An Eschatological Feast of Tabernacles
In this post (and future ones) I hope to outline some links between the Gospels and Acts on the one hand and Deutero-Isaiah, Zechariah 14 and the hymns of Yahweh’s enthronement (Pss. 93, 95-99) on the other, with a special reference to the feast of Tabernacles.
In Ps. 98 we find, what Hermann Gunkel termed, the eschatological enthronement of Yahweh. Kraus notes that this pictures Yahweh “leading his people home from Babylon through the desert to Jerusalem” going on to point out that “Yahweh’s end-time salvic action takes place on the basis of the covenant promise made to Israel”. All of the summonses to praise Yahweh refer to “the God who is coming” that is, “to an impending eschatological theophany”. Yahweh appears “as the king of all creation before the eyes of all nations”. The singer of Psalm 98 takes upon his lips the eschatological message of Deutero-Isaiah, that being the second-exodus. The psalmist is looking backwards to the first Exodus and forwards to the second exodus that is brought about by the greatest theophany of all, the incarnation of the Second Person of the Godhead as Jesus, who fulfils the torah, is the revelation of Yahweh’s hesed, who dies and is raised for our justification and enthroned on high at whose name all nations shall bow the knee and acknowledge him as Lord (Phil. 2:8-11).
Rewinding a little, Isaiah forty-two links to Pss. 98 and 96 by means of the summons to sing a new song. Moreover, Isaiah fifty-two links to the hymns of Yahweh’s enthronement by declaring:
How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!” Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices; together they shout for joy. When the LORD returns to Zion, they will see it with their own eyes. Burst into songs of joy together, you ruins of Jerusalem, for the LORD has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem. The LORD will lay bare his holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God.
This demonstrates that Deutero-Isaiah and the hymns of Yahweh’s enthronement are related. What then of Zechariah 14? Well,
The LORD will be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be one LORD, and his name the only name…Then the survivors from all the nations that have attacked Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the King, the LORD Almighty, and to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles.
This eschatological text looks forward to the age when Yahweh is enthroned over all nations. Sigmund Mowinckel has demonstrated that the hymns of Yahweh’s enthronement stem from a festival that took place during the feast of Tabernacles where Yahweh’s kingship (by means of his enthronement) was celebrated and where the covenant Yahweh made with Israel was renewed (cf. Deut 31:10, 11). The feast of Tabernacles was then intimately linked to Yahweh’s enthronement and covenant renewal.
It is therefore of major significance that these threads all come together in the Gospels and Acts. The theophany and second exodus (Ps. 98; Isa. 40-55) is realised through Jesus who renews the covenant (Deut. 31; Ps. 95, cf. Ps. 81) by means of his death and resurrection (Isaiah 52 & 53) leads his people out from bondage and is enthroned at the right hand of the Father (Pss. 93, 95-99), whose kingdom shall expand from shore to shore as all nations “kiss the Son” (Ps. 2) and so celebrate the true feast of Tabernacles (Zech. 14). This kingdom is then to be announced, nations called to bow the knee to King Jesus.
