This feast points us forward to the time of Israel's glory in the latter day, and therefore it forms a most lovely and appropriate close to the whole series of feasts. The harvest was gathered in, all was done, the storehouses were amply furnished, and Jehovah would have His people to give expression to their festive joy. But, alas! they seem to have had but little heart to enter into the divine thought in reference to this most delightful ordinance. They lost sight of the fact that they had been strangers and pilgrims, and hence their long neglect of this feast. From the days of Joshua down to the time of Nehemiah, the feast of tabernacles had never once been celebrated. It was reserved for the feeble remnant that returned from the Babylonish captivity to do what had not been done even in the bright days of Solomon. "And all the congregation of them that were come again out of the captivity made booths, and sat under the booths: for since the days of Joshua the son of Nun, unto that day, had not the children of Israel done so. And there was very great gladness." (Neh. viii. 17.) How refreshing it must have been to those who had hung their harps on the willows of Babylon, to find themselves beneath the shade of the willows of Canaan! It was a sweet foretaste of that time of which the feast of tabernacles was the type, when Israel's restored tribes shall repose within those millennial bowers which the faithful hand of Jehovah will erect for them in the land which He sware to give unto Abraham and to his seed forever. Thrice-happy moment when the heavenly and the earthly shall meet as intimated in "the first day" and "the eighth day" of the feast of tabernacles! "The heavens shall hear the earth, and the earth shall hear the corn and the wine and the oil, and they shall hear Jezreel."
There is a fine passage in the last chapter of Zechariah which goes to prove very distinctly that the true celebration of the feast of tabernacles belongs to the glory of the latter day.--"And it shall come to pass that every one that is left of all the nations 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." (Chap. xiv. 16.) What a scene! Who would seek to rob it of its characteristic beauty by a vague system of interpretation falsely called spiritualizing? Surely, Jerusalem means Jerusalem, nations mean nations, and the feast of tabernacles means the feast of tabernacles. Is there any thing incredible in this? Surely, nothing, save to man's reason, which rejects all that lies beyond its narrow range. The feast of tabernacles shall yet be celebrated in the land of Canaan, and the nations of the saved shall go up thither to participate in its glorious and hallowed festivities. Jerusalem's warfare shall then be accomplished; the roar of battle shall cease; the sword and the spear shall be transformed into the implements of peaceful agriculture; Israel shall repose beneath the refreshing shade of their vines and fig-trees; and all the earth shall rejoice in the government of "the Prince of Peace." Such is the prospect presented in the unerring pages of inspiration. The types foreshadow it, the prophets prophesy of it, faith believes it, and hope anticipates it.
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NOTE.--At the close of our chapter we read, "And Moses declared unto the children of Israel _the feasts of the Lord_." This was their true character, their original title; but in the gospel of John they are called "_feasts of the Jews_." They had long ceased to be Jehovah's feasts. He was shut out. They did not want Him; and hence, in John vii, when Jesus was asked to go up to "_the Jews' feast of tabernacles_," He answered, "My time is not yet come;" and when He did go up, it was "privately," to take His place outside of the whole thing, and to call upon every thirsty soul to come unto Him and drink. There is a solemn lesson in this. Divine institutions are speedily marred in the hands of man; but, oh! how deeply blessed to know that the thirsty soul that feels the barrenness and drought connected with a scene of empty religious formality, has only to flee to Jesus and drink freely of His exhaustless springs, and so become a channel of blessing to others.