Christian Life is a Life of Feasting: from the Passover to the Feast of Tabernacles

We as believers in Christ can enjoy Christ as the Feast of Tabernacles, for our entire Christian life is a life of feasting on the Lord, in the Lord, and with the saints; even in the presence of our enemies, as we are suffering, we are still feasting, for the Lord spreads a table before us! Amen!

This week in our morning revival we come to John 7 to see some wonderful nuggets related to our lovely and wonderful Lord Jesus.

Our focus this week is, Christ as the Feast of Tabernacles and as the Spirit Flowing out of the Believers as Rivers of Living Water. Oh, what a Christ we have!

He needs not just one biography but four in order to be presented to us, and in the Gospel of John in particular we see Christ as the God-Savior coming to be our life.

He came so that we may have life, He Himself is life, He gives us life abundantly, He grafts us into Himself, and He comes in resurrection to breathe Himself into us as the life-giving Spirit.

He wants us to have life and have it abundantly (John 10:10).

In particular, Christ wants us to feast on Him; He wants our entire Christian life to be a life of feasting.

Our Christian life and experience are typified by the experience of the children of Israel and their relationship with God.

God appointed seven feasts for His people, throughout the year, for them to eat, feast, and enjoy; three times a year they had to come together and feast with the Lord and with one another.

Our God is not just a God who saves us and rescues us from slavery under sin and from judgment; He wants us to also feast with Him.

He ordains feasts for us to come together and enjoy Him.

In the church life today we have many feasts – we have at least the seven feasts that we come together to enjoy the Lord, be trained, worship God, and eat the Lord with the saints, being blended in the Body in the Lord.

Even though humanly speaking we need to pay a big price to go to the feast, paying for our travelling and accommodation and food and all those things, yet inwardly we gain so much more of God, and if we’re open to the Lord, He has a way to speak to us and blend us together.

We simply have a sense of feasting whenever we come together in the conferences, blending times, and the annual feasts.

It is not a small thing for God’s people to come together in a feasting way; we don’t come together to be taught or to learn more teachings but rather, we come to feast with the Lord and feast with the saints! Hallelujah!

Christian Life is a Life of Feasting on Christ: from Christ as our Passover to Christ as our Feast of Tabernacles

In John 7:2 we see the Feast of the Tabernacles, which was the last of the feasts ordained by God during the year for His people to come together and feast with God and with one another.

Today we can enjoy Christ as the Feast of the Tabernacles (Lev. 23:39-43).

We gather together in our Christian meetings and in our blending times not just as a practice outwardly or as a ritual but so that we may feast with the Lord and with one another.

Our Christian life is a feasting, from the beginning to the end, and for eternity we will feast with the Lord and with the Lord’s saints.

The reality of all the feasts is Christ; He is the feast given to us by God for us to enjoy and partake of Him.

The feast of the Passover, the first feast of the year ordained by God for His people to keep, signifies Christ as the initiation of God’s redemption judicially (Lev. 23:5).

The beginning of our Christian life is our feasting on Christ as the Feast of Passover, for He is the Lamb of God slain for us on the cross, the One who shed His blood for our redemption and gave His flesh for us to eat (John 1:29; 6:30-55).

Christ as the reality of the Feast of Passover is the beginning of our enjoyment of Him that originates our spiritual life.

Our entire Christian life is a life of feasting; our entire Christian life should be a feast.

First, we feast on Christ as our redemption and as the Lamb given for us to eat and live because of Him.

Then, we partake of Christ as the unleavened bread so that we may have a sinless living (Exo. 12:5-8).

We eat Him as the sinless life and we partake of Him in spirit, and now we live a sinless life.

The blood of Christ redeemed us judicially and His flesh is for us to eat so that we may be nourished and strengthened to walk out of the world and serve the Lord, just as the people of Israel ate the lamb and walked out of Egypt.

We can be delivered from the world by eating Jesus as the reality of the Passover, and we can be enabled to live a sinless life in this sinful world by eating Christ as the sinless life and life supply.

Day by day we need to enjoy Christ by eating His flesh and drinking His blood so that we may have His eternal life (John 6:54).

We need to eat Him as the heavenly bread so that we may live forever (v. 58) through His word, which is spirit and life to us (v. 63).

