The Christians Hour

Aaron Brockett: Welcome to The Christian's Hour. Thank you for joining us today. We're so glad you've chosen to spend time with us. The Christian's Hour is a ministry of Gospel Broadcasting Mission, where we proclaim the hope and love of Jesus Christ around the world through radio and media until all have heard.

How often do you stop and remember the past, the good old days, as we sometimes call them? We all have moments that have shaped us, encouraged us, or simply filled us with joy. Looking back at those memories, they remind us of where we've been and how far we've come. But how often do you do that with God?

How often do we pause to remember the moments when God met us in our need, when he answered our prayers or gave us hope and purpose? It's easy to move from one season of life to the next and simply forget just how faithful he's been. The truth is, God knows how quickly we forget. That's one of the reasons he established sacred festivals for the people of Israel.

These weren't simply holidays to mark on their calendar; they were opportunities to pause, remember his faithfulness, and celebrate his provision. Today, we'll be looking at chapter 23 in the book of Leviticus as we explore these appointed festivals and discover the meaning behind each of them. We'll take a closer look at the Festival of Tabernacles, a joyful celebration that called God's people to remember how he faithfully provided for them during their wilderness journey and to rejoice in his continued presence and blessing.

Join us as Ben Cachiaras, lead pastor of Mountain Christian Church in Joppa, Maryland, helps us discover that remembering what God has done in the past strengthens our faith to trust him with the future. Here's Ben to share more.

Ben Cachiaras: We're in a series called Hot Mess, Holy God, and it's a dive into the third book of the Bible, which is Leviticus. Today we come to chapter 23, verse one. The Lord called, saying, "Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, 'These are my appointed festivals, which you are to proclaim as official days and sacred assemblies.'" God was saying to the people, we're going to have to set some special times aside that are marked on your calendar because I don't want you squeezing me out of your life.

I don't want you getting so busy that you forget about me. We're going to set some things up on the calendar so when you get there, you step back, stop, remember, reset, refocus, and put me first. There's a whole series of annual holidays and celebrations that God ordained for them to put him first. Chapter 23 tells about them; in fact, it describes seven special holiday observances.

If you notice, if you've read through this stuff, you might have noticed the number seven is pretty significant here. It's very prominent. For the Hebrew mind, the number seven was the number of completion, perfection, and wholeness. Seven represented even holiness. You see it a lot in Scripture. God created in six days, and when did he rest? On the seventh day. At the top of the list is the Sabbath.

Remember the Sabbath day. It was a weekly time to knock it off, stop working, step back, and make some space for God to rest, eat some good food, be with family, worship, and fill your soul up again so you're ready to go. This is one that we should make sure you figured out a way to get into your life. We live in a society now with the way phones and work are, and it's possible to never be off. When that happens, it isn't just that I'm burnt out; it's frying and robbing your soul.

There's something bad about that. You need not just to take a break or a vacation. We're not talking about veging out with Netflix. We're talking about stopping work and having some intentional time to step away to rest, refresh, eat some good food, play, laugh, enjoy, reconnect, look at something that isn't on a screen, and worship God. Let's quickly see the rest of them.

The next was the Passover. Notice it's in the first month, but it's on the 14th day. Fourteen divided by two is seven, so two sevens here. Passover was a special day where they would get together and remember the time when they were back in Egypt as slaves and God sent the plague of the firstborn. God said, don't worry. You take a perfect, unblemished lamb, and you spread the blood of that lamb on the door of your house so the death angel will pass over. That's exactly what happened. God provided, and they had to remember that.

Every one of these festivals that have been in existence for thousands of years in the Jewish culture points to Jesus, and Jesus fulfilled every one. He is our Sabbath. We find our ultimate rest in Jesus. It was at the Feast of Passover that Jesus made it clear, "I am the Passover Lamb, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world." The blood of that lamb is on the door of your heart and mine if we're in Christ, and that's what allows sin and death to pass over us. Christ is our Passover Lamb sacrificed for us.

Then comes the Feast of Unleavened Bread. What that meant was for seven days they would remove all the leaven from their home. It was a symbolic way to picture getting sin out of their life because leaven was a symbol of sin. Even Jesus referred to that; a little bit of leaven can mess up the whole loaf. As they ate their bread without yeast, it symbolized a life without corruption. This is the very feast that's going on when Jesus was crucified.

