The Feast of Prosperity

King Solomon was one of the richest and, during his younger years, one of the wisest men in history. He prospered because He obeyed God and promoted peace through his wisdom. In fact, his kingdom had so much gold that “silver was accounted as nothing in the days of Solomon” (1Kings 10:21).

The Queen of Sheba paid a visit to Solomon to verify what she had heard about him, his wisdom and his wealth. These were her parting words: “It was a true report which I heard in my own land about your words and your wisdom. However I did not believe the words until I came and saw it with my own eyes; and indeed the half was not told me. Your wisdom and prosperity exceed the fame of which I heard . . . Blessed be the LORD your God, who delighted in you, setting you on the throne of Israel! Because the LORD has loved Israel forever, therefore He made you king, to do justice and righteousness” (1Kings 10:6-9).

Wisdom, wealth and peace abounded in Solomon’s early reign. But his time was only a foretaste of an era of unprecedented peace and unparalleled prosperity that God promises will in time envelop the earth!

A feast of abundance

Wealth and affluence abound in the Western nations. Yet simultaneously millions suffer grinding poverty and thousands die every day for lack of food and malnutrition-related illnesses.

But it need not always be this way. At a time yet ahead of us, all human beings will have the opportunity to enjoy a prosperity unequaled in history.

Let’s take a closer look at why and how this transformation will take place.

God outlined the major steps in His plan for mankind through a series of festivals, recorded in Leviticus 23, that He revealed to the ancient Israelites. (To understand the significance and symbolism of these observances, or “feasts,” as they’re called in the Bible, be sure to request your free copy of the booklet God’s Holy Day Plan: The Promise of Hope for All Mankind.)

In this article we focus on the meaning of one of the commanded observances, the Feast of Tabernacles. This one is kept in the autumn of the year (in the northern hemisphere) and is based on the agricultural seasons of the Promised Land. The Feast of Tabernacles coincides with the final ingathering in the final months of the year, marking an end to the harvest of all the bounty God has given His people and figuratively picturing a future harvest of human beings for God’s Kingdom during Christ’s reign on earth.

Also called the Feast of Ingathering, this festival was to be observed “when you have gathered in the fruit of your labors from the field” (Exodus 23:16) and “when you have gathered from your threshing floor and from your winepress” (Deuteronomy 16:13). This festival was meant to be a time of great abundance.

God commanded the Israelites to save a tithe—a 10th—of their “increase” during the year and, at His festivals, to “eat (it) before the LORD your God, in the place where He chooses . . . that you may learn to fear the LORD your God always” (Deuteronomy 14:23).

God’s feasts were a time of celebration and abundance. He instructs His people in how to observe them: “And you shall spend that money for whatever your heart desires: for oxen or sheep, for wine or similar drink, for whatever your heart desires; you shall eat there before the LORD your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your household” (verse 26).

We see from God’s instructions that this feast was to be an observance that involved whole families so each family could “learn to fear the LORD your God always” (verse 23). He commanded that the Israelites were to generously share in their abundance with the less fortunate and to make offerings in recognition of God’s blessings (Deuteronomy 16:13-17).

Sharing the wealth

The kind of abundance Israel enjoyed during the Feast of Tabernacles helps us understand what God has in store for all mankind—a blessing for all humanity characterized by peace and prosperity. God— who is infinitely generous and wealthy— promises mankind will share in His wealth.

Revelation 20:4 reveals that Jesus Christ, at His return to earth, will begin a 1,000-year reign, an era commonly known as the Millennium (from the Latin words for “thousand years”). For 1,000 years the inhabitants of earth will live in unprecedented peace.

This is not the kind of peace that human beings in the present age can experience. Our kind of peace simply means an absence of war. But God’s peace far eclipses man’s peace.

Godly peace means safety, a well-being characterized by happiness, friendliness and cooperation. Through the prophet Micah, God describes the kind of peace Christ’s reign will bring to earth: “. . . Everyone shall sit under his vine and under his fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid . . .” (Micah 4:4). God’s peace means no fear. It promotes good health, physically, mentally and emotionally.

Through the prophet Amos, God fills in the picture even more. “‘Behold the days are coming,’says the LORD, ‘when the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him who sows seed; the mountains shall drip with sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it. I will bring back the captives of My people Israel; they shall build the waste cities and inhabit them; they shall also make gardens and eat fruit from them’” (Amos 9:13-14).

Ezekiel shows that the earth will again become like the Garden of Eden: “So they will say, ‘This land that was desolate has become like the garden of Eden; and the wasted, desolate, and ruined cities are now fortified and inhabited’” (Ezekiel 36:35).

Isaiah adds that “the wilderness and the wasteland shall be glad for them. And the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose; it shall blossom abundantly and rejoice, even with joy and singing . . . They shall see the glory of the LORD, the excellency of our God” (Isaiah 35:1-2).

A dramatic change

Ironically, for Christ to institute this time of peace He must first put down, by force, the armies—led and peopled by misguided human beings—that will resist Him (Zechariah 14:1-4,12; Revelation 17:14; 19:11-21).

The prophet Isaiah tells us that when Jesus returns He will forcefully subdue all opposition to Him, His government and God’s Kingdom (Isaiah 11:4). To institute this time of peace, God will incarcerate Satan and the demons for 1,000 years (Revelation 20:7). Even wild animals will manifest a tame spirit (Isaiah 11:6-9).

With no devil and demons around to spread satanic attitudes of hatred, war, corruption and greed, a time of unprecedented prosperity will break out on earth. When no corruption or violence pollutes the planet, God’s peace and prosperity will fill the earth.

When Christ initiates this millenniumlong era with His second coming, the earth will have already been reduced to shambles (Isaiah 24). The prophets’words make this clear in this and other predictions of divine intervention.

From Christ’s arrival onward will come a great time of restoration and renewal that He will lead while supported by God’s faithful and obedient followers. At Christ’s second coming God will have given these followers immortality (Revelation 20:4; Acts 3:19-21; 1Corinthians 15:51-54; 1Thessalonians 4:13-17). The survivors of this period of “great tribulation” (Matthew 24:21) will begin a monumental process of rebuilding the world (Isaiah 58:12).

In Isaiah 11:9 God promises of this wonderful era: “They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.” Inhabitants of the earth at last will learn and remember God’s ways and put them into practice—the key to a long-awaited world of peace. In this peaceful and prosperous setting children will play in the streets without fear of accident, injury or abduction (Zechariah 8:3-5). Parents will sit and visit with each other without fear of muggings or any other unwanted intrusion. Families can grow old together, and grandparents can enjoy their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

“Now it shall come to pass in the latter days,” reveals the prophet Micah, “that the mountain of the LORD’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and peoples shall flow to it. Many nations shall come and say, ‘Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths.’For out of Zion the law shall go forth, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

“He shall judge between many peoples, and rebuke strong nations afar off; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more” (Micah 4:2-4). This is the world God has in store for us!

The Feast of Tabernacles today

Members of the United Church of God, publisher of The Good News, will gather in dozens of locations around the world in October in obedience to God’s command to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. There they will observe this feast by worshiping God and learning more about the age when Christ will rule the earth. The Bible reveals that eventually all nations “shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles” (Zechariah 14:16).

If you would like to observe this festival with us, we’d be delighted to have you join us. Visitors are always welcome at services of the United Church of God. To learn more about this annual feast and the sites of its observance, see the information below.

To learn more about God’s feast days in general, be sure to request your free copy of the booklet God’s Holy Day Plan: The Promise of Hope for All Mankind. You may request or download it from our Web site at www.gnmagazine.org.GN