The Passover of Tabernacles
(week 51/04)
Olubi Johnson
We wish all our readers a wonderful Christmas, especially as the Church begins to experience the wonders of the fulfillment of the fullness of Tabernacles.The fulfillment of the feast of Tabernacles will bring with it a manifestation of judgment and glory simultaneously. This is spoken of prophetically in
Malachi 4.1-2 NKJV: “For behold, the day is coming, Burning like an oven, And all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble. And the day which is coming shall burn them up,” Says the LORD of hosts, “That will leave them neither root nor branch. 2 But to you who fear My name The Sun of Righteousness shall arise With healing in His wings;
There will be judgment for the proud and wicked and the glory of the sun of righteousness arising with spectacular healing power for those who fear the Lord. Now the wicked spoken of here are not unbelievers.
They are stubborn and rebellious Christians who like Saul, practice only the part of the Word of God that is convenient for their flesh. They hate instruction: specific details of how to do God’s Word, preferring to do God’s Word their own way. For instance, they like to substitute sacrifice, like praise, for the obedience of prayer in the spirit, reading, studying, meditating, confessing and acting on the Word. So they will spend much more time listening to Christian music and ‘praising’ God rather than in prayer and the Word and then quality praise and worship.
Psalms 50:16-17 NKJV: But to the wicked God says: “What right have you to declare My statutes, Or take My covenant in your mouth, 17 Seeing you hate instruction And cast My words behind you?
1 Samuel 15:22-23 NKJV: Then Samuel said: “Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, As in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams. 23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He also has rejected you from being king.”
These Christians are also pictured as tares that offend and do iniquity in the kingdom that will be cast into a furnace of the fire of God’s judgment:
Matthew 13:39-43 NKJV: Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. 41 The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, 42 and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!
1 Corinthians 3:15-16 NKJV: If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.
However, God’s mercy is still available as there is a Passover in this season of the fulfillment of Tabernacles just like there was a Passover when God’s judgment came to Egypt to deliver the children of Israel.
In Moses’ Passover the people obeyed the instruction of putting the blood of the lamb on the lintel of the doors of their houses. It is significant to observe that they were not automatically protected because they were Israelites. They were only protected if they obeyed the instructions of the Passover.
Similarly, in this Passover of Tabernacles we will only be protected from the coming judgment if we obey the instructions of this Passover.
In this Passover of Tabernacles, we put the mark of the 2nd. Circumcision: the decision to walk daily habitually in the divine love of God by the written Word using the power of the Holy Spirit on our hearts.
We see a picture of this in:
Ezekiel 9:3-7 NKJV: Now the glory of the God of Israel had gone up from the cherub, where it had been, to the threshold of the temple. And He called to the man clothed with linen, who had the writer’s inkhorn at his side; 4 and the LORD said to him, “Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry over all the abominations that are done within it.” 5 To the others He said in my hearing, “Go after him through the city and kill; do not let your eye spare, nor have any pity. 6 Utterly slay old and young men, maidens and little children and women; but do not come near anyone on whom is the mark; and begin at My sanctuary.” So they began with the elders who were before the temple. 7 Then He said to them, “Defile the temple, and fill the courts with the slain. Go out!” And they went out and killed in the city.
Notice here that what will mark your heart is your attitude towards truth and righteousness and this attitude will be shown by your practice of instructions of righteousness when you receive them. People who have not yet received the correct instructions but have the right attitude will receive the Passover mark and be preserved in the coming judgment.
This same truth is shown by the building of booths in feast of Tabernacles using branches taken from trees on the mountains.
Nehemiah 8:13-16 NKJV: And they found written in the Law, which the LORD had commanded by Moses, that the children of Israel should dwell in booths during the feast of the seventh month, 15 and that they should announce and proclaim in all their cities and in Jerusalem, saying, “Go out to the mountain, and bring olive branches, branches of oil trees, myrtle branches, palm branches, and branches of leafy trees, to make booths, as it is written.”
The mountain symbolizes prayer (Is.56.7). The branches symbolize teachings and life style examples that come out of those who have become great trees of righteousness in the Kingdom (Is. 61.3) whose branches give covering for the birds of the air (Mark 4.30-32).
We get these branches and build these booths by prayer and so are covered from the coming judgment, which will then Passover us.
So by having the right attitude towards righteousness and truth and practicing instructions when you get them you will get a Passover mark in your heart and be preserved from the judgment that will come with the fulfillment of Tabernacles
