Latest / The Bible Explained with Jenn Kokal / Nehemiah 8:13-18 - The Feast of Booths Fulfilled in Christ
Transcript
- 0:02Speaker 1: Life Audio. Hattie There, friends and faithful listeners, welcome to
- 0:12Speaker 1: the Bible Explain podcasts. On this lovely, lovely morning, the
- 0:16Speaker 1: weather has just been so pristine these past few days.
- 0:20Speaker 1: I am absolutely loving it. It's nice and toasty outside,
- 0:24Speaker 1: the sun is out. Then again, I am blessed with
- 0:26Speaker 1: air conditioning. In fact, I grew up without air conditioning
- 0:30Speaker 1: for my entire life. I never had it. And the
- 0:32Speaker 1: first year that we moved into this house, we also
- 0:35Speaker 1: didn't have air conditioning. But my husband was like, I
- 0:37Speaker 1: hate this. It was also a ridiculously hot summer the
- 0:41Speaker 1: year that we moved into this house, and our bedroom
- 0:44Speaker 1: it feels like it is like in the hottest part
- 0:45Speaker 1: of the house where there's like no airflow at all.
- 0:48Speaker 1: So my husband was dying all summer long, and so
- 0:51Speaker 1: we jumped to the gun and bought air conditioning. But
- 0:53Speaker 1: quite honestly, I am very comfortable in hot weather and
- 0:55Speaker 1: I very much love it. So tell me. I'd love
- 0:58Speaker 1: to hear about your guys tolerance to the weather. Do
- 1:02Speaker 1: you love hot weather, do you prefer cold weather, or
- 1:05Speaker 1: are you somewhere in the middle. I'd love to hear
- 1:06Speaker 1: about all of that. You can contact me via the
- 1:09Speaker 1: email address listed in the description of this episode. Tell
- 1:11Speaker 1: me what kind of weather you normally get and also
- 1:13Speaker 1: your tolerance to it. Now, today we are in the
- 1:16Speaker 1: Book of Nehemiah. It is Niamiah chapter seven or I'm
- 1:20Speaker 1: sorry eight, and we're gonna finish out the rest of
- 1:22Speaker 1: this chapter today talking about the feast of booths, and
- 1:26Speaker 1: I'm gonna give you some information on what the feast
- 1:28Speaker 1: of booths was historically, but also how Jesus fulfilled the
- 1:32Speaker 1: feast of booths. So we will be talking about this
- 1:34Speaker 1: portion in just one moment, but before that, please listen
- 1:38Speaker 1: to this quick sponsored ad. Thank you so much for
- 1:42Speaker 1: listening to that advertisement. And let's go ahead now and
- 1:44Speaker 1: turn to Namiah chapter eight thirteen through eighteen. Faithful listeners,
- 1:49Speaker 1: I'll be reading as I usually do from the web
- 1:52Speaker 1: or the World English Bible. Let's give reverence to God's
- 1:55Speaker 1: word together. On the second day, the heads of the
- 2:00Speaker 1: Father's households of all the people, the priests, and the
- 2:02Speaker 1: Levites were gathered together to Ezra the scribe to study
- 2:06Speaker 1: the words of the law. They found written in the
- 2:08Speaker 1: law how Yahweh had commanded by Moses that the children
- 2:11Speaker 1: of Israel should dwell in booths in the feast of
- 2:13Speaker 1: the seventh month, and that they should publish and proclaim
- 2:15Speaker 1: in all their cities and in Jerusalem, saying, go out
- 2:18Speaker 1: to the mountain and get all of branches, branches of
- 2:21Speaker 1: wild olive, myrtle branches, palm branches, and branches of thick trees,
- 2:25Speaker 1: to make temporary shelters. As it is written, So the
- 2:29Speaker 1: people went out and brought them and made themselves temporary shelters.
