I'm going to ask you to take
your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Nehemiah. Nehemiah. Find Psalms and just start going
back toward the front. You'll go three or four books
and you'll find it. If you see Ezra, you just passed
it. Nehemiah. I want to preach both
messages out of this book, Nehemiah. But the first message, what I
want to do is lay the foundation of actually what was going on
in chapter 8, verses 1 to 10. So I'm going to look basically
at the last verse of the 7th chapter of Nehemiah. The 7th chapter. of Nehemiah. Now if you read the seventh chapter
of the book of Nehemiah, you just kind of look, there's 73
verses in that, and as you're looking at that seventh chapter,
just glance, it's not very many verses, and you start getting
into names and families. And a lot of those names are
just hard to read. They're hard to pronounce. And
it's like pages and pages and pages of names. But the seventh chapter of the
book of Nehemiah sets forth the registry and the genealogy of
those of the nation of Israel who returned out of the captivity
in Babylon. The Lord moved upon them to write
down the names of these families, write down the dads, sons, daughters,
write their names down. And as we look at those names
and try to reason, what is the reasoning of all of these names? Well, you remember when the Lord
was on the road to Emmaus, and there was two disciples there,
and He was talking to them. And the Scripture says that as
they talked, He began to expound unto them in all the Scriptures,
beginning with Moses. And He just came right up on
through those books, the Law, the Prophets. And He expounded
unto them in all the Scriptures, those things concerning Himself. Well, here's what we need to
understand. Whenever you're reading in the
Old Testament, and you're reading chapters, if you start at the
beginning, and you just read through the Scriptures, and I
encourage you to do so, you're going to come to books that you're
going to say, well, I'm just going to skip that. Don't skip
it. Struggle through it. Just try to read it, and just
try. And just understand something, the Spirit of God put those names
there for a reason, to remind us that this is a picture and
type of all of God's sheep who were written in the Lamb's Book
of Life from before the foundation of the world. And I know that
we struggle many times trying to read them. I'll be honest
with you, until I moved here, I never lived anywhere where
somebody knew how to pronounce Stoniker. I mean, they tried,
and they did an honest effort at it. But the thing is, I know
that even though my name may be hard to pronounce, by the
grace of God, the Lord knows it. God Almighty has written
my name, if I know Him, in the book of life, from before the
foundation of the world. So we look at these names and
understand why they're there. It's a registry setting forth
God's sheep. The nation of Israel was a picture
of the true Israel of God. Now, we're getting ready in the
next message. We're going to look at the Feast
of Tabernacles. That was one of the feasts, a
yearly feast. But I want to look at the last verse, verse 73 of
the 7th chapter, and we want to set up what we will be looking
at in just a few minutes. Scripture says, Nehemiah 7.73.
So the priest, the Levites, the porters, the singers, some of
the people, and the Nethanyims, and all Israel, in their cities,
and when the seventh month came, the children of Israel were in
their cities. Now, what was the significance
of that seventh month? What had happened is the people
had been brought out of the captivity of Babylon, and the scripture
says And all of these people, all Israel, dwelt in their cities. The cities that God had appointed
them. You know, whenever the Lord put
them in the land of promise, He gave them certain cities.
And this is this one, this is this one, you're going to live
here. And what had happened is that after they came back, they
came back. And they were living in the cities that the Lord had
appointed them. Well, the scripture says, and
when the seventh month came, Again, the significance. Hold
your place right here. Turn to Leviticus 23. Leviticus
23. What was the significance of
the seventh month? Leviticus 23, verse 33 and 34.
Leviticus 23, 33. And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, The fifteenth
day of this seventh month shall be the feast of tabernacles for
seven days unto the Lord. Now just hold your place right
there. We're going to come back to this book of Leviticus in
just a second. But on the fifteenth day, the
Lord said, You're going to begin the feast of tabernacles. Now let me just share this with
you and then we'll look back at Leviticus again. Now this
feast took place five days after the day of atonement. The day of atonement was that
day, one day out of the year, when the high priest would take
two goats. One goat was for the sacrifice
and the other goat was the scapegoat. And that was the day when the
high priest, one day a year, would take and lay his hands,
and by lot, those two goats were there, and by lot, one of the
goats was going to be slain. His blood was going to be caught,
and the high priest, one day a year, could enter into the
Holy of Holies. There was an outer court in that
tabernacle. It was the holy place. That was
where the showbread was, and the altar of incense. Oh, behind
that veil, there was There was the Holy of Holies. And one day
a year, that priest would take and slay that goat whose lot
it was to be sacrificed. He'd take that blood and he'd
go into the Holy of Holies and he'd sprinkle that blood upon
the altar. And that one day of the year,
that was the Day of Atonement. That pictured the Lord Jesus
Christ having put away the guilt of His people by His own shed
blood and the appeasement of Almighty God by the death of
His precious Son. That was the Day of Atonement.
