Leviticus 23:43
That your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God. That your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.
God appointed that every generation should live for a time in temporary shelters so they would know that He brought Israel out of Egypt and made them dwell in booths on the wilderness journey. What they were to remember was their life as pilgrims and His sustaining and protecting care, deliverance and preservation, goodness, mercy and guidance. The same gathering closed the year in the seventh month after the harvest as a joyous thanksgiving for His goodness and continuing care seen in the stored produce that crowned the year. The week together was devoted to teaching coming generations to know God and have fellowship with Him, joined with social reunion and generous hospitality to the Levites of the sanctuary and to strangers and the poor. It also teaches His people to remember with gratitude how He brings them out of spiritual darkness into the light of His grace and truth.
Memorial of Wilderness Deliverance
The dwelling in booths was appointed so that every generation might know that the Lord brought the children of Israel out of Egypt and made them dwell in booths or tents on the wilderness journey. The Feast of Tabernacles kept that pilgrim tent-life before the people, that they should remember how their ancestors lived as pilgrims in the wilderness. What was to be remembered was God's sustaining and protecting care in that journey, His deliverance and preservation of Israel after the Exodus. It was a memorial of His goodness and mercy, a time to reflect on His guidance and blessings and continuing care.
To keep it the people left their houses to live for the time in booths made of leafy branches or green boughs. The booths were set up on housetops, in streets and temple courts, and outside the city in valleys and on hillsides around Jerusalem. The feast was kept at Jerusalem from the fifteenth through the twenty-second day of the seventh month, with the law read each day. The seven-day encampment thus brought the whole observance before the eyes of each household in a visible dwelling in booths.
The feast belongs among the appointed memorial gatherings meant to call God to mind. Its observance was resumed after the return from captivity, yet its purpose was often forgotten by priests and leaders. Its most joyful ceremony commemorated an event of the wilderness sojourn.
Harvest Thanksgiving and Instruction
The feast was the year's closing gathering in the seventh month, a joyous occasion kept after the harvest when the people were free from ordinary cares to take part in its sacred celebrations. It was a time to reflect on God's goodness and mercy and on His continuing care, shown in the land's harvest and its stored produce. The dwelling in booths thus joined remembrance of the wilderness to the harvest, encouraging gratitude to God and providing a time devoted to education.
It was Israel's great thanksgiving harvest festival, a time of rejoicing and thanksgiving to God for His goodness and for the year's harvest that crowned the year with goodness. The gratitude was lifted by offerings from orchard and field, and by minds directed to God's continuing care seen in the harvest and stored produce. The commemoration joined God's care for Israel during the wilderness journey and their dwelling in booths after the Exodus to thanksgiving for present blessing.
The seven-day feast brought people from Palestine and other lands together in a week's encampment in leafy booths. The week spent in booths and the journeys to the feasts provided outdoor recreation and social life, with social reunions alongside sacred memorial service. It was an occasion for rejoicing shared through hospitable welcome and generous hospitality to the Levites of the sanctuary and to strangers and the poor.
The dwelling in booths was to teach coming generations to know God. Knowledge of God, with fellowship with Him in study and labor and likeness to Him in character, was to be the source, means and aim of the education parents gave their children. The feast also teaches God's people to remember with gratitude how He brings them out of spiritual darkness into the light of His grace and truth.