A very revealing characteristic of the Feast of Tabernacles
(Heb. Sukkot) is related to rain. In
Israel, the rainy season is extended throughout six months, from October till
March. The other six months are dry months. The Biblical Feasts begin with rain
and end with rain. For Passover the later rains fall, which are the last ones
before the harvest of barley and wheat. During Tabernacles the early rain
falls, which prepares the land for next year’s harvest.
(Deuteronomy 11:13-14) And if you will
indeed obey my commandments that I command you today, to love
the LORD your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all
your soul, (14) he will give the rain for your land in its season,
the early rain and the later rain, that you may gather in your grain and your
wine and your oil.
(Jeremiah 5:24) They do not say
in their hearts, ‘Let us fear the LORD our God, who gives the rain in
its season, the autumn rain and the spring rain, and keeps for us the weeks
appointed for the harvest.’
(Joel 2:23) Be glad, O
children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God, for he has given
the early rain for your vindication; he has poured down for you abundant rain,
the early and the latter rain, as before.
HE WILL COME LIKE THE
RAIN
Hosea, the prophet, compared the coming of the Lord with the
rains.
(Hosea 6:3) Let us know;
let us press on to know the LORD; his going out is sure as the dawn; he
will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.”
The later rain
falls around the week of Passover, and that feast speaks of the first coming of
the Lord. As a Lamb of God, Jesus died on the cross on the Feast of Passover,
was buried during the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and resurrected on the Feast
of Firstfruits. Fifty days later, the Holy Spirit descended over the disciples
on the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost (Heb. Shavuot).
The early rain
falls during the month of the last feasts, which speak of the second coming of
the Messiah.
James also makes reference to the rains in relation to the
coming of the Lord.
(James 5:7-8) Be patient,
therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer
waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it
receives the early and the late rains. (8) You also, be patient. Establish
your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.
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