- 2:32Speaker 1: Everyone on the roof of his house, in their courts,
- 2:35Speaker 1: in the courts of God's House, in the wide place
- 2:37Speaker 1: of the water gate, and in the wide place of
- 2:39Speaker 1: Ephrium's gate. All the assembly of those who had come
- 2:42Speaker 1: back out of the captivity made temporary shelters and lived
- 2:45Speaker 1: in the temporary shelters. For since the days of Joshua,
- 2:48Speaker 1: the son of Nune to that day, the children of
- 2:51Speaker 1: Israel had not done. So there was very great gladness. Also,
- 2:55Speaker 1: day by day from the first day to the last day,
- 2:58Speaker 1: he read in the book of the Law of God.
- 3:00Speaker 1: They kept the feast seven days, and on the eighth
- 3:02Speaker 1: day was a solemn assembly according to the ordinance. So
- 3:08Speaker 1: what we just read about is a very special feast
- 3:11Speaker 1: in the Jewish calendar, and this was called the Feast
- 3:14Speaker 1: of Booths, or the Feast of Tabernacles, or the Feast
- 3:17Speaker 1: of in gathering, also known as soukote. Okay, so it's
- 3:21Speaker 1: got a lot of names for the same feast, but
- 3:24Speaker 1: this was one of the more joyous feasts in the
- 3:26Speaker 1: Jewish calendar. It was a longer feast as well. It
- 3:29Speaker 1: was for seven days, and it would end on the
- 3:31Speaker 1: eighth day after a solemn assembly. But this was one
- 3:35Speaker 1: of the few Jewish holidays which was a little bit
- 3:38Speaker 1: different than some of the others, where it actually encouraged
- 3:41Speaker 1: everybody to participate, even the foreigners that lived in the land,
- 3:45Speaker 1: whereas if you look at some of the other Jewish holidays,
- 3:48Speaker 1: God actually commanded that the foreigners, unless they essentially became Jewish,
- 3:53Speaker 1: they weren't supposed to celebrate the other holidays. In fact,
- 3:56Speaker 1: I just read about the Passover celebration in Exodus where
- 3:59Speaker 1: God specifically said the foreigner cannot eat of this unless
- 4:02Speaker 1: he becomes circumcised, so essentially, unless he starts truly following Yahweh,
- 4:07Speaker 1: then he can partake in the Lord's Passover. Similarly to
- 4:11Speaker 1: communion at church, you know, the pastor will generally ask
- 4:15Speaker 1: the audience if they are not saved, if they don't
- 4:18Speaker 1: believe in Jesus, to not partake in the communion because
- 4:22Speaker 1: it's supposed to be a solemn thing in remembrance of Jesus.
- 4:26Speaker 1: So same thing goes with Passover. And that was true
- 4:29Speaker 1: for a lot of the other Jewish feasts as well,
- 4:32Speaker 1: but not for the Feast of Booths. The Feast of
- 4:34Speaker 1: Booths was for everybody, And isn't it interesting that it
- 4:37Speaker 1: was one of the most joyous celebrations that all of
- 4:41Speaker 1: foreigners were allowed to partake in. There was solemn assemblies
- 4:45Speaker 1: associated with it, but overall it was to be a
- 4:48Speaker 1: joyful occasion to show the foreigners that God is fun
- 4:53Speaker 1: and he is joy, and He is happiness, and you
- 4:56Speaker 1: can partake of that every single day if you become
- 4:59Speaker 1: a Yahweh follower. Here's what Deuteronomy sixteen thirteen through seventeen
- 5:04Speaker 1: says about the Feast of Booths. It says, you shall
- 5:08Speaker 1: keep the feast of Booths for seven days. After you
- 5:10Speaker 1: have gathered in from your threshing floor and from your
- 5:13Speaker 1: wine press, you shall rejoice in your feast. You, your son,
- 5:17Speaker 1: your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, the levite,
- 5:19Speaker 1: to the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, who are
