GOSPEL: The Feast of Tabernacles and The Great Day Oct 9-10, 2009.

I have not written about the Great Day before, although I should have. Some call it the “last Great Day” — as though it is the “last day of the Feast of Tabernacles.” But it is a separate High Day and a day to set-apart. What could the world have learned if all people took time to keep this day?

As I write this we are concluding the Feast of Tabernacles. This is another Seven-Day Festival when people from all around will leave their homes and come to a special place to live in temporary dwellings like tents or lean-to’s. For those whose day-to-day life depends upon their efforts, the FOT is a welcome change. For those who are used to living in their comfortable homes, it could be a trial.

Why would people subject themselves to such inconvenience?

Basically, to learn.

This lack of comfort is a reminder of the fact that this kind of life we live now is only temporary. There is another time where life will be much better than the struggling existence we live now. Enoch said of that time, “There I long to dwell!”

And so should we.

In Zechariah 14 the Feast of Tabernacles is prophesied to be set-apart to the world. Nations will be asked to come to Jerusalem to keep the feast. If they refuse, then they will not get any rain. Each nation on earth is to be represented in Jerusalem during the next age. There it will be taught to them how they are to teach and care for their people. They will learn that they must set apart a place for their people to come each year to keep this feast. And each year representatives will come to Jerusalem.

That should tell us that the Torah is not limited to Israel and Judah. It is for all people everywhere!

But now not only do the rulers of nations not know about what they should be teaching and exemplifying before their people, they don’t even care about it!

Because of this their kingdoms and rule will be taken from them and given to those who know what is happening.

These days are deeply loved by Yahua. He is very protective of them. This is why He had to send Israel and Judah into captivity. They either forgot these days or did not take them seriously. They also decided to keep them on a foreign and abominable calendar, rather than on the one revealed by Uriel to Enoch, and reestablished with the People of Jacob when they were delivered from Egypt. During the first three months when they traveled across the Sinai peninsula to Mount Sinai, they were taught when the Sabbath came; they were taught to eat the Passover; they were taught about the importance of eating unleavened bread; there not given any grain or bread during the Feast of Weeks; they made a powerfully far-reaching covenant on the Feast of Firstfruits. All of these things were aligned perfectly with the calendar revealed to Enoch.

Though it had been lost to them, the revealed calendar was restored for a time. Even David set up a schedule of 24 courses for the priests to follow during the course of the year. Each was assigned to work a 15-day period. And 15 days X 24 courses equals what? 360 days — the counted days of Enoch‘s calendar.

Then in the fall, starting with the first day of the seventh month, another round of Feasts and High days was established. And also the only fasting day — Yom KPR was also established on the 10th day of the seventh month.

Then the Feasts ended with a seven-day stay in tents or make-shift dwellings.

And after all of that was finished, there was one more day, called “The Great Day.”

So what was that all about? What are we supposed to learn by keeping the Great Day?

This may be hard to comprehend, but all other Feasts, High Days, Sabbaths, and the Seven Weeks lead up to the Great Day.

Some believe that the Feast of Tabernacles or Booths is a feast about the millennium of Revelation. Perhaps, but when it is placed in the context of end of time events, it seems to take on a different meaning. It certainly doesn’t depict the kind of life we will be living in the next age, does it?

On the contrary, like the Feast of Unleavened bread (seven days of affliction), the Feast of Weeks (no grain either old new, baked or roasted is to be taken and consumed), the Feast of Tabernacles emphasizes just how inconvenient and afflicting is has been for all of those who lived at any time during the first seven “weeks” or ages. 

Frankly, we are living in a place that is not “home” for us, are we not? No one should consider this life as “it” — as “home.”

What is good about it?

It has been hard to stay clean and fresh. We are afflicted when we sleep and troubled when we wake up. We have to deal with financial hardship, poor health, old age, frustrating relationships, unhappy work, the pain of birth and the agony of death.

Is that all there is to this miserable life we now live?

Or is there something more?

Yes, there is something more.

There is the Great Day.

Why is that day so significant? What makes it so great?

If you have read my post about the Hebrew letters and numbers, you should have learned about the three phases of creation. Very simply, they are

1. The creation of the Plan — the grand thought. (1 to 9)
2. The manifestation of life and death, good and bad. (10 to 90)
3. The fulfillment of the Plan — Life forever. (100 -900)

We are living now at a momentous time in the history of human kind. Life as we know it is about to change. No more evil, no more death, no more tears, no more deception. We are going to see and experience the manifestation of the Plan.

We will know what HOME is really like! It is the same Home that Enoch saw and about which he said, “There I long to dwell!”

After living in a makeshift dwelling for all these seven ages, we will finally be going Home, where we really belong! And I don’t mean “heaven” as the “gospel” singers like to sing about.

This transition from our life now to what our life will be like on the Great Day transcends anything we could imagine. It is so Great that we will need to pinch ourselves because we will think it is only a dream!

When that Great Day comes, the earth and heaven will rejoice with joy and song like you never heard before — like no being has ever heard before!

So in spite of the serious trouble this earth must face, lift up your hands and head and rejoice for the Great Day will dawn and what a beautiful day it will be.