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Eureka

AN EXPOSITION OF THE APOCALYPSE
Sixth Edition, 1915
By Dr. John Thomas (first edition written 1861)

 

 

Chapter 7

Section 12

Feast of Tabernacles


 
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Israel were commanded to keep their annual feasts: first, the Feast of Unleavened Bread; second, the Feast of Harvest: and third, the Feast of Ingathering, at the end of the year. The first began the day after the Passover; the second, fifty days from the morrow after the first sabbath following the passover; and the third, the fifteenth day of the seventh month. This last was the Feast of Tabernacles. It continued seven days, and was so called, because Yahweh "made the children of Israel to dwell in tents when he brought them out of the land of Egypt." It celebrated the ingathering of the fruit of Israel’s land; and when the seven days of celebration had expired, the next day, the Eighth, was a sabbath, or Day of Rest. In the celebration, they took the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm-trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook, and rejoiced before Yahweh their Elohim.

Now, we learn from the prophets that the Feast of Tabernacles had a more recondite signification than a mere memorial of the past. In other words, that it was emblematic of things to come in relation to Israel and the nations of the earth. The Spirit said by Hosea to Ephraim, "I, Yahweh thine Elohim from the land of Egypt, will yet make thee to dwell in Tabernacles, as in the days of the solemn feast." This shows that it is connected with the ingathering of Ephraim, or the Ten Tribes, into their land, where alone the feast can be lawfully celebrated. The Christ-Spirit also in Zechariah, declares that the nations generally shall come up yearly to Jerusalem to keep the Feast of Tabernacles, and to do homage to the Royal Name enthroned there (xiv. 16). This indicates the ingathering of a joyous multitude before the King; for the feast is a rejoicing before the Lord. The sanguinary execution of judgment will have been perfected; and the nations under a new organization and administration, will be "blessed in Abraham and his Seed" -- "the Glorious and Fearful Name, Yahweh Elohim."

This great national celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles, then, argues the previous cessation of judgment; and consequently, the resting of the Saints from their labors in the execution of it. There will be no festive rejoicings while the events symbolized in ch. xiv, are in manifestation; neither will there be any national rejoicing which is not celebrative of their glory. When Jesus and his Brethren, the incorporation of the Eternal Father’s Spirit, the Yahweh-Elohim Name, "rest from their labors," they do so because they have "gotten the victory over the Beast, and over the Image, and over his Mark, and over the number of his name" (xv. 2). Israel, whom they will have gathered into their own land, and the nations, will all rejoice with them in this great victory of the day -- a victory, pregnant with political, social, and moral results, which only Omnipotence could gain. Never before will such a Feast of Tabernacles have been observed. World’s Fairs, and Fourths of Julys, and the Birthdays of Queens and Washingtons, will fall into eternal insignificance and oblivion before it. "The First in War, the First in Peace, and the First in the hearts" of the peoples, will not be these idols of the heathen, but the Lamb in the midst of this great palm-bearing multitude, which will make the welkin ring with their "Hallelu-YAHs," ascribing, "the salvation to him who sits upon the throne of our Deity, and to the Lamb!" The ELOHIM of this celebration will be the stars of divers magnitudes, represented by "the Elders and the Four Living Ones," who themselves fall prostrate before the throne and worship the Deity, saying, "Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might unto our Deity for the aions of the aions," or during the Millennium and beyond, "Amen!" These palm-bearing ELOHIM are the goodly trees, the palm trees, the fig trees, and the willows of the brook; the Trees of Righteousness, whose leaves are unfading; "the planting of Yahweh on either side of the pure river of water of life clear as crystal;" the great forest of evergreens filling the earth with their perfume, to the glory of his Name (Isa. lxi. 3; Psa. i. 3; Apoc. xxii. 1,2).

But, before they could figure, as stately palm trees in the concourse of nations, they had to "drink of the brook by the way." In this relation of things they were "willows of the brook;" and this is the reason why afterwards, they exalt their heads above the peoples in this great Feast of Tabernacles, as lofty palms. The Captain of their salvation who leads them to glory, was himself once "a willow of the brook" -- a weeping willow -- "a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief." As the Christ-Spirit in David predicted in Psa. cx. 7, concerning David’s Son and Lord, so it was verified in Jesus -- "he drank of the brook by the way, THEREFORE he shall exalt the head:" "He was obedient unto death, therefore he was crowned with glory and honor." But, in the scene before us, though like their chief, they had been "willows of the brook," John did not see them bearing willow boughs. He saw them only with "palms in their hands." Had he seen willows in their hands instead of palms it would have indicated that they were still a suffering community.

That they had been a community of sufferers in a former state, is certain by the question put to John, and answered by the Elder. He asked John, who the palm-bearers were, and whence they came? To which John replied, "Sire, thou hast known" -- kurie, su oidas. He knew experimentally, for he was one of them; inasmuch as the elders and living ones are representative of the whole company of the redeemed. "These are they," said he, "who came out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes, and made their robes white in the blood of the Lamb." Out of the great tribulation which precedes their resurrection from the dead. And, because they held fast the Name and the Faith, and defiled not their garments, and were faithful unto death; "therefore they are before the throne of the Deity, and serve him day and night in His temple." Yahweh Elohim the almighty, is the temple, even the Lamb (xxi. 22): being, therefore, constituents of Yahweh Elohim, they are living stones of the temple, and serving the Father continually, "who hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their Deity, and they shall be my people" (2 Cor. vi. 16): and because it is so written, the Elder added, "and he that is sitting on the throne shall pitch his tent over them. They shall hunger no more, neither shall they thirst any more, neither shall the sun," with which the Woman was clothed, "smite them, nor any heat," or oppression. "Because the Lamb in the very midst of the throne shall tend them, and lead them to living fountains of waters, and the Deity shall wipe away every tear from their eyes."

From these considerations the reader may, perhaps, be able to "see," that this seventh chapter of the apocalypse presents before him two great epochs, with a long intervening period of tribulation extending from the one to the other. The first is the epoch of the sealing, ending A.D. 395; the last, the epoch of the festive celebration of the ingathering of the world’s fruit unto Yahweh Elohim, marked, probably, by the joyful observance of the first Feast of Tabernacles (for the feast will be celebrated annually) A.D. 1908. "He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root: Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit" (Isa. xxvii. 6). This, with the gathering together of the saints unto Christ, is the fruit, the ingathering of which is then celebrated.
 
 

 

 


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