Okay, how about we come to the
Word of God. Let's read. You have it there
before you. Nehemiah chapter 8. I've left
it all there for you so that we can look at it together, but
essentially we're just looking at those last six verses. So we might just read those to
begin with. And on the second day were gathered
together the chief of the fathers of all the people, the priests
and the Levites, unto Ezra the scribe, even to understand the
words of the law. 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
and in Jerusalem, saying, Go forth unto the mount, fetch olive
branches, and pine branches, and myrtle branches, and palm
branches, and branches of thick trees, to make booze, as it is
written. 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
of the gate of Ephraim. And all the congregation of them
that would come out of the captivity made booths, and sat under the
booths. For since the days of Joshua
son of Nun unto that day had not the children of Israel done
so and there was very great gladness. Also day by day from the first
day until the last day he 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. May God open our
hearts and our minds to understand and to see the Lord Jesus in
these words of His. Ezra was an old man. Old, old
man. What a day this was. What a month this was. What remarkable
timing of our God that He should, after all of these years, after
that promise that Jeremiah was given by God, that they would
be in that land of captivity for 70 years, and that he brings
them out and he establishes them in the land, and then all those
years go by, all those troubles of building the temple, all the
troubles of building the wall, and here we are, it all finished,
and it's all finished just ready for this, the greatest feast,
the Feast of Tabernacles. In the Scriptures there are a
number of feasts. The Feast of Passover was in
our March and April on the 14th day of the first month. The Feast
of Unleavened Bread on the 15th day of the first month. The Feast
of Firstfruits just before Pentecost. The Feast of Pentecost was 50
days after Passover. The Feast of Trumpets was the
feast and the gathering that we had looked at there in Nehemiah,
the beginning of Nehemiah chapter eight. It was on the first day
of the seventh month. Then the Feast of Atonement was
on the 10th day of the seventh month. And before us in this
passage of scripture, these people are finally gathered with a wall
and with a temple to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacle. They're
called holy convocations, holy gatherings, or solemn assemblies
of worship. But each one is highly symbolic. As we know, they all picture
aspects of our Lord Jesus and his redemption. is the redemption
by the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus, who is our Passover, redeemed
by precious blood. And Pentecost, which followed
Passover, was typical of the ingathering of God's elect, the
harvest of redeemed souls by the work of the Holy Spirit,
that irresistible, that effectual work that has drawn us to God
and continues to draw us and to keep us. all for whom the
Passover was sacrificed, all for whom Christ died on Calvary,
shall be called to life and faith in Christ. And here we have before
us to think about tonight, the Feast of Tabernacles. And the
Feast of Tabernacles is the consummation of redemption in resurrection
glory. It's a gathering of all the redeemed
into heaven. when the Lord Jesus returns,
every sinner chosen of the Father will be with him. This is not
something we are left to guess about. If you turn very briefly
in your Bibles to Zechariah 14, you can read about it at your
leisure at home. It's a great culmination to a
remarkable book. And Zechariah, of course, was
there at the rebuilding of the temple. bringing God's words
to these people, words that we read so often. Zechariah encouraged
these people, encouraged them that those mountains that they
saw before them, those obstacles, would be like a plain. We don't
have time to read the whole of Zechariah 14, but let's just
look down at the last verses from 16 on and it shall come
to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which
came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship
the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. And it shall be that whichever
of the families of the earth do not come up to Jerusalem to
worship the King, the Lord of hosts, on them there shall be
no rain. If the family of Egypt will not
come up and enter in, they shall have no rain. They shall receive
the plague with which the Lord strikes the nations who do not
come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. This shall be the
punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not
come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles." In that day, holiness
to the Lord shall be engraved on the bells of the horses. The
pots in the Lord's house shall be like the bowls before the
altar. Yes, every pot in Jerusalem and
Judah shall be holiness to the Lord of hosts. Everyone whose
sacrifices shall come and take them and cook in them in that
day, in that great day, And the Lord Jesus returns, there shall
be no longer a Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts. It's a great picture of that
great consummation. And what a picture we have before
us in Nehemiah. What a remarkable picture the
Lord has drawn. Gathering these people, they're
redeemed out of Babylon, gathered by God. having preserved them
and kept them in Babylon. They're called by God to gather
under his word in Jerusalem. And now they come gathered together
to worship as one. As one man, says verse one of
chapter eight, according to the manner. Now God has laid everything
in place. And now these redeemed people,
these captives that have come out of the captivity, now these
people are gathered by God to worship Him. And verse 14, they
