THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES AND THE CROSS

The 29th chapter of Numbers outlines the celebration of one of the most important feasts on the ancient Jewish calendar, the Feast of Tabernacles. The feast took place for eight days on the fifteenth day of the seventh month in the Fall of the Jewish year. It was intended to remind the children of Israel of the forty years of wandering in the desert and how God supplied them with tents so they could survive the harsh wilderness environment. Leviticus explains, “You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All who are native Israelites shall dwell in booths, that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt” (Leviticus 23:42-43). Scholars have always asked if this feast exists to simply to bring to remembrance a period in Israel’s history, or is there a deeper spiritual meaning embedded in the events of the feast? In answering that question we must ever be aware that Jesus told the two travelers on the Emmaus Road that all the Old Testament Scriptures were about Him (Luke 24:27). According to Jesus Himself finding Him in the Old Testament is the hermeneutic (way of interpreting the Bible) that must guide one’s reading of the Old Testament. And while it is true that such a scheme can be taken to unhealthy speculative extremes, the question any reader must always ask is, “How does this event, this psalm, this person anticipate the coming Messiah?”

So as we read the account of this great Jewish feast this very question must be asked. The account of the feast is found in Numbers 29:12-38. Now this feast was held over an eight day period, beginning and ending with a Sabbath convocation. Over the course of the eight days many animals were sacrificed, almost 200 to be exact. We know, of course, that Old Testament sacrifices foreshadowed the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross (1 Peter 1:18-19). His sacrifice exceeded all other sacrifices in that it actually atoned for the sins of the world. The Old Testament sacrifices were mere shadows pointing forward to this one, great, substantial event. One thing will immediately strike the reader as he reads the account of this feast. The sacrifices of the bulls decreased by one for each successive day for seven days. The number of bull sacrifices went from thirteen to seven. Significantly, on the final day, the eighth day, only one bull was offered, which broke the pattern. The sequence of sacrifices from Numbers chapter 29 is as follows:

**on the first day of the feast thirteen bulls were sacrificed (vs 14).

**on the second day twelve bulls were sacrificed (vs 17).

**on the third day eleven bulls were sacrificed (vs 20).

**one the fourth day ten bulls were sacrificed (vs 23).

**on the fifth day nine bulls were sacrificed (vs 26).

**on the sixth day eight bulls were sacrificed (vs 29).

**one the seventh day, seven bulls were sacrificed (vs 32).

**on the eighth day, one bull was sacrificed (vs 36).

This decreasing number of sacrifices is unique among all Jewish feasts. The inquisitive Bible reader must therefore ask, “Why is this so?”

No doubt whenever there is a countdown of any kind, this heralds some kind of progression or anticipation. In the modern world we count down 10 - 9 - 8 - 7 - 6…...etc. before a rocket is launched. In the forty-seventh chapter of Ezekiel the author notes the increasing depths of the river that flows from the temple. All of this anticipates the river flowing into the sea which culminates in the waters being healed (Ezek 47:8). This idea of progression or anticipation is what is going on here in the Feast of Tabernacles. Another clue that there is something very important going on here is the fact that the number of sacrifices begins at thirteen and then on the seventh day ends with seven. We have here a convergence of two sevens. This certainly must have something to do with finality or completion, or, as we wish to assert, a number without limits. Jesus when telling Peter how much we must forgive uses this convergence of two sevens to connote an infinitude. We are to forgive seventy times seven He told Peter. In other words there is no limit to how many times we forgive a brother. The seventh day of the feast must simply be saying that there are a innumerable number of sacrifices that must be offered for human sin. The fact that they are decreasing points to an end point. This leads us to the eighth day. This comprises the second clue that something different is going on here. On the eighth day only one bull is sacrificed… not six bulls, but one. This breaks the sequence. This should cause the reader to dig deeper.

Of course without any New Testament support trying to find the cross of Jesus Christ in the feast of Tabernacles would be speculative at best. But when we turn to the tenth chapter of the Book of Hebrews we amazingly find the same kind of progression. The author is here wrapping up His argument about the superiority of the Priesthood of Jesus Christ which rests on a vastly superior sacrifice. The tenth chapter begins this way,

“For the law having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified would have had no more consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year” (Hebrews 10:1-3).

All the thousands of sacrifices in the Old Covenant could not take away one sin according to the author. They were merely anticipating one great sacrifice that would actually be acceptable to God. He then quotes Psalm 40 to prove that someone would come in a human body and perform that one great sacrifice. He says, “By that will (the decision of Jesus to die) we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus once for all” (vs 10). And as if that were not enough to make his point the author adds in verse 14, “for by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.”

We have here the contrast between many offerings that could not take away sin and one offering at the end that takes away all sin… forever. The contrast here in Hebrews 10 is clear and it should certainly drive the reader back to the Feast of Tabernacles. Remember there are all these sacrifices of bulls for seven days (70 in all) and then on the last day only one bull is sacrificed. Then the feast is over. Perfection has been realized.

You need more proof? The feast of Tabernacles is mentioned but once in the New Testament and it is found in John chapter 7. Jesus Himself is in the final year of life and per the law he must go to Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast. But knowing that the people might coronate Him or kill Him, Jesus sneaks into town stealthily. Finally, on the last day of the feast, Jesus stands up and begins to preach. Now remember this last day according to Numbers 29:36 is the eighth day when ONE BULL is sacrificed. On that very day, Jesus speaks aloud, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture as said, out of his heart will flow rivers of water” (John 7:37b-38). As that final bull of the feast is being sacrificed in the temple Jesus is declaring that He alone is the only atonement for sin. Coincidence? Certainly not. In fact right after this event the people furiously ask themselves who this man is who would make such a bold claim. Did they sense He was fulfilling the Feast of the Tabernacles? Perhaps. They ask, “Is this the Prophet who must come into the world? Is this the Christ?” A confused populace is trying to make sense of it all. But we, living on the other side of the cross see exactly what is going one.

But now the question is, “How is this relevant? Does a feast celebrated 3500 years ago have anything to do with me?”

It has everything to do with you, Christian.

It confirms once again that one offering is all you need to be saved. Many sacrifices may happen beforehand. They can be human effort type sacrifices. They can be added requirements for the Christian life type sacrifices. They can be more diligent obedience, more passionate devotion, more disciplined life-type sacrifices. But know this: none of these ‘sacrifices’ can bring you one iota closer to God. The blood of bulls and goats can never take away sins. The only sacrifice that matters is the one that happened on a chaotic Friday outside the walls of Jerusalem where a peasant-carpenter-rabbi died a cruel death at the hands of the Jews and Romans. But it wasn’t just any death. It was a death of the Son of God who came on the eighth day of the feast and offered up that one sacrifice that put an end to all sacrifices, the sacrifice of Himself.

Dear reader are you still trying to sacrifice to God to make yourself more acceptable to Him? If so, then you are backtracking away from a full and free salvation. You are moving back to the many sacrifices offered up in those previous seven days. But they cannot save you nor can they bring you any closer to God than you are right now. You need that one sacrifice, the one that John said, ‘takes away the sin of the world.’ You need the sacrifice on that final sabbath day, that eighth day, the day that concluded the feast. And if you receive that sacrifice you will become a forgiven sinner from whom flow rivers of living water forever.