The Connection Between Christmas and the Feast of Tabernacles
Have you ever wondered what is the connection between Christmas and the Feast of Tabernacles?
Well it all goes back to that glorious day our Savior was born!
We know that Jesus was approximately six months younger than John the Baptist. So if John was born in the month of Nisan during Passover (late March or early April), then that would place the birth of Jesus in the fall and likely during the Feast of Tabernacles (late September).
It is well possible that Jesus was born at the time of the Feast of Tabernacles and that Mary conceived Jesus by The Holy Spirit around Christmas!
So on Christmas we really celebrate the conception of Christ and actually not His birth. After all, the Bible teaches us that life starts at the point of conception. What a wonderful thought that is!
During his ministry, Jesus came to the Feast of Tabernacles and dwelt among men as the ‘Light of the World’. All words of scriptures have meaning, but some have deeper meaning than many may think. The gospel of John records Jesus’ prophetic words as he taught on the last day of this fall feast:
“On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink,” John 7:37 (NKJV),
Could it be that Jesus taught this message of living water precisely during the Feast of Tabernacles because He knew that centuries later the fulfillment of this promise would occur during the Feast of Tabernacles?
Are you thirsty for the outpouring of the former and the latter rains during the Feast of Tabernacles?
“If anyone thirsts” — that seems to be the only requirement Jesus our Lord puts forward, during that last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, for believers to come to Him and drink in that wonderful and power-filled Spirit.
The Spirit, however, was not yet poured out on the Believers because, as it said, Jesus had not yet been glorified.
It is so significant that Jesus made this invitation, not during the Feast of Pentecost, but during the Feast of Tabernacles!!
After His resurrection he repeated this, His promise to them, and told His disciples to wait in Jerusalem until they would be endued with power from on high when the Holy Spirit would be poured out upon them.
We have now come to this climactic time of which the outpouring of God’s Holy Spirit during the Feast of Pentecost was just the beginning and first fulfillment of The LORD’s Promise.
The Feast of Tabernacles, after nearly two thousand years of grace and preaching to the nations, will thus become the time of greater fulfillment, the double portion of God’s Spirit, the former and the latter rains being poured out “in the same month” (Hosea 6:3; Joel 2:23).
This is the reason that of the three Feasts of The LORD, Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles, the Feast of Tabernacles is the only biblical Feast which has yet to have a parallel New Covenant fulfillment.
At Passover, The LORD became for us the Passover Lamb. At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was poured out like fire. But the Feast of Tabernacles still awaits such a final fulfillment and, therefore, remains a prophetic event!
The scriptures clearly speak of a coming outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the Hinnom Valley.
Our prayer is that you will be able to come and join us for the Feast in the Hinnom Valley or Tophet, “the valley prepared for a King,” and that you will be a witness when He pours out His (double Pentecost !) Spirit in ZION!
“For Tophet (Hinnom Valley) was established of old, Yes, for the King it is prepared. He has made it deep and large; Its pyre is fire with much wood; The breath of The LORD, like a stream of brimstone, Kindles it,” Isaiah 30:33 (NKJV).
Here at the ICZC we like to TAKE PART in prophecy rather than merely READ about it!
Thus the only question which our LORD puts before us today is this:
“If anyone thirsts, let him or her come to Me….”
If you therefore, thirst today, this is your appointed Feast-time! During this time of celebration at the Feast of Tabernacles, we wish to come to The LORD in prayer, worship and praise. May you be filled with the power and glory of His Spirit and presence!
We pray that The LORD will enable us all to gather again in 2021 in the Hinnom Valley, in Jerusalem, during Sukkot from 19-28 September, as we await the outpouring of The LORD’s latter rains!
~ Jan Willem van der Hoeven, Director
International Christian Zionist Center
Newsletter of December 18, 2020.
Republished with the kind permission of Author Jan Willem van der Hoeven, Director of International Christian Zionist Center.
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I thank everyone of you who by his prayers and support is helping us to continue to be a voice for lonely Israel. Jan Willem van der Hoeven.
I believe you are correct. Jesus was born during Feast of Tabernacles. Many other compelling facts that support. Thanks for the article.