The one who led this perfectly spotless, clean, completely sinless life, a life without leaven, then his body was placed uncontaminated into the tomb during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. How beautiful it is that the Bread of Life that he was, without any leaven of sin, still rose. I think that's profound.

Exactly seven weeks after that came the next festival. It was called the Feast of Firstfruits. God directed them that the first sign of harvest—you get a little bit of fruit, you get a sheaf of grain, or something that comes that is like a sign that the harvest is coming—you give that to me first off the top. First and best go to me. Don't be giving me your leftovers after you take care of all your taxes and expenses. Prove that I'm worth your first and best.

God also made a promise in the firstfruits. He said that first bit of fruit is a promise from me that more will follow, that you will have plenty of provision, and the firstfruit shows more will come behind it. Jesus rose from the dead on the day of Firstfruits. Easter morning was God's way of saying, I gave you my first and best, and it's a promise that he will bring in a harvest of other resurrected people. Even the apostle Paul references this. He says when Christ rose, it was the firstfruits of resurrection, meaning you and I are going to rise just like that one day.

Then after Passover, you count off seven weeks. Seven weeks takes you to the Feast of Weeks. Seven weeks is about 50 days, which is why in New Testament times they called this Pentecost because "penta" in Greek means 50th. It was a big festival, and here's what they did at Pentecost. They celebrated and remembered when God loved them enough to send the Ten Commandments and write them on stone so they would know how to live. Fifty days after the resurrection of Jesus, they're all gathered for the day of Pentecost, and that's when God showed up and blessed everyone with his Spirit on all of us. He wrote his law on human hearts, not on stone anymore. It's the day the church was born.

About four months later, in the seventh month, the most sacred month of their year, they had three special celebrations. Chapter 23 tells about one called the Feast of Trumpets. This was the first day of the seventh month, and they just had a festive time where they blew trumpets and blasted them around with a huge fanfare. It eventually became their civil New Year, which is why today it's called Rosh Hashanah, which just means head of the new year. Paul later said, when Jesus returns, it's going to be like that.

The trumpet is going to blast, and it's going to be bigger than anything you saw. In fact, the trump will resound, the Lord will descend, and it will be well with my soul. That helped them get ready for the great Day of Atonement just a few days later, which is still the high point of the spiritual year for the Jewish community, otherwise known as Yom Kippur. That was followed by the climactic culminating event of their year, their Thanksgiving festival called the Feast of Tabernacles, or Feast of Booths, or Feast of Tents.

This was the feast of the little dwellings, the feast of the little shelters, the feast of the little booths or makeshift temporary huts. God said, I want every family to build one of these temporary little tabernacles and live in it for seven days of the festival. They were little lean-tos. They were made of branches or sticks or things they could find, fabric, cloth, whatever they cobbled together where they would then hang out in this thing for seven days and celebrate. Remember, some of them had pretty decent houses back in Canaan by now, so this is a big deal to travel in a caravan all the way to Jerusalem, camp out, leave behind their comfy bed, and go out there with the bugs and the dirt and camp out.

Leviticus 23:42 says, "You shall dwell in tabernacles, or booths, or tents for seven days. All who are native Israelites shall do it, that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of Egypt. I am the Lord your God." God is saying, I want you to remember when you guys were back in Egypt, you really lived in one of these, but I rescued you. He knew that would be good for them to remember God's blessings and be thankful. We need perspective, don't we?

They traveled by the thousands to Jerusalem, and then they would go make their little tents. It reminds me when I was a youth pastor, I used to take a bunch of kids to this outdoor Christian music festival. It was like 10,000 people, and we would live for a few days in tents in this huge open field lined with porta-potties. Music playing, Frisbees flying, concerts going day and night; it was like a cool little Christian Woodstock, if there ever could be such a thing. That's kind of what the Feast of Tabernacles felt like for seven days.

They left behind their comfy stuff and they lived in these camping-kind-of temporary conditions, reminding themselves that they were totally dependent on God for everything, that he had rescued them, that they would remember that and they would have a happy Thanksgiving. In the same way that if you've ever been on a mission trip or something and you slept on the floor, or you drive by and you see someone living in a cardboard hut, and then you think of the blessing that you have, that perspective helps you, and it helped them.

