The mention of the Feast of Tabernacles in 1 Kings 12:19-33 shows us that the observance of this festival was an important event for God's chosen people. The Feast of Tabernacles was a time when the entire nation gathered together to worship and offer thanks to God in a place where God had chosen to place His name (Jerusalem at this point in history).

Changing How We Keep The Feast of Tabernacles 

At this time in the history of Israel God had torn away the northern tribes from the house of David (as punishment for idolatry) and given them to Jeroboam. Jeroboam was concerned that an annual pilgrimage by the northern people to worship God in the royal city of the house of David would undermine his own position. So, he set up his own rival Feast of Tabernacles.This rival Feast of Tabernacles had several unique features:

• It was not in a place of God's choosing
• It did not occur at the time God had instructed 
  
• It did not follow God's instructions for the proper offerings
• It did not recognize God's ordained priesthood
• It substituted golden calves for the true God as the object of worship
  

God officially condemned Jeroboam's alterations to His specific instructions as to how the Feast of Tabernacles was to be observed and when the Feast of Tabernacles was to be observed (1 Kings 13:1-5).

As Christians we should obey God's specific commands to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. We are not to make any of our own changes to His instructions. God may change the instructions for how we worship Him... we cannot.

See: Observing the Feast of Tabernacles Today