Five days after the Day of Atonement, this feast was to take place. And this was the feast that the
Lord attended in that day in John 7, 37, 38, it says, in the
last day, that great day of the feast, the Feast of Tabernacles. And we'll see in just a second.
Jesus stood and cried, saying, if any man thirst, let him come
unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the
scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living
water. Well, knowing that what we're
going to be looking at in a few minutes, next message on the
Feast of Tabernacles, I want us to consider how the Feast
of Tabernacles was to be observed. Now right here, back in Leviticus
23, look at verse 39 to 44. Leviticus 23, verse 39. Also in the 15th day of the seventh
month, when you have gathered in the fruit of the land, you
shall keep a feast unto the Lord seven days. On the first day
shall be a Sabbath. The eighth day shall be a Sabbath.
And you shall take on you the first day boughs of goodly trees,
branches of palm trees, boughs of thick trees, willows of the
brook. You shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days. And you shall keep it in a feast
unto the Lord seven days in the year. It shall be a statute forever
in your generations. You shall celebrate it in the
seventh month. You 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. I am the Lord your God, and Moses
declared unto the children of Israel the feast of the Lord."
Now, again, as we're going to look at what this Feast of Tabernacles
was. What was it? What was it for? You know that it's a picture
of Christ, but why? Why was this feast? Well, turn
over to Nehemiah chapter 8 now, and I'm going to go to the end.
I'm going to be looking at verses 1 to 10 in chapter 8, but I want
us to look here at what was said that the people did after they
were taught. of what this feast was all about. Look at Nehemiah 8 verse 13. On the second day, now this is
what took place after what we are going to consider in this
next message. On the second day were gathered
together the chief of the fathers of all the people, the priest
and the Levites unto Ezra the scribe, to understand the words
of the Lord on the second day. The first day was a Sabbath. It was going to be actually eight
days in there. The first day and the eighth
day were Sabbaths, but those days in between. On the second
day of the observance of the Feast of Tabernacles, in this
At this particular time, those who were in positions of leadership,
realizing that they had come out of bondage for a long time,
and rather than pretend, now they had been in bondage for
years and years and years, and rather than pretend that they
remembered or knew exactly what to do, according to God's instruction
concerning this feast of tabernacles, The leaders consulted God's Word. I thought, well, that was a very
wise thing to do. That's what verse 13 says. The Lord had instructed them,
you will keep this feast. And on verse 13, on the second
day were gathered together, the chief of the fathers, all the
people, the priests, the Levites, the Ezra, the scribes, even to
understand the words of the Lord. And the Scripture says in 14
and 15, And they found written in the law, which the Lord had
commanded by Moses, that the children of Israel should dwell
in booths in the feast of the seventh month, and that they
should publish and proclaim in all their cities in Jerusalem,
saying, Go forth unto the mount, and fetch olive branches, and
pine branches, and myrtle branches, and palm branches, and branches
of thick trees to make booths as it is written. And what had
happened, they'd been in captivity. And it wasn't that they weren't
observing or remembering the Feast of Tabernacles, but what
had happened is they obviously had failed to continue in exactly
the way that they were supposed to do it. They went back to the
Word of God and they realized we're supposed to be staying
in booths. We're supposed to be going out and getting these
branches out of the trees that God had instructed us to get
and we're supposed to build this booth. And we're supposed to
be staying in that booth. for seven days. That's the way
that God said to do it. And so that's what they did.
They got to looking at it. They found written in the law
which the Lord had commanded by Moses. They went back and
got the Scriptures. And as I said, that's the safest thing we can
do. What does God say about it? You
know, let men do whatever they want to do. Let the potters of
the earth strive. But what? is thus saith the Lord. The leaders, these Levites and
scribes and stuff, they said, you know what? They found out
in the latter part of verse 17, the people are supposed to be
dwelling in booths. And not only that, in verse 15,
we're supposed to be reminding them of that. We're supposed
to be publishing that they should publish and proclaim in all their
cities, saying, you go forth. We've got a responsibility here.
We're supposed to be telling the people, this is what the
Lord has instructed us to do. And so, the scripture declares
in verse 16, so the people went forth. and brought them and made
themselves booths every one upon the roof of his house, and in
their courts, and in the courts of the house of God, and in the
street of the water gate, and in the street and the gate of
Ephraim. The people according to the instruction
of the Lord. We hadn't been doing this for
years and years and years. Oh, we remembered that there
was a day of a feast of tabernacles. But there was just one thing
that we weren't doing. We weren't in the booths. We
were supposed to build a booth and get in it and stay in it
for seven days. That was according to the Lord.
