The Writings of Calvin Lashway

The Feast of Rejoicing

Calvin Lashway

December 2008 Revised

In Leviticus chapter twenty-three, we find a list of the religious festivals God wants us to observe.¹ These festivals are a time for rejoicing and celebration. When we examine the instructions on how to observe the Feast of Tabernacles, we find something interesting; we find more instructions and references to rejoicing and celebrating this festival, then any other festival.²

In examining the scriptures, we will see the Feast of Tabernacles is a time for celebration, and the coming Kingdom of God will also be a time of great rejoicing. The joy we experience while observing the festival, gives us a foretaste of the coming Kingdom. When mankind, nature and even God will celebrate and rejoice.

Rejoice and Celebrate the Feast of the Lord

According to the Old Testament, the Feast of Tabernacles occurs after completion of the fall harvest (Deuteronomy 16:13; Exodus 23:16; 34:22). With God commanding observance of the festival with celebration and rejoicing:

On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the produce of the land, you shall celebrate³ the feast of the LORD seven days. On the first day shall be a solemn rest, and on the eighth day shall be a solemn rest. And you shall take on the first day the fruit of splendid trees, branches of palm trees and boughs of leafy trees and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God seven days. You shall celebrate it as a feast to the LORD for seven days in the year. It is a statute forever throughout your generations; you shall celebrate it in the seventh month (Leviticus 23:39-41 All scriptures quoted are from the English Standard Version unless otherwise stated).

“On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work. Celebrate a festival to the LORD for seven days” (Numbers 29:12 New International Version NIV).

You shall celebrate the Feast of Booths seven days after you have gathered in from your threshing floor and your wine vat; and you shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter and your male and female servants and the Levite and the stranger and the orphan and the widow who are in your towns. Seven days you shall celebrate a feast to the LORD your God in the place which the LORD chooses, because the LORD your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you will be altogether joyful. (Deuteronomy 16:14-15 New American Standard Bible).

Not only are we to rejoice, but so are our dependents, and the less fortunate like widows and orphans. We have a duty to make sure they can also rejoice during the festival (Deuteronomy 16:14).

The Jewish exiles who returned from Babylon observed the Feast of Tabernacles with great joy. The people “built themselves booths on their own roofs, in their courtyards” or in the public courts, “and their joy was very great.” “They celebrated the feast for seven days,” each day reading “from the Book of the Law of God.” “And on the eighth day, in accordance with the regulation, there was an assembly” (Nehemiah 8:13-18 New International Version).

Psalm 81:1-3 states: “Sing for joy to God our strength; Shout joyfully to the God of Jacob. Raise a song, strike the timbrel, The sweet sounding lyre with the harp. Blow the trumpet at the new moon, At the full moon, on our feast day” (New American Standard Bible). These verses could apply to the Feast of Unleavened Bread, Feast of Trumpets and the Feast of Tabernacles. Both the Feasts of Unleavened Bread and Tabernacles begin on a full moon. The Feast of Trumpets falls on the first day of seventh month, a new moon day. This Psalm is telling us the festivals of God, including the Feast of Tabernacles, are a time of celebration.

According to Zechariah, during messianic age, mankind will celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles. People will travel to Jerusalem every year “to worship the King, the LORD Almighty, and to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles.” However, God punishes those nations who “do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles” (Zechariah 14:16-18 New International Version).

Rejoicing During the Millennium and Beyond

As we have seen, a theme of the Feast of Tabernacles is rejoicing and celebration. This festival points to a future time when the whole world will rejoice and celebrate. The following scriptures from the book of Isaiah describe this millennial reign of Jesus and His saints (Revelation 20:4-6). An age of great rejoicing, gladness, singing and celebrating.

Mankind Rejoicing

Isaiah 12:1-3

During the coming messianic age, there is rejoicing over the salvation God makes available to mankind:

You will say in that day: “I will give thanks to you, O LORD, for though you were angry with me, your anger turned away, that you might comfort me. “Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the LORD GOD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.” With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.

Isaiah 12:4-6

The millennium will be a time of praising and singing to God for His glorious deeds. The inhabitants of Zion will cry out and shout for joy because the “Holy One” (Jesus) is in their midst:

And you will say in that day: “Give thanks to the LORD, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples, proclaim that his name is exalted. Sing praises to the LORD, for he has done gloriously; let this be made known in all the earth. Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.”

