‘When all thy mercies, blessed God, Each rising soul surveys, Transported with the view, we’re lost In wonder, love and praise. Through all eternity to Thee A joyful song we’ll raise, But e’en eternity’s too short To utter all thy praise.’ - Just these two verses. (153)
When all thy mercies, blessed God,
Each rising soul surveys,
Transported with the view, we’re lost
In wonder, love and praise.
Through all eternity to Thee
A joyful song we’ll raise,
But e’en eternity’s too short
To utter all thy praise.
Shall we ask God’s help?
Oh God, our Heavenly Father. We ask for the presence of your Holy Spirit. We ask that you’ll reach down into our hearts and minds with your word, your word, and bless it to us, bless your thoughts and we need The ministry of your Holy Spirit from day to day, we ask for that communion of the Holy Spirit to be with us, so we ask, in the name of our Lord Jesus, Amen.
Now ,I’ve just got four short verses to read and as usual, I’m going off piste, I’m going off script, I’m sorry, but I just want to read before I begin, a verse that comes near the end of - it comes right at the end of 2 Corinthians chapter 13. You needn’t turn to it, but you can turn to it.
“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Ghost (or the Holy Spirit) be with you all.”
“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”
So, what I have in mind, I’ve been reading through I’ve been reading through the book of Zechariah. And there’s one or two verses there that I would like to just pick up - but we’ll get to them shortly. The first place I would like to read one verse is in Psalm chapter 2.
We know these scriptures quite well. We know what the Psalm is about.
“Why do the nations rage, and the peoples imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed,”
And then verse 6:
“Yet I have set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.”
So we’ll move on from there to Isaiah. Chapter 9 and verse 6:
“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to establish it, and to uphold it with judgment and with righteousness from henceforth even for ever.”
And then to Zechariah chapter 9. And verse 10. Zechariah chapter 9. And verse - well we’ll start at verse 9.
“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy king cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, even upon a colt the foal of an ass. And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall be cut off; and he shall speak peace unto the nations: and his dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.”
And then over to the last chapter, chapter 14 and verse 9. Zechariah chapter 14 verse 9.
“and the Lord shall be king over all the earth. In that day shall the Lord be one and his name one.”
And finally, chapter 14 and verse 16:
“And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. And it shall be, that whoso of all the families of the earth goeth not up unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, upon them there shall be no rain. And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, neither shall it be upon them; there shall be the plague, wherewith the LORD will smite the nations that go not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.”
Well, how are we going to ... draw this together and it’s going to be probably broad brush strokes, if we’re talking about a painting to draw together what we’ve just read and the Psalms were written perhaps 900 years before. This is a prophecy that has yet to be fulfilled, what we read in Psalm:
“Yet I have set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.”
Isaiah probably about seven hundred years before the Lord Jesus came to this earth. And Zechariah probably about 500 years before that we read of something that was fulfilled when Jesus came riding into Jerusalem as king, although he was rejected, but he came lowly, the lowly king riding on an ass, the colt the foal of an ass. So there are things that are that we’ve read from these three books, two of them have been fulfilled.
The two that have been fulfilled were mentioned already, going into Jerusalem riding on the ass, and of course in Isaiah “unto us a child is born, a son is given.” The child that was born of Mary, the Son of God, the Son that is given. The incarnation, when Jesus was born in Bethlehem. So that’s the two that have been fulfilled. The other scriptures have yet to be fulfilled. They’re awaiting fulfilment. And we finished off with the Feast of Tabernacles, which comes when Jesus reigns as King from Jerusalem. Upon the holy hill of Zion from which he has his throne.
And the battles have been fought and won. And there’ll be some that didn’t come to fight in the I believe it would be the Battle of Armageddon. I need to go and check up on that again. But the Lord will have put down all the opposition and there’ll be those that remain of the nations that didn’t come up to Jerusalem to fight.
So, I just would like to consider the Feast of Tabernacles; we probably all can have a bit of the question as to why - why that there’s something from the Old Testament feasts of Jehovah still, still to be carried out? We might have a question about that, but the fact is that there are things that we can - we’re not ready always to take in, you know, the Lord said to the disciples, ‘I’ve got many things to tell you, but you’re not able to hear them now’, but later on they would. And when the Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit would teach them and bring to their remembrance the words of Jesus and tell them of things that were to come.
So perhaps, perhaps there’s a certain amount that I’ll just say for myself that I’ve yet to understand concerning the Feast of Tabernacles in the future.
