The Feast of Tabernacles or Feast of Booths is a significant biblical feast for us as Christians, and we will celebrate it into the days of the Kingdom (Zechariah 14:16–17). It is an appointed time when God moves to accomplish certain things in our lives. God delivered Israel out of Egypt and had them dwell in the wilderness. But because of their lack of obedience to Him, it turned out to be a forty-year wandering. So we are to study and remember the lessons of the wilderness.
Life in the wilderness was a dynamic time. The Israelites lived in the presence of God. The pillar of cloud shaded them during the day, and the pillar of fire by night kept them warm and gave them light. Moses commanded the people to “remember all the way which the LORD your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. … Therefore, you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him” (Deuteronomy 8:2, 6).[1] God tested them to know what was in their hearts. Would they be obedient to Him? Would they trust Him?
During this time of Tabernacles, God is asking you, “Will you trust Me?” I read a dictionary article about trust that made this statement: “The thought is only that the deepest essence of faith is trust, and that there is no Christian faith that is not personal trust in God.”[2] Are we talking about believing God? About obedience to God? This statement touches the root: our Christian experience comes down to a personal trust in God. That is what it is all about. If we are having a problem with obedience or belief or faith or sin, the real root of the problem is a lack of trust. In America, our currency boldly declares, “In God We Trust.” But do we? Just as God tested Israel in the wilderness, so He is testing our words. Lord, help us to trust You!
The Israelites did not trust God to provide for them. God humbled Israel so they would trust Him. And God brings a humbling to us in the testing so that we can cast all our anxiety upon Him and trust Him (1 Peter 5:6–7). “Those who trust in the Lord are as Mount Zion, which cannot be moved but abides forever. As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds His people from this time forth and forever” (Psalm 125:1–2). Let these Scriptures about trust sink deeply within your heart until you realize that everything in your relationship with the Lord is about your ability to trust Him. He is a good Father. What do we need in the time of trial and testing? We need a bedrock of trust in Him (Isaiah 26:3–4).
God’s purpose during the wilderness wanderings was to create a people who wholly trusted Him to provide for every aspect of their lives. That was the test of Tabernacles. Let us finally become a people who trust in the Lord with all our hearts, knowing that He will provide everything we need: “My God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19).
Listen to the entire message: GIG58 Tabernacles—The Test of Our Trust
[1] All Scripture references are from the New American Standard Bible 1995 (NASB1995).
[2] J.R. Van Pelt, “Trust,” in A Dictionary of Christ and the Gospels, Volume 2, ed. James Hastings (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1913), 766, Christian Classics Ethereal Library.