- 5:21Speaker 1: within your gates. You shall keep a feast to Yahweh
- 5:24Speaker 1: or God seven days in the place which Yahweh chooses,
- 5:27Speaker 1: because Yahweh or God will bless you in all your
- 5:30Speaker 1: increase and in all the work of your hands, and
- 5:32Speaker 1: you shall altogether be joyful. And I'm going to stop
- 5:35Speaker 1: right there, but you can see that this was a
- 5:38Speaker 1: joyous occasion. In fact, at two times Moses commands the
- 5:41Speaker 1: people to be joyful during this celebration. This was not
- 5:45Speaker 1: a solemn celebration. And so now in Nehemiah chapter eight,
- 5:49Speaker 1: are reading four today the people discover the feast of
- 5:52Speaker 1: booths for the first time. Remember what they were doing,
- 5:56Speaker 1: We talked about this on Monday. They were in Jerusalem
- 5:59Speaker 1: because the walls had just been built, and because they
- 6:02Speaker 1: were celebrating the feast of trumpets, which was the first
- 6:06Speaker 1: and second day of the month of September. So during
- 6:09Speaker 1: the feast of trumpets, they tell Ezra the scribe, They're like, hey,
- 6:12Speaker 1: bring out the law. Let us hear what it has
- 6:14Speaker 1: to say. And so that's what Ezra did. He brought
- 6:17Speaker 1: out the law and he taught it to the people,
- 6:19Speaker 1: and the Levites were helping people understand, you know, asking questions,
- 6:23Speaker 1: maybe translating it into the language that the people could understand,
- 6:27Speaker 1: just really making sure that the people had a good
- 6:29Speaker 1: grasp of what the law said. So afterward, the people
- 6:33Speaker 1: ended up being very sad because they realized that they
- 6:36Speaker 1: were not following any of the Old Testament laws. So
- 6:40Speaker 1: Nehemiah encouraged the people and he's like, no, today is
- 6:43Speaker 1: supposed to be a joyous celebration. You know, it's a
- 6:46Speaker 1: feast of trumpets. It's the Jewish civil New Year, and
- 6:49Speaker 1: this is a day to feast to Yahweh r God.
- 6:53Speaker 1: So go home in peace. So now it says on
- 6:56Speaker 1: the second day in verse thirteen, that the heads of
- 6:58Speaker 1: the father's households, of all people, the priests, and the
- 7:01Speaker 1: Levites were gathered together to Ezra the scribe to study
- 7:04Speaker 1: the words of the law. So it didn't end on
- 7:06Speaker 1: the first day. The people came back to hear more
- 7:09Speaker 1: because you know, the law is pretty big. You know,
- 7:12Speaker 1: it's the entire book of Leviticus and Deuteronomy, so I
- 7:15Speaker 1: can imagine it took some time to read and process everything,
- 7:18Speaker 1: especially if the people had questions and things like that.
- 7:21Speaker 1: So they came back the second day to understand more
- 7:25Speaker 1: about the law. So the Levites were gathered together to
- 7:28Speaker 1: Ezra the Scribe to study the words of the law.
- 7:30Speaker 1: And it says in verse fourteen that they found written
- 7:33Speaker 1: in the law how Yahweh had commanded by Moses that
- 7:36Speaker 1: the children of Israel should dwell in booths in the
- 7:39Speaker 1: feast of the seventh Month. It sounds kind of like
- 7:42Speaker 1: they are discovering this for the first time, especially considering
- 7:48Speaker 1: the fact if you jump down to verse seventeen, it
- 7:51Speaker 1: says since the days of Joshua, the Son of None
- 7:54Speaker 1: to that day, the children of Israel had not celebrated
- 7:57Speaker 1: this feast. So, for whatever reason, this feast just got
- 8:01Speaker 1: thrown by the wayside. Nobody was celebrating it, the most
- 8:05Speaker 1: joyous of all of the feasts. No one celebrated it.
