The Great Eschatological Camping Trip: Leviticus 23:33-44
Introduction: God Commands a Party
We live in a time when many Christians think of their religion as something that happens indoors, in hushed and solemn tones. Piety, for many, has become synonymous with a kind of sterile decorum, a quiet and respectable affair. But when we come to the liturgical calendar that God Himself designed for His people, we find something altogether different. We find loud shouts, trumpet blasts, feasting, and here, in the culmination of the entire festival year, we find a week-long, nationwide camping trip. The Feast of Booths, or Tabernacles, was a mandatory national celebration. It was a divinely commanded party.
This ought to adjust our thinking. God is not a cosmic librarian, demanding silence. He is the Lord of Hosts, who commands His people to rejoice. This feast was the grand finale of the Israelite year. It came in the seventh month, the sabbatical month, after the grain and fruit harvests were complete. The larders were full, the work was done, and just five days after the solemn Day of Atonement where the nation's sins were dealt with, God says, in effect, "Now, go have a feast. Go live in leafy huts for a week and be glad before Me."
This is not trivial. The sequence is everything. First comes atonement, then comes the party. You cannot truly rejoice before a holy God until the sin problem has been dealt with. But once it has been dealt with, once the blood has been shed and accepted, then joy is not just an option; it is a command. Atonement clears the way for gladness. For the Christian, this means that because of the ultimate Day of Atonement in Jesus Christ, our lives are to be characterized by a deep and abiding joy. We are not to be a dour and gloomy people. We have every reason to celebrate, and the Feast of Booths shows us how.
This feast was both a look backward and a look forward. It was a memorial of God's faithfulness during the wilderness wanderings, and it was a prophetic picture of the final ingathering, the great eschatological harvest when God will tabernacle with His people forever. It is a feast of gratitude, dependence, and glorious hope.
The Text
Again Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘On the fifteenth of this seventh month is the Feast of Booths for seven days to Yahweh. On the first day is a holy convocation; you shall do no laborious work of any kind. For seven days you shall bring an offering by fire near to Yahweh. On the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation and bring an offering by fire near to Yahweh; it is a solemn assembly. You shall do no laborious work. ‘These are the appointed times of Yahweh which you shall proclaim as holy convocations, to bring offerings by fire near to Yahweh, burnt offerings and grain offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings, each day’s matter on its own day, besides those of the sabbaths of Yahweh and besides your gifts and besides all your votive and freewill offerings, which you give to Yahweh. ‘On exactly the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the produce of the land, you shall celebrate the feast of Yahweh for seven days, with a rest on the first day and a rest on the eighth day. And on the first day you shall take for yourselves the foliage of beautiful trees, palm branches and boughs of leafy trees and willows of the brook, and you shall be glad before Yahweh your God for seven days. You shall thus celebrate it as a feast to Yahweh for seven days in the year. It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations; you shall celebrate it in the seventh month. You shall live in booths for seven days; all the native-born in Israel shall live in booths, so that your generations may know that I had the sons of Israel live in booths when I brought them out from the land of Egypt. I am Yahweh your God.’ ” So Moses spoke to the sons of Israel the appointed times of Yahweh.
(Leviticus 23:33-44 LSB)
The Structure of Joy (vv. 33-36)
God lays out the basic framework for this celebration. Notice the precision.
"Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘On the fifteenth of this seventh month is the Feast of Booths for seven days to Yahweh. On the first day is a holy convocation; you shall do no laborious work of any kind. For seven days you shall bring an offering by fire near to Yahweh. On the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation and bring an offering by fire near to Yahweh; it is a solemn assembly. You shall do no laborious work." (Leviticus 23:34-36)
The timing is specific: the fifteenth day of the seventh month. This places it at the climax of the year. The number seven in Scripture represents perfection and completion. This feast in the seventh month, lasting seven days, signifies the fullness of God's blessing and the completion of the harvest cycle. It is a time of ultimate thanksgiving.
The feast is bookended by rest. The first day and the eighth day are "holy convocations" where no laborious work is to be done. This is not idleness. It is a ceasing from our own efforts in order to gather and focus on God. True rest is found in worship. The offerings by fire are brought every day, a constant reminder that this celebration is "to Yahweh." Our joy is not a generic, secular happiness. It is God-centered. It flows from Him and returns to Him in praise. The eighth day is a "solemn assembly," a capstone to the week of rejoicing, pointing to a new beginning, a new week, a new creation.
The Foundation of Joy (vv. 37-39)
The text makes it clear that this climactic feast does not stand alone. It is built upon the entire system of worship God had established.
"‘These are the appointed times of Yahweh... besides those of the sabbaths of Yahweh and besides your gifts and besides all your votive and freewill offerings... On exactly the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the produce of the land, you shall celebrate the feast of Yahweh for seven days..." (Leviticus 23:37-39)
This great festival was the culmination, not the replacement, of ordinary worship. It was built upon the weekly sabbaths, the regular gifts, the personal vows, and the freewill offerings. Robust, celebratory Christianity is not something you can jump into once a year. It grows out of a life of steady, week-in, week-out faithfulness. The great joys are for those who have been faithful in the small things. You cannot expect to enjoy the great harvest festival if you have not been tending the fields of ordinary obedience all year long.
