the feast of tabernacles

God has been doing an incredible job of providing for us. He has always taken good care of us, but in this stage of life it is especially noticeable how He has thought of every single little detail and has made sure we have what we need in every area of our lives. Nothing has been overlooked or left out. There is still a transition, and the nature of a transition is that it has its many bumps - but God is allowing the bumps in my life and then going back and smoothing them out - just so.

I'd been contemplating the way He's been providing, and then read this morning in Zechariah 14:

"And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of the tabernacles. And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain. And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, that have no rain, there shall be the plague, wherewith the Lord will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the feast of the tabernacles." (vs. 16-18)

The feast of the tabernacles is for giving thanks and rejoicing. It is eight days of tithing, hospitality, and being joyful - in remembrance of God's provision to the children of Israel in bringing them out of the land of Egypt. Looking it up, I learned that "In Biblical times, Sukkot (the feast of the tabernacles) was considered the most important of all the holidays, referred to simply as "The Feast" (I Kings 12:32). It was a time of many sacrifices (Num. 29:12-40), and a time when (on Sabbatical years) the Torah would be read aloud to the people (Deut. 31:10-13). It is one of the three required festivals of the Lord (Exod. 23:14, Deut. 16:16)." (http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Holidays/Fall_Holidays/Sukkot/sukkot.html)

The holiday of thanksgiving was the most important of them all. I felt God telling me this morning to keep the feast of the tabernacles in my own life - to thank Him for all the little details that He has been so faithful to work out. Back in Zechariah, He tells us that there will be no rain on those who do not keep the feast, and I hear Him telling me this morning that this rain He's sending merits joy and thankfulness in return.

"In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD; and the pots in the Lord's house shall be like the bowls before the altar. Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto the Lord of hosts: and all they that sacrifice shall come and take of them, and seethe therein: and in that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts." (Zechariah 14: 20-21)

"And thou shalt rejoice in thy feast, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite, the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are within thy gates. 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."
(Deuteronomy 16:14-15)