EARLY GENTILE BELIEVERS
CELEBRATED THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES
We need first to get acquainted with the term used in the Jewish
Scriptures for the non-Jew: "stranger."
Strong's Concordance defines "stranger" :1616
ger
(gare); or (fully) geyr
(gare); from 1481; properly, a guest; by implication,
a foreigner: KJV-- alien,
sojourner, stranger.
Brown-Driver-Briggs' Hebrew Lexicon defines "stranger":
1616 ger or (fully)
geyr- sojourner
- a) a temporary inhabitant, a
newcomer lacking inherited rights
- b) used of foreigners within
Israel, though they had conceded rights
In order to
understand what comes next it would be important to begin to look for a "pattern"
in the verses that follow not only in this article but the rest in this
series as you will come to see that God included the non-Jews in the
observance of not only the Festivals but the Sabbath as well. This pattern
can be found not only in the Jewish Old Testament Scriptures but the New
Testament as well. Having seen this then one has to wonder how we lost and
deviated from such a pattern which was established in antiquity by God to
the point where we have lost such obedience and observance today. One
would have to ask Rome that question.
Deuteronomy 16
- 13 Thou shalt observe the feast of tabernacles seven days, after
that thou hast gathered in thy corn and thy wine: 14 And thou shalt
rejoice in thy feast, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy
manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite, the stranger,
and the fatherless, and the widow, that are within thy gates. 15 Seven
days shalt thou keep a solemn feast unto the LORD thy God in the place
which the LORD shall choose: because the LORD thy God shall bless thee
in all thine increase, and in all the works of thine hands, therefore
thou shalt surely rejoice. 16 Three times in a year shall all thy males
appear before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose; in
the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the
feast of tabernacles: and they shall not appear before the LORD empty:
(KJV)
Zechariah 14
- 16. And it shall come to pass, [that] every one that is left of
all the nations
(Gentiles) which came against Jerusalem shall even go
up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep
the feast of tabernacles.
- 17 And it shall be, [that] whoso will not come up of [all] the
families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of
hosts, even upon them shall be no rain.
- 18 And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, that
[have] no [rain]; there shall be the plague, wherewith the LORD will
smite the heathen that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.
{that have no: Heb. upon whom there is not}
Answer for yourself: Can there be any
doubt that God included the non-Jews in the observance of the Festival of
Tabernacles? Don't you find it strange that a non-Jew would be observing
the Festival of Tabernacles where today in most Gentile Christian Churches
the Festivals are not observed but in their place Gentile holy days from
prior paganism are kept in Jesus' name instead?
