The Ingathering

        The Bible often speaks of the final judgment as a harvest:

Hosea 6:11  - Also, O Judah, he hath set an harvest for thee, when I returned the captivity of my people. 

Joel 3:13  - Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great. 

Matthew 13:39  - The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels. 

Rev. 14:15  - And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe. 

        This harvest is a future Day of Ingathering when God gathers His people unto Himself and burns the wicked like the chaff and stubble.

Malachi 4:1-2  - For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.  [2] But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall. 

        The Feast of Tabernacles is tied to Israel's FUTURE as well as her past. When the Messiah sets up His millennial Kingdom, He will gather the remnant of Israel back to her land. Isaiah described this event as the harvesting of olives. Tree branches are beaten with rods and the olive berries gathered once they fall to the ground:

Isaiah 27:12-13  - And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall beat off from the channel of the river unto the stream of Egypt, and ye shall be gathered one by one, O ye children of Israel. [13] And it shall come to pass in that day, that the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem. 

Isaiah 11:11-12  - And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. [12] And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. 

Jeremiah 23:7-8  - Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that they shall no more say, The Lord lives, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; [8] But, The Lord lives, which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land. 


        

        The righteous among the Gentiles too, will be gathered to the Lord. In that day, the Gentiles will pray in Jerusalem:

Zech. 14:16-17 - 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. [17] And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain. 

        The Gentile nations that refuse to keep the Feast of Tabernacles in the millennial Kingdom will receive no rain upon their lands. This passage provided the biblical basis for the tradition of praying for rain during the Feast of Tabernacles.

        The Tabernacle

        The Lord will not only gather His people, but He will TABERNACLE in their midst during the coming Messianic Kingdom (See our study on THE TABERNACLE):

Ezekiel 37:27-28  - My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. [28] And the heathen shall know that I the Lord do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore. 

Rev. 21:3  - And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. 

        The sign of God's presence, the Shekinah glory, will be seen in Zion again. It will appear as a shining fire over the whole of Mount Zion. It will be like a tabernacle, providing protection and refuge for the nation after centuries of persecution and the time of Jacob's sore trouble. That is not far off in the distant future- MESSIAH IS COMING!

Isaiah 60:1,19  - Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.  19 - The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory. 

Zech. 2:5  - For I, saith the Lord, will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her. 

Isaiah 4:5-6  - And the Lord will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory shall be a defense. [6] And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain. 

Feast of Tabernacles