TYPOLOGY
OF THE FEAST OF
TABERNACLES
We conclude this study of the REDEMPTIVE typology with the
Feast of Tabernacles (which here includes the 8th day or Last
Great Feast Day). As in previous studies I will be quoting from
the book "The Feasts of the Lord" by Robert Thompson. All
emphasis is mine unless otherwise stated.
QUOTE:
" The seventh aspect of redemption is the consummation, the
'mark,' the completion of God's work. We have always assumed that
redemption, or salvation, is an open-ended process that goes on
and on with no certain finish. BUT SUCH IS NOT THE CASE. God
works for six days, and THEN HE RESTS. God's workings are always
clear-cut, decisive, well-planned out and carried through to
perfection. God is not vague; He is forthright and precise in all
that He does. His work is PERFECT. Redemption has a specific
BEGINNING, a specific PROGRAM, and a specific CONCLUSION.......
The longer and closer is our association with Him, the more
we will become LIKE HIM. Because of the unspeakable greatness of
God, we can say that this program of transformation will go on
throughout eternity, as we become more and more like Him in
every way. However such transformation is our growth as sons of
God, it is NOT the PROCESS of redemption. Redemption has a
definite BEGINNING, a definite PROGRAM, and a definite FINISH.
There is no silver in the new heaven and earth reign of Christ,
indicating that redemption has ceased, and the STATUS and ROLE of
each of the creatures of God has been determined.
Let us review the FOUR viewpoints of the SEVENTH aspect of
redemption as taken from the four MAJOR TYPES: (1) God rested
from all His works; (2) rest in the land of promise; (3) the
mercy seat (Propitiatory Cover); and (4) the feast of
Tabernacles. The 'rest of God' is the subject of the fourth
chapter of Hebrews, and these four types speak to us of the rest
of God. The rest of God is the fullness of the plan of
redemption, and is the 'mark' toward which Paul was pressing. The
knowledge that there is indeed a goal at which we can aim
strengthens our desire to press on in Christ. There is a FINISH
LINE. We are GOING SOMEWHERE!
We find that after God had created the heaven and the earth,
the vegetation, the heavenly bodies, and the inhabitants of the
earth, He pronounced them to be 'very good' - a fine, acceptable
piece of work. He approved completely of His entire creation.
Then God SET APART the SEVENTH DAY as being HIS OWN, and He
SANCTIFIED it. His work was ENDED, and God RESTED from all of His
work of creation.......
On the SIXTH day of creation, God made man in His own image.
Adam and Eve were in the image of God in the sense that they
had....within themselves the potential to communicate with God
and to GROW INTO His image.......
Then we see Jesus. Here is the person who is in the image of
God.......in the EXPRESS IMAGE of the Father in EVERY WAY - in
Spirit, in soul, and now in His body. He is the Son of God, the
image of the Father in grace and truth.
So when God said His work was completed, and He sanctified
the seventh day and rested in it, being entirely pleased with His
work, He was acting a TIMELESS VISION. God's way is to call those
things which are not as though they were. He has pronounced us
glorified in Christ Jesus (Rom.8:17), and yet we are NOT
glorified as YET........
The sixth day of creation is BEING carried out. When you are
in the IMAGE of God in Christ, then you will ENTER into His
rest.......
Jesus Christ came to earth, and was made perfect through the
things which He suffered. Then God caused a 'deep sleep'
(Calvary), to speak in a figure, to fall upon Christ. Out from
the person of Christ God drew His body and precious blood. Upon
this body and blood God is constructing the wife of the Lamb. The
wife of the Lamb is being constructed from ordinary saved people
of the earth, but what is being constructed has nothing to do
with the earth, or with our flesh-and-blood, carnal life. What is
being constructed is from heaven just as Christ is from heaven.
The church is not born from human blood, or from the will of the
flesh, or from the will of man. The church is being constructed
by the Holy Spirit from the body and blood of Christ. The church
is of heaven, just as Christ is of heaven. It is Jesus Christ and
His bride who are the fulfilment of God's edict, ' Let us make
mankind in Our image, after Our likeness.'
The work of building up the church into the wife of the Lamb
is going on right now......We see, then, that the sixth day of
creation, in the sense in which we are speaking, is still going
on.......
The 'rest' of the land of promise is the main type used in
the discussion in Hebrews 3 and 4.......the entrance into the
land of promise is symbolic of our rest in God - that rest
which comes when we are made in His image.......
We enter into the promised land by means of WAR. God gives
the land to us as soon as we leave Egypt, that is, as soon as we
come out of the spirit of this age. But first we have to go
through the school of the wilderness, and then we have to fight
our way into the land.......
Who is the enemy against whom we are to fight? It is Satan,
the god of this world. We wrestle not against flesh and blood,
but against the wicked lords of darkness who control the actions
of people upon earth. God's kingdom is settled forever in heaven,
but it is the intention of God that His kingdom come to earth,
and that His King, the Lord Jesus Christ, rule upon the earth.
The EARTH IS THE LAND OF PROMISE. We are being PREPARED to
serve God as kings and priests in the EARTH. The MILLENNIUM, in
particular, will see great impetus given to the setting up of the
KINGDOM OF GOD IN THE EARTH. Finally, when all rebellion has been
put down, the NEW heaven and earth reign of Christ will come, and
the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the earth rather
than in heaven.......
Our first battle is with the LUSTS of our own body and soul,
with Satan acting to increase the lusts which we are fighting. We
learn the ways of the Lord by going to war against our own
nature.......If, through the ability which God gives, we can make
a success of overcoming in our personal warfare, we will enter
into rest, into our own Canaan.......Our time of PROVING is RIGHT
NOW. If we go to battle in the Lord right now, today, and gain
the VICTORY through the BLOOD OF THE LAMB, through the
mighty testimony of the Holy Spirit through us, and through
loving not our own lives unto the death, then we will be prepared
to be one of the Lord's mighty men, and to be glorified with Him
at His appearing in glory with the holy angels.
