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Annual Feasts of Rejoicing
343
the boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook.” (
Leviticus
23:40
).
At these yearly gatherings the hearts of old and young would be
encouraged in God’s service. As the people from different parts of
the land mingled together, the ties that bound them to God and to one
another would strengthen. Just as Israel celebrated the deliverance
God had performed for their ancestors and how He miraculously
preserved them during their journeys from Egypt, so we should
gratefully remember the ways He has designed for bringing us out
from darkness into the precious light of His grace and truth.
Those who lived long distances from the tabernacle must have
spent more than a month of every year in attending the annual feasts.
This example of devotion should help us grasp the importance of
religious worship, the need for making our selfish, worldly interests
less important than things that are spiritual and eternal. We expe-
rience a loss when we neglect coming together to encourage one
another in the service of God. All of us are children of one Father,
dependent on one another for happiness. Properly cultivating the
social parts of our nature brings us into sympathy with others and
gives us happiness.
The Feast of Tabernacles not only pointed back to the time spent
in the wilderness, but forward to the great day of final ingathering.
The Lord will send His reapers to gather the weeds in bundles for
the fire and to gather the wheat into His storehouse. At that time the
wicked will be destroyed—they will become “as though they had
never been.” (
Obadiah 1:16
). And every voice in the whole universe
will unite in joyful praise to God.
When the ransomed of the Lord are safely gathered into the
heavenly Canaan, delivered from slavery to sin forever, they will
“rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory.” (
1 Peter 1:8
). Then
Christ’s great work of atonement will have been completed and their
sins forever blotted out.
And the ransomed of the Lord shall return,
And come to Zion with singing,