What was the Feast of Booths?

The Feast of Booths went by several names though Israel’s history: Feast of Booths, Feast of Tabernacles, Feast of Ingathering. It was a major cultural event celebrated every year in Israel beginning after the completion of grain threshing and pressing grapes, on the fifteenth day of Tishri (the seventh lunar month, which falls in late September to late October). By God’s command through Moses the feast was the last of the seven feasts described in the Pentateuch and one of the three great feast which the people were expected to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

Detailed instructions directed how the festival was supposed to be observed. It was a seven-day festival, with a Sabbath rest and sacred assembly on the first and eighth days. On the first day the people were to take branches from palms, willows, and other luxuriant trees and rejoice before the Lord. Then they were to take the branches and build booths in which to live for the week so their descendants would know that they lived in booths as they wandered through the desert when God brought them out of Egypt. Every seventh year, the Jubilee, the high priest was to read the law to the whole assembly of Israel. (Lexham Bible Dictionary)

It was in this context that Jesus would make bold proclamations about his authority (Jn 7:17), where he was from (Jn 7:29), and who he was (Jn 7:38). Join us this week as we look at Jesus and the Feast of Booths.

In Christ,

Chappy