My dear friends, as you are aware by now, the nation of Israel is at war due to an unprecedented terrorist attack from the Gaza Strip. Hamas, the Iran-funded, terrorist group of the Palestinian Authority breached the border into Israel the early hours of October 7th, while the Jewish people were celebrating the eighth day of the Festival of Tabernacles, called Shemini Atzeret. It was also Saturday, Shabbat (Sabbath), when the Jewish people were resting from their labors and spending time with family.
On October 6, 1973, Israel’s enemies launched a surprise attack that started the Yom Kippur War. Yes, that attack occurred on the Day of Atonement. Like yesterday, the Israelis were at home resting. God was not resting on October 6, 1973, nor on October 7, 2023. He never rests. God sees all and we must trust His sovereign control of these events. The world now has a front row seat in the arena of Israel’s nightmare. Her enemies have never hidden their intent to annihilate the Jewish people; the world just chose to ignore it and vilify Israel. With a heavy heart from watching this unfold and seeing evil unleashed, I prayerfully ask that you stand with Israel and pray for safety of the Israeli people (Arabs and Jews) and safety within her borders. A report from this morning indicated that the number of Israeli casualties from yesterday’s attack is now equal to the number of casualties that occurred during the June 1967 Six-Day War. As attacks from other borders are possible and perhaps even likely, please pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
This post was to be uploaded yesterday, but out of respect, I chose not to do so. After prayerful consideration, I’m moving forward because the intent is to show that God is faithful and always…ALWAYS fulfills His promises. We are watching prophesy! God’s promises are unfolding before our very eyes. So let’s not tarry in telling people about the Good News of Jesus Christ nor let the terrible news of the day snuff out our joy. Our joy comes not from the world, but from the mercy and grace God has shown us and the promised future prepared for us. We are joyful in the Lord, so let’s learn about God’s joyful festival, while we pray that people of all nations, in Israel and all over the world, humbly submit to Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
ברוך אתה יי אלוהינו מלך העולם
Baruch atah Adonay Eloheinu Melech ha’Olam
Blessed are you Lord our God, King of the Universe
Sukkot
Across the globe many Jewish people build a sukkah (Hebrew for booth or tent), to be erected for a 7-day period during September or October on our Gregorian calendar. The sukkot (plural; pronounced sue-coat) are a sight to behold with creative locations and decorations. Welcome to the Feast of Tabernacles or Sukkot, a joyous celebration that marks the last of the 3 fall feasts. This festival is a drastically sharp contrast from the somber observance of Yom Kippur.
A quick recap of the agricultural calendar of Israel: Passover is the planting season, Pentecost the wheat harvest-time, and the Feast of Tabernacles is when the fruit is harvested. Not surprising then that Tabernacles is a season of great joy. The people were to be joyful for all that God had provided from the harvests. To that point, when all the harvest seasons were complete and God’s bounty and provision were clearly seen (Exodus 23:16), there was so much rejoicing, that the feast was commonly called the Feast of Ingathering.
The abundance of the harvest parallels the amount of information about this festival, creating a challenge for determining what to include. The details of Sukkot are important because they were established by the Father and relate to His Son. As with all the Feasts of God, you are encouraged to continue studying by digging deeper as there are unlimited nuggets to discover that deepen faith and build upon your already existing love for our God and Messiah, as well as love and compassion for His chosen people. It seems best to address this festival through two posts: the first to provide an overview of Sukkot and the second to dive into one of its traditions that I pray will impact you as it has me.
Celebrated for 7 days (plus 1), from the 15th to the 22nd of Tishri (Leviticus 23:33-36; Deuteronomy 16:13-15), Sukkot was also the last of the 3 pilgrimages to Jerusalem for the year where all the males were to appear before the Lord (Deuteronomy 16:16-17). The 8th day was a solemn assembly called Shemini Atzeret. No labor was permitted on the 1st or 8th days of the festival (Leviticus 23:39). In Israel, this is a one-day holiday; in the Diaspora (the dispersion) it is a two-day holiday, and the second day is known as Simchat Torah. This holiday is characterized by utterly unbridled joy, which reaches its climax on Simchat Torah, when they celebrate the conclusion of —and restart—the annual Torah-reading cycle.
Tabernacles has a commemorative purpose as well. It reflects on when the Israelites dwelled in temporary shelters or booths as God led them through, and provided for them, in the wilderness. Throughout generations Jewish families have been constructing sukkot in which meals are eaten throughout the festival. Again, this was to help them remember the huts Israel lived in during their 40 years following the exodus from Egypt.
Some scholars suggest that Sukkot was celebrated in early American history in 1621 when the pilgrims gathered to give thanks to the Lord for their first fall harvest. Whether they celebrated Sukkot or used it as a model for what eventually became Thanksgiving in 1863, is not clear. Nonetheless, it certainly makes me pause the historical significance when the turkey is being carved, or in our family, turkey nuggets being deep fat fried, a beloved Thanksgiving tradition of deliciousness!
The festival also has a prophetic aspect. When the Millennial Kingdom arrives, the glory of God, representing the presence of God will again dwell with Israel as it once did in the wilderness. Thankfully, gentile followers of Yeshua will get to experience this as well. The tabernacle was akin to God’s Sukkah. Just as the Hebrews gathered materials for building the tabernacle as commanded, the Jewish people of our time start preparing for Sukkot, building their sukkah shortly after they finish observing Yom Kippur.
