Feast of Tabernacles - Sukkot

You will dwell in booths for seven days. All native Israelites will dwell in booths, that your generations may know that I made the people of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God. -Leviticus 23:42-43

Today is the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles, which is also known as the Feast of Ingathering, or Sukkot. This is one of the three feasts of the year where the Law requires that all Jewish men appear before the Lord at the place He chooses for His name to be honored, and bring offerings.

For seven days during the Feast of Tabernacles, Israelites are instructed to live in tents or booths, called sukkot, similar to the ones their ancestors lived in during their forty years in the wilderness. This reminds God’s people of how the Lord had delivered their ancestors out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with miraculous signs and wonders, and how He buried their enemies in the bottom of the sea.

In the wilderness, God had given them His Laws at Sinai, trained them in His ways as a Father disciplines His son, humbled them, tested their hearts, fed them with miraculous manna for forty years, supplied all their needs, and led them by a pillar of fire by night and cloud by day. And after all that, God faithfully kept every promise He made to their ancestors. God delivered His people out of the wilderness and into the Promised Land, a land flowing with milk and honey, for their very own possession.

This Feast takes place at the time of the ingathering of the harvest and extravagant daily offerings are to be brought to the Lord. No ordinary work is permitted on the first day or the last day of the Feast, in addition to regular Sabbaths. It is a time of great rejoicing before the Lord for the promises He keeps and the harvest He gives so bountifully in the Promised Land. Consider the comparison between wilderness manna and a bountiful harvest in the Promised Land. This is cause for great rejoicing!

Traditionally, though not practiced everywhere, Jews read the Book of Ecclesiastes on the Shabbat of the Feast of Tabernacles. The other portion read is Ezekiel 38-39, about the war of Gog & Magog. These scriptures spur reflection and remembrance that this world is nothing but vanity and our duty is to fear God and keep His commandments, even through the final battle between good and evil, until Messiah comes to establish the Kingdom of God on the earth.

When Jesus walked on earth, He celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles every year. One account of His attendance at this Feast takes place in the autumn before His crucifixion and controversy about His ministry was already brewing, so His half-brothers tried to provoke Him to seek fame for Himself, but He went in secret at first. But in the middle of the Feast, Jesus went up to the Temple and began to teach openly, claiming that His teaching came directly from God and those who truly wanted to do God’s will would recognize Him. He rebuked the religious leaders and people for not being able to discern correctly because they were worldly and therefore, could only judge by appearances and worldly priorities. For this, they accused Him, the One full of the Holy Spirit, of being full of demons.

John 7:14-24 - 14 About the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and began teaching. 15 The Jews therefore marveled, saying, "How is it that this man has learning, when he has never studied?" 16 So Jesus answered them, "My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. 17 If anyone's will is to do God's will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority. 18 The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood. 19 Has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me?" 20 The crowd answered, "You have a demon! Who is seeking to kill you?" 21 Jesus answered them, "I did one work, and you all marvel at it. 22 Moses gave you circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath. 23 If on the Sabbath a man receives circumcision, so that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because on the Sabbath I made a man's whole body well? 24 Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment."

The religious authorities wanted to arrest and kill Jesus, but the people considered that Jesus might be the hoped-for Messiah because of all the miracles He was doing. He said that He would not be with them for much longer because He was going away and they could not go with Him. The religious leaders considered with bewilderment that this might mean He going to spread His teaching to the diaspora (Jews among the nations) and also share it with the Gentiles. They wanted all the more to kill Him to put an end to people following Him.

This demonstrates that those who are enmeshed with this world, or who are seeking to maintain their position or prestige in it, will find it challenging to recognize who Jesus is and  very difficult to follow Him. But Jesus is the Word of God, who humbled Himself to become flesh. He “tabernacled” among us, taking on a “tent” of flesh like ours and living in this world as we do. As a citizen of heaven and the Son of God, He sojourned in this world until this world put Him to death on a cross. But God raised Him from the dead and gave Him a new “tent,” an eternal, imperishable, resurrection body. In that body, Jesus is now seated at the right hand of God awaiting the time that all His enemies are made a footstool under His feet in the great and final conflict between God and all who rebel against His authority. All the nations will gather together against the Lord and His people, but He will be victorious and will share the spoils with the faithful.

At that time, there will be another Feast of Tabernacles... many more, actually. In the world to come, we will gather from all nations year after year to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles. With great rejoicing, we will remember how God delivered us out of slavery to this world and conquered the evil one, burying our sins in the depths of the sea. As we celebrate this Feast, we will be reminded of this world like a “wilderness” where we received God’s faithful provision for our every need, were disciplined in His ways as His children, and were led by the fire of His Spirit dwelling within us.

For now, we still live on earth in these “tents” of flesh until we receive our resurrection bodies for eternal life the world to come. We still await a city whose builder and maker is God. Until then, we are sojourners and exiles here in this world, as we await the Kingdom of God as citizens of heaven.

Therefore, let us keep our eyes on Jesus and the eternal promised land of the world to come where we will dwell with Him forever in resurrection bodies in a restored creation. Let us not be divided or double-minded but regard this world as nothing compared to the worth of knowing Him and attaining the resurrection from the dead.

Scriptures for Tabernacles Reflection

 Traditional Reading: The Book of Ecclesiastes & Ezekiel 38-39 (Gog & Magog)