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 defeated their enemies in the heart of the sea.

It also brings to remembrance how the Lord had given them His Laws at Sinai and trained them in His ways, as a Father disciplines His son. In the wilderness, God had humbled them, tested their hearts, fed the entire community 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 any 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 purpose and 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.

As an obedient Jewish male and Son of God, Jesus celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles. Around this time, a great controversy surrounded His ministry and so at first, He went in secret. But later, in the middle of the Feast, Jesus went up to the Temple and began to teach. He claimed that His teaching came directly from God/heaven and that God’s own people were not keeping the Laws of God or discerning correctly because they were worldly and judging by the ways of this world. For this, they accused Him, the One full of the Holy Spirit, of having 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 just be the Messiah that they had been waiting for. He said that He would not be with them for much longer because He was going away to a place 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 to share it with the Gentiles. They wanted all the more to kill Him to put an end to people following Him.

On the last day of the Feast, Jesus began to teach in the Temple and loudly proclaimed that coming to Him is the source of eternal life. The people were divided and could not agree about whether Jesus was the promised Messiah of Israel, a criminal imposter, or a lunatic.

John 7:37-43 - 37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'" 39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. 40 When they heard these words, some of the people said, "This really is the Prophet." 41 Others said, "This is the Christ." But some said, "Is the Christ to come from Galilee? 42 Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the offspring of David, and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was?" 43 So there was a division among the people over him.

Jesus is referencing Isaiah 12, which speaks of wells of salvation. By His statement, He is claiming to be the well of salvation.

Isaiah 12:1-3 ESV - 1 You will say in that day: "I will give thanks to you, O LORD, for though you were angry with me, your anger turned away, that you might comfort me. 2 "Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the LORD GOD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation." 3 With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.

Those who are enmeshed with this world or who are seeking to maintain their position or prestige in it, will find it challenging to follow a humble savior who calls for people to simply come to 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. Though all nations will gather together against the Lord and His people, He will be victorious and will share the spoils with the faithful.

At that time, the righteous will drink from eternal springs of salvation in the world to come, but the wicked will be excluded forever, burning in the lake of fire.

Revelation 21:6-8 ESV - 6 And he said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. 7 The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. 8 But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death."

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 reminded of the “wilderness” of dwelling here in this world, receiving God’s faithful provision for our every need, being disciplined in His ways as His children, and being 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.

Let us keep our eyes on Jesus who is the ultimate promise. For the joy set before us, which is eternal life with Him, let us not be divided or double-minded, but regard this world as nothing compared to the worth of knowing Him.

Scriptures for Tabernacles Reflection

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