Feast of Tabernacles 2026: Seven Practices of Joy

 The Feast of Tabernacles is a time of rejoicing.  As we read in Leviticus 23:40. "And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God seven days."  Deuteronomy 16:14-15 adds, "You shall rejoice in your feast...because the LORD your God will bless you in all your produce and in the work of your hands, so that you will be altogether joyful."

In his remarks at Church of the Messiah's festival celebration, guest speaker Brad H. Young reminded us that there is "fullness of joy" in God's presence (Ps 16:11), and that Jesus came to bring us that joy (John 15:11).  He emphasized that joy is a choice, and he suggested seven practices that promote joy:

• forgiving and receiving forgiveness;
• building relationships with God and each other;
• praising God in our hearts;
• counting our blessings and being grateful; 
• doing what is good and right in God's eyes;
• praying the disciple's prayer;
• walking in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Young's joy and energy were an inspiration for us.

Seder 125: Numbers 28-29---Questions about Some Numbers in these Lists

 The calendrical discussion of sacrifices in Numbers 28-29 repeats some things already revealed in scripture.  For example, the daily burnt offerings described in Numbers 28:3-8 were already announced in Exodus 29:38-42.  

On the other hand, these chapters assume previous revelation and do not feel a need to repeat everything.  For example, there is much in Leviticus 23 that is not repeated in Numbers 28-29.  

When we compare Leviticus 23 and Numbers 28-29, one question that arises involves a possible discrepancy between Numbers 28:27 and Leviticus 23:18, which both deal with Pentecost burnt offerings:  

• Lev 23:18---one bull, two rams, seven lambs;
• Num 28:27---two bulls, one ram, seven lambs.

Commentator Michael Morales says that this is "a discrepancy for which there is no satisfactory answer" (p 340 of his Numbers 20-36 commentary). One traditional answer asserts that these are two different slates of burnt offerings, and that both were to be carried out.  I am not sure, though, whether this was the practice followed at the tabernacle or temple.  

Much of Numbers 29 is taken up with the sacrifices for each day of the Feast of Tabernacles.  The numbers are often seen as symbolic.  Best known is the fact that the total number of bulls used for burnt offerings is 70, a number seen as symbolizing Israel's mission to the nations.

Morales mentions some additional Midrashic teaching about these numbers.  As the feast goes on, the number of bulls offered decreases by one each day.  According to one midrash, "the decrease in bulls relates to the decreased contrast between Israel and the nations, in terms of acknowledging and serving the one true God, as Israel fulfils their mission among them" (p. 345).  

Another tradition looks at the number 98, the total number of lambs in these special offerings.  Morales notes a tradition that the offering of the lambs was intended to guard Israel against 98 curses listed in Deuteronomy 28. 

Feast of Trumpets 2025: What is Memorialized?

 The Feast of Trumpets is introduced in Leviticus 23:23-25 as "a memorial proclaimed with blast of trumpets" (ESV).  There is no mention in these verses of what is being memorialized.  

In a sermon at Church of the Messiah on September 20, 2025, Kyle Kettering surveyed the important things that may be memorialized by this festival.  

Since harvest festivals like Pentecost and the Feast of Tabernacles are prominent in the annual cycle of celebrations, the fall harvest is one thing to celebrate in this season.  

There are a number of themes associated with the Feast of Trumpets in Jewish tradition.  These include 

• creation
• the binding of Isaac in Genesis 22, partly because of the horn of the ram that was a substitute for Isaac.
• a spiritual wake-up call and announcement of coming judgment.
• the coming of the King (Ps 98:6).
• future redemption, including the coming of Messiah (Zech 9:14) and the ingathering of exiles (Isa 27:13).  

Several of these themes are continued in the New Testament, especially that of future redemption.  The imagery of trumpets is prominent in the book of Revelation and in descriptions of the return of Jesus (Rev 11:15-18; Mt 24:29-31; 1 Co 15:51-57; 1 Th 4:13-18).  

