My very first Feast of Tabernacles was observed in 1966 at Blythe Arena in Squaw Valley, a picturesque mountain valley in Northern California. A significant number of readers will similarly recall traveling great distances to Squaw Valley in order to keep the wonderful Festival of Tabernacles with thousands of other earnest believers who were delighted simply to be there.

Those were the days when we had two services a day, every day. The needs were different then. No one felt oppressed or put upon. Many of the meals were communal meals served and eaten cafeteria style. The joy and exuberance was overwhelming. We all dreaded the closing service of the closing day when we would often sing for the concluding hymn, "God Be With You Till We Meet Again." Virtually no one wanted to go home yet.

Through the years I have enjoyed hearing others share their early experiences of keeping the feasts. At one time, we even kept the Spring Feast in much the same way we keep the Feast of Tabernacles. Eventually, an administrative decision was made to only observe Tabernacles en masse. As you know, the other feasts we celebrate locally.

Pilgrimage Means Travel

The word feast comes from the Hebrew word chag or hag, which refers especially to a "feast, observed by a pilgrimage" (Vine’s). That is its meaning and application in the very first reference in the Bible. Moses informed Pharaoh: "We will go with our young and our old; with our sons and our daughters, with our flocks and our herds we will go, for we must hold a feast to the Lord" (Exodus 10:9). According to Vine’s, "‘hag’ usually represents Israel’s three annual ‘pilgrimage feasts.’"

Part of the adventure associated with keeping the Feast of Tabernacles is the traveling necessary to get to one of the locations where God has placed His name, and to return home. A dictionary definition of the word pilgrimage is: "a journey, esp. a long one, made to some sacred place as an act of religious devotion." In the early years, those journeys were much more challenging than they are now. The roads were not as good, the cars were not as new, the financial resources were not as great and Church members were not as experienced as they are now. Traveling to the Feast was a remarkable combination of faith plus works, with far greater emphasis on the former than the latter!

One of the biblical instructions we read that is related to the journey component of the Feast is found in Deuteronomy 14:24-25. "But if the journey is too long for you so that you are not able to carry the tithe, or if the place where the LORD your God chooses to put His name is too far from you, when the LORD your God has blessed you, then you shall exchange it for money, take the money in your hand, and go to the place which the LORD your God chooses." Notice how the Bible provides the means for the believer to travel in order to keep the Feast at the designated location.

Challenges of Travel

There was a time in Israel’s history when one of its self-seeking kings decided to manipulate public sentiment through demeaning the travel associated with the feast days. In 1 Kings 12:28 we read how Jeroboam told his subjects, "It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem."

Up until then, it hadn’t been too much for the people of Israel to attend the Feast in Jerusalem. However, the power of suggestion can be very, very strong. In order to accommodate their imagined hardship, Jeroboam arranged for more convenient festival locations, namely Dan and Bethel, but they were not where God had placed His name. Oh yes, the other detail, as you are no doubt aware, was that the feast was delayed by one month!

Occasionally, even today there are a few "complaints" as to why the Feast sites can’t be more numerous and hence a little closer to where we happen to live. When God makes that provision by providing the necessary resources and clearly placing His name in a greater number of locations, then the Church is happy to add them, even though it creates more challenges in the organization and scheduling for our thinly spread ministry. We realize the hardships of travel.

I remember the brethren in Newfoundland a few years back making the arduous three-day drive to the nearest Feast site. Still, most of the Newfoundland brethren managed to attend the nearest site in spite of adversity. Thankfully now there is a Feast site right in the capital city of St. John’s. And this year we have been able to add a site in Ontario as well.

Staying Home

What are the legitimate reasons for staying home at Feast time? There are only two that come to mind. One is poor health. The other is a lack of adequate funding. Even age is not necessarily a factor of and by itself. There are elderly members who are able to attend the Feast because their health and finances permit. On the other hand, there are younger people who cannot attend the Feast because either their health or their finances are lacking.

If you aren’t able to travel, how can you observe the Feast of Tabernacles at home? These days this can be done by connecting to an actual Feast service through the wonders of live cybercasting. Of course, one has to have a computer to be able to do so. However, the benefits are tremendous.

The other way of handling this is to order Feast tapes from your national office well ahead of time.

One member was telling me how she keeps the entire Feast, start to finish, in her own home as if she were attending an actual full-fledged Festival site. She dresses up, puts on a Feast tape, takes notes, responds and rejoices, all in her own home. Some people are able to arrange to get together once or twice during the week with others who may similarly be unable to attend the Feast.

God’s Blessing

In whatever way you decide to keep the Feast of Tabernacles this fall, God will bless you abundantly as you step out in faith to obey and please Him. "Seven days you shall keep a sacred feast to the LORD your God in the place which the LORD chooses, because the LORD your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you shall surely rejoice" (Deuteronomy 16:15). UN