Sukkot aka Feast of Tabernacles

The festival of Sukkot is upon us now! This certainly is a busy and joyous season! What is Sukkot? In most English Bibles it is called the Feast of Tabernacles or Feast of Booths. It is a remembrance of the children of Israel dwelling in tents, or temporary structures, for 40 years as they lived in the desert. It is a remembrance of HaShem dwelling in the Tabernacle. It is a remembrance of Yeshua our Messiah dwelling in a temporary body as He walked the earth. It is a remembrance that our lives here and now are temporary and that we, too, dwell in temporary structures (our bodies). You can read about Sukkot in various places in Scripture, and a good place to start for all the holy days is Leviticus 23. It is a command, forever, for the people to build succah’s (temporary dwelling structures) and to live in them for a week – eating and sleeping in the succah.

It is thought by some scholars that this is the time of the Messiah’s birth based on the Scripture reference in John 1:14 that says that the Master came and tabernacled among us (the word dwelled is Strongs #4637 meaning tent or to dwell as HaShem did in the Tabernacle). This may seem a small verse, but when you put it together with the timing of Yochanan the Immerser’s (John the Baptist’s) father’s time to serve at the temple and the six months between the births of Yochanan and Yeshua, what you come up with is the fall holiday season. You add to that the fact that Miriam and Yosef are heading to Beit-Lechem for a census that would have been taken at a festival season when all the men were to be in Yerushalayim (Beit-Lechem is just on the outskirts of Yerushalayim. It means “House of Bread” and it is where the lambs were raised for the Temple sacrifices.) Whenever you see a nativity scene, what you are seeing is Yeshua in a Succah. Whether or not this is the time of His birth doesn’t matter very much, only that He did come. He never said to celebrate His birth but to remember His death and resurrection. But because our culture puts so much weight and emphasis on His birth, it is nice to have an idea of when that actually was. As we remember His birth we realize that the Lamb of HaShem was born in the very town that raises the lambs for Temple sacrifice. The Bread of Life was born in the ‘House of Bread’ where the bread of presence was prepared for the Temple services. We read that the future King, the offspring of David, would be born in Beit-Lechem. Oh, there is so much to this… It isn’t His birth that we celebrate, it’s how His coming fulfilled so very much and what His willingness to come and live as a man then take up our sins means for us. It is a good thing that this season is on the heals of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. Perspective is key to everything. This is a good article with a lot of information on this subject.  And while we are never asked to celebrate the birth of our Messiah but only to remember His death at Passover (Jewish tradition was to honor the date of one’s passing as it was a recognition of the life they lived rather than to celebrate the anniversary of one’s birth), we do recognize the coming of our Messiah to us at this time.  In order for our Master to dwell among us He had to arrive and it is this sending and arrival that we honor.

This festival is one of the three where the men are required to travel to Yerushalayim. But this festival you eat of your tithe, meaning the tithe you bring to Yerushalayim you do not give to the priests or sacrifice to HaShem, you use it to provide for yourself (and your family if they are with you) a feast and to purchase supplies for the week.  This is a time where we are commanded to celebrate and be joyful, and He ensures that we will be through His commands. Sukkot lasts for 7 days but there is an 8th day as well, the 8th day is a holy Shabbat.  Interesting that the number 8, as in the 8th day, signifies eternity and that this is such a significant festival in the Messianic kingdom…   When Yeshua comes and reigns from Yerushalayim, all the nations of earth will be expected to keep Sukkot and those who do not will face the consequences. You will find references to this in Zechariah 14:16-21 So when Messiah comes, we will all be keeping the feasts and festivals where Sukkot has special significance. All the fall feasts are shadows of His return just as the spring feasts were shadows of His first coming.

I apologize for not having much time to write in detail about this particular festival but I will include some links to other articles and activities that might be of interest to those who are wanting to learn more.
Fellow blogger, AcceptanceWithJoy and her Tabernacle studies
Tabernacle Model Kit
Sukkot Tabernacle Study from Torah Family
By Way of Sukkot series, a study from Bereans Online
Sukkot for Families (ideas for celebrating Sukkot)
Karaite Korder Sukkot article
Biblical Holidays overview of Sukkot
Bridges for Peace, Lessons from Sukkot
Sukkot and the Birth of the Messiah

As for our family, we will be assembling our wooden succah and we will also put up our nylon tents. We will eat in our succah every night and sleep in it a few times as well. Our school work will likely be done in the succah. We’ll decorate it with gourds and corn stalks from the garden as well as apples from the trees. We’ll line our roof with branches from trees in the woods but we’ll put a clear plastic lining between the branches and the wood used to hold them up so bugs and rain don’t interrupt our meals.  We want to see the stars through the roof, not find bugs in our food. We’ve invited others to come spend a an evening or two or seven with us here, so we’ll see how that goes. I have purchased the Tabernacle model kit that is listed above in the links after reading some of AcceptanceWithJoy’s blog and her wonderful descriptions of the Tabernacle. We have also downloaded the Sukkot study guide from Torah Family, also listed above, to do as our family study for the week. We may even break out those beautiful “Baby Jesus Is Born” songs and our “Yeshua in a Succah” nativity scenes. This is a time of family and togetherness and celebrating HaShem. It is a festive time, to be sure!

One craft we did last year that I will be doing with the children in our congregation tomorrow is like a gingerbread house. It is a succah made from graham crackers. They make a three sided structure with a roