PILGRIMS IN THE WORLD—PART 1
© Orest Solyma  Sept 24-25, 1999
The Church of God in Williamstown
WEB SITE: http://www.alphalink.com.au/~sanhub/index.htm

INTRODUCTION
We know the Bible teaches that Christians are pilgrims, sojourners, strangers, foreigners, aliens in this world, a world ruled by the Devil and his angels, who are his demonic messengers and servants of all evils in all nations.

On the other hand, those who are called, chosen and faithful are citizens of the Kingdom of God. Their names are written in the Book of Life, and these elect are not citizens of this world and its life, a life nourished from the fruits of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And God promises to call people down through all history from all nations and ethnic groups. Many Scriptures attest to this (e.g., Gen 18:18; Dt 4:19; Ps 65:2; 66:4; 67:2,7; 82:8; 86:9; 117:1; Is 2:2; 52:10; 66:18-23; Dan 7:14; Hag 2:7; Mt 24:14; Mk 11:17; Lk 24:47; Rom 1:5; Gal 3:8; Rev 7:9; 12:5; 15:4).

How well do we understand this? How should we be affected—by the power and word of God? Furthermore, how should we feel, think, what should we say and do in our daily lives so that we are in full agreement with the patriarchs, prophets, apostles and other disciples of the Son of God, who is in the perfect image of His Almighty Father, as we are to become (Mt 5:48)?

The feasts of the LORD typify for us the Plan of Salvation. Let's consider God's command to observe and live the messages of the Feast of Tabernacles. We'll have to look at the deeper meanings of a number of key words: feast, tabernacle, tent, pilgrim, sojourner, stranger, foreigner and associated ideas. Clear definitions are vital, for we think by using words. Clarity of thought is proportional to clarity of understanding of the language we use.

THE FEAST—SOME KEY WORDS
Let's begin with Lev 23 and clarify first impressions. Verses 1and 2 tell us that these feasts are not the ideas of Moses but are the feasts of the LORD—Yahweh—The Eternal. The people of God are asked to assemble in spiritual unity. What are they supposed to celebrate and come to understand in this, the third festival season?

The Hebrew for feast is chagh. The noun means pilgrim feast. My dictionary references are the Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament [TWOT; 2 volumes], the Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament [TDOT; 13 volumes, but as yet not all the revised volumes are published], the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament [TDNT; 10 volumes], and several other single volume dictionaries. The Arabic cognate or relative word for chagh is haggun, which refers to pilgrimage to Mecca. The old Aramaic and Syrian word is hagga. In Greek, hago means to celebrate. And in Latin, agonium means sacrificial festival. In Hebrew chaghagh also means dance. So we have a word rich in meaning but poorly practised. Instead of rejoicing and dancing to the music God has created, religious people like to make their own song and dance and skip helter skelter to their own lyrics and meanings. We must understand the meanings God gives this festival otherwise our observances are condemned, as Isaiah 1:13-14 says: Hosea expresses similar hatred of false religion masquerading as God's religion: So let us heed how the Scriptures, and not vain traditions and the imaginations of men, define religious observances and their meanings.

Sukkah is the Hebrew for tabernacle or tent. The plural, used in the words Feast of Tabernacles, is sukkot. In John 7:2, the only direct NT reference to the Feast of Tabernacles, the word used is skenopegia, to set up a tent, hut, or booth (and scenopegia in the Vulgate). The word for tabernacle in NT Greek is skene—and so it is throughout the Septuagint (or LXX), the Greek translation of the OT.
Skene means tent, tabernacle, booth, temporary shelter, portable shrine, stage of a theatre, cover of a wagon, cabin on a ship's deck.
The Hebrew sukkah means booth, tent, tabernacle, temporary dwelling, booth for cattle, lion's lair. Sukkah also connotes covering, protection from the womb or from birth. In Akkadian and old Arabic, it means to choke up, fill in gaps, cover as in building a shelter. And chag sukkot, Feast of Tabernacles, occurs in Lev 23:34; Dt 16:13,16; Ezra 3:4; Zech 14:16,18,19; and in 2Chr 8:13 in the context of Solomon's dedication of the temple, in his 11th year, ca. 957 B.C.