found written in the law which the Lord had commanded by Moses. They found in this book, as Ezra
and the scribes read, they found. And what a feast they would have
found for their souls as they read those remarkable chapters. No doubt Ezra took them to Leviticus
16 and Leviticus 23 and Numbers 29 and Deuteronomy 16 and he
reminded them from the Word of God what was happening before
them. It is so, so important, isn't
it, that we actually take the circumstances of our lives, the
circumstances of the world around us, and we take them to the Word
of God. And the only explanation, the
only wisdom, the only light we have is the light of Scriptures. You see, there's a beautiful
description in Ezra 7.25 of the Word of God. It says, after the
wisdom of his God that was in his hand. The wisdom of God that
was in his hand. What a great, great description
of the Word of God. I was looking today at Psalm
119 and if the Lord allows, I'd love to do a series of sermons
on Psalm 119. I'm sure it's skipped over because
it is so long. And I'm sure it's troubling to
people because it seems to be full of commandments. But we
who know of the new covenant see the commandments of God as
but His promises. But we go to His word, we cannot
understand things in this world through these eyes and through
this brain. The only way God's people ever
understand anything is with an open Bible in their hands. Just turn very briefly to the
first little bit of Psalm 119. I was just looking at it today
and it's just beautiful. These people, according to God,
had afflicted their souls. They were afflicted and afflicted,
and they had heaviness at heart, as we saw in the last couple
of weeks. They wept before God. And in Psalm 119, verse 25, it
says, my soul clings to the dust. Revive me according to your word. Let my reviving be your word. My soul melts from heaviness,
verse 28. Strengthen me according to your
word. Revive me, strengthen me. I just want to briefly look at
the first 24 verses just to mark how the psalmist talks about
the word of God. Blessed are the undefiled in
the way. who walk in the law of the Lord. It's the law of God. Blessed
are those who keep His testimony. It's His testimony. Verse 3,
they also do no iniquity who walk in His ways. Verse 4, they're His precepts.
Verse 5, they're your statutes. Verse 6, they're your commandments. Verse seven, they're your righteous
judgments. Verse 15, they're your precepts
again. And then just look with me very
briefly down at verse 24. Your testimonies are also my
delight. Your testimonies are also my
counselors. We don't run a counselling service
in our church. It is not my job to counsel people. I care for you deeply and I am
here to help. The counsel that we have is the
word of God. The counsel you need for yourselves
is the gospel of the Lord Jesus. His word is a light, it's a lamp,
and there is no other. When the word of God is closed,
there must be just darkness. It's the light. So they found,
written in the law, remarkably, according to verse 17, It hadn't
been found written in the law since the days of Joshua, son
of Nun, since that first going into this land of promise, which
pictured, of course, heaven, the new creation. And here they
are having this Feast of Tabernacles again after all of those years,
a thousand years nearly. What remarkable What a remarkable
event in the history of God's people we have before us. So this feast was at a special
time. The seventh month was there September,
October. It was there the time after their
summer. in the northern hemisphere, when
the full harvest had been gathered in, all the fruit, all the grain,
all the wine, the full harvest of the whole earth will be gathered
in. And it points forward, as we
saw earlier, to the time of the return of the Lord Jesus, a day
that no one knows, a day that is coming very quickly upon this
world. And as I said before, what perfect
timing. When the Lord brought the people
out of Egypt, it says in Deuteronomy 4, to the very day. How many days were they going
to be down there? Abraham was told, your descendants
will be there 430 years. God's promises are detailed and
His faithfulness is perfect to the very day. This people, this
gathered people in this new temple, the temple that was going to
receive greater glory than that one that Solomon had built, because
the real temple, the real meeting place between God and man was
going to come to this temple. And here we have this place now
set up, a temple that reflects the Lord Jesus and his sacrifice,
the walls which protect and separate his people. 16 talks about these gates. All
of this activity, this celebration and these feasts are to be within
the gates of Jerusalem. You might now see why Nehemiah,
when he heard that the gates were falling down and the people
were in distress and reproach, you cannot have the feasts of
God unless you have the temple and the walls of God. And it
all has to be in the place, according to Deuteronomy 16, where the
Lord your God chooses to make His name abide. You will rejoice. And those who are within your
gates, and the gates were to separate if there was someone
in there who broke the Sabbath law. who wanted to work and add
his activities to the finished work of the Lord Jesus, you are
to take that wicked one outside of your gates. Now everything
is in place. We can look just briefly at the
purpose of the feast. The purpose of the feast, of
course, was to remind Israel of their time in the wilderness. They dwelt in booths. They were
pilgrims. They had no fixed abode. And as they journeyed through
that wilderness, the Lord God himself was there as a light
by night and a cloud by day, never left, never forsaken. They lived in tabernacles for
those 40 years. that someone tabernacled with
them. They were journeying to a better
and a promised land. This land that they were in,
this wilderness land. What a great description of this
earth for God's children. What a wilderness we live in.