- 8:09Speaker 1: And not even during the days of the Kings, when
- 8:12Speaker 1: the kings were, you know, making big religious reforms and
- 8:15Speaker 1: making sure that people were celebrating the passover correctly. Somehow
- 8:18Speaker 1: the feast of Booths was consistently missed, And you might
- 8:22Speaker 1: wonder why, and honestly I do too. This was before
- 8:26Speaker 1: the printing press. This was when the law was written
- 8:30Speaker 1: out on the scrolls, and it could be that some
- 8:33Speaker 1: of the scribes who knew how to read kind of
- 8:36Speaker 1: kept these things to themselves and didn't tell the people
- 8:39Speaker 1: about it for whatever reason, maybe out of laziness, maybe
- 8:42Speaker 1: out of control. It could be that some people knew
- 8:44Speaker 1: about the feast of booths and celebrated it, but it
- 8:47Speaker 1: was certainly not done on a wide scale. This was
- 8:51Speaker 1: the first time the people really understand about this. And
- 8:55Speaker 1: to give Ezra a little bit of credit, I mentioned
- 8:57Speaker 1: on Monday that I believe that he went back to
- 9:01Speaker 1: Persia after his first visit to Jerusalem. I don't think
- 9:05Speaker 1: he stayed, even though scripture does not specifically say that.
- 9:08Speaker 1: But Ezra, you can see, was a god fearing man,
- 9:11Speaker 1: and he was a very talented scribe as well. And
- 9:14Speaker 1: I imagine that Ezra knew about the Feast of Booths
- 9:16Speaker 1: because he probably studied it. And it could be that
- 9:19Speaker 1: because he was in Persia this whole time, he didn't
- 9:22Speaker 1: know that the people of Jerusalem didn't understand anything about
- 9:26Speaker 1: this feast. Maybe, or it could be that this is
- 9:29Speaker 1: the first time Ezra's learning about it. Who knows what
- 9:32Speaker 1: information Ezra was privy to in Persia. Could be that
- 9:35Speaker 1: he didn't have the whole law in Persia. I don't
- 9:38Speaker 1: know what the situation is, but somehow this feast got missed.
- 9:43Speaker 1: And as they're reading about this law, it says they
- 9:46Speaker 1: learned that they should publish and proclaim in all their
- 9:49Speaker 1: cities and in Jerusalem, saying go to the mountain, get
- 9:52Speaker 1: alive branches, branches of wild olive myrtle branches, palm branches,
- 9:56Speaker 1: and branches of thick trees to make temporary shelters. As
- 10:00Speaker 1: it is written, so again this was a way for
- 10:02Speaker 1: the people to evangelize about Yahweh. They were supposed to
- 10:06Speaker 1: tell everybody, Yes, today is the feast of booths. We
- 10:09Speaker 1: get a day off, Let's go into the mountains. Let's
- 10:12Speaker 1: get all of the tree branches that we need to
- 10:14Speaker 1: build these temporary shelters. Let's camp out, let's have a
- 10:17Speaker 1: feast to Yahweh. Let's have a joyful celebration. So the
- 10:20Speaker 1: people are hearing about this feast basically for the first time,
- 10:24Speaker 1: and they decide that they're going to keep it. It
- 10:26Speaker 1: says in verse sixteen that the people went out and
- 10:29Speaker 1: brought the branches and made themselves temporary shelters everyone on
- 10:33Speaker 1: the roof of his house, in their courts, in the
- 10:35Speaker 1: courts of God's House, in the wide place of the watergate,
- 10:37Speaker 1: and in the wide place of Eprium's gate, now the
- 10:40Speaker 1: one caveat. With all of this is probably some time
- 10:43Speaker 1: had passed from the reading of the law to the
- 10:46Speaker 1: time that the people celebrated the feast of booths, because
- 10:48Speaker 1: the feast of Booths was not supposed to be celebrated
- 10:51Speaker 1: until I believe the fifteenth day of September, and when
- 10:55Speaker 1: the people were first reading this law, it was the
- 10:57Speaker 1: first and second day of September, so they had about
- 11:00Speaker 1: two weeks to go until the feast of booths happened.
