Each year in the seventh month, God's people set aside ordinary life for seven days to keep a festival He commanded to Israel long ago (Leviticus 23:34–43). Israel was told to dwell in temporary shelters, or booths, throughout the feast — a yearly reminder of the years their ancestors spent journeying through the wilderness after leaving Egypt, entirely dependent on God's provision and protection.

That same picture speaks to us today. The apostle Paul described our physical bodies as an earthly tent, a temporary "tabernacle" we live in only for a time, while we look toward a lasting home not made by human hands (2 Corinthians 5:1–9). In this sense, the Feast of Tabernacles points beyond our present, passing existence to something far greater: the Millennium, the thousand-year reign of Jesus Christ described in Revelation 20, when Satan's deceptive influence will be removed and the nations of the earth will finally live under God's righteous government.

Scripture tells us that one day, all nations will keep this feast (Zechariah 14:16). Until then, we keep it now, by faith, gathering together to worship, learn, and rejoice as a foretaste of the world to come — the same hope that brings God's people from across Jamaica and beyond to Runaway Bay each year.