Not only is today the first full day of fall (yay!), but this week also celebrates Sukkot or Feasts of Tabernacles September 20-27 on the Jewish calendar. It was a feast that Jesus, Paul, and the early church celebrated.
Chapter 23 of Leviticus
ends with explaining the Feast of Tabernacles, which memorializes the 40 years
of wandering before entering the Promised Land. However, there is also a New
Testament fulfillment as we look forward to putting aside our earthly “tabernacles”
of our physical bodies.
In 2 Peter 1:13-14,
Peter refers to our bodies as a tabernacle (or tent). “Yes, I think it is
right, as long as I am in this tent (tabernacle, KJV), to stir you up by
reminding you, knowing that shortly I must put off my tent, just as our Lord
Jesus Christ showed me.” (NKJV)
The Apostle
John also used the verb form of this word when he explained that Jesus, the
Word, “tabernacled” among us. “And the Word became flesh and pitched his
tent among us,” (Revised English Version). John again used tabernacles to look
forward in Revelation 7:15, 21:3, when God will “tabernacle” or dwell with
humanity.
Paul also carries
forward this analogy in 2 Corinthians 5:1-5, comparing our earthly tent to an
eternal house:
“For
we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a
building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2
For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation
which is from heaven, 3 if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not
be found naked. 4 For we who are in this tent groan, being
burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that
mortality may be swallowed up by life. 5 Now He who has prepared us
for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
The point? Twice in the last
week, I’ve spoken with unbelievers who question God’s goodness because
of the world’s badness. COVID, hurricanes in the Gulf, earthquakes in
Haiti, fires in California, none of these are surprises to God. But as Rick
Warren says on Day 6 of The Purpose Driven Life, “Life on earth
is a temporary assignment.”
Or as Jesus said, “In
the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the
world.” (John 16:33)
This is not our
home, we are aliens, pilgrims, strangers. We are just camping out in our tents,
waiting for our house to be built!