- 11:03Speaker 1: And also the Day of Atonement was supposed to take
- 11:06Speaker 1: place before the feast of the booths. I believe the
- 11:10Speaker 1: Day of Atonement, which is the most holy of all
- 11:13Speaker 1: of the Jewish holidays, that was supposed to be on
- 11:15Speaker 1: the tenth day of September, so it would have been
- 11:18Speaker 1: in order the feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement,
- 11:21Speaker 1: and then the Feast of Booths. So probably about two
- 11:25Speaker 1: weeks passed from the reading of this law until the
- 11:28Speaker 1: feast of booths. But on that day everyone followed this law.
- 11:32Speaker 1: They made themselves temporary shelters. They put them in their
- 11:34Speaker 1: courtyards and their backyards, and the courts of God's House,
- 11:38Speaker 1: and the wide place at the watergate, in the wide
- 11:40Speaker 1: place of Ephriem's gate. So people were strewn all over
- 11:43Speaker 1: the city to celebrate this joyous occasion. And it says
- 11:47Speaker 1: in verse seventeen that all the assembly of those who
- 11:49Speaker 1: had come back out of the captivity made temporary shelters
- 11:51Speaker 1: and lived in the temporary shelters for since the days
- 11:54Speaker 1: of Joshua, the son of Nun to that day, the
- 11:56Speaker 1: children of Israel had not done. So there was a
- 11:59Speaker 1: very great gladness. Also, day by day, from the first
- 12:02Speaker 1: day to the last day, he read in the book
- 12:05Speaker 1: of the Law of God. They kept the feast seven days,
- 12:08Speaker 1: and on the eighth day was a solemn assembly according
- 12:11Speaker 1: to the ordinance. So you can see now why the
- 12:13Speaker 1: scribes were so necessary, because they could read Hebrew, and
- 12:16Speaker 1: God commanded on these feasts that the Law of God
- 12:19Speaker 1: was to be read to the congregations to avoid the
- 12:23Speaker 1: problems that we see right here where the people didn't
- 12:26Speaker 1: even know about the feast of booths that's why the
- 12:28Speaker 1: law was supposed to be read to them on a
- 12:30Speaker 1: regular occurrence, three times a year, is what God said.
- 12:34Speaker 1: And God also told the people to memorize his law,
- 12:37Speaker 1: to not keep it hidden away, but to proclaim it,
- 12:41Speaker 1: to even write it on your foreheads, and keep memory
- 12:43Speaker 1: of it, and teach your children all of the laws.
- 12:45Speaker 1: The scribes and the priests were not supposed to hide
- 12:48Speaker 1: God's law away. It was supposed to be read regularly
- 12:51Speaker 1: to the people. And unfortunately that's just not what they did.
- 12:53Speaker 1: They hid it away either out of laziness, complacency, or
- 12:58Speaker 1: control or something along those lines. But now finally the
- 13:01Speaker 1: people are trying at least to do what God commands
- 13:05Speaker 1: them to do, and they start with the Feast of Booths. Now,
- 13:10Speaker 1: you might wonder reading all of this, are Christians today
- 13:13Speaker 1: supposed to celebrate the feast of booths? Because if this
- 13:16Speaker 1: is such an important holiday that you know, evangelizes about God,
- 13:20Speaker 1: should Christians follow some of these Old Testament feasts, Because
- 13:25Speaker 1: honestly a lot of Christians don't. Now granted, I actually
- 13:27Speaker 1: do know a few Christians that do celebrate the Feast
- 13:30Speaker 1: of booths, and they kind of just go camping with
- 13:32Speaker 1: their kids. They put like a tent in the backyard,
- 13:35Speaker 1: and you know, they grill out and just tell stories
- 13:38Speaker 1: and it's a lot of fun. But the majority of
- 13:40Speaker 1: Christians don't celebrate things like this, so should we. Well,
- 13:44Speaker 1: interestingly enough, yesterday on the podcast going through the Book
- 13:47Speaker 1: of James, I mentioned how Jesus has fulfilled the entire
- 13:51Speaker 1: Old Testament laws and how all the laws still apply
- 13:54Speaker 1: to us, but just in a different way. We are
- 13:57Speaker 1: not bound by the Old Testament laws the way that
- 14:00Speaker 1: the people in the Old Testament were, because the people
- 14:02Speaker 1: in the Old Testament that they had to follow these
- 14:04Speaker 1: laws in order to have their sins covered over in
- 14:08Speaker 1: order to have some sort of relationship with God. But
- 14:11Speaker 1: now all of that is changed through Jesus's sacrifice. We
