Daniel Switzer: The Feast of Tabernacles

A Picture of God’s Great Vision for the Church

By Daniel L. Switzer, Ed.D.
Pastor, Northgate Community Church

Recently, our church celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles. This feast is a time of rejoicing for the ingathering of the harvest. During this feast the Israelites were told to live in booths, temporary dwellings called sukkahs.

The Feast of Tabernacles also has prophetic significance for us, and I believe it has much to say regarding God’s ultimate vision for the church. I’ve been giving much thought recently regarding exactly what God’s vision is for the church. We know that Christ gave us his Great Mission to make disciples of all nations, but what is God’s great vision for the Church? What does He desire for the church to become? What does he envision the church being in the end times?

A Rejoicing Church

First, the Feast of Tabernacles shows us that the Church of Jesus Christ is to be a rejoicing Church. Of Tabernacles, God said to “be joyful at your Feast. . . . For the Lord your God will bless you in all your harvest and in all the work of your hands, and your joy will be complete” (Deut. 16:14-15). There’s a celebration going on, and for good reason. The harvest has come in; the ingathering of the harvest has taken place. God has shown us again that He is faithful to be our ultimate provider, and we are celebrating God as Jehovah Jireh!

I was talking to our students at Living Grace Christian School about the Feast of Tabernacles. I asked them what they ate for breakfast. Some shared they had eaten cheerios or fruit loops and such. Children may understand that their food comes from the grocery store, but a successful harvest depends on the right combination of sun, soil, and rain, which ultimately comes from God. A successful harvest is a cause for rejoicing and thanksgiving to God! Tabernacles is a time of rejoicing for God’s provision of the harvest.

We need to remember, and even more so in hard economic times, that if we trust Him, He will provide for us. We need to remember to thank and praise God for his provision in our lives.

Jesus himself celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles. John 7:37-39 says, “On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, ‘If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.’ By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive.” Jesus also said in John 6:35, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.” God desires us to be a church which rejoices in Him, no matter what the outside economy is doing, because we know we will never go thirsty and never go hungry. God provides for us both materially and spiritually.

A Church Indwelt by Christ

Secondly, God’s vision for the church is that we’re to be a church indwelt by Christ. The Feast of Tabernacles is symbolic of Christ tabernacling among us. John 1:14 says of Jesus Christ: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Christ made his dwelling among us.

Christ has come to tabernacle among us. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Indeed, in Tabernacles, we see the glorious truth of Christ in us, the hope of glory, who is full of grace and truth!

God inhabits the praises of His people! He inhabits—dwells within—or tabernacles inside our praises. As a rejoicing church, this is not for the purpose of feeling good, but that we will experience Christ as Immanuel—Christ with us!

In addition to having application to us as individuals, Christ tabernacling among us also has application to us as the Church of Jesus Christ! Ephesians 2:21-22 says, “In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.” As the Church of Jesus Christ, God’s vision is that we be built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit!

We are being built together as a habitation for God’s presence. God’s intention is that together we as the Church would be such that Christ would tabernacle among us, that He would dwell within us corporately, that his presence would be manifest within the corporate Body of Jesus Christ, the Church! This is His vision for the Church, and we see it in Tabernacles!

What does it mean to be a “Body Life Church”? It means that we are dependent upon Christ, dependent upon his presence for the ministry of His life. It means that we come to worship ready with listening hearts—to hear Christ’s voice—and the willingness to speak Christ’s voice through the prophetic word. This builds up the Church! Christ tabernacles among us corporately as we worship together!

A House of Prayer for All Nations

Thirdly, God’s great vision for the church as seen in Tabernacles is that we would be a House of Prayer for all Nations. Tabernacles speaks to Christ’s ultimate vision for the Church—to be a House of Prayer for all Nations!

Zechariah 14:16 says, “Then the survivors from all the nations that have attacked Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the King, the Lord Almighty, and to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles.” Let me repeat this: People from the nations will go up to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles! This is God’s ultimate vision for the Church.

As Tabernacles celebrates the ingathering of the harvest, ultimately Tabernacles will celebrate the ingathering—the gathering in—of all the nations to God Almighty! Isaiah 2:2 says, “In the last days the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills and all nations will stream to it.” What a picture—all nations will stream up to the mountain of the Lord!

In the last days, “Many people will come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord’” (Isaiah 2:3). Tabernacles speaks to God’s great vision for the church—a vision of the nations coming together—the gathering in of all of the nations to Christ!

Christ, of course, affirmed this vision for the church. In Mark 11:17, He said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’?” God said in Isaiah 56:7 that He will bring foreigners who follow Him and hold fast to God “to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.”

This is what the church will be called. This is what God is aiming toward. Breaking down barriers between people—coming together as all nations—is upon God’s heart. In the last days, people from all nations will be worshipping God together. If this is what God says is going to be happening, we should be busy working to see this vision realized now. This is God’s heart; it’s what He desires to happen.

Revelation 7:9 shares the awesome vision of “a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb.” These people, gathered together from every nation, cry loudly, “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb” (Rev. 7:10). What a glorious picture for the Church of Jesus Christ!

My encouragement for us is that if this is God’s ultimate vision for the church, let’s get busy about that vision. Let’s not wait. Let’s work toward this vision now. Let’s walk in it now. It’s God’s heart. It’s Christ’s heart. It’s His vision for the Church!

This vision is unique—it’s unique because it is God’s singular vision for the church! Our challenge is to bring together different nations, different ethnicities, under the banner of Christ. And let’s be honest, it is a challenge! We all have our preferences for worship style and “the way things should be done.” But isn’t God’s ultimate vision worth subjugating our personal preferences in order to realize the glorious manifestation of all nations coming together, being ingathered together, to worship the Lord?

Being a House of Prayer for All Nations is a glorious and precious vision; it’s also a challenge. We need to be purposeful about meeting this challenge. Let’s ask ourselves—what can we do to realize this vision? What can we do to be purposeful about Christ’s Great Vision for the Church? I encourage us to be purposeful about becoming more closely aligned with how Christ sees the Church—what He desires the Church to be!