By USN Columnist Morgan Philpot / Oct 2, 2020

October 1, 2020 was the night of a Full Harvest Moon. It is a moon that occurs at the start of Autumn. Farmers have relied upon the fullness and brightness of the Harvest Moon to gather in their crops as the season came to an end.

October 2, 2020 is the eve of Sukkot, the Feast of the Tabernacles; a time of ingathering, gratitude for prosperity, celebrating one’s labor, consecrating, and learning about Israel’s covenant to obey God’s voice, serve Him, and keep His statutes, commandments, and judgements.

2019 was a Sabbatical or Jubilee year. In the year following the Sabbatical year (2020), God commanded Israel to come to a special “Assembly” by gathering the people (including men, women, children, and strangers) within the gates of the Tabernacle and to hold a special Feast wherein they were commanded to “read [the] law” “in solemnity.” Deut. 31:10–13.

The command to observe the Feast of the Tabernacles is found in Exodus 23:14 and 16. God commanded Israel to “keep a feast unto [Him],” including the “feast of harvest, the first fruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown in the field: and the feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field.”

In ancient Israel, the entire family took part in the Feast. They would make a pilgrimage to the Tabernacle and build “sukkot,” i.e. booths, tents or temporary dwellings. (See Lev. 23:42-44). The sukkot (among other things) were built to remind Israel of how God had delivered them and how they had lived in the wilderness. Even the family of Christ made their pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the feast. (Luke 2:41-50). The children of Israel were to be present to “hear, and learn to fear the Lord [their] God, as long as ye live in the land….” Deut. 31:12-13.

In Nehemiah, the Israelites “made themselves booths, …upon the roof, …in their courts, and in the courts of the house of God, and in the street of the water gate, and in the street of the gate of Ephraim.” Nehemiah 8:16.

The Feast also served to remind Israel that they had committed to “not bow down,” “nor serve” other false gods. (Exodus 23:24).

Israel was promised that if they would keep their covenant with God they would be “a peculiar treasure… above all people,” and “a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.” Exodus 19:5-6. God would: be “an enemy unto [their] enemies, and an adversary to [their] adversaries;” He would “take sickness away” (Exodus 23), prosper Israel and make them “high above all nations.” Deut. 26:19.

Sadly, Moses prophesied that in a “generation to come,” their children would break the covenant and would bring upon themselves cursings and that they would be scattered. Deut. 29:22.

However, God promised Israel that the covenant would “belong… to [them and their] children for ever,” and that after they had fallen away and been scattered among all the nations of the earth that, “it shall come to pass, thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations, whither the Lord thy God hath driven thee, And shalt return unto the Lord thy God.” Then their captivity would end and “thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers.” Deut. 30: 1-5.

In that future day, the posterity of Israel would be required to “hearken unto the voice of the Lord [their] God, to keep his commandments and his statutes,” and turn to the Lord with all their heart and soul. Deut. 30: 1:10.

One of the offerings made at the Feast was a “drink offering” or “libation.” At the Feast, the families of Israel would sing and chant “[t]he Lord is my strength and song, and is become my salvation,” as they followed the priest through “Ephraim’s Gate,” or the “gate[] of righteousness,” (Psalm 118:15-19) to the Pool of Siloam (meaning “sent”). As Isaiah states, they would “with joy” “draw water out of the wells of salvation.” Isaiah 12:3. The Hebrew word for salvation in Isaiah 12:3 is “hay·šū·‘āh.” The Greek word meaning “God is salvation” is “Jesus.” The Israelites were literally drawing the “drink offering” from the Pool of “hay·šū·‘āh” or “Jesus.”

In John 7, on the last Sabbath day of the Feast of the Tabernacles, Jesus enters into the temple and cries, “if any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me… out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” John 7:37-38.Isaiah prophesied that the people would “refuseth the waters of Shiloah,” and that the Lord would instead “bringeth up upon them the waters of the river, …even the king of Assyria.”

Isaiah 8:6-7. As a result, “[t]he bricks [would fall] down,” Jerusalem and the Temple would be destroyed by “[t]he Syrians before, and the Philistines behind.” They would “devour Israel.” Isaiah 9:6-14.

This prophecy would find literal fulfillment when Roman governor Cestius Gallus marched from “Syria” against Jerusalem after which Roman general Vespasian attacked and suppressed the Jewish revolt in Judea, the ancient land of the “Philistines.”

Like Moses, Ezekiel also prophesied that after Israel was scattered, God would gather them “from among the heathen, and… out of all countries, and… into [their] own land.” He would “sprinkle clean water” upon the house of Israel and “ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols.” Ezekiel 36:24-25.

Many of America’s Founding Fathers believed that they were truly laying the groundwork for the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the gathering of the house of Israel to the Promised Land – America.

