Dispensationalists see a renewed old covenant redemptive system in place during the post-rapture Great Tribulation and the following Millennium, where the temple is to be rebuilt and sacrifices offered for “atonement” (Ezek. 45:15; cf. 40:38). They have to continue this line of literalistic consistency by claiming that the Feast of Booths (Tabernacles) will also be kept as an Old Covenant rite (Zech. 14:16, 19). This is impossible. The New Testament describes Jesus as the fulfillment of every element of the Old Covenant shadows, feasts included (Passover, Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits, Pentecost): “And beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, [Jesus] explained to [His disciples] the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures. . . . That all the things which are written about [Jesus] in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled” (24:27, 44). Jesus is the “lamb of God” (John 1:29, 36), the temple (2:29), the bread from heaven (6:48), the high priest (Heb. 5:10), and the Rock (1 Cor. 10:4). Willem VanGemeren’s comments on the shadow nature of the feasts are to the point:Since Jesus’ coming the relevance of the Jewish religious calendar has been reduced to a shadow of things to come. Jesus is portrayed as the passover lamb (I Cor. 5:7–8). Christians celebrate the Lord’s Supper instead of the passover. With the destruction of the temple, pilgrimages and special offerings have come to an end. The death of Christ, particularly, is portrayed in the NT as the final sacrifice by which man can be reconciled to God (Heb. 7:27; cf. Ch. 8).[6]Are we really to expect that the nations of the world—several billion people—will go up to Jerusalem to live in booths “from year to year”? Is this what God is saying through Zechariah? The Feast of Booths commemorated the ingathering of the harvest, Israel’s sojourn in the wilderness, God’s divine protection, and the entrance of the Jews into the Promised Land. Under the gospel, the world benefits by these same blessings.
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