- 14:14Speaker 1: have a relationship with God because of Jesus. So Jesus
- 14:18Speaker 1: came to fulfill the Old Testament laws. And you might
- 14:21Speaker 1: be like, well, how could Jesus fulfill something like the
- 14:23Speaker 1: feast of booths. Well, actually, in John chapter seven, Jesus
- 14:28Speaker 1: fulfills it directly in front of a large audience at
- 14:32Speaker 1: the actual Feast of Booths. So let's read John seven
- 14:36Speaker 1: ten through fifteen. It says when his brothers had gone
- 14:41Speaker 1: up to the feast. Then Jesus also went up, not publicly,
- 14:44Speaker 1: but as it were, in secret. The Jews therefore sought
- 14:47Speaker 1: him at the feast and said where is he? There
- 14:50Speaker 1: was much murmuring among the multitudes concerning him. Some said
- 14:53Speaker 1: he is a good man, others said not so, but
- 14:56Speaker 1: he leads the multitude astray. Yet no one spoke of him,
- 15:00Speaker 1: for fear of the Jews. But when it was the
- 15:02Speaker 1: middle of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple
- 15:05Speaker 1: and taught. The Jews therefore marveled, saying, how does this
- 15:09Speaker 1: man know letters? Having never been educated. So they're commenting
- 15:14Speaker 1: on the fact that Jesus had never been formally educated
- 15:17Speaker 1: as a priest, and yet he knew the Old Testament
- 15:19Speaker 1: laws so well. And so now, jumping down to verses
- 15:22Speaker 1: thirty seven through forty three, it says, now on the
- 15:25Speaker 1: last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood and
- 15:28Speaker 1: cried out, if anyone is thirsty, let him come to
- 15:31Speaker 1: me and drink. He who believes in me, as the
- 15:34Speaker 1: Scripture has said, from within him will flow the rivers
- 15:37Speaker 1: of living water. But he said this about the spirit
- 15:40Speaker 1: which those believing in him were to receive, for the
- 15:43Speaker 1: Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus wasn't yet glorified.
- 15:47Speaker 1: Many of the multitude therefore, when they heard these words, said,
- 15:51Speaker 1: this is truly the prophet. Others said, this is the Christ.
- 15:54Speaker 1: But some said, what does the Christ come out of Galilee?
- 15:58Speaker 1: Hasn't the scripture said that the Christ come of the
- 16:00Speaker 1: offspring of David. And from Bethlehem, the village where David was.
- 16:04Speaker 1: So a division arose in the multitude because of him.
- 16:07Speaker 1: So as Jesus was celebrating the Feast of Booths on
- 16:09Speaker 1: the very last day, on the greatest of the days
- 16:13Speaker 1: of the feast, Jesus stood up in the temple, and
- 16:16Speaker 1: he shouted at the entire crowd, and he said, if
- 16:19Speaker 1: anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.
- 16:23Speaker 1: And so Jesus right there was essentially fulfilling the Feast
- 16:27Speaker 1: of Booths, because every single day during the Feast of Booths,
- 16:30Speaker 1: the priests would go down to the pool of Saloam
- 16:33Speaker 1: at dawn and it would be like this jubilant procession
- 16:36Speaker 1: with like all of these trumpets and everything, and it
- 16:38Speaker 1: was a really exciting kind of event. They would take
- 16:41Speaker 1: this golden pitcher, and they would draw fresh water out
- 16:45Speaker 1: of the pool of Saloam. Then they would enter through
- 16:47Speaker 1: the water gate, which, interestingly enough, is the gate that
- 16:51Speaker 1: in our passage for today, Ezra is reading in front
- 16:54Speaker 1: of where the Israelites first learn about the Feast of
- 16:57Speaker 1: Booths was right in front of that water gate. So
- 17:00Speaker 1: the priests would go through the water gates and then
- 17:02Speaker 1: they would offer the morning sacrifice and then also pour
- 17:05Speaker 1: out that water onto the sacrifice, and then there was
- 17:08Speaker 1: all big gathering that included blowing trumpets and everything as
- 17:14Speaker 1: all of this was taking place. So there's a few
- 17:16Speaker 1: symbolic reasons why the priest did this. It could have
- 17:19Speaker 1: been because, you know, God provided water miraculously in the
- 17:23Speaker 1: wilderness to his people, because you know, the entire idea
- 17:27Speaker 1: of the Feast of Booths is celebrating God's provision. God
- 17:30Speaker 1: provided his people with water during their time in the wilderness.
