Dear Doves,

 

          I will not rehash all of the reasons why I like the Feast of Tabernacles for the timing of the Rapture.  You can read my October 4, 2011 post if you are interested:  http://www.fivedoves.com/letters/oct2011/lisat104.htm

          But I did want to share another pattern which may connect the Rapture to Tabernacles.  It can be found in the familiar story about Noah and the Ark.

Pattern Confirmed By Christ

          We know that we can view Noah as a type or pattern because Jesus Himself has stated as much:

“No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.  As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.  For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away.  That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.  Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left.  Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.”  Matthew 24:36-41.

          I heard a Perry Stone teaching in which he noted that the Greek word for “taken” in this passage means to join to one’s self in an intimate association.  It is the same word used in John 14:3:

          “Do not let your hearts be troubled.  Trust in God; trust also in me.  In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you.  I am going there to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”  John 14:1-3.

          The Bible also likens the end-times to a flood:

          “After the sixty two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing.  The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary.  The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed.”  Daniel 9:26.

          So, it is worth giving Noah and his Ark a closer look.  "Whatever is has already been, and what will be has been before; and God will call the past to account."  Ecclesiastes 3:15.

Seven Days in a Tabernacle

          In celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles, the Jews were directed to build temporary shelters and to live in them for seven days.  On the eighth day, they were to hold a sacred assembly before the Lord.  See Leviticus 23:33-43. According to Nehemiah 8: 14-15, the Israelites used tree branches to build these tabernacles.

          Well, if you think about it, the Ark was one big tabernacle – a temporary dwelling place made out of wood.  And inside, Noah was told to make rooms in it.

          "So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out."  Genesis 6:14.

          These rooms were for both people and animals.  This is significant because the first mention of the word "sukkah" (i.e. tabernacles) is in reference to livestock shelters.  "Jacob, however, went to Succoth, where he built a place for himself and made shelters for his livestock.  That is why the place is called Succoth."  Genesis 33:17.  So, the Ark itself contained numerous shelters or tabernacles.

          We are told that God did not start the Flood immediately after Noah and his family entered the ark.  Instead, God shut them in and had them wait seven whole days before anything happened.  Why the delay?

          "The Lord then said to Noah, 'Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation.  Take with you seen of every kind of clean animal, male and its mate, and two of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, and also seven of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth.  Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made.'"  Genesis 7:1-4.

          I believe that God was establishing a pattern – one that seems to resonate with the Feast of Tabernacles. 

The Church on the Ark

          It is exciting to discover that the Church is actually included on the Ark through the presence of the clean and unclean animals.

          In Scripture, animals are often used to represent people.  For example, Jesus Christ is called the Lamb of God.  And “clean” animals were used as substitutionary sacrifices for the Jews. 

          Here, the key can be found in a vision which the Apostle Peter had concerning the issue of Gentiles in the early Church.

          In that vision, Peter saw all kinds of animals being lowered from heaven in a sheet.  Three times he was told to eat from it, but he refused – stating that he would not eat anything that was unclean.  God tells him: “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”  Acts 10:15.  Later, when Cornelius, a Gentile, sends for him, Peter realizes that God was telling him not to call any person clean or unclean.  (See Acts 10:28.)  He agrees to go witness to Cornelius, who becomes the first Gentile believer of the Church.

          So, we see that the Jews and Gentiles who make up the Church can be represented by the clean and unclean animals on Noah's Ark.  And note that until the complete number of animals was safely aboard the ark, the Flood did not begin.  Likewise, until the complete number of the Church is safely inside its Tabernacle, the Tribulation will not begin.

          "Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in."  Romans 11:25.

The Ark, the Tabernacle and the New Jerusalem

          I just want to point out something that other scholars have noticed about Noah’s Ark and the Tabernacle.  There is a similarity in their dimensions.  Both are rectangles.  The court of the Tabernacle was 100 cubits long, 50 cubits wide, and 5 cubits high.  The Ark was 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high.”  According to Eerdmans Commentary on the Bible at page 44 (which can be accessed at Google books): “… whereas Noah’s ark is recognizably boat shaped, each deck of which was the same height as the tabernacle and three times the area of the tabernacle court.  This leaves Westermann to suggest that the biblical writers saw both the tabernacle and ark as serving the preservation of humanity.”

          Consequently, Noah and his family entered a type of tabernacle when they sought safety in the Ark.

          Likewise, the dimensions of the New Jerusalem and the Holy of Holies (a room inside of the Tabernacle of the Wilderness) are perfect cubes.  The New Jerusalem is 12,000 stadia in length, width, and height.  See Revelation 21:16.  And the Holy of Holies in the Temple was 20 cubits in length, width, and height.  See 1 Kings 6:20.

          So, we will dwell in the New Jerusalem with God – in an eternal Holy of Holies, in the Tabernacle of God.  Like the Ark, it will have rooms prepared for us.  (In my Father’s house are many rooms.”  John 14:1.)

          "And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God."  Revelation 21:3-3.

          It would be fitting then for us to enter into our heavenly tabernacle on the Feast of Tabernacles.

          Maranatha!

                   – Lisa Taylor