Seder 79: Lev 7:12-15---The Thanksgiving Offering

 The seventh chapter of Leviticus describes three types of peace/fellowship offerings.  One was called a toda, an offering of praise and thanksgiving.  It was given in gratitude for rescue or deliverance. 

Some examples are described in Psalm 107.  In one of them, a person receives healing from God:

"He sent out his word and healed them, and delivered them from their destruction.  Let them thank the LORD for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man!  And let them offer sacrifices of thanksgiving, and tell of his deeds in songs of joy!" (verses 20-22)

Other examples in Psalm 107 involve people who have been rescued from the wilderness, released from imprisonment, or safely brought through a sea voyage.  

A thanksgiving offering involved a communal meal that had to be eaten on the day of the offering.  This requirement encouraged the offeror to invite a large group of people to share the feast.  As it says in Psalm 107:32, "Let them extol him in the congregation of the people, and praise him in the assembly of the elders."

The feast included lots of bread, both unleavened and leavened (Lv 7:12-14).  Sharon Rimon suggests that the unleavened bread might represent the trial the person had endured, while the leavened bread might represent the fact that the offeror had been completely delivered from the trial.  

Rimon points out that a toda is in several ways similar to a Passover meal, which is a kind of national toda:

• Both give thanks for deliverance.
• Both are shelamim (offerings of peace or wellbeing).
• Both have to be finished by the following morning.
• Both are eaten with bread.

One major difference is that the bread at a Passover meal is strictly unleavened bread.  Rimon observes that Passover celebrates a redemption that has begun but has not yet been completed.  The redemption of the Exodus is completed when Israel receives the Torah at Mt Sinai, inherits the Promised Land, and begins harvesting crops there.  These things are celebrated at Pentecost, when leavened bread is part of the liturgy (Lv 23:15-21).  

Seder 96: Leviticus 23---Festivals of Rest, Joy, Remembrance, and Harvest

 Leviticus 23 lays out God's festival calendar.  The biblical festivals are gifts of God to his people, times of rest and times of joy.  They are also times of remembrance---times to remember God's mighty works of salvation, and times to call upon God to remember his people.

For ancient Israel the festivals celebrated the harvests.  At the start of the spring barley harvest, a sheaf of the firstfruits of that harvest was waved before God, thanking God for the harvest and dedicating it to him, the source of all blessings (vv 9-14).  

This ritual was carried out "on the day after the Sabbath" (v 11).  The text does not specify which exact Sabbath this was, and so it was up to communities keeping this festival to make a decision on this matter.  The choice determined the timing of Shavuot/Pentecost, which came 50 days after that Sabbath.  

In Jesus' day the Sadducees began the count to Pentecost on the first Sunday after Passover, while the Pharisees began the count on Nisan 16, the day after the first day of unleavened bread.  Today Jews follow the Pharisaic tradition, while Christians basically follow the Sadducees, with Pentecost seven weeks after Resurrection Sunday.  In 2022 both methods coincide, with the count beginning on April 17 and ending on June 5.  

Pentecost is the time for another offering of firstfruits, this time the firstfruits of the wheat harvest (vv 15-17).  

Christians recognize the harvest festivals as symbolizing spiritual harvests of people. The firstfruits ritual during the days of unleavened bread is associated with the resurrection of Jesus.  "But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep," Paul wrote in 1 Cor 15:20.  Some have suggested that when Jesus made the ascension to which he referred in John 20:17, he may have been carrying out a sort of wavesheaf offering.  

The next to be resurrected are those who are "those who belong to Christ" (v 23).  This group can be associated with Pentecost and is also referred to in the New Testament with firstfruits language ( Rom 8:23; 11:16; 2 Thes 2:13; James 1:18; Rev 14:4).  

A later, larger harvest is symbolized by the Feast of Tabernacles in the fall.

Rob Wilson looked at the concept of firstfruits and the festival calendar in a sermon at Church of the Messiah on March 19, 2022.