The LORD spoke to Moses: “Speak to the Israelites and tell them: These are My appointed times, the times of the LORD that you will proclaim as holy convocations. Leviticus 23:1-2.
The LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron: “The Israelites are to camp under their respective banners beside the flags of their ancestral houses. They are to camp around the tent of meeting.” Numbers 2:1-2.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God says:
In the book of Leviticus, which is in Hebrew is known as Vayikra, “And He called,” which is the first word in the book. Leviticus 1:1. In Hebrew letters it is all one word: וַיִּקְרָ֖א meaning, “And He called.” It is the verb “qara” (קרא) which means to call, proclaim, read. And the Book of Leviticus sets forth what I told Moses when I called him out of the meeting tent to speak with him. It begins with the five sacrifices and offerings I instructed Moses to have the people offer to cover their own sins, offenses and guilt and also those of the nation and also to show thanksgiving and fellowship with Me. Four of which were the blood sacrifices of unblemished lambs, goats, or bulls, and one which was the grain offering. But after I instructed him in the details of each sacrificial offering, and various other laws, I spoke to him something so prophetic and revealing that people still have not unraveled it all. I gave him the divine timeline, which contains the story of Salvation, starting with the blood of the spotless lamb and ending with perfect union with Me where we dwell together in complete oneness.
On the timeline there are seven appointed times (in Hebrew “moed,” מוֹעֵד with plural “moedim” מ֣וֹעֲדִ֔ים) which serve as signs that are to be fulfilled. And you already see the first four appointed times fulfilled in the life and death of Jesus Christ, that is, Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits, and Pentecost. Those were the four spring moedim. But then there are three fall moedim, Trumpets, Atonement, and Tabernacles. Between the fourth moed (Pentecost) and the fifth moed (Trumpets) there is summertime. The age of grace, the ingathering, the Church age. But when the fall feasts are fulfilled tabernacles is forever, for I Myself will tabernacle (dwell) among you and I shall be your God and you shall be My people and you shall see Me face-to-face. Revelation 21 – Revelation 22.
In Chapter 23 of Leviticus, I called out Moses to tell him a very important message regarding times and seasons so that you will know the signs of the times. Every one of these appointed times was to have a holy convocation. A convocation (assembly) in Hebrew letters is “miqra” מִקְרָאֵ֣ . Its root word is qara, meaning to call and to read aloud. And if you recall, Nehemiah did this at the Feast of Tabernacles. Nehemiah 8:18.
Of all of the appointed times (moedim) I gave to Moses as the divine timeline for the world, from Passover to the Feast of Tabernacles, there are only two appointed times I call “feasts” or “festivals” (chag in Hebrew), festal convocations, and these are the only appointed times that continue for more than one day, in fact, one is held for seven days and the other is held for eight days. And they required all men to appear before Me and not to come empty handed.
You have to know then that there is something very important, very special, about these two that you should delve deeper to uncover.
The two that I identify as feasts are the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot). And of these two, I give double attention to the Feast of Tabernacles. And I tell the people they are to rejoice at that feast. It is the most joyous of all the appointed times.
The first of these two festivals upon the calendar I gave Moses of appointed times is the Feast or Festival of Unleavened Bread. It starts the day after Passover and goes for seven days. It starts and ends with a holy convocation (miqra kodesh). I gave Moses the instruction for the Israelites: “The Passover to the LORD comes in the first month, at twilight on the fourteenth day of the month. The Festival of Unleavened Bread to the LORD is on the fifteenth day of the same month. For seven days you must eat unleavened bread. On the first day you are to hold a holy convocation; you are not to do any daily work. You are to present a fire offering to the LORD for seven days. On the seventh day there will be a holy convocation; you must not do any daily work.” Leviticus 23:5-8.
The second appointed time that I designate with the title of a feast or festival, that is, a festive occasion, is the last appointed time on the divine calendar and it is the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot in Hebrew: סוכות or סֻכּוֹת), I also call it the Feast of Ingathering, so in Scripture I will refer to it both ways interchangeably, which is very significant. I counted this moed as one of the top three of the appointed times, which also is very significant for you to understand. I told Moses of these three pilgrimage feasts even before I set out the divine timeline for him. In the book of Exodus I first told him of these after I gave the Ten Commandments while he was with Me in the cloud of glory on Mt. Sinai, “Celebrate a festival in My honor three times a year. Observe the Festival of Unleavened Bread. As I commanded you, you are to eat unleavened bread for seven days at the appointed time in the month of Abib, because you came out of Egypt in that month. No one is to appear before Me empty-handed. Also observe the Festival of Harvest (Shavuot, Pentecost) with the firstfruits of your produce from what you sow in the field and observe the Festival of Ingathering (Tabernacles) at the end of the year, when you gather your produce from the field. Three times a year all your males are to appear before the LORD God.” Exodus 23:14-17. And again later in the cloud of glory I told Moses: “Observe the Festival of Unleavened Bread. You are to eat unleavened bread for seven days at the appointed time in the month of Abib (later called Nissan) as I commanded you. For you came out of Egypt in the month of Abib . . . Observe the Festival of Weeks (Pentecost) with the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, and the Festival of Ingathering (Tabernacles) at the turn of the agricultural year. Three times a year all your males are to appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel. For I will drive out nations before you and enlarge your territory. No one will covet your land when you go up three times a year to appear before the LORD your God.” Exodus 34:18, 22-24. And in the Book of Deuteronomy, I tell Moses again: “All men are to appear three times a year before the LORD your God in the place He chooses: at the Festival of Unleavened Bread (beginning with the Passover, Pesach, and the sacrifice of the Passover lambs), the Festival of Weeks (Shavuot, which is Pentecost), and the Festival of Tabernacles (Sukkot, Booths, Pavilions, Shelters). No one is to appear before the LORD empty-handed. Everyone must appear with a gift suited to his means, according to the blessing the LORD your God has given you.” Deuteronomy 16:16-17.
