The Feast of Tabernacles: Is It Worth It?

For seven days God’s people live in temporary dwellings—away from their everyday lives. Doing so requires sacrifice and a lot of work. Is the Feast of Tabernacles worth it?

A high school student is walking down the hall when a friend comes up and asks him where he’s been for the past week. The student tries to explain that he’s been gone for a religious festival, but his friend doesn’t appear to understand.

A college student enters a classroom and some of his fellow students ask him why he hasn’t shown up for class for over a week. He struggles to find out what he missed while he was gone, but the teacher isn’t overly sympathetic and his friends missed a couple of classes themselves.

Problems with the Feast

Many of us have probably lived through the situations described above. I’ve been a high school student and a college student in the Church, and I can testify that it isn’t easy. Taking a week off of school, work, sports and other activities can be very difficult. In some ways the simple command “You shall keep it as a feast to the LORD for seven days in the year” (Leviticus 23:41) can be one of the more complicated parts of being a Christian.

The Feast provides many spiritual and physical blessings; but if we’re not careful, we can lose focus of those blessings when God’s way and the world clash. Sometimes we have to remind ourselves that the Feast of Tabernacles is worth all of the effort, planning and preparation. We have to always remember what makes the Feast of Tabernacles so special—so we are never tempted to miss it!

Benefits of the Feast

While many of the problems we face by leaving home for 8 days are physical, there are also many physical benefits:  

• Fellowship.
• A break from the hassles of the world.
• Adequate spending money due to second tithe.
• Opportunities for travel.

God hasn’t commanded us to observe a Feast that just creates challenges for us (which come about only because so few today observe it). He has also arranged for plenty of blessings and gifts to come our way as a result of our obeying Him. Many of the places we travel to for the Feast are places that we would probably never be able to go to if it weren’t for God’s Feast!

Meaning of the Feast

The trials and even the physical benefits of keeping the Feast of Tabernacles all pale in comparison to its wonderful meaning! The Feast reminds us every year that Christ will establish His Kingdom on the earth and rule over the entire universe from this very planet!

It pictures a world that is beyond our imagination—and we attend the Feast every year to get a better vision of that future world. Can you imagine a world with no violence, no hate, no death? Imagine a world where children will be safe! Even the animals will be peaceful in this world! We read details about such a world in Isaiah 11 and other sections of the Bible.

To make it even better, we have the opportunity to be there and to help rule this magnificent world (Revelation 20:4)! God has personally called us (John 6:44) to have a part in the governance of His Kingdom. We will have the opportunity to help guide the people living at that time—to help them learn and become more like God (Isaiah 30:20-21)!

This is the meaning of the Feast—the purpose behind the week away from our normal routine and daily lives.

Yes!

God has revealed a wonderful way of life to us! His laws are not burdensome (1 John 5:3), so we have to take special care to never view them as such. The Feast of Tabernacles isn’t a hassle or a burden. Instead, it’s an opportunity to live God’s way, to remember the awesome future that God will bring about, and to keep in mind the future that we can have if we choose wisely.

Yes—the Feast of Tabernacles is, without a doubt, worth it!

Joshua Travers is a member of the Athens, Ohio, congregation of the Church of God, a Worldwide Association.