IV: Tabernacle, Priesthood and Feasts

Palm Branches

a people celebrating a verdict already given

Root
Lev 23:40 · tamar (H8558)
Old Testament chain
  1. Lev 23:40
  2. Neh 8:15
  3. Ps 92:12
  4. Ps 118:25-27
  5. Zech 14:16
  6. Rev 7:9
New Testament
Rev 7:9; John 12:13

Palm branches belong to Sukkot: "branches of palm trees... and ye shall rejoice before Yahuah" (Lev 23:40). The returned exiles kept it again with palm branches (Neh 8:15); the righteous "shall flourish like the palm tree" (Ps 92:12); and the nations come up to keep Sukkot (Zech 14:16). The book reads the palms of Revelation 7:9 as triumph, celebration and deliverance at Sukkot, a people celebrating a verdict already given. The palms answer two errors: they are no Sunday ritual, and the great multitude is no raptured church waiting out a tribulation, but the harvest gathered at Sukkot.

From The Courtroom of Heaven, pp. 99, 103