Now we all know what the Feast of Tabernacles is. It’s the time when, if we look back to Israel’s history, God brought them out of Egypt and through the wilderness and he said when you come into the land, there are three feasts that all the males will appear before me. Three feasts, and this was the final one, the Feast of Tabernacles, which is when the people were to dwell in temporary shelters, ‘booths’ is another word for them. Just little temporary shelters made out of palm branches, thick trees or entwined trees, I suppose giving structure to the booth, the temporary shelter, and willows from the brook. So there was - God prescribed - He told them, this is what you’ll do, because you’ll remember how you were brought out of Egypt. And, you know, God said, the land is mine. And, you know, you’ll remember that you were brought out of Egypt and through all that wilderness. And so when you come into the land and you enjoy the produce of the land and, the Lord has blessed you. Once they were settled in the land of Canaan, the land of promise, that, they would remember what they were brought out from and what they were brought into, the blessing that they were brought into.
Now, the Feast of Tabernacles took place at the end of the agricultural year in the seventh month. So if we say our April all the way to our October, something like that. The first month Abib. So there were different feasts the Passover and then the Feast of Weeks seven weeks later and that was to do with harvest as well, but this final this final feast to the Lord it’s referred to in Exodus as ‘the feast of in-gathering’ because it was to do with once all the harvest had been brought in. And then there were . . . And it took place five days after the Day of Atonement. That’s another thing, by the way.
So they were to rejoice when they had those seven days. The first day was to be like a Sabbath. They were to do no laborious work that first day. And also, at the end of the seven days, they were to, I think it says they were to put away you know, that was then finished with the booths and there was an eighth day where they actually had returned or reverted to their dwellings, their normal houses.
There were different sacrifices that were associated with the seven days. I’m not going to go through them all, but you just probably remember when I say that on this particular celebration in which they were to rejoice before the Lord, there was to be, on the first day, thirteen bulls that were to be sacrificed. On the next day there was to be twelve bulls and they were to work their way one bull less every day until they got to the seventh day and then there would be seven bulls that would be offered on that day. And then on the eighth day there was only to be one bull offered. Now you can take that away and meditate on that because I’m not going to suggest what I’m, I’m really just dipping my toe in the water here.
So all these things, all these things that were in the past are carried forward beyond this period of time, this dispensation of grace, this day of grace in which we live, and they’re carried beyond and into the millennial kingdom of Christ.
Now, I don’t fully understand it all, but I think there’s significance that what God is doing, that there’s still this one feast that all the nations that are left, they’re required to come up and to worship the king. The King is the Lord Jesus Christ, the King ruling from Jerusalem. I’ll not even touch on where we fit in to all this. But from year to year, we’re told that all the nations that are left, they’ve to go up and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. The Lord’s name would be one, so there would be peace, the Prince of Peace and joining with his people are the nations coming up year after year. This is all God’s plan unfolding, and of course when we get to the end of, when we get to the end of this thousand years: ‘the increase of his government and of peace, there’ll be no end’. So the thousand years will not end the government of Christ, the rule of Christ and peace. It will be forever and so we think of the day of eternity. We read about that in the margin in what Peter wrote ‘to the day of eternity.’ Or the day of God, maybe we could say that that is the start of the day of eternity. But these are just as best I can, a few a few thoughts And as some preachers have said before, you know, if they only read if all they read was a certain bit well, it’s worthwhile. So, I’ve come to a shuddering halt, but there we are.
We’ll close in prayer and then we can sing 402. Okay.
Oh God, our Heavenly Father, we give thanks for being able to consider the scriptures and we confess our dullness in understanding, but nevertheless, we pray that your word might do us good. And the things that we can understand that we might hold fast, and the things that we are yet to fully, or more fully grasp, that You’ll help us to discern Your thoughts. So O God, we commit each one of us into your care. You know our situation here from week to week. And so O God, strengthen us each and overrule in all our futures, for we ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus, Amen.
Amen.
So, I would like us to sing hymn number 402 and we’ll just sing the whole hymn.
‘I am not skilled to understand. What God has willed, what God has planned, I only know at his right hand stands one who is my Saviour.’ We’ll just sing the whole hymn.
I am not skilled to understand
what God has willed, what God has planned;
I only know that at his right hand
Stands One who is my Saviour!
I take him at his word indeed:
“Christ died to save me” this I read;
For in my heart I find a need
Of him to be my Saviour!
That he should leave his place on high
And come for sinful man to die,
You count it strange? So once did I,
before I knew my Saviour!
And oh, that he fulfilled may see
The travail of his soul in me,
And with his work contented be,
As I with my dear Saviour!
Yea, living, dying, let me bring
My strength, my solace from this spring;
That he who lives to be my King
Once died to be my Saviour.