The Founders had purposefully patterned the Declaration of Independence after God’s promises to Israel. For example, In Deut. 30:15, the Lord says to Israel; “I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil,” and in v. 19 He states, “I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.”

Webster’s 1828 dictionary and common Hebrew translations (including that of the King James Version of the Bible) render the word “blessed” as happy or prosperous.

The duality between these two philosophies is apparent and was also acknowledged in the Book of Mormon in 2 Nephi 2:27; “[w]herefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself.”

The Founding Fathers acknowledged in the Declaration of Independence that all mankind had been “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” They realized that a societal state of life, liberty and happiness was only possible through worshiping God and by keeping His statutes, commandments, and judgements.

The Founders followed the “rules” required to obtain a land of promise and liberty. They did so, “with a firm reliance upon Divine Providence” and they had “mutually pledged [their] lives, fortunes, and sacred honor.” By doing so, they could then faithfully look to Providence for divine aid and deliverance.

Speaking of the American victory at the Battle of Yorktown, Yale President – Ezra Stiles wrote, “who but God could have ordained the critical arrival of the Gallic French Fleet so as to assist in the siege of Yorktown. It is God who had raised up for us a powerful ally; a chosen army and naval force: who sent us a Rochambeau, to fight side by side with a Washington in the Battle of Yorktown.” (May 8, 1783).

Similarly, George Washington wrote, “to diffuse the general joy through every breast the General orders… divine service to be performed tomorrow in the several brigades… Troops not on duty should universally attend with that gratitude of heart which the recognition of such astonishing interposition of Providence demands.”

Thomas Jefferson would later write that, “[i]f the freedom of religion, guaranteed to us by law in theory, can ever rise in practice under the overbearing inquisition of public opinion, truth will prevail over fanaticism, and the genuine doctrines of Jesus… will again be restored to their original purity. This reformation will advance… but too late for me to witness it.” Letter to Jared Sparks, November 4, 1820.

On Sunday September 21, 1823, during the Feast of the Tabernacles (possibly a Shmita year), an angel appeared to Joseph Smith and recited part of Malachi 3: which reminds Israel that they had “gone away from [God’s] ordinances,” and invites the house of Israel to “[r]eturn unto [God], and [He] will return unto” them. The angel cites Acts 3:22-23 and Moses’ prophecy that God will raise up a Prophet for latter day Israel. Deut. 18:15-17. He tells Joseph that this Prophet is Christ “but that the day had not yet come when “they who would not hear his voice should be cut off from among the people,” but soon would come.” Joseph Smith History – 1. He promises that in the last days, “whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered: for in mount Zion… shall be deliverance, …and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call.” Joel 2:28-32. The angel also tells Joseph that Elijah the prophet must come before the return of the Lord.

Thomas Jefferson died less than one year later on July 4, 1826.

On Sunday April 3, 1836, the day of the Passover ritual meal, where there would have been a Cup of Elijah present signifying the coming of Elijah (Malachi 4:5), the Gospel was restored. Joseph Smith received the keys for the final dispensation of the Gospel from Moses, Elias and Elijah. Elijah stated that, “the keys of this dispensation are committed into your hands; and by this ye may know that the great and dreadful day of the Lord is near, even at the doors.” Doctrine & Covenants Section 110:16.Wilford Woodruff, fourth president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day saints, testified in 1898 “that those men who laid the foundation of this American government and signed the Declaration of Independence were the best spirits the God of heaven could find on the face of the earth. They were choice spirits, not wicked men. General Washington and all the men that labored for the purpose were inspired of the Lord;” and, That “everyone of those men that signed the Declaration of Independence, with General Washington, called upon me, as an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the Temple at St. George… and demanded… that I should… attend to the ordinances of the House of God for them.”

Wilford Woodruff, Conference Report, April 1989, pp. 89-90. It was recorded that George Washington and Benjamin Franklin were ordained as high priests at that time.

Saturday, October 3, 2020 is the first DAY of the Feast of the Tabernacles and coincidentally falls on the first day of the 190th Semiannual General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. (https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/…/october-2020…).

On Oct. 3, Latter-Day Saints will “Gather [their] people together, men, and women, and children, and [the] stranger that is within thy gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear the Lord your God, and observe to do all the words of this law.” Deut. 31:12.

“HEAR THEREFORE, O ISRAEL, and observe to do… that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the Lord God of thy fathers hath promised thee, in the land that floweth with milk and honey.

HEAR O ISRAEL: The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.

AND IT SHALL BE, when the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildedst not, and houses full of all good things, which thou filledst not, and wells digged, which thou diggedst not, vineyards and olive trees, which thou plantedst not; when thou shalt have eaten and be full;T

HEN BEWARE LEST THOU FORGET THE LORD, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.” Deut. 6.

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