This week we are going to look at the Feast of Tabernacles (also known as the Feast of Booths).
Our Scripture readings are: Leviticus 23:33-44 and Nehemiah 8:13-18.
I’ve always been proud of my teeth. Not that they “look great” or any of that … but because I never had a cavity in my adult teeth. I even managed to make it “cavity free” through seminary without seeing a dentist for 4 years.
But last week, it happened. The dentist walked into the room and looked at the x-ray a little longer than he normally does. I heard him say, “Hmm…”
“Cavity?” I asked. I had looked at the x-ray picture while I was waiting for him and I had noticed a little spot but had hoped it was nothing.
“No one likes to find the first one,” he said, “but yes. Top left. Second from the back.” And with that my cavity free days were over. As I thought about this over the past week, it really reminded me of how temporary things can be. I was so sure that I was going to stay cavity free. I was confident that, even if I forgot to brush one morning or skipped on the flossing for a week or so, that I could make up for lost time and that I could stay cavity free. Alas, that is not the case and my “cavity free” days are over.
Sometimes it’s good to have that temporary reminder. It’s so easy to think we’re invincible, or that we can do things on our own, or that we don’t need help. When we are reminded of all that is temporary, it points us to what isn’t.
John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
The Feast of Tabernacles gave God’s people this temporary reminder. For a week, they moved out of their homes and away from the things they had built up and stored up for themselves and they lived in booths. Everything about the tabernacles reminded them about what was temporary and what was permanent. They were reminded that the God of heaven and earth made His dwelling among them in the tabernacle when they were wandering in the wilderness. They were reminded that, in the wilderness, God provided adequately for His people. They were reminded that they were not self-sufficient. They were reminded how deeply they relied upon God.
We get that reminder too as we gather to worship and as we rehearse the story of Jesus death and resurrection each Sunday (and throughout the week). It’s so easy to live our lives and forget how much we need God, what He has done for us in Jesus, and how much we need each other as we gather together to worship God. It’s so easy to get caught up in all that is temporary – promotions, money, and status … It’s so easy to worry about this thing or that, which in the end don’t really matter all that much.
We don’t live in booths for a week. But Jesus, and the cross that He went to for us, remind us over and over and over again that we need Him. The cross is for us a reminder to see beyond the temporary to what is eternal, because through Jesus we don’t live temporary lives. He has provided hope and salvation and eternal life for us.
That temporary reminder is a good one to have every day.