Our whole Christian life is a life of feasting; we are feasting in the Lord, with the Lord, and on the Lord.

The Feast of the Tabernacles is the last feast of the year, signifying the consummation of God’s full salvation organically.

After the children of Israel harvested their crops from the good land, the men were to come together to Jerusalem and worship God and enjoy what they had reaped at the Feast of the Tabernacles (Deut. 16:13-15).

We daily labour on Christ by exercising our spirit to open to Him and enjoy Him, experience Him, and produce Him, and then we come together with the saints to present the riches of Christ to God for His satisfaction and share them with the saints for their enjoyment. Amen!

From the beginning of our Christian life to the end, we are those who live a life of feasting, having a continual feast!

Many times we have suffering, for human life is full of suffering; suffering is our portion as long as we are human beings.

However, even as we live a life of suffering, we need to realize that we suffer so that we can feast more.

Our suffering helps us to enjoy the Lord more.

The Lord allows and even ordains a certain measure of environmental suffering; we suffer at work, at home with our family, in our health, and in many ways.

Our sufferings, however, should help us to enjoy Christ even more.

This is why Psalm 23:5 mentions that the Lord has prepared a table before us in the presence of our enemies.

As we have suffering, as the enemies are attacking us and giving us a hard time, we are feasting with the Lord, for our Christian life is a life of feasting.

The Lord makes our fighting a feasting and He makes our suffering a table for us to feast.

Amen, we are those who are feasting on the Lord day by day, having a life of feasting, no matter how much suffering we have!

From the beginning to the end of our Christian life, we have a life of feasting!

Lord Jesus, we want to live a life of feasting today! Amen, Jesus is our feast! Hallelujah, we can exercise our spirit today and partake of Christ as our rich feast. Thank You, dear Lord, for being the reality of the Feast of the Passover so that we can enjoy You. You became the Lamb of God who died for us on the cross to take all our sins away. You were slain on the cross and You gave Your life for us, and now we can apply Your precious blood and we can eat You so that we may be delivered from the world. We feast on You as our food and we take You as the unleavened bread so that we may live a sinless life today. Amen, Lord Jesus, we want to feast on You every day and bring the rich produce of Christ at the meetings so that we may feast more with the saints! Oh, what a rich Christ we have! Even in our sufferings, He is a feast for us. Amen, Lord, we want to feast on You today. We want to feast on You together with all the saints! You prepare a table for us even in front of our enemies: we feast on Christ and the enemy destroy!

Enjoy Christ as the Feast of the Tabernacles by having a Proper Remembrance of Him and Enjoying the Blending

God ordained the Feast of the Tabernacles so that the children of Israel would remember how their forefathers had lived in tents (tabernacles) in their wandering in the wilderness (Deut. 16:13-15).

The word Tabernacles in the title of the Feast of the Tabernacles implies the thought of remembrance.

The children of Israel, after being delivered from Egypt and as they were wandering in the wilderness, lived in booths, in tents, in tabernacles.

The Lord wanted their descendants to remember that they used to live in tents, and He also wanted them to enjoy Him and feast with them.

Our Christian life is a life of feasting; whether we live in a house or in a tent, we need to feast on the Lord.

We need to remember that we are sojourners and travellers; the earth is not our home, for our home is in the Lord and our city is the New Jerusalem, the city which has the foundations.

We need to remember what the Lord has done for us and we also need to remember our history, the ones who went before us, and follow the pattern of our spiritual forefathers.

We are not here all of a sudden with no history or background before the Lord; He has ordained many who went before us, and we today need to remember those from whom we have learned the life practices.

In Deuteronomy the word remember was used many times; we should never forget what the Lord has done for us, who our forefathers are, what is our spiritual history, and how should we live a life of feasting on the Lord.

As we consider our spiritual forefathers and we are grateful to the Lord for their experience in life, we follow their pattern in the Lord.

We don’t remember those who went before us merely to reminiscence and be nostalgic; rather, we remember them in the Lord, we follow their pattern, and we continue to live a life of feasting.

The Lord has brought His recovery in the present age through at least these last 102 years, and He has done much work among us, He has spoken much to us, and He has many patterns among us.

We need to remember the many things the Lord did in us and among us and enjoy the rich deposit He has given us.

Our true remembrance is of the Lord and what He has done for us, what He is doing in us, and what He will do for us.

