Jesus at the Feast of Tabernacles; Jewish pilgrim festivals
The Feast of Tabernacles
John chapter 7
The
Danger in Jerusalem
It was now the third year of Jesus‘s special work for God, and it was autumn. Six months after this, Jesus would die on the cross. Every time that Jesus went to Jerusalem there was more danger for him. The men who ruled the Jews in Jerusalem were enemies of Jesus. They now wanted to kill him as soon as possible.
On a previous visit to Jerusalem, Jesus had cured a man. The man had not been able to walk for 38 years. Jesus cured the man on the Sabbath. (The Sabbath was the 7th day of the week. It was when people rested.) This made the Pharisees in particular very angry. They thought that nobody should do any work on the Sabbath (John 5). When Jesus discussed this with them, he called God his own father. So, Jesus linked himself with God. This made him equal with God (John 5:16-18). The enemies of Jesus plotted to kill him. Probably there were other reasons why they hated Jesus. Jesus taught people how God wanted them to live. God‘s standards were different from men‘s standards. He showed people that their leaders‘ and rulers‘ standards were not good enough. Other people could see this, and the rulers were losing their power. Jesus was in danger at Jerusalem.
Now it was the time for the
The three greatest Jewish feasts
There were three
- The first one was called Passover. (Passover was a time when the Jews remembered their time in Egypt. They had been slaves in Egypt. God killed the oldest sons in each family in Egypt, but God protected the Jews. He 'passed over' them.) Passover was in springtime. It was the most important
feast for the Jewish religion. Passover is at the same time of year as Easter. Jesus died at the time of the Passoverfeast . So on Easter Sunday, Christians remember Jesus'resurrection .
The other two
- At the
feast called Pentecost, the Jews thanked God for the harvest of grain. This was about seven weeks after Passover. That is when the grain harvest would be for the Jews. Christians remember God's gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. This is because God gave the Holy Spirit to thedisciples at Pentecost. - The second agricultural
feast was theFeast of Tabernacles. It was in early autumn. Jews gave thanks for the harvest of grapes. Grapes were the fruit which they made into wine (Deuteronomy 16:13). At thisfeast , Jews left their houses and lived under shelters [also called tabernacles]. They made the tabernacles with the branches of trees. This was to remind them that God gave them food and drink in the desert. Moses led them through this desert after they left Egypt. God provided their food in the desert by amiracle . Then he gave them the land called Israel to live in.
People travelled to Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles
The Passover (Easter) was really the most important
In this particular year, the