The Feast of Tabernacles, I designated to be five days after the appointed time of the Day of Atonement. Atonement was on the tenth day of the seventh month and the Feast of Tabernacles began on the fifteenth day of the seventh month. I gave Moses the instructions for the Israelites: “Tell the Israelites: The Festival of Tabernacles to the LORD begins on the fifteenth day of this seventh month and continues for seven days. There is to be a holy convocation (sacred assembly) of all on the first day; you are not to do any daily work. You are to present a fire offering to the LORD for seven days. On the eighth day you are to hold a holy convocation and present a fire offering to the LORD. It is a solemn gathering; you are not to do any daily work.” Leviticus 23:34-36.
And the divine timeline set out, I seem to be summing up as I tell Moses, “These are the LORD’s appointed times that you are to proclaim as holy convocations for presenting fire offerings to the LORD, burnt offerings and grain offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings, each on its designated day. These are in addition to the offerings for the LORD’s Sabbaths, your gifts, all your vow offerings, and all your freewill offerings that you give to the LORD.” These, you see, are My days that I give to you. And your days that you give to Me. This is a bonding of us in community as One.
But I do not stop My discussion with Moses there. I return to the subject of the Feast of Tabernacles to give greater instruction for that appointed time, I do this for none other of the appointed times and I call this one “My festival.” So you know it is the crown of them all. It is the ingathering of the year’s harvest but signifies the ingathering of all people who will come under My wings, into My Kingdom, back into My bosom to tabernacle with Me as I tabernacle with you. You came forth out of Me in My image, and many of you went astray like lost sheep, pursuing your own ways and your own thoughts, which are lower than Mine, but I have never stopped trying to gather you back into My arms and carry you in My bosom. Isaiah 40:11. And here is the last instruction I give in the teaching of My timeline as summarized before Moses as My holy calendar of appointed times: “You are to celebrate the LORD’s festival on the fifteenth day of the seventh month for seven days after you have gathered the produce of the land. There will be complete rest on the first day and complete rest on the eighth day. On the first day you are to take the product of majestic trees—palm fronds, boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook—and rejoice before the LORD your God for seven days. You are to celebrate it as a festival to the LORD seven days each year. This is a permanent statute for you throughout your generations; you must celebrate it in the seventh month. You are to live in booths (sukkot) for seven days. All the native-born of Israel must live in booths (sukkot), so that your generations may know that I made the Israelites live in booths (sukkot) when I brought them out of the land of Egypt; I am Yahweh your God.” So Moses declared the LORD’s appointed times to the Israelites.” Leviticus 23:39-44.
Now, what is so significant about the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Feast of Tabernacles that I prolong their celebration and call them feasts (festivals, festal gatherings)? I think you can begin to see, they both follow redemption and atonement and show your reconciliation with Me. And that is My desire, that all men be saved and come to know the truth. I was in Christ reconciling you to Me without counting your trespasses against you.
The Feast of Unleavened bread comes right after Passover. There the spotless lamb is sacrificed and the blood of the lamb covers your homes and your bodies so that the destroyer cannot come near you. The blood of the lamb and eating his flesh and the unleavened bread brought the Israelites out of slavery to the promised land. It redeemed them from the slavery to sin and death in Egypt to the freedom of the blessed children of God. It freed them from fear and oppression under a cruel taskmaster. And it was not their merits that saved them but My mighty arm and outstretched hand expressed in the blood of the lamb.
And for seven days they celebrated eating the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, not puffed up with the yeast of pride and sin, but fully consecrated to the pure One who loved them so that I had purified them from all the filth of Egypt that had entered into them during those dark years of slavery. “Clean out the old yeast so that you may be a new batch. You are indeed unleavened, for Christ our Passover has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us observe the feast, not with old yeast or with the yeast of malice and evil but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” 1 Corinthians 5:7-8.
Passover and Unleavened Bread speak of deliverance and redemption.