What a wilderness of flesh that we have to live in. It is just
typified in these wilderness wanderings. We were, they are,
and we are, journeying to a better and a promised land. And it pointed
forward to the coming of the Lord Jesus. John 1.14 says, The
word was made flesh and dwelt among us It really says, the
Word was made flesh and tabernacled amongst us. He tabernacled there
to accomplish redemption. Let's turn briefly to Hebrews
chapter nine. There's so many beautiful verses
that relate to the work of our Lord Jesus. Let's just read those
three in Hebrews nine, those few in Hebrews nine. talking about this high priest
and talking about the activities in the tabernacle. and the holiest
of all. And then in verse six, now when
all these things had been thus prepared, the priests always
went into the first part of the tabernacle performing the services.
But in the second part, the high priest went alone once a year,
not without blood which he offered for himself and for the people's
sins committed in ignorance. The Holy Spirit indicating this,
that the way into the holiest of all, was not yet made manifest
while the First Tabernacle was standing. It was symbolic for
the present time in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered,
which cannot make him who performed the service perfect in regard
to the conscience, concerned only with foods and drinks, various
washings and fleshly ordinances imposed until the time of Reformation. But Christ came as a high priest
of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect
tabernacle, not made with hands, that is, not of this creation,
not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood,
he entered the most holy place, once for all having obtained
eternal redemption. He had it in his hand, and he
had it for all of his people. And he now dwells, remarkably,
the Lord Jesus, tabernacled amongst the people in his flesh. And
now, almost unbelievably, he tabernacles with us. He actually lives in his people. Christ in you, the great tabernacler,
lives in His people. Your body is the temple of the
Holy Spirit. And this feast points forward,
as we saw, to Him coming again in glory. And there, in that
great heaven, that great new creation, we will tabernacle
with Him, in Him and with Him. And we will have a body which
no longer is a detriment to our worship of God, but will be a
glorious aid. We'll have real created bodies
that worship God in spirit and in truth. What a great day! What a great day these people
had to look forward to. No wonder they were rejoicing. Revelation 7 talks about why,
when the people were weeping, they were not to weep. This was a day. to remember their
God and their salvation. Therefore they are before the
throne, Revelation 7.15, the throne of God, and serve him
day and night in his temple. And he who sits on the throne
will dwell among them. They shall neither hunger any
more nor thirst any more. The sun shall not strike them
nor any heat. For the Lamb who is in the midst
of the throne will shepherd them and lead them. to living fountains
of waters. I love the way God, when he's
talking about blessings, uses these beautiful plurals. Living
fountains of waters. And God will wipe away every
tear from their eyes. That's why on the eve of this
feast, The Levites stilled all the people,
saying, Hold your peace, for the day is holy, neither be ye
grieved. Don't weep, and don't do anything
on this day except rejoice. In verse 15, they were to publish
and proclaim What a great description of how the Gospels to go out.
They were to publish and proclaim in their cities in Jerusalem,
saying, go forth unto the mount, and fetch olive branches, that's
the Mount of Olives, and pine branches, and myrtle branches,
and palm branches, and branches of fixed trees, to make booths,
as it is written, as God had instructed them in Leviticus
23.40. Olive branches, rich and full,
both food and oil. Pine branches, strong and fragrant. Myrtle branches, they're rich
down low and they're thick and they're full of leaf. Palm branches,
lofty and strong. Thick branches. to make these
tabernacles strong. And where did they put them?
These people now had a place to have this feast again. In
the courts of the house of God and the street of the water gate. There was now a gate. You have to have a gate and you
have to have a wall. The street of the gate of Ephraim. Secure and separated. Enclosed and closed up to God. And here in verse 17 is the marvellous
description of these people. all the congregation of them
that were come out again of the captivity." What a great description
of us. To come out again out of the
captivity. A unique time this was. A unique place. A unique people. A unique festival. Nothing God does in all of time
is outside of His perfect and wondrous plans. All things are
under His control. And we have a beautiful command
in Deuteronomy 16, 14. It says regarding this feast,
and you shall rejoice. Antigod commanding rejoicing.
