Many of us have seen the movie, The Ten Commandments. If we haven’t seen the movie, we have at least heard that phrase. Moses was given the 10 Commandments of God after he led the Israelites out of Egypt. What many of us don’t realize is that God spoke with Moses for 40 days and gave him all of His Laws. They can all be found in the books of Exodus and Leviticus if you’d like to check them out.
God’s law is divided into three parts. The 10 Commandments were the base and they relate to how to live spiritual and moral lives before God. The civil law relates to governing the people and the ceremonial law describes the building of the tabernacle and how to worship God.
What we want to look at today is a ceremonial law. In Leviticus 23 God sets forth specific times of the year that He wants His people to stop everything and come before Him. There are 7 of these times and they are often referred to as Feasts of the Lord. The 7th of these is called The Feast of Tabernacles. Tabernacle, in the historic sense, is simply a temporary dwelling, much like what the Israelites may have lived in as they sojourned in the desert those long 40 years. He asked the Israelites to build these small booth like huts and dwell in them once a year for 7 days.
Why would God want us to do that? He wanted Israel to remember that it was Him who brought them out of Egypt. He wanted them … and us … to celebrate and rejoice that He is the God who loves us. He loved the Israelites enough to rescue them from Egyptian bondage. He loves us enough to rescue us from sin and eternal damnation.
So I don’t know about y’all, but to me that’s worth setting aside a specific week every year to really consider all that He has done for me, all that He has blessed me with and all that He has promised me. Let’s celebrate our God this year! If any of this sparked your interest, we sincerely invite you to join us on Sunday morning at 10:55 a.m. in the sanctuary (964 W. Hwy 190) or on Facebook for our live-stream of Pastor Ann’s message. She’ll explain it much better than this, I promise!