- 17:34Speaker 1: It was a provision from the Lord. It could have
- 17:37Speaker 1: also been symbolizing like the need for rain, for God's
- 17:41Speaker 1: provision in the future, for a blessing on the crops
- 17:43Speaker 1: and things like that. So that's why the priests would
- 17:46Speaker 1: pour out the water, the clean water onto the altar,
- 17:50Speaker 1: and so Jesus. Probably right after that sacrifice is made
- 17:55Speaker 1: and the water is poured out and all of these
- 17:58Speaker 1: hymns take place, Jesus got up and screamed out in
- 18:02Speaker 1: the temple. If anyone is thirsty, let him come to
- 18:05Speaker 1: me and drink. He who believes in me, as the
- 18:07Speaker 1: scripture is said, from within him will flow rivers of
- 18:10Speaker 1: living water. Jesus was bringing the feast of Booths directly
- 18:16Speaker 1: back to himself, saying that he is the fulfillment of
- 18:21Speaker 1: the feast of booths. He is the provision that everybody needs.
- 18:24Speaker 1: The feast of Booths was remembering God's provision, remembering the
- 18:28Speaker 1: water in the wilderness. But Jesus was the true embodiment
- 18:32Speaker 1: of that provision, and anybody that came to him would
- 18:36Speaker 1: never be thirsty again. He is the water of life.
- 18:40Speaker 1: And interestingly enough, one of the last things ever written
- 18:42Speaker 1: in scripture in Revelation twenty two is this verse seventeen.
- 18:48Speaker 1: The Spirit and the bride say come, he who hears,
- 18:51Speaker 1: let him say, come, he who is thirsty, Let him come,
- 18:54Speaker 1: he who desires, Let him take the water of life freely. Somehow,
- 18:59Speaker 1: this idea of water of life keeps coming up from
- 19:03Speaker 1: the days in the wilderness to Jesus calling himself the
- 19:06Speaker 1: living water, to Revelation twenty two, one of the last
- 19:09Speaker 1: verses that we have in the Bible, which tells us
- 19:11Speaker 1: to drink of this water of life. So this theme
- 19:15Speaker 1: of water of life keeps coming up, and Soukote or
- 19:18Speaker 1: Feast of Booths, was remembering that water of life in
- 19:23Speaker 1: the wilderness. But Jesus fulfilled all of that when he
- 19:26Speaker 1: told people that he was the water of life. So
- 19:29Speaker 1: as Christians, you know all of these Old Testament laws,
- 19:32Speaker 1: they still apply to us, but they apply to us
- 19:34Speaker 1: in different ways. So I think it's important that if
- 19:38Speaker 1: you feel called or convicted this September to you know,
- 19:42Speaker 1: partake in the Feast of Booths, that you should do that.
- 19:45Speaker 1: And there's nothing wrong with doing that as long as
- 19:48Speaker 1: you know that you are not bound by the Old
- 19:50Speaker 1: Testament laws, that Jesus has fulfilled them, and that celebrating
- 19:54Speaker 1: the Feast of Booths is not going to add to
- 19:58Speaker 1: your salvation in any way shape or Jesus is your salvation,
- 20:02Speaker 1: not celebrating the Feast of booths. But if you feel
- 20:05Speaker 1: compelled as a Christian to celebrate the feast of booths
- 20:08Speaker 1: in remembrance of Jesus and how he is the water
- 20:12Speaker 1: of life. Then by all means you should do that.
