| E-MAIL SERVICE | Sign me up to receive the daily Word of Righteousness free via my E-mail address! ( ONLY AVAILABLE IN ENGLISH ) | |
| ARCHIVES | I want to check out the daily Words of Righteousness for any of the last fourteen days or from previous weeks. ( ENGLISH ONLY ) | |
| FEEDBACK | I have a question or comment about today's Word of Righteousness. ( ENGLISH AND SPANISH ONLY ) | |
| BOOK LIST | I would like to see the complete book list of the Words of Righteousness author Robert B. Thompson. (SOME SPANISH TITLES AVAILABLE ) |
The Daily Word of Righteousness
One in Christ in God, #53
So the priests, and the Levites, and the porters, and the singers, and some of the people, and the Nethinims, and all Israel, dwelt in their cities; and when the seventh month came, the children of Israel were in their cities. (Nehemiah 7:73)
The eighth chapter of Nehemiah discusses the celebration of the feast of Tabernacles. Let us review this passage as we speak about the association of the feast of Tabernacles with the Law of God.
Here is a prophetic picture of the coming of the Law of God into the earth. The ministers and people were all in their places on this occasion. It is a portrayal of the Day of the Lord.
It is true of us Christians today that as soon as we have made some progress against sin and the enemy (as typified by the rebuilding of the wall of Jerusalem—Nehemiah 7:1), we should be looking to the Lord for opportunities to bring the knowledge of God and His holy ways to other people.
Notice the first verse:
And all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the street that was before the water gate; and they spake unto Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded to Israel. (Nehemiah 8:1)
It was now possible for "all the people" to gather themselves together "as one man" into the street that was before the "water gate." The wall (against sin, to speak symbolically) had been built. The Lord's servants were set in their places for the work of the ministry. The Israelites were assembled to drink of the water of life.
The people came to hear Ezra read the Law of Moses. What a scene this is! Ezra represents the Christians. The Israelites, in this instance, represent the nations of the earth who will come to the Christians to learn of God.
And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. (Zechariah 14:16)
Ezra's reading of the Law took place on the first day of the seventh month, the day of the blowing of Trumpets, and continued through the week of the feast of Tabernacles (Nehemiah 8:18). We see that the last three of the feasts of the Lord—Trumpets, Day of Atonement, and Tabernacles—are associated in significance with the establishing of God's Law, God's Kingdom, in the earth.
The most complete expression of the relationship between the feasts of the Lord and the Law of God will occur in the kingdom-wide fulfillment of the feasts of the Lord, which is the new heaven and earth reign of Christ. The purpose of the Law of God is to produce holiness of behavior. The most complete expression of God's holiness that Heaven and earth will ever see is the holy city, the Wife of the Lamb, the new Jerusalem. The holiness of the new Jerusalem is the holiness of Christ Himself.
To be continued.