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“Celebrate
The Feast!”
Dwight A.
Pryor
COPYRIGHT ©
2004. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
WWW.JCSTUDIES.COM
“I’ve
been robbed!” declared the
godly senior pastor to an assembly of several hundred ministers. “I went
to seminary, and I’ve preached the Gospel for more than thirty years.”
With tears in his eyes, he added, “Why have I never been told before
about this rich Hebrew heritage in Christ?”
This
esteemed elder statesman’s comment came at the conclusion of a two-day
seminar on the Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith for ministers in
South America. He had seen Jesus (Yeshua) in a fresh, new light, and his
Christian faith had been intensified and amplified by learning about his
Hebraic inheritance in the Messiah.
Salvation comes to the nations through the Jew, Jesus of Nazareth. To be
in Christ is to be part of Abraham’s seed and grafted into the
olive-tree faith of God’s first covenant people, Israel. The roots of
our faith in Messiah, therefore, sink deeply into the fertile soil of
His Jewish worldview and scriptures. In Him we have a Hebraic birthright
and heritage; we share in the covenants, promises and blessings
conferred upon Abraham’s offspring.
That
heritage was lost and the root connection severed in the emerging
ecclesiastical church of the 3rd, 4th and 5th
centuries. Athens and Rome replaced Jerusalem as the mother of our
faith. And all things “Jewish” were denigrated and discarded. But God,
in His goodness and grace, is restoring to the church that which was
lost. He is calling us back to the biblical, Jewish foundations
of our faith in order that we may go forward in greater
Christian faithfulness. With that renewal comes increased joy in our
salvation.
Consider, for example, the Feast of Tabernacles (one of the three great
Pilgrim Feasts of the LORD,
along with Passover and Pentecost). Did you know that this grand harvest
celebration was the biblical precedent for the Thanksgiving celebration
held by the first pilgrims to America?
“Tabernacles” (Sukkot in Hebrew) commemorates the “booths” the
children of Israel dwelled in during their sojourn to the Promised Land.
It is a mo’ed or “appointed time” the LORD
sets to meet with His people: “You shall celebrate the Feast of Booths
seven days after you have gathered in from your threshing floor and your
wine vat; and you shall rejoice in your feast. . . . Seven days you
shall celebrate a feast to the LORD
our God . . . because the LORD
your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your
hands, so that you shall be altogether joyful.”
[Deuteronomy
16.13-15 NASB]
Sukkot
occurs in the autumn of the year, in association with the final
agricultural harvest in Israel, and therefore is called the “Feast of
Ingathering.” It was an auspicious occasion, noted even in Jesus' day
for its great rejoicing and intense celebratory character. The
impressive liturgical drama at the Temple in Jerusalem culminated in a
prayer by the High Priest for the outpouring of rain for the coming
agricultural year. He dramatized his petition by pouring out water,
collected in a golden pitcher from the pool of Siloam, upon the great
altar. At that moment of high spiritual tension, Yeshua stood and
declared in a loud voice: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and
drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his
heart will flow rivers of living water.”
[John 7.38-39 NKJV]
It was
during the Feast of Tabernacles that King Solomon dedicated the First
Temple
[2
Chronicles 8]
and that Ezra restored the Word of the Lord to the exiled remnant that
returned to Jerusalem
[Nehemiah 8].
This Festival also holds eschatological promise. In the Messianic era to
come, when other Pilgrim Festivals have served their purpose,
Tabernacles shall continue – for praise and thanksgiving to the God of
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob must never cease!
Zechariah
foresees that End Time when all the nations will go up to Jerusalem “to
worship the King, the LORD
of Hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.”
[14.16]
At that time, he says, “The LORD
will be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be one LORD,
and his name the only name.”
[Zechariah 14.9
NIV]
But in
Messiah we need not wait for that eschatological event. In the Kingdom
of God that Yeshua inaugurated, the ends of the ages have already broken
in upon us! So on October 3-6, 2004, Christians from many nations will
travel up to Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles with Jewish
believers in the Land of Israel. With great rejoicing, teaching and
worship we shall reclaim part of our wonderful Hebrew heritage in
Messiah Jesus.
You are
invited to “Celebrate the Feast!
Dwight A. Pryor is the Founder and
President of the Center for
Judaic-Christian Studies in Dayton, Ohio,
www.jcstudies.com.
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