Then on the eighth day, God said, now it's time to party. We've been remembering and thanking, and now it's just time to celebrate. It was a big blowout and a real big celebration. A lot of people don't understand today that God loves to party. We've taken the word "party" and it's become kind of like a naughty word. When you think about the times you've been through and God has rescued you and what he's done for you, you're going to be a woo-hoo kind of Christian. That was the Feast of Tabernacles. It's what God wanted. It was gratitude in tents, and you could call it intense thanks.

When it comes to really remembering what God's done and counting your blessings, we have these short-term little memories, and we get amnesia. It's why we're not very grateful sometimes. The more you can stop and think and remember and bring stuff to mind, the more grateful you will be and the better it is for you and the better it is for God. Do it, God says. I'm going to make you build a little hut to do it. He's done so much. He's so faithful. He's rescued you. He's waited on you. He's forgiven you. He's been patient with you. He saves you. He came through for you. Wake up and remember it. That's the point.

God says today, you don't have to build a little thing like this anymore, but God still wants to call us together and stop and think and remember and thank God for all he's done in the past. Do you think you need to do more of that? For them, they had a long list; so do you. They remembered how they were scared to death that one time chased out of Egypt by the armies of Pharaoh, coming up against the Red Sea, them behind them. They were stuck, no place to go. There was no way, and then God made a way, opened the Red Sea and got them through.

Remember not long after that, you were out there in the desert and you started whining about how you didn't have any water and you wished you could just go back to Egypt? Remember what God did? He brought water from a rock, from a rock. Remember what happened after that? You got hungry out there and you got all afraid and negative and pessimistic and said, we're starving. God didn't smack you upside the head; he gave you manna every day on the ground to eat.

Remember what happened after that? You got so sick of the manna because you had it every day. You had manna sandwiches, you had manna hot dish, you had manna pancakes, you had manna-cotta, you had manna everything. What did God do? He gave you quail, fresh meat to eat. So you go into that little booth and you stop whining and you start remembering and you give thanks. Can we just take a moment? Can you just make a little booth right where you are and go in it right now? Let's just go in there.

Can you just think of one time when you were really stuck and God came through and just say thank you to God right now? Can you think of one blessing in your life that you would just want to name for God and thank him for it? Every blessing you ever had is from God. That one time when there was no way and God made a way—stop and thank God. It's a good lesson for all of us to learn to see our life as a gift and to make any space you're in your own little thanksgiving booth.

So be thankful. We so badly need these moments because we are so forgetful. That's why Jesus fulfilled this feast and festival. You don't have to observe it or build anything if you don't want to, but Jesus actually gave us a new festival, a new feast to observe. He borrowed the same language from the Feast of Tabernacles. He said it's a time to remember and a time to give thanks. We call it communion, and he told us to celebrate it every week. Jesus was observing that same formula from the Feast of Tabernacles when he did it.

He said, this is a meal. This is a time and a place to step back and give thanks and to remember when you were stuck, dead in your sins, Christ came and died for the ungodly and loved us. The Feast of Tabernacles was beautiful because it helped them remember what God had done and to give thanks. Here's another reason it was beautiful. Because it helped them also not just remember what God had done in the past, but to reach out for God in the present moment and say, "God, I need you right now to be our help."

These fragile temporary shelters were a visible picture of their dependence on God for everything. Part of what the Feast of Tabernacles was about was about crying out to God saying, we need you now. Come help us, save us in this moment. One of the traditions of the festival was they would sing what's called Hallel Psalms. There's a group of Psalms called the Hallel Psalms. You might recognize that word "hallel" from the word "hallelujah." It just means "Praise the Lord." Psalm 113 to 118 are what they would sing.

They would cry out to God. Their favorite was Psalm 118:25. "Please, Lord, save us," it says. "Please, Lord, give us success. Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord." They would shout this. That expression, "God help us, God save us," was shortened to one simple word: Hosanna. Hoshana. God save us. So, are you following me now? On the Feast of Tents or Booths, they would be marching around singing this song. Verse 40 says they would take palm branches, and wave them around before the Lord as they sang "Hosanna, Hosanna, God is awesome, he's our Savior."

That very tradition is the day we remember when Jesus made his triumphal entry into Jerusalem. When they saw him, see if any of this sounds familiar. Mark 11:8-10. Many in the crowd, when they saw Jesus, they spread leafy branches they had cut in the fields. Jesus was in the center of that procession and people all around him shouting, "Praise God! Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord!" They're quoting from Psalm 118, reciting the very Hosanna ritual from the Feast of Tabernacles. They're not making up something new; they're saying in a fresh way, "We need you, God." And maybe this Jesus is the way that he will meet our need.

