How long will it take you to praise God for His almighty goodness when you stand in your place and see what God has done in keeping intact all you hold dear? Will you ever have time enough to give Him your love and praise?

The rejoicing will continue as long as is necessary for every soul to rejoice in God's goodness and to give thanks to Him for all He has accomplished in us and for us, as typified by the seven days of the feast of Tabernacles.

There was an eighth day of Tabernacles (Leviticus 23:36). The eighth day symbolizes the first day of the week of eternity, the week that has no end. After we all have had the opportunity to love and praise God and Christ for their goodness to us, and for the astonishing wisdom, power and love that has brought into being the reconciliation of the creation to God, we shall pass into the eighth day, the first day of eternity, and settle down to our endless life of serving God and Christ forever.

We have just described the kingdom-wide fulfillment of the feast of Tabernacles. There is a personal fulfillment of Tabernacles at hand for the Church of Christ. After we have been reconciled to God by the blood of the cross, by the overcoming of sin through the wisdom and power of the Holy Spirit, and by our obedience to God during problems and sufferings, continuing each day in obedience to the Word of God, then God and Christ will come to us and take up their abode with us to a much greater extent than we have experienced thus far (John 14:23).

Christ dwells in our heart when we first receive salvation. Christ is formed in us as we continue being ministered to and ministering to others.

But there is coming to each victorious Christian a far greater indwelling of the Father and the Son, the indwelling typified by the feast of Tabernacles. In that day the Lord will be dwelling in the Church just as the Father dwells in Christ.

The Father and the Son are coming to dwell eternally in us. This is a personal coming, not the visible second coming of the Lord to the earth.

The Lord Jesus will return to the earth exactly as promised, descending just as He ascended—in the sight of all people. The second coming of the Lord to the earth is for the purpose of setting up His Kingdom on the earth, to assume the rulership of the nations of the earth.

Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen. (Revelation 1:7)

The coming of our Lord in that day will not be primarily to the Church, although the Church will rise from the earth in transformed bodies to meet the Lord in the air. The Lord Jesus will be coming to the earth, appearing to the world in and with His saints.

To be continued.