We remember Him by feasting on Him, for our Christian life is a life of feasting.

This is similar to what the Lord said concerning His table in Luke 22:19-20; He said that we need to eat the bread and drink the wine in remembrance of Him.

How do we remember the Lord and what He has done for us? By eating Him and feasting on Him.

We remember Him by living a life of feasting today in our daily Christian life, and by feasting with the Lord and with the saints as we gather together in the meetings of the church. Hallelujah!

As the children of Israel came together to hold the Feast of the Tabernacles, they were blended together; none of them had too much and even those who were poor had food, for they all shared the riches of the good land, bringing God the surplus and sharing with one another what God blessed them with.

Since the Feast of the Tabernacles was right after the harvest, each one had a surplus, and even those who were poor could enjoy something, for every one shared their riches with them.

When we come together and blend with the saints, we need to bring the riches of Christ and the surplus of Christ in our life of feasting.

We need to pay the price to get out of ourselves, out of our house, out of our home town, and even out of our country to go and blend with the saints at the appointed feasts, continuing our life of feasting in a corporate way so that we may be blended together.

We don’t just gather together as a social gathering; we are being blended together in the Body and as the Body, and the Lord has a way of blending the Body together as we feast on the Lord!

Lord Jesus, we want to offer You the true remembrance by eating You and drinking You! May our daily Christian life be a life of feasting. We want to feast on You and feast with You. You are our feast. We remember You in love, and we remember those who went before us. Thank You for all the patterns in the church life, all the saints who went before us and laid their life as a pattern for us to follow in feasting on Christ. Amen, Lord, may we be those who labour on Christ day by day so that we may obtain a rich produce of Christ to bring to the meetings of the church to share with all the saints. May we have something of the riches of Christ to share with the saints so that they may also be brought into a life of feasting! Oh Lord Jesus, make us those who pay the price to be blended with the saints as we join the feasts so that You may blend the Body together! We give ourselves to You for the blending. Blend us, Lord, blend us more every time we meet with the saints!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother James Lee in the message for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 4, “Crystallization-study of the Gospel of John,” ch. 6, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Experiencing, Enjoying, and Expressing Christ (2024 July Semiannual Training), week 8, Christ as the Feast of Tabernacles and as the Spirit Flowing out of the Believers as Rivers of Living Water.
• Similar articles on this topic:
  – Growing in life by eating Jesus, a portion from, The Flesh and the Spirit, Chapter 5, by Witness Lee.
  – New Jerusalem, the Ultimate Feast of Tabernacles, via, New Jerusalem blog.
  – The Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles, outline via, LSM Webcast.
  – Israel in God’s Economy (6) – Israel in the End Times, the Millennium, and Eternity Future, via, Shepherding Words.
  – Living by Christ as the life supply, a portion from, Living In and With the Divine Trinity, Chapter 9, by Witness Lee.
  – Jesus the Lamb of God, via, Bibles for America blog.
  – The feast of tabernacles, a portion from, The Fulfillment of the Tabernacle and the Offerings in the Writings of John, Chapter 20, by Witness Lee.
  – Lamb, Manna or Good Land—What Kind of Christ Do You Enjoy? More via, Holding to Truth in Love.
  – The way into God’s tabernacle, a portion from, The Fulfillment of the Tabernacle and the Offerings in the Writings of John, Chapter 16, by Witness Lee.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Jesus, our wonderful Shepherd / Brought us right out of the fold / Into His pasture so plenteous, / Into His riches untold. / Glorious church life, / Feasting from such a rich store! / Here where we’re dwelling in oneness / God commands life evermore. (Hymns #1221 stanza 1 and chorus)
  – Lord, Thou art the Bread from heaven, / The unleavened Bread of life; / Eating Thee, with Thee we mingle, / Ceasing from our sin and strife. / Lamb and Bread are both Thy figures, / Showing Thou art life to us; / Feasting on Thee at Thy table, / We enjoy Thy riches thus. (Hymns #196 stanza 3)
  – We are feasting with our Savior, / He with us and we with Him; / Hallelujah, hallelujah! / Feast of feasts that ne’er will end! / Eating, drinking with Thyself, Lord, / We are wholly satisfied. / Taste we of that glorious banquet / Thou wilt share with us, Thy Bride. (Hymns #1105 stanza 2)