- 20:15Speaker 1: But if you don't have any particular conviction for it,
- 20:18Speaker 1: then that is okay too. In fact, Colossians chapter two,
- 20:22Speaker 1: verse sixteen and seventeen says this, therefore, do not let
- 20:25Speaker 1: anyone judge you by what you eat or drink or
- 20:28Speaker 1: with regard to a religious festival, to a new moon celebration,
- 20:32Speaker 1: or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the
- 20:34Speaker 1: things that were to come. The reality, however, is found
- 20:38Speaker 1: in Christ. And that scripture is telling us that everything
- 20:42Speaker 1: points to Jesus. All of those Old Testament laws point
- 20:45Speaker 1: to Jesus. So as Christians, we don't need to feel
- 20:47Speaker 1: guilty if we are not celebrating any of these religious holidays,
- 20:51Speaker 1: which is why this scripture says, don't let anyone judge
- 20:54Speaker 1: you by what you eat or don't eat, or celebrate
- 20:58Speaker 1: or don't celebrate regarding all of these Old Testament laws,
- 21:01Speaker 1: because they are shadow of the things that were to come.
- 21:04Speaker 1: The reality, however, is found in Christ. So, faithful listeners,
- 21:07Speaker 1: I hope that answered some questions for you today, and
- 21:11Speaker 1: you understand a little bit more about the Old Testament laws,
- 21:13Speaker 1: especially in relation to what we talked about yesterday on
- 21:16Speaker 1: the podcast. Faithu listeners, please listen to this one last
- 21:19Speaker 1: sponsored ad for today, and then after that I will
- 21:23Speaker 1: be back with a couple closing things and I'll finish
- 21:26Speaker 1: out the podcast after that. So, Faithful Listeners, I know
- 21:30Speaker 1: some of you guys only listen to the Old Testament episodes,
- 21:32Speaker 1: and that is completely fine, But honestly, like it really
- 21:36Speaker 1: is interesting how often scripture connects with each other. So
- 21:40Speaker 1: if you're interested in checking out the Book of James,
- 21:42Speaker 1: I highly recommend that you do. It's already been so
- 21:46Speaker 1: fantastic of a book to talk about and discuss, and
- 21:49Speaker 1: we will be in that book again tomorrow and I'm
- 21:52Speaker 1: just really having a ball in that book, and I
- 21:54Speaker 1: think you guys will have a ball as well. So
- 21:57Speaker 1: I hope that you all tune in if you haven't
- 21:59Speaker 1: gotten the chance to yet. Tomorrow in James, We're gonna
- 22:02Speaker 1: be talking about a really crazy episode because this is
- 22:06Speaker 1: the one where James says that even the demons believe
- 22:11Speaker 1: in God, but because they don't have any obedience, that
- 22:15Speaker 1: means that they don't have a true faith in him,
- 22:17Speaker 1: so unfortunately, there are some people that have a faith
- 22:20Speaker 1: very similar to the demons, where they believe in God,
- 22:23Speaker 1: but there's nothing much more than that. And we're gonna
- 22:25Speaker 1: get into that topic tomorrow. So it's gonna be a
- 22:28Speaker 1: doozy and I hope you guys tune in at six
- 22:31Speaker 1: am or whenever you choose to wake up and listen
- 22:33Speaker 1: to the podcast Faith Listeners until tomorrow and the Book
- 22:36Speaker 1: of James, happy listening and God bless. I just want
- 22:44Speaker 1: to take a second to thank the team at Life
- 22:46Speaker 1: Audio for their partnership with me on the Bible Explain podcast.
- 22:49Speaker 1: In fact, if you go to life audio dot com
- 22:51Speaker 1: you'll find dozens of other faith centered podcasts in their network.
- 22:55Speaker 1: They've got shows about prayer, Bible study, parenting, and more.
- 23:00Speaker 1: Oo