Two other common Hebrew words for tent and tabernacle are mishkan and ohel.
Mishkan is derived from shakan, dwell temporarily, tabernacle, to tent; habitation. Shaken is neighbour or inhabitant. Mishkan is used almost exclusively (over 70 times) in Exodus and Numbers as the Hebrew for tabernacle, the Tent of Meeting in the wilderness.
Zech 8:3 has a remarkable use of the verb:

Ohel means dwelling place, home, tent, nomad's tent, tabernacle, palace, and in Lam 2:4 the tent of the daughter of Zion is Jerusalem. In Ex 33:7-8 the tabernacle is named "Ohel Mo'ed,", i.e., "The Tabernacle/Tent of Appointed Time(s)/Festival(s)." In Num 9:15 we are told that on the day the tabernacle (mishkan) was set up the cloud of covering settled on the "Ohel Edut," i.e., "The Tabernacle/Tent of Testimony." Ezekiel 23:4 identifies Oholah, "her own tent," as Samaria; and Oholibah, "My Tent is in Her," is Jerusalem. One creates her own religion, the other proceeds to corrupt God's religion—so both are destroyed. Ezekiel shows that Samaria and Judah, as with Manasseh and Ephraim, symbolize internal strife, division, and corruption within the Israel of God—part of the purging process to extract the dross.

Examples of sukkah, mishkan, ohel
There seems to be little difference in the use of these words in the OT Hebrew.

Verse 2 answers: He who walks and works in righteousness and who speaks Truth in his heart. We note that God's tabernacle is the place of refuge and worship. I suspect that mishkan, which connotes double covering, symbolic of the two layers of roofing and the two compartments in the whole tabernacle, takes in the other two words and is perhaps more emphatic about the final physical structure in the restored Jerusalem. The ruined tabernacle and the destroyed temple are replaced by the place where God and His Christ have their dwelling—the purged and truthfully-worshipping Church. Furthermore, Jesus Christ is the perfect tabernacle, as Hebrews 9:13 says. And we are to forever live in Christ, as Jesus speaks of in His prayer in Jn 17:23 (Gal 2:20; 5:25). The ultimate goal is that the Tabernacle of the Almighty God will be with mankind, as Rev 21:3 tells us, and which alludes to a verse in Leviticus 26, the blessings and cursings chapter, like Deuteronomy 28. Let's continue with Lev 23: Real generosity and gratitude toward God manifest themselves when there is deep personal conviction in Truth and that God is truly working in the life of each disciple. The branches are used to fill the gaps and spaces in the booth or tabernacle shelters. Where are the gaps, holes, cracks today and what should we fill them with? Before that question can be satisfactorily answered we need to correctly understand what the booths, tabernacles, temporary shelters symbolize. Then we can reach conclusions about what each individual must do. What is the tabernacle of each Christian? And what must each Christian contribute to that? It is interesting to note what Hosea asks and says about the appointed feasts of the LORD. The context is that Israel has played the harlot with regard to the spiritual significances of the harvest and feasts; they will go back into Egypt, i.e., become scattered in all the world as idolaters, will listen to prophets who are fools and spiritual men who are insane, as verse 7 says: Nevertheless, the merciful God will draw out of this world all the firstborn of Israel, those whose names are in the Book of Life, and this is what He will do: Quite evidently one of the parables is the tent, the ohel, a place of shelter and worship.

# Tomorrow I'll continue with this subject and we'll begin by looking at what is the true tabernacle, the one built by God.

***************************************************************************

PILGRIMS IN THE WORLD—PART 2
© Orest Solyma  Sept 24-25, 1999
The Church of God in Williamstown
WEB SITE: http://www.alphalink.com.au/~sanhub/index.htm

INTRODUCTION
Yesterday we began the topic, Pilgrims in the World. Let's recapitulate a few key points. We considered Lev 23:34-44 which deals with the Feast of Tabernacles. Several vital words were defined: booth or tabernacle, which, in Hebrew, give us some rich meanings.
Sukkah is the Hebrew for tabernacle or tent. The plural, used in Feast of Tabernacles, is sukkot. Two other common Hebrew words for tent and tabernacle are mishkan and ohel.
Mishkan is derived from shakan, which means to dwell temporarily, to tabernacle, to tent; habitation.
Ohel means dwelling place, home, tent, nomad's tent, tabernacle, palace, and in Lam 2:4 the tent of the daughter of Zion is Jerusalem. In Ex 33:7-8 the tabernacle is named "Ohel Mo'ed,", i.e., "The Tabernacle/Tent of Appointed Time(s)/Festival(s)."

Ps 27:5-6 was cited as an example of this richness of meaning:

And we noted that God's tabernacle is the place of refuge and worship. THE TRUE TABERNACLE
What does the NT say about the tabernacle and tent? What is the Tabernacle God has erected? Rev 21:3 tells us that finally, there is no more pilgrimage, no more temporary sojourning, for Rev 3:12 says that overcomers shall go out no more, for the Tabernacle of God is with men. Also see Rev 13:6; 15:5 for references to the temple and tabernacle in Heaven.