So they did. And Scripture says in verse 17
and 18, and all the congregation of them that were come out of
the captivity made booths. and sat under the booze for since
the days of Joshua, the son of Nun, until that day had not the
children of Israel done so. And now here they are. They had
read the scriptures. The Lord said, this is what I
want you to do. And so they did it. And the scripture
says, and there was very great gladness Also, day by day, from
the first day to the last, he, that is Ezra, read in the book
of the law of God and they kept the feast seven days and on the
eighth day was a solemn assembly according unto the manner. All the people that had come
out of captivity, all of them They'd been living in their prescribed
cities, they'd come out, God gave them deliverance, and they
were all summoned together to hear the Word of the Lord. That's what, just turn back,
look at verse 1 of chapter 8. And all the people gathered themselves
together as one man in the street. that was before the water gate.
What happened? They'd been living in their cities.
They're still having to celebrate. Well, today, this is the month
for the Feast of the Tabernacles. Oh, that's great. That's great.
Yeah. But now they've been instructed,
you're supposed to be living in booths. And when they were
instructed to live in booths, they got in those booths. And
the scripture says, in the latter part of verse 17, very great
gladness. They were so glad. They were
so happy to be living. They were doing as God had prescribed. Now, I'm going to sum up this
message by telling you why were they so glad. Why were they so
thankful, happy to be staying in that booth? It was because
of what that booth represented. You remember I told you that
the Day of Atonement was to take place in five days after the
Day of Atonement was the Feast of Tabernacle. Again, the Day
of Atonement set forth the truth that the sin of God's people
had surely been charged when that priest laid his hands on
the head of that goat there was a picture of that marvelous transfer
of God's people's guilt to that goat that was a picture of Christ. All of the guilt symbolically
was set upon that goat. It was a symbol, it was a picture,
it was a type, but in reality When the Lord Jesus Christ was
made sin, Almighty God took all of the sin of all of His elect
for all of the time of humanity. And all of it. What about those
that were not yet born? All of it. I mean, we're dealing with one
that we don't understand. All of it. All of the sins of
all of time for all of God's sheep was given to the Lord Jesus. He bore our guilt, the scripture
says. He was made what we are. And whenever that goat was slain,
there was a picture of the judgment of Almighty God because of our
guilt upon Christ. And when he died, just like that
goat had his throat slit, caught that blood, and when that high
priest went in and sprinkled that blood, there was a satisfaction. When I see the blood, I'm gonna
pass over you. That's what was all pictured. That's the Day
of Atonement. But now, knowing that what the Day of Atonement
set forth, the Feast of Tabernacles set forth how he did it. The day of atonement is what
he did. The feast of tabernacles is how
he did it. Those tabernacles were made from
those prescribed trees and branches according to the wisdom and mercy
of God. And they were a picture and type,
that little booth. It was a picture of type of the
Lord who tabernacled. amongst us. He was made flesh. Now that's what that booth, that
whole booth sent forth. It was just a temporary dwelling
place for those people. But that was a picture of He
who humbled Himself and tabernacled among us. Here the Lord of glory
would come out of heaven made of a woman, made under the law,
and come and walk amongst His people for 33 plus years, obeying
God, establishing the righteousness that is imputed to everyone that
believeth. He was made flesh that He might
suffer and die, the innocent made sin, for the guilty made
the righteousness of God in him. But here's the reason that the
people were so glad. And I don't know how much all
of them knew, but I can tell you this, the believers in the
midst of those people, they knew this. They were to get inside
that booth and stay inside that booth for seven days. That booth
was a picture of Christ. He who would tabernacle among
us. And they were in the booth. They were in Him. We were found
to be. Here's the reason, even right
now, we think about the Lord Jesus Christ. Our great High
Priest, who came into this world, and coming into this world, we
had been given Him from before the foundation of the world.
Chosen in Him. And when He came, we came. When
He lived, we lived. When He died, we died. When He
was buried, we were buried. When He rose, we arose. When
He ascended, we ascended. Here they were staying in that
booth for seven days. There, that booth that pictured
the Lord of glory, the Father's beloved Son in whom He was well
pleased, And how glad they were when they realized, went back
in the Scriptures, and they read what God had said concerning
the observance of the Feast of Tabernacles, and this is what
they said. That's the electing grace of
God. That's us in Him. Seven days you're going to stay
in that booth. And while they were there for seven days, they
could not help. I'm found in Him. He is my light. He's my haven of rest. He's my
city of refuge. And they were so glad. Whenever
a believer hears today of the electing grace of God, they thank
the Lord that God would be pleased to show them mercy. I pray that
the Lord give us just a little understanding the mercy and compassion
of God to put us in Him and keep us in Him for His honor and His
glory and His praise and our eternal good. Amen. Let's take
a break.