But wait, there's more. There was another part of the feast that was fulfilled. People now are sleeping in tents all around Jerusalem every morning during this. The way they would wake up in the morning is the priest would get a shofar, which was a ram's horn, and would blow that shofar and start the celebration. When everyone gathered, then it was time for the water drawing ritual. The priest would take an empty pitcher and carry it around because it was a reminder of how their lives without God were empty and how much they needed him.

They would quote several different scriptures. One of them was Isaiah chapter 12, which says, "See, God has come to save me. I will trust in him and I will not be afraid. The Lord God is my strength and my song; he's given me victory." Then it would say this: "With joy you will drink deeply from the fountain of salvation." A water reference. Then they would shout from Psalm 36, "Let them drink from your river of delights, for you are the fountain of life. Come, everyone who is thirsty, come to the waters, and God will satisfy you."

They had this beautiful symbolism that water would fill empty pitchers like us with waters of refreshment and help us today. The priest would go to the pool of Siloam and would dip that empty pitcher, plunging it into the waters there and hold it up, read these scriptures, and then pour it out as a way of showing how we long for God to fill us up as well. They longed for a Messiah to come and refresh us, a Messiah who could fulfill our longings and really give us everything we long for. Then they'd be quiet and personally reflect on all the ways that we long for God to come and to refresh us, and all you'd hear is the pouring of the water.

They did that ritual every day for seven days. But on the seventh day, which was the climactic culminating day of the feast, it was super intense, very focused. The priest would do it again, and we would all lean in with a longing for how much we need God to come and fill us up. It happened that way every single year for hundreds and hundreds of years except for that one time, that one time when Jesus showed up.

He steps into the middle of this ceremony and check out what happened. John 7:37 explains it. On the last day, at the climax of the festival, that moment right there, Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, "Anyone who's thirsty, you can come to me! Anyone who believes in me, you can come and drink!" Just as the Scriptures declare, rivers of living water will flow from your heart. Jesus is saying, I am that living water, and I'm the thing that can truly satisfy you. If you just come to me, I'll put springs of living water in you that will never go dry.

We don't have a priest blow a shofar and pour water anymore, but I promise you that is very much the message Jesus wants to get across to every one of us today. To every one of us who knows there's got to be more in life than what the American dream is trying to sell us. For people who know that they just want to hear Jesus say, come to me. Come to Jesus to refresh and fill you for everything you're facing today.

Because we try to satisfy our longings in so many ways. We have all this unquenchable thirst for more, for success, to be accepted, to fit in, to belong, all of this stuff. And we obsess on our money and our houses and our kids, and our mental health is collapsing, and people are lonelier and more exhausted and angry and divided and empty than ever. Jesus says to you today, isn't it time for you to come to me and let me really just fill you? What part of your life is empty and dry because you've been trying to do it yourself? Can you just hear Jesus say come to me today? Let me put some waters that will never run dry in your life.

Acappella Ministries: Thank you God for your word. Thank you God for my heart is stirred. Thank you Father for family and for those who share your word with me. Thank you God for the love you have shown, for your love, thank you God for the entrance to the city above. Thank you God for your son for your son, now our hearts are filled with praise. Thank you God for my life, thank you God for peace of mind daily and weekly free from care. If this world should end you will be there. Thank you God for the love you have shown, for your love, thank you God for the entrance to the city above. Thank you God for your son for your son, now our hearts are filled with praise. Thank you God, with our lips we praise your name. Thank you God.

Aaron Brockett: How about you? Have you taken time to remember all that God has done for you? I'm reminded in the book of Joshua, chapter four, after God led his people safely across the Jordan River, he instructed them to gather 12 stones from the riverbed and build a memorial. Whenever future generations saw those stones, they would ask what they meant, creating an opportunity to tell the story of God's faithfulness.

So what are your stones of remembrance? What reminds you of God's grace, his provision, and his faithfulness in your own life? Perhaps it's sharing communion with your church family, keeping a journal of answered prayers, or simply setting aside time to thank him. Whatever it looks like, be intentional about remembering.

Our thanks to Ben Cachiaras for that powerful teaching and our thanks as well to Acappella Ministries for their music of worship. If you'd like to hear today's message again or listen to previous programs, visit us at thechristianshour.org. You can also find The Christian's Hour wherever you listen to podcasts.

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