Ezekiel prophesies to all the saints of God:

Do we recall the perplexity and anger of the Pharisees over Jesus' words: "I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and within three days I will build another made without hands" (Mk 14:58; Jn 2:19)? Christ was talking about several matters: the temple made of stone, timber, gold, silver, etc.; the corrupted system they had made as a means of human worship and fake salvation; Christ was speaking of His death, the tearing of the veil, the resurrection, and the establishment of another temple and tabernacle in which He would live forever.

TENTS AND SOJOURNERS
Tents, tabernacles, pilgrims and sojourners are self-evidently connected, as Heb 11 shows:

God, like any of us would likewise want, wants children who bring glory and great honour to His Name.. Some, however, will wander about from cave to cave in Petra visiting with friends, drinking nomad wine and eating goats' cheese as they wait under the cloud for the Coming of—guess who? Someone who will say to them: I never knew you. Depart from Me you who practise lawlessness (Mt 7:23). ISRAEL, "THE LOST SHEEP," AND STRANGERS
Who, in terms of the NT, are the lost sheep of the House of Israel, and are they sojourners as we are? We know that the twelve apostles were sent by Jesus Christ to the "lost sheep of the house of Israel", as Mt 10:6 says. Jesus Christ said that He was sent by His Father to the lost sheep of the house of Israel as Mt 15:24 tells us. And since He is never a liar, He did go to the lost sheep of the House of Israel in the period of His short work (Rom 9:28; Is 10:22-3)—and the House of Israel was there to hear Him. Christ also said that the apostles would judge the twelve tribes of Israel in the Kingdom; Lk 22:30. It would seem from Rev 7 and 14, which speak of these tribes, and from reading Rom 9,10,11, that the twelve tribes are all who are called, chosen, faithful to the end, for they are the firstfruits of God, as Rev 14:4 says. They are the seed that would not fall and be lost—as Amos 9:9 prophesizes—for their names are in the Book of Life. And in Paul's address to King Agrippa (in Acts 26:7) he stated that the twelve tribes serve God day and night, hoping to attain to the Promise given to the fathers of the Faith. The only people who could possibly be regarded as fulfilling this would be the scattered sojourners and pilgrims whose names are in the Book of Life and who are the firstfruits of God—Jew and Gentiles alike. Most translations have which are scattered. But the Greek has en te diaspora—in the Diaspora. Jews use the term Diaspora to refer to Jews scattered all over the earth but united in their culture which has no national boundaries. True Christians are unified in one Spirit and Truth, one Body, one hope, one Lord, one Faith, one baptism, and one God who is Father of all—so the apostle Paul states in Eph 4:4-6. So those Peter regards as scattered, as dispersed, are those who are being gathered by God's calling to the Faith and these are people from all kinds of ethnic origins. Notice what the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament has to say about parepidemos as used in 1Pet 1:1 and 2:11:
Christians are presented as men who have no country of their own on this earth; they are simply temporary residents. For this reason they are not to allow themselves to be shaped by the things that largely determine life on this earth … Their alien status emerges clearly in the fact that they belong to the diaspora, the Jewish concept being applied to Christians. Their life in the diaspora brings into focus their existence as parepidemoi. And the fact that they are eklektoi parepidemoi (the elect ones who are exiled resident aliens), shows that their home is the place from which their election proceeds (Vol II, p 65).
The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (Vol 5) has 12 pages on the word paroikia.

The use by Peter of the word sojourners, from the Greek paroikia, needs to be well understood. This is an amazing word—paroikia. It's often used in the LXX, the OT in Greek. Its derivation is from the prefix para: from, beside, before, out of; it also denotes nearness to another, as being at home; figuratively, it means in favour with someone. Oikia or oikos mean family, house, household.

Household of God occurs in Eph 2:19 (oikeiou tou Theou); similarly in 1Tim 3:15 the House of God is the church of the living God; Heb 10:21 (Jesus Christ is) High Priest over the House of God; 1Pet 4:17 says that judgment is upon the Household of God. We may conclude that the combination, par-oikia, suggests being at home but away from home, i.e., exiled but waiting to be at home with the family of God in the House of God. In the literal sense, as most translators treat the word, it means "exiled resident alien." But the exiled sojourners, whose home is the Kingdom of God and the City of God, are temporarily out of their home, yet they are at home with their spiritual family, the House of the Almighty God.

OT PILGRIMS AND TENTS
We need to consider these ideas and NT teaching in the OT.