And the context is abundance. They are to celebrate "when you have gathered in the produce of the land." God's command to rejoice is tied to His material provision. We are not Gnostics. We are not to pretend that we are "too spiritual" to be grateful for a full pantry, a good harvest, a successful business year. God made the material world, He blesses us through it, and He commands us to thank Him for it with joyful feasting. Gratitude for God's provision is the fuel for worship.
The Practice of Joy (vv. 40-41)
Here we get the practical instructions for this party. And they are wonderfully earthy.
"And on the first day you shall take for yourselves the foliage of beautiful trees, palm branches and boughs of leafy trees and willows of the brook, and you shall be glad before Yahweh your God for seven days... It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations..." (Leviticus 23:40-41)
They are to take the best of the harvest, the foliage of "beautiful trees," and use it for their celebration. This is not an ascetic, minimalist faith. God delights in beauty and abundance. The palm branches were symbols of victory and rejoicing. When the crowds welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem, they used palm branches, recognizing Him as the king who brings the great eschatological feast (John 12:13).
And the central command is explicit: "you shall be glad before Yahweh your God." Joy is not a feeling that might happen to you. It is a duty you are to perform. We are commanded to be glad. This means joy is an act of obedience, rooted in the finished work of God, not in our fluctuating circumstances. We are to be glad "before Yahweh," in His presence. This is not a forced, plastic smile. It is the deep, resonant gladness that comes from knowing your sins are atoned for and your God is with you and for you.
This is a "perpetual statute." While we are no longer under the Mosaic ceremonial law, the principle is eternal. God's people are to be a perpetually glad people. The joy of the harvest is a permanent feature of our faith.
The Reason for Joy (vv. 42-44)
Finally, we come to the central symbol of the feast, which gives it its name.
"You shall live in booths for seven days... so that your generations may know that I had the sons of Israel live in booths when I brought them out from the land of Egypt. I am Yahweh your God." (Leviticus 23:42-43)
In the midst of their abundance, with full barns and permanent houses, they were to build flimsy, temporary shelters and live in them for a week. The stars would be visible through the leafy roof. This was a powerful object lesson. It was an act of corporate remembrance. It forced them to remember their humble origins. It reminded them that their security and prosperity did not come from their stone houses or their military strength, but from the God who sustained them in flimsy booths for forty years.
This practice inoculated them against the pride and arrogance that so often comes with prosperity. It reminded them that they were pilgrims, that the land was a gift, and that their ultimate security was in God alone. This is a lesson we desperately need. We live in a world that trusts in its 401ks, its insurance policies, and its brick houses. The Feast of Booths reminds us that all of this is temporary. We are sojourners here. As the Apostle Peter says, we are "aliens and strangers" (1 Peter 2:11), and we are to live as such, with our hope fixed not on the stability of this world, but on the God who is our rock.
The reason for all of this is so "that your generations may know." This was about discipleship. It was about passing the faith down to their children, not as a set of abstract doctrines, but as a lived, celebrated reality. And it all concludes with the ultimate foundation: "I am Yahweh your God." He is the covenant Lord. He is the one who saved them, who sustained them, and who is the sole object of their joy.
The Fulfillment of Joy
Like all the Old Testament feasts, this one points directly to the Lord Jesus Christ. The Feast of Booths, or Tabernacles, finds its ultimate fulfillment in Him.
First, the Apostle John tells us that "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us" (John 1:14). The Greek word for "dwelt" is eskenosen, which literally means "he pitched his tent" or "he tabernacled" among us. The incarnation of Jesus Christ was the ultimate Feast of Booths. God Himself came down to live in a temporary shelter, a human body, in order to be with His people.
Second, the feast points to the great harvest of souls that Christ would bring in. This was the feast of ingathering, and Jesus is the Lord of the harvest. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost was the beginning of this great ingathering, and it will continue until the full number of the gentiles has come in.
Finally, the Feast of Booths points to our ultimate eschatological hope. It points to the end of our wilderness wandering and our entry into the promised land of the new heavens and the new earth. The prophet Zechariah says that in the millennial age, all the nations will come up to Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles (Zechariah 14:16). This is a picture of the whole world, brought into the covenant, joyfully worshipping the King.
And the book of Revelation gives us the final fulfillment. "And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, 'Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them'" (Revelation 21:3). The ultimate promise of the Feast of Booths is that one day God will dwell with us, and we with Him, forever. There will be no more flimsy shelters, because He will be our dwelling place. There will be no more tears, because all our sins will have been atoned for. There will only be the perpetual, joyful celebration of the great harvest, the ultimate and eternal Feast of Booths.