Leviticus 23:23-44 NKJV 23 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 24 “Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a sabbath-rest, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation. 25 You shall do no customary work on it; and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord.’ ”
26 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 27 “Also the tenth day of this seventh month shall be the Day of Atonement. It shall be a holy convocation for you; you shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. 28 And you shall do no work on that same day, for it is the Day of Atonement, to make atonement for you before the Lord your God. 29 For any person who is not afflicted in soul on that same day shall be cut off from his people. 30 And any person who does any work on that same day, that person I will destroy from among his people. 31 You shall do no manner of work; it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. 32 It shall be to you a sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict your souls; on the ninth day of the month at evening, from evening to evening, you shall celebrate your sabbath.”
33 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 34 “Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days to the Lord. 35 On the first day there shall be a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work on it. 36 For seven days you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. On the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation, and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. It is a sacred assembly, and you shall do no customary work on it.
37 ‘These are the feasts of the Lord which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, to offer an offering made by fire to the Lord, a burnt offering and a grain offering, a sacrifice and drink offerings, everything on its day— 38 besides the Sabbaths of the Lord, besides your gifts, besides all your vows, and besides all your freewill offerings which you give to the Lord.
39 ‘Also on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruit of the land, you shall keep the feast of the Lord for seven days; on the first day there shall be a sabbath-rest, and on the eighth day a sabbath-rest. 40 And you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of beautiful trees, branches of palm trees, the boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days. 41 You shall keep it as a feast to the Lord for seven days in the year. It shall be a statute forever in your generations. You shall celebrate it in the seventh month. 42 You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All who are native Israelites shall dwell in booths, 43 that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.’ ”
44 So Moses declared to the children of Israel the feasts of the Lord.
The last feast of the year was the Feast of Tabernacles, during which the Israelites were made to live in tabernacles and to carry around beautiful branches for seven days. At this feast they sang their Hosanna from Psalm 118:26. This is why the very same song was sung on Palm Sunday when they honored Christ with green branches (Matt. 21:8-9).
But in this feast they called to mind: (1) what great misery they had endured long before in Egypt, (2) how God had graciously redeemed them and so wonderfully fed them in the wilderness with bread from heaven for forty years, (3) how He had now cleared the precious land of Canaan for them, (4) how they only had a certain amount of time to live in this world, even as those who dwell in booths do not build them to endure long, and (5) how God would finally take them up to the eternal tabernacle (Luke 16:9). Oh, what a remembrance!
The Lord focuses His New Testament Christians to the remembrance of a fulfilled promise. Regarding the Sacrament of the Altar, St. Paul was inspired to write “You shall proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes again” (1 Cor. 11:26), bringing us to rejoice in the forgiveness of sins fully merited by Christ, who did it for us. When pondering the animal sacrifices that took place through century upon century up to (and some years beyond) the point of Christ — an almost unimaginable amount of blood being constantly spilled — all of it pointed to the blood of the One perfect, all-sufficient ransom that was made. Christ crucified is the message of the cross that is foolish to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God! (1 Cor. 1:18)
Let us pray: O Lord God, You led Your ancient people through the wilderness and brought them to the promised land. Guide the people of Your Church that following our Savior we may walk through the wilderness of this world toward the glory of the world to come; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.