Thanksgiving In The Ot: Festival Of Tabernacles

THANKSGIVING in the OT: Festival of Tabernacles

Happy Thanksgiving!

What is the meaning of Thanksgiving? For some, it is all about the Thanksgiving Break: 5 days, or an entire week, to take a break from school or work. For many, it is a time for families to gather, eat too much turkey, and appreciate their blessings. For many, it is the beginning of the holiday shopping season (which began in September)—a day to prepare for Black Friday (starting at sundown!), Cyber Monday, and the coming holiday rush. For a few people like us, it is a time to gather and give thanks to God for the blessings of the year.

As we celebrate Thanksgiving this year, we want to dig a little deeper into the meaning of the celebration. It has roots in the Old Testament. Exodus 23:16 says, “Celebrate the Festival of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in your crops from the field.” For farmers without irrigation or insecticides, it was natural to thank God for providing the rains and keeping the pests away. If our food comes from grocery stores or home delivery, we don’t have that visceral sense of gratitude for the harvest. What does Thanksgiving mean for us? We need to dig a little deeper.

The Festival of Ingathering was much more than a prayer of thanksgiving before digging into the turkey. It was like a church campout!

Leviticus 23:39-43 “Beginning with the fifteenth day of the seventh month, after you have gathered the crops of the land, celebrate the festival to the LORD for seven days; the first day is a day of sabbath rest, and the eighth day also is a day of sabbath rest. On the first day you are to take branches from luxuriant trees—from palms, willows and other leafy trees—and rejoice before the LORD your God for seven days. Celebrate this as a festival to the LORD for seven days each year. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come; celebrate it in the seventh month. Live in temporary shelters for seven days: All native-born Israelites are to live in such shelters so your descendants will know that I had the Israelites live in temporary shelters when I brought them out of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.’ ”

(Note to preacher: This sermon was originally part of an interactive experience in the fellowship hall of the church. At this point, I asked for volunteers to build a shelter, to represent what the Israelites would have built. I provided a simple v-shaped structure [left over from VBS], and branches to make a roof. We sang a couple of traditional hymns, as the volunteers made the shelter.)

What was the purpose of living in temporary shelters? The shelters reminded the people of their time in the wilderness, when they had no land, no houses, and no crops. They were totally dependent upon God. When they were comfortably settled in the promised land, and they took their prosperity for granted, God wanted them to remember that they would not be where they were without him!

We also have a tendency to take our blessings for granted. Thanksgiving should be a time to remember that everything we have comes from God—especially our freedom in Christ, Christian families and the church, and the privilege of trusting God.

(For an interactive experience, with the people sitting at tables, ask each table to write on the paper provided some things that are often taken for granted. Then, one or more people at the table can pray, and thank God for what he has given to them.)

Because of the shelters that were built, the Festival of Ingathering was also called the Festival of Tabernacles (or the Feast of Booths). The festival took on additional meaning through the years, which can enrich our understanding of Thanksgiving as well.

HOW SHOULD WE CELEBRATE THANKSGIVING?

1. WE SHOULD REMEMBER THE POOR.

In Deuteronomy 16:13-17, Moses gives instructions: “Celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles for seven days after you have gathered the produce of your threshing floor and your winepress. Be joyful at your festival—you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levites, the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns. For seven days celebrate the festival to the LORD your God at the place the LORD will choose. 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. Three times a year all your men must appear before the LORD your God at the place he will choose: at the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Weeks and the Festival of Tabernacles. No one should appear before the LORD empty-handed: Each of you must bring a gift in proportion to the way the LORD your God has blessed you.”