantling his frail hut of intertwined branches, and returning, glad in heart, to his own home ;-^may we not take up our song, — the song of “homeward bound” Pilgrims to the Better Country — “We know that when this house (this hut) of our earthly tabernacle is dissolved (or taken down), we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens,” (2 Cor. V. 1.) The light of life, like these temple-flambeanx, may be extinguished; — but “there shall be no night there, and they need no candle, neither light of the sun, for the Lord God giveth them light, and they shall reign for ever and ever.” “The candle of the wicked shall be put out” in ignominious darkness; but “then shall the Righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father!”
Reader, let this glorious thought of rest — abiding rest and everlasting light and love in the true Canaan, bear you up amid all the chequered experiences of the present. Here you may be called — and are doubtless called — out to the leafy tent. Through its openings, sigh and sweep the gusts of trial; — the drenching dews of the night-season besprinkle your pillow with tears. The very bouquet you carry in your hand (though the palm, the type of jcy, be predominant) is mingled with the funereal cypress* and the weeping-willow. But once within the true Canaan, and the palm will be all that remains. The willow-branch and the cypress will be cast for ever away — swept down by Jordan as you are crossing its rapid current: and when you reappear on the Heavenward side, it will be “clothed with white robes and PALMS in your hands,” “After this,” says John, “I beheld, and lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; and cried with a loud voice, saying. Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb,” (Kev. vii. 9, 10.) And what will be the chief joy of that glorious world? It will be, as shadowed out in the words of Peter on the Mount of Transfiguration, when, recalling, in his moments of ecstasy, the joy at the feast of tabernacles, he said, “Let us make three tabernacles,” (or booths,) “one for thee, one for Moses, and one for Elias.” Yours will be the grand element in Peter’s Transfiguration joy, only with an eternal meaning attached to his words, when he exclaimed, “Master,” (0 blessed Jesus — Ma” ter and Friend,) “it is good for us to be here!” (Luke ix. 33.) One sentence, in conclusion. Are there any whose eyes fall on these pages who, like the Jews of old in the Temple-courts, when that great Master was still on earth, are THIESTING — yes, thirsting — for the living water which the world’s poor broken cisterns can never, never afford? Does
* So the word rendered pine** m the passage in Nehemiah, is suppoeed, by 8ome qualified authorities, rather to mean.
Christ, as He looks down on these our earthly Temple-courts, see any such? He has the same unchanging words of welcome and encouragement to utter, “i, any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink” Thirsting! He who knows our frame. He who knows how expressive is the type in regard to the deeper and more aching wants of the spiritual nature, seems to love the symbol At the well of Jacob, we have already noted, He employed it; at this impressive scene at the Temple He employed it; and when He is ending His inspired messages to man — sealing up the Vision and the prophecy — the last lingering accents which fall from His Ups upon our ears, are these, “And the Spirit and the Bride say. Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely,” (Rev. xxiL 17.) *Lord! we come’ — be it ours to reply! — with joy we will draw water out of the wells of salvation! ‘We will keep the holy festival. Life shall henceforth, as well it may, be one continual feast of Tabernacles, — one continual thank-offering for unnumbered and unmerited mercies! And oh, in Thy mercy grant, that, pilgrims and strangers and sojourners in the earthly encampment, we may at last enter, through the blood-besprinkled gate of heaven, to keep the eternal feast, — where, thirsting now, we shall “hunger no more, neither thirst any more,” — where we shall drink, not as now, even when mercies are greatest, from the restricted and scanty golden goblet of earth; — but having reached the divine perennial source, the Lamb shall lead us to the Living FOUNTAINS of Waters, and God shall wipe away all tears from our eyes!