The Feast of Tabernacles, the Ingathering, is five days (the number of grace) after the Day of Atonement, when all the sins of the people and the nation were atoned for by the High Priest going into the Holy of Holies and sprinkling the Blood of the sacrificial animals on the Propitiatory (the place of atonement, the Mercy Seat, for the eternal life in the blood of Christ is placed in Heaven for an eternal redemption) seven times. This was also the day of the scapegoat that was killed outside the camp. In Leviticus 16 you read the instructions for the Day of Atonement. But on that day, “Atonement will be made for you on this day to cleanse you, and you will be clean from all your sins before the LORD. It is a Sabbath of complete rest for you, and you must practice self-denial; it is a permanent statute. The priest who is anointed and ordained to serve as high priest in place of his father will make atonement. He will put on the linen garments, the holy garments, and purify the most holy place. He will purify the tent of meeting and the altar and will make atonement for the priests and all the people of the assembly.” Leviticus 16:30-33.
This Day (Yom Kippur) that precedes Tabernacles (Sukkot) speaks of repentance on the part of the people and atonement made for their sins by the blood of the unblemished sacrifice, which for that day was a bull and a goat. All the sins of the people and their nation were put on that unblemished bull, goat, and scapegoat and they became pure. Jesus became sin for you though He knew no sin to atone for your sins so that in Him you might become the righteousness of God, that is, you received His righteousness when you made Him your sacrifice to Me by receiving Him as Lord.
Both festivals celebrate release from sins and judgment and from the slavery to sin and death. Jesus has accomplished this for you and I have made Him to be wisdom for you, and righteousness, and sanctification and redemption. His Blood made atonement for you on the Altar. We are reconciled. Your sins and offenses I remember no more, in Jesus they were condemned, punished, and divine justice was satisfied. You are holy, blameless and without reproach before Me. The reproach went on the scapegoat. It is no longer your fault, it is His, and on Him, I took care of it. Gone.
And now, in Jesus, you are ready for Me to tabernacle with you and you with Me. Forever. Death will not do us part but just continue our oneness in a whole new way. Another level of My Kingdom for you to enjoy.
Do you see why there are two Festivals in the timeline that are celebrated for multiple days? The unleavened bread goes seven days and puts you in My rest even now, but Tabernacles goes eight days, it heads off into the new beginning of eternity.
And that is why it is the one feast I tell you that you are to REJOICE in Me therein. It is My feast with you. Tabernacle. Covenant. One. My house is yours.
Tabernacles was a community pilgrimage feast. It was done as a unified community of believers who came with the fruits of the harvest to rejoice with Me and before Me at all the abundance I had given My people. And I wanted them near Me– tabernacled around the place I had put My Name. In the desert coming to the Promised Land, I carried My people out of Egypt on eagle’s wings and brought them to Myself, and they camped all around Me as we traveled together across the desert. Exodus 19:4-6, Numbers 2. They saw My cloud by day and the pillar of fire in the cloud by night. I fed them manna and quail and gave them water from the rock. I gave them the plans and supplies to build Me a tabernacle so I could travel with them in their midst and I gave them a system for having their sins covered. I gave them My laws, My love, and My care. I desired them to remember this and draw close to Me every year by dwelling in booths all around the place I put My Name, first Shiloh and then Jerusalem on Temple Mount. But now I tabernacle with the Church in Spirit and truth—the holy convocations of Mt. Zion, just as My prophet Isaiah wrote, “Then the LORD (יהוה) will create (בָרָ֣א) over every dwelling place (מְכ֨וֹן) of Mount Zion and over her convocations (מִקְרָא) a cloud (עָנָ֤ן) by day and smoke and the radiance of a fire flaming by night; for over all the glory will be a canopy (חֻפָּֽה) and a tabernacle (sukkah, the singular of sukkot)( סֻכָּה) will be there to give shadow in the daytime from the heat (desolation, sword) (חֹרֶב) and a refuge (מַחֲסֶה) and a place of shelter from storm and rain.” Isaiah 4:5-6. Now look at what My servant Paul wrote: “When the Messiah came, He proclaimed the good news of peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints, and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the cornerstone. The whole building, being put together by Him, grows into a holy sanctuary in the Lord. You also are being built together for God’s dwelling in the Spirit.” Ephesians 2:17-22. Do not neglect the assembling of yourselves together. Hebrews 10:23-25.
I love you. Do not miss your moedim. When I call you together as a community of believers to hold a holy convocation with Me do not just go about your own affairs alone, come and gather with the Body of Christ and together tabernacle with Me as a holy convocation of Mt. Zion, the heavenly city of grace, the church of the firstborn. Hebrews 12:22-24; Hebrews 10:23-25. That is why Peter wanted to build three booths (sukkot) on the mountain of Transfiguration and just stay there because it was so good to be there with My presence in the cloud of glory and with other believers from ages past and present. One family called by My Name to dwell with Me forever. All are alive for Me.