Picturing the Millennium

During the Feast of Tabernacles, we are to dwell in tabernacles or booths, that is, temporary dwellings. As Israel dwelt in tents on the way to the physical Promised Land, so we reside in temporary dwellings—our fleshly bodies—on the way to our “promised land,” the Kingdom of God. When that Kingdom is set up, we will be given permanent bodies, and in that sense will no longer live in temporary dwellings. However, until the later establishment of the new heavens and new earth, the whole world of the Millennium will still be a temporary dwelling for us, though more beautiful and wonderful than ever before—and the Feast helps us to focus on these facts. Moreover, the rest of humanity will still have temporary, fleshly bodies at that time—until they later join us as glorified members of the God family. Nevertheless, they will learn the way of God and the entire world will at last know peace and harmony—through God’s Holy Spirit. As Tabernacles celebrated the great late summer and fall agricultural harvest in ancient Israel, so it pictures the later “harvest” of mankind, when everyone living will be offered salvation. What a wonderful world to look forward to.

Yet as wonderful as it will be, the Millennium will end with a serious downturn—the temporary release of Satan to deceive the nations once more, which is reflected in the reading. Let this serve as a warning to us as we venture back out into this evil world he controls following the conclusion of the Feast. In conjunction with the selected passages below, it would also be helpful to read “The Feast of Tabernacles: Jesus Christ Reigns Over All the Earth” from God’s Holy Day Plan: The Promise of Hope for All Mankind.