He does it over and over again in the scriptures. You shall
rejoice in your feast within your gates. You are now secure,
separated, locked up by God. And you shall rejoice in your
feast. And they did. God's children
have remarkable commands in scriptures. One of the most amazing ones
is in 1 Thessalonians 5. You know that Thessalonians, and
like Philippians, there was a command to rejoice as there always And
it says in verse 14 of chapter 5. Now we exhort you, brethren,
warn those who are unruly, comfort the faint-hearted, uphold the
weak, be patient with all. See that no one renders evil
for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good, both for
yourselves and for all. Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In everything, give thanks. for this is the will of God in
Christ Jesus for you. Rejoice always. I'm glad that that's what God
says. There's so much of my life when I feel so much unlike it. Until, until we turn back and
look at the word of God, the Living Word of God, and look
at the Lord Jesus. Has He done it for our good? Is His timing perfect? Has He got a lesson in it for
me? What's God saying? We turn back
to this Word, like the psalmist did, and we find reviving and
we find rejoicing. You shall rejoice in your feast. And what did they do? And all
the congregation, all those that had been captives and now come
out, captives to sin, captives to the law, captives to Babylon,
captives to Egypt. captives of false religion, captives
of sin in our lives. And there was very great gladness. Very great gladness. And in verse 18, we have the
conclusion of the matter. Also day by day, from the first
day to the last day. Remarkably, this feast began
with a Sabbath. The Sabbath rest of faith in
the Lord Jesus. And it finishes on a Sabbath. So you start on a Sabbath and
it finishes on a Sabbath. God rested from all his works. Hebrews 4 says that when did
they finish? When in the eyes of God was the
work finished? Hebrews 4.3, the works, and it's
the works of salvation. It's the works of God gathering
His people to Himself, redeemed, perfect, kept, secured, and blessed. The works were finished from
the foundation of the world. And our Savior right now, that
rests on a throne in heaven, with this universe, every little
tiny thing, under His perfect control. Begins with rest, and
for God's people, there is a rest of eternal glory. And day by day, they began with
the Sabbath, and they read the book of the law of God. They
kept reading the law of God. And we don't have time to look
at it in Numbers 29, but in Numbers 29 you have a remarkable picture
of this feasting. On day one, they sacrificed 13
young bulls, two rams, 14 lambs, and then an amount of fine flour
and oil. for each of those ones, and then
one kid as a sin offering. And then each day of the feast,
you have one less bull, one less bull, one less bull. And then
on the final Sabbath, you have that last day, you just have one, and one ram,
and seven lambs, and one goat as a sin offering. I think the
picture of all these things diminishing and diminishing and diminishing
is that the focus is the perfect and complete and fulfilling sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus. The Scriptures focus in, don't
they? We have all of these prophecies
and they just come and they just rest completely and perfectly
on one, just on one. All of our hope, all of God's
glory, all of our future rests on one perfect promise keeping. God-glorifying, God-honouring
sacrifice. They kept the feast the seventh
day and the eighth day was a solemn assembly according to the manner. It's a remarkable word, that
according to the manner. It actually means The solemn assembly actually
means a closure, a solemn restraint, a solemn shutting up, a solemn
closure. It's there in your notes in Leviticus
23.36. It's a solemn assembly. seven days, you have this holy
gathering. Then it's called a solemn closure. So the Feast of Tabernacles portrayed
God's solemn closure of all things. All things in this creation are
not just wandering along in some random pattern. Things are going
somewhere. There is a purpose. There is
a closure. And here, in this once beautiful
but now ruined city, God shows that closure. There will be a
temple. There will be an assembly of
people. There will be walls and there
will be gates and it will be done in God's way according unto
the manner or the due order as David learnt when he brought
the ark back God's praises and God's worship will be done in
God's way and there's a time coming very soon when the Lord
Jesus comes back and He raises the dead, and He makes all things
new, and the tabernacle of God is forever with man, and we will
be with Him in the new heavens and the new earth. Why don't
we turn in closing to Isaiah 25 and just read these few verses. Peter, in his amazement on the
Mount of Transfiguration, wanted to make tabernacles. It's remarkable,
isn't it? He wanted to make births like
these ones. One for Moses, one for Elijah,
and one for the Lord Jesus. And he said, Master, it is good
for us to be here. Let's read Isaiah 25.6. And in
this mountain, the Lord of hosts will make for all people a feast
of choice pieces, a feast of wine on the leaves, of fat things
full of marrow, of well-refined wine on the leaves. And he will
destroy on this mountain the surface of the covering cast
over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations.
He will swallow up death forever, and the Lord God will wipe away
tears from all faces. The rebuke of his people." Remember
how Nehemiah felt about his people under reproach and rebuke back
there in Jerusalem. He will wipe away all tears from
all faces, the rebuke of His people. He will take away from
all the earth, for the Lord has spoken. And it will be said in
that day, behold, this is our God. We have waited for Him,
and He will save us. This is the Lord. We have waited
for Him. we will be glad and rejoice in
his salvation.