Hosea 12:9

Make thee to dwell in tabernacles, as in the days of the solemn feast.

The feast of tabernacles as a type

This feast was the yearly remembrance Of God’s miraculous guidance and support of Israel through the wilderness. It was the link which bound on their deliverance from Egypt to the close of their pilgrim life, and their entrance into their rest. The passage of the Red Sea, like baptism, was the beginning of God’s promises. By it Israel was saved from Egypt and from bondage, and was born to be a people of God. Yet, being the beginning, it was plainly not the completion, nor could they themselves complete it. The wilderness dangers had to be surmounted. It was a time of the visible presence of God. It was a long trial time, and they were taught entire dependence on God; a time of sifting, in which God proved His faithfulness to those who persevered. Standing there, between the beginning and the end of the accomplishment of God’s promise to Abraham and to them, it was a type of His whole guidance of His people at all times. It was a pledge that God would lead His own, if often, “by a way which they knew not,” yet to rest with Him. The yearly commemoration of it was not only a thanksgiving for God’s past mercies; it was a confession also of their present relation to God, that “here we have no continuing city”; that they still needed the guidance and support of God; and that their trust was not in themselves, nor in man, but in Him. This they themselves saw. “When they said, ‘Leave a fixed habitation, and dwell in a chance abode,’ they meant that the command to dwell in tabernacles was given to teach us that no man must rely on the height or strength of his house, or on its good arrangements, though it abound in all good; nor may he rely on the help of any man, not though he were lord and king of the whole earth, but must trust Him by whose Word the worlds were made. For with Him alone is power and faithfulness, so that whereinsoever any man may place his trust he shall receive no consolation, from it, since in God alone is refuge and trust.” The feast of tabernacles was also a yearly thanksgiving for the mercies with which God had crowned the year. The joy must have been even the greater since it followed, by five days only, after the mournful day of atonement, its rigid fast from evening to evening, and its confession of sin. Joy is greater when ushered in by sorrow; sorrow for sin is the condition of joy in God. The Feast of Tabernacles was, as far as it could be, a sort of Easter after Lent. At the time when Israel rejoiced in the good gifts of the year, God made them express, in act, their fleeting condition in this life. It must have been a striking confession of the slight tenure of all earthly things, when their kings and great men, their rich men and those who lived at ease, had all, at the command of God, to leave their sailed houses, and dwell for seven days in rude booths, constructed for the season, pervious in some measure to the sun and wind, with no fixed foundation, to be removed when the festival was passed. Because, says a Jewish writer, at the time of the ingathering of the increase from the field, man wishes to go from the field to his house to make a fixed abode there, the law was anxious lest, on account of this fixed abode, his heart should be lifted up at having found a sort of palace, and he should “wax fat and kick.” Therefore it is written, “All that are Israelites born shall dwell in booths.” Whoso begins to think himself a citizen in this world, and not a foreigner, him God biddeth leave his ordinary dwelling, to remove into a temporary lodging, in order that, leaving these thoughts, he may learn to acknowledge that he is only a stranger in this world, and not a citizen, in that he dwells as in a stranger’s hut, and so should not attribute too much to the shadow of his beams, but “dwell under the shadow of the Almighty.” Every year the law was publicy read in the feast. Ephraim was living clean contrary to all this. He boasted in his wealth, justified himself on the ground of it, ascribed it and his deliverance from Egypt to his idols. He would not keep the feast, as alone God willed it to be kept. While he existed in his separate kingdom, it could not be. Their political existence had to be broken that they might be restored. God then conveys the notice of the impending punishment in words which promised the future mercy. He did not then make them to dwell in tabernacles. For all their service of Him was out of their own mind, contrary to His will, displeasing to Him. This, then, “I will yet make thee to dwell in tabernacles,” implies a distnt mercy, beyond and distinct from their present condition. Looking on beyond the time of the Captivity, He says that they shall yet have a time of joy, “as in the days of the solemn feast.” God would give them a new deliverance, but out of a new captivity, The Feast of the Tabernacles typifies this our pilgrim-state, the life of simple faith in God, for which God provides; poor in this world’s goods, but rich in God. The church militant dwells, as it were, in tabernacles; hereafter, we hope to be “received into everlasting habitations” in the Church triumphant. (E. B. Pusey, D. D.)

The days of Moed

1. Explanation. Of ancient agreement, or according to appointed days; for God had promised to give the land of Canaan to the posterity of Abraham for their perpetual rest. Explanation--

2. Israelites are here reproved, because they neglected the command of God, who had instituted a festal day, on which they were to commemorate yearly their redemption. Explanation--

3. The prophet threatens the Israelites, as though he said, “God will again drive you out, that you may dwell in tents, as you formerly did in the desert.” Explanation--

4. “Inasmuch as your former redemption has lost its influence through your wicked forgetfulness, I will become again your redeemer; I will therefore make thee to abide in tents as formerly; as your first redemption avails nothing, I will add a second, that you may at length repent, and know how much you are indebted to Me.” (John Calvin.)