Isaiah 25:6-9

The age to come is a time of feasting and rejoicing over the LORD’S salvation:

On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined. And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken. It will be said on that day, “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the LORD; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”

Isaiah 26:19

After Jesus’ return, those resurrected from dead will sing to God with joy:

Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy! For your dew is a dew of light, and the earth will give birth to the dead.

Isaiah 29:17-21

The messianic kingdom will be a time of joy for the meek and exultation for the poor. They will see desolate Lebanon become a forest again. They will witness the deaf being able to hear, the blind being able see. They will know that evildoers are no more:

Is it not yet a very little while until Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be regarded as a forest? In that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see. The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the LORD, and the poor among mankind shall exult in the Holy One of Israel. For the ruthless shall come to nothing and the scoffer cease, and all who watch to do evil shall be cut off, who by a word make a man out to be an offender, and lay a snare for him who reproves in the gate, and with an empty plea turn aside him who is in the right.

Isaiah 35:5-6

The world to come will be a time of healing. The lame will walk, and leap like deer. Besides describing their recovery, this may also show how excited they are to have their health restored. The same with those who could not speak. Once healed, they begin to sing. It is likely that some of this singing is out of joy and happiness for what God has done:

Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. For waters break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert.

Isaiah 35:8-10

During the millennial age there will be a highway called the “Way of Holiness.” The spiritually unclean will not travel on this road. Only the spiritually redeemed and ransomed will go up to Zion on this highway. They will come with singing, joy and gladness, as sorrow and sighing flee away:

And a highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Way of Holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it. It shall belong to those who walk on the way; even if they are fools, they shall not go astray. No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it; they shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there. And the ransomed of the LORD shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

Isaiah 51-10-11

After Israel and Judah’s liberation from captivity at Jesus’ second coming (Isaiah 27:12-13; 11:11-16). They will enter the Promised Land with singing, joy and gladness, with sadness being something of the past:

Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, who made the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over? And the ransomed of the LORD shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

Isaiah 56:3-4, 6-8

During the millennium, non-Israelites will come to the Temple in Jerusalem to worship, and God will make them joyful:

Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the LORD say, “The LORD will surely separate me from his people”; and let not the eunuch say, “Behold, I am a dry tree.” For thus says the LORD. . . . “And the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD, and to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it, and holds fast my covenant—these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.” The Lord GOD, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, declares, “I will gather yet others to him besides those already gathered.”

Isaiah 61:10-11

The messianic kingdom will be a time when people “will greatly rejoice in the LORD.” When “GOD will cause righteousness and praise to sprout up before all the nations”:

I will greatly rejoice in the LORD; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. For as the earth brings forth its sprouts, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up, so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to sprout up before all the nations.

Nature Rejoicing

The coming messianic age will be a time of rejoicing not only for mankind, but also figuratively for nature.

Isaiah 35:1-2

During the millennial age, even nature, will be glad and rejoice over its transformation. The deserts and wastelands will become beautiful and productive:

The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad; the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus; it shall blossom abundantly and rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the LORD, the majesty of our God.

Isaiah 49:13

Figuratively the heavens will sing, the Earth will be joyful, and the mountains will break into singing, because in the age to come, God comforts His people and has mercy on them:

Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth; break forth, O mountains, into singing! for the LORD has comforted his people and will have compassion on his afflicted.

Isaiah 51:3

Once physically restored in the world tomorrow, the land of Zion breaks forth with joy, gladness, thanksgiving and singing:

For the LORD comforts Zion; he comforts all her waste places and makes her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of song.

Isaiah 55:12-13

In the age to come nature will rejoice; “the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing” and “the trees of the field shall clap their hands”:

For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it shall make a name for the LORD, an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.

God Rejoicing

Finally, we see the joy God feels over the changes that occur to man and nature in the coming age.

Isaiah 62:1-5

In the millennium, God will delight in, and rejoice over Jerusalem, because of their righteous example to the rest of the world:

For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not be quiet, until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, and her salvation as a burning torch. The nations shall see your righteousness, and all the kings your glory, and you shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the LORD will give. You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God. You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate, but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Married; for the LORD delights in you, and your land shall be married. For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your sons marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.

Isaiah 65:17-19

God rejoices over Jerusalem, after His creation of the new heavens and new earth:

For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy, and her people to be a gladness. I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people; no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress.

Conclusion

In this study, we have seen the Feast of Tabernacles is a time for rejoicing. We have also seen the coming kingdom of God is a time of rejoicing. The joy we experience during the Feast, should give us a foretaste of the coming Kingdom. This will be a time when mankind, nature and even God will rejoice.