When we travel to the ministerial conference and the Feast of Tabernacles in the United States, I fill up my van with gas and I know that it will get me to Goldendale in Washington, which is about 557 kilometers from our home. We stop there, take a break and re-fill the gas tank.
As God’s people, we have had the opportunity at the Feast to fill up our spiritual tanks by drinking in the messages which had been prepared for us. Our spiritual tanks have to take us through the long winter months up to the next Holy Days in the Spring.
In order to do that, we had to take full advantage of the blessings that God provides for us at the Feast. One manner to maximize the effectiveness of the spiritual benefits was to ensure we remained in good health in order to attend all the services so we were able to benefit from the messages which we received. This ensured our spiritual tanks were topped up in order to carry us to the Spring Feasts.
Another benefit was the fellowship we were able to enjoy with one another. Since some of us who are more remote and isolated only see each other once a year at the Fall Festival, this was a time to renew and refresh the friendships we have with one another. We had opportunities to eat in fine restaurants with one another and sharpen one another through good conversations while rejoicing of being together on this occasion.
So the Feast provided both spiritual and physical benefits. We drew closer to God and reached a better understanding of His plan and laws through the messages and we drew closer to each other via the fellowship we enjoyed with one another.
God knew through His plan of salvation, which incorporates all seven of His Holy Days, that there would be a long duration of time between the Fall and Spring Holy Days, and He expects of us to take full advantage of the Fall Festival to ensure that we will have enough spiritual fuel to take us to the Spring Festivals.
The question is, did we take full advantage of the blessings which God offered us? Or did we neglect to attend the Feast even though we could have done so? Did we neglect to listen carefully to the messages and to fellowship joyfully with brethren of like mind? If we did not do this, then we will have a much more difficult time to cope with the long winter months until the Spring Feast Days. In that case, perhaps heart-rending repentance and prayer to God for extra strength would be very important.
Those who will be able to look much more confidently in the future are those who faithfully obeyed God’s command to observe the Feast in the right way and with the right attitude; who will dwell and meditate on the messages that they have heard; and who will be diligent to practice what they were taught. We pray that you belong to that category.