The primary purpose for Sukkot was threefold:
- Bringing joy for the forgiveness of their sins (during Yom Kippur)
- A reminder of God’s provision and presence during the Exodus
- A reminder that God was still present and provided for all their needs.
In addition to mandated offerings and refraining from work on certain days, let’s take a look at the three requirements for this holiday, which were:
- Gather four different plant materials (Leviticus 23:40)
- Live in the sukkah (Levitcius 23:42)
- Rejoice before the Lord (Deuteronomy 16:13-14).
The four plants included an etrog, branches of palm trees, myrtle, and willows (Leviticus 23:40). The palm branches were to remind them of the valleys and plains, whereas boughs from the myrtle trees were reflective of the bushes on the mountain heights. The willows represent the brooks and the etrog fruit was a reminder of the fruits of the land God gave them. The tree species were to be bound together into what was called a lulav, held in the right hand and waved in praise before God for seven days. Raised simultaneously and held upside-down in the left hand was the etrog, a yellow citrus fruit. A blessing was recited and then the etrog was turned right side up, and with both hands side by side, the lulav was shook 3 times in each direction, indicating the all-encompassing presence of God.
The booths must be at least four feet long, four feet wide, no more than 30 feet high, with at least three sides and decorated elaborately. The roof is typically covered with enough leaves and straw to provide shade without blocking out the view of the stars at night. To fulfill the scriptural requirement of dwelling in their booths, observers must spend more time in their booths during the week of the feast than in their homes. They are encouraged to have all their meals during the feast inside the booths. On the first night of the feast, eating in the booth is obligatory.
Each evening before the main meal, they would recite the kiddush, a blessing related to sanctification: “Sanctify us, Lord our God, King of the universe, who blessed us to dwell in the sukkah, and commanded us with His mitzvoth.” The host of the celebration invites special guests to the meal: Abraham is invited for the first night, then Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, and King David are invited for the subsequent nights.
When the temple was still present, the ceremonies were elaborate and involved water and light, which symbolized various aspects of the presence of God. The water ceremony, also called the rite of water libation, involved a priest drawing water from the Pool of Siloam using a golden pitcher. This pool was fed by the Gihon spring because the water used for this ceremony had to be fresh. For each of the 7 days, the priest would bring the water pitcher through the Water Gate and pour it into a silver basin at the altar, while the Levites played their lyres and other instruments and sang as the people waved their lulavot (plural for lulav). Suffice it to say, it was an escalating event with a fervent crescendo of passionate and joyful worship.
The waters of Siloam were used to anoint the kings of the house of David and that anointing was symbolic of the Holy Spirit coming upon an individual (1 Samuel 16:13). The living waters of Siloam therefore became associated to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Also during this ceremony, as the day gave way to night, three golden candlesticks in the Temple area, which were nearly 75 feet tall, were lit. The light from these candlesticks could be seen throughout all Jerusalem. This Illumination of the Temple ceremony was to remind the people of the pillar of fire that had guided Israel during their wilderness journey. It was also a reminder that God had promised to send a light, the Light, to a sin-darkened world. A promise to send the Messiah. These ceremonies will be the focus of the next post as we will place a magnifying glass on what the Gospel writers recorded about Jesus participating in the Feast of Tabernacles.
This post cannot be closed out without addressing the overall prophetic implications of Sukkot, although some have already been alluded to. Biblical and rabbinical teachings connect the Feast of Tabernacles to the time of the Messiah. It speaks of the future raising up of “the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down” (Amos 9:11); that is, the reestablishment of the kingly line of David. At that time, the Messiah will sit on David’s throne and rule the earth with a rod of iron, and Israel will dwell in safety.
Another prophetic intent of Sukkot relates to the presence of God. Jewish tradition holds that the “booths” God spoke of in Leviticus 23:43 were not just the temporary shelters for the Israelites in the wilderness. God was also referring to the “clouds of glory,” the “sukkah of God,” that overshadowed Israel. Sometimes referred to as the “Shekinah,” these “clouds of glory” speak of the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night that rested over the Tabernacle (Numbers 9:15–23), the cloud that filled the Temple (2 Chronicles 5:13–14), and the glory that gradually left the Temple in Ezekiel’s day, finally resting on the Mount of Olives (Ezekiel 10—11).
Through the Shekinah glory, which was both a covering and a light (Psalm 105:39), God dwelled or “tabernacled” among Israelites (2 Chronicles 6:1). The prophetic message of the Feast of Tabernacles conveys that the Messianic Age will be a time when the Shekinah glory of God, the very presence of God, will once again dwell with Israel. The New Testament refers to the Feast of Tabernacles as proof of the Messianic credentials of Jesus (John 1:14; Luke 9:27-36). As the Messiah, Jesus is “the brightness of His [God’s] glory” (Hebrews 1:3). In Him, the presence of God literally “tabernacled” among us. These scriptures make it abundantly clear that Jesus not only celebrated this feast, He is also its fulfillment, for after the Great Tribulation, He will return to earth. Sukkot will then take on more meaning to Israel than at any time in history as He will cleanse Israel and dwell with them (Isaiah 4:4-6) . It’s hard to even wrap our minds around the magnitude of joy that will be experienced by all. What a blessed promise!