There is no way to enter the land of promise, the rest of
God, other than through war. The enemy is formidable, as we have
said. But our God is more formidable; and if we follow the Spirit
of the Lord, we have no fear.......
The term 'mercy seat' is somewhat of a misnomer. The word
mercy should be propitiation, or atonement; the word seat should
be cover, or lid. It is the Propitiatory Cover, or Lid of
Atonement, if you will. It was the lid, or cover, of the Ark of
the Covenant. And God did not sit on it; He dwelled between the
Cherubim.......
The Propitiatory Cover was solid gold, speaking of the fact
that the SEVENTH aspect of redemption has to do with the
POSSESSION of GOD HIMSELF. The goal of the Christian redemption
is GOD HIMSELF, NOTHING LESS.......He is the END of our
redemption, our REST is in Him, and His REST is in us.
The Propitiatory Cover and the two covering cherubim were
beaten out of one slab of gold. God dwelled between the cherubim
of glory.......
When we come into the express image of Christ, we will have
had wrought in us the THREE BASIC elements of His nature. The
three basic elements of His nature are typified by the three
pieces within the Ark of the Covenant: (1) the tables of stone
on which were inscribed the Ten Commandments (these were the
covenant, the testimony, from which the ark derived its name);
(2) the jar of manna; and (3) Aaron's rod which had budded. So
then we must have these three elements wrought within us: (1)
the moral law of God's righteousness and holiness; (2) the
substance of Christ in His body and blood, which is our life; and
(3) the resurrection power of the Holy Spirit.
As soon as we have been constructed into the Ark of the
Covenant, so to speak, we are ready for the fullness of God to
settle down to rest in us. The fullness of God is represented by
the sold gold Propitiatory Cover, with its two winged cherubim.
This means that as soon as we come into the moral image of
Christ, are of the essence of His being, and are moved by the
same Holy Spirit which moves Him, then we will receive, as
a crown of glory upon us, the fullness of God. The two cherubim
speak of the fullness of His divine glory and power. The Ark of
the Covenant must be built up within us, as we have said. But the
ark will not be complete until the glory of the Lord settles down
to rest over it. This is the REST of God.
The SEVENTH aspect of the Levitical convocations is the
feast of TABERNACLES. Tabernacles represents the fullness of the
indwelling of God in us. It is God's purpose to DWELL
(Tabernacle) AMONG THE PEOPLE OF THE EARTH. God is BUILDING HIS
CHURCH, THE BODY OF CHRIST, FOR THAT VERY REASON - that He might
have a dwelling place in which and through which He can abide
among the nations of the earth.
The week of TABERNACLES was a season of the GREATEST JOY.
The Israelites were commanded to dwell in booths. The dwelling in
booths typifies the dwelling of God in His people, and their
abiding in Him. 'Abide in Me,' Jesus said. If we abide in Him and
He abides in us, we will bring forth much fruit. Abiding in
Christ is the meaning of the booths.
TABERNACLES was the celebration of the conclusion of the
harvest. In the Tabernacle experience, every last particle of our
being will have been harvested unto the Lord - body, soul, and
spirit. There will be no part of us that has not died and been
resurrected. NOTHING OF THE OLD WILL REMAIN. EVERY ELEMENT OF OUR
PERSONALITY WILL BE ABLE TO DWELL IN THE FIRE OF GOD WITH NO
HARM.......The term resurrection means that something has died,
and God HAS RAISED IT UP AGAIN. So it will be true of every inch
of our person that it has DIED in the Lord, and has been RAISED
to newness of LIFE by the Lord......."
So we end the quotes from the book "The Feasts of the Lord"
by Robert Thompson. Concerning the subject of redemption in type
through the Feasts and Levitical system. Some very fine insights
worth reading and studying and meditating on from time to time.
Mr. Thompson's chapter on "The PERSON and WORK of the Lord
Jesus Christ" as typified in the SEVEN Feasts of God, is also
very illuminating and instructional. I will bring you some of his
comments on that aspect of the Feasts, in the future, God
willing.
God's plan of human redemption to the glory and likeness of
His Son (1 John 3:1-3) will not be completed and finished until
every last single person who has ever been form into human life,
has had a clear calling and opportunity for salvation. The
feasts of Tabernacles lasted SEVEN DAYS only, yet at the end of
this feast, on the EIGHTH DAY was a Holy Sabbath. It was (by many
proofs, as shown to us through the writings of the Christian Jew,
Alfred Edersheim) a SEPARATE feast, a one day festival. The plan
of redemption is not finished and complete until the GREAT WHITE
THRONE JUDGMENT has taken place, mentioned in the 20th chapter of
Revelation.
For the meaning and purpose of this LAST GREAT FEAST DAY I
ask the reader to study my articles called "The Meaning of the
Great White Throne Judgment" and "The Truth about John 7:37."
When all the Feasts of the Lord have been fulfilled as
pertaining to redemption of the people of the earth, then the New
heavens and New earth wherein God the Father will dwell with His
glorified sons and daughters, shall become a reality, and all
that is written and promised in the 21st and 22nd chapters of
Revelation, shall come to pass.
Praise the Lord for wonderful as His works towards those who
fear and love Him, with all their heart, and with all their soul,
and with all their mind.
............................
Written October 1998
All articles and studies by Keith Hunt may be copied, published,
e-mailed, and distributed as led by the Spirit. Mr. Hunt trusts
nothing will be changed without his consent.
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