Gen 15:13 has the context of Jesus Christ telling Abram that he had been brought from Ur of the Chaldeans and an heir would be provided for him despite his age. Abram was asked to make a sacrifice which included the cutting in half of a three year old heifer, ewe and ram goats, plus a dove and pigeon. That night, while not knowing the meaning of the sacrifices, he had a dream in which the LORD said to Abram: "Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years" (because Satan and his demons would do everything possible to pervert his course and decisions; see Apocalypse of Abraham, chs. 9-32, Vol 1, Pseudiepigrapha, pp 693-705, for the amazing amplification on this brief and unexplained Genesis account).

Gen 17:8 speaks of the reaffirmation of the Promise made to Abram at 99 years of age: "Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God."

Gen 20:1 tells us that after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah Abraham journeyed from there to the South, and sojourned between Kadesh (sanctuary of holiness) and Shur (a wall), and stayed in Gerar (circle of strangers).

Gen 21:34 Abraham sojourned in the land of the Philistines many days (Philistaea: the land of wanderers; and in modern English, Palestine).

After Sarah's death at the age of 127 years, Abraham mourned in Hebron (conjunction, joining, confederacy), and said to the leader of the Hittites in Gen 23:4 "I am a stranger (ger) and a visitor (toshab: temporary dweller and landless wage-earner) among you. Give me property for a burial place among you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight."

Gen 26:3 is in the context of a famine, with Isaac going to Gerar, in Philistine territory, on his intended way to Egypt. The Son of God appears to him and says: "Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you and bless you; for to you and your descendants I give all these lands, and I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham your father."

The theme of sojourning patriarchs and God's saints is profoundly expressed in Psalms.

Ps 78 is by Asaph and is an overview of the history of Israel, God's protection of them, and their rejection of His care. It is also by a prophet, and prophets speak in parables, for they are given the prophecies by or from Jesus Christ. Notice what verse 55 says: Ps 105 begins with the statement Make His deeds known among the nations. It speaks of the patriarchal covenant and says in vv 11-15: (Gen 12:8 says that Abraham called upon the Name of the LORD—so this does not mean what it seems to mean. And in Gen 15:7, in one of the theophanies, the appearances of the pre-incarnate Jesus Christ, He said to Abraham: I am the LORD! LORD, or YHWH, is used many times in Genesis. The text should be understood as: I was not known in the fullness of how My Name, the Eternal, would unfold. Now Moses, you will see further how My promises given to the patriarchs will happen). And the chapter that deals with the Jubilee, which begins on a day of Atonement has: In other words, God's view of all His people, through all of history, until the restoration of all things, is that they are pilgrims on the earth.

PILGRIM CHRISTIANS
Is it any wonder that God's word in the NT is consistent with the OT?

CONCLUSION
Ezekiel 40-48 deals with the millennial setting: temple, priesthood, the restored city of Jerusalem and its environs. Even in the Millennium the concept of being pilgrims is there: The Law of God is forever, as is illustrated in Lev 19 which has many different principles of government: Equity, righteous, justice, and the finest principles of "love your neighbour as yourself", are integral to the Life of the Promised Land and to those promised the Land of Promise.

This is something on which God has total focus and what He does is to purge and prepare a people so that their vision is one of present living so that their lives and others' will be for the future. The present is a sojourn—a sojourn which will get incredibly difficult for those who live into the very last days. Let's note God's zeal for His purpose for His beloved and those who turn to love Him:

The symbolism of the last day has more to say about this.

Let's go to those well-known verses in Zechariah about the Feast of Tabernacles.


APPENDIX
The BOOK OF LIFE (see TDNT, I, 619-620)
(cepher chayyim; to biblio tes zoes, tw/| bibli,w| th/j zwh/j "book of life"): The phrase is derived from the custom of the ancients in the keeping of genealogical records (Neh 7:5,64; 12:22,23) and of enrolling citizens for various purposes (Jer 22:30; Ezk 13:9). So God is represented as having a record of all who are under His special care and guardianship. To be blotted out of the Book of Life is to be cut off from God's favour, to suffer death, as when Moses pleads that he be blotted out of God's book—that he might die, rather than that Israel should be destroyed (Ex 32:32; Ps 69:28). In the New Testament it is the record of the righteous who are to inherit eternal life (Phil 4:3; Rev 3:5; 13:8; 17:8; 21:27). In the apocalyptic writings there is the conception of a book, or of books, that are in God's keeping, and upon which the final judgment is to be based (Dan 7:10; 12:1; Rev 20:12,15; cp. Book Jubilees 19:9; and 1Enoch 47:3; 81:1-4; 108:3).

Other references are: Lk 10:20; Phil 3:20; Heb 12:23; Rev 22:19; Ps 87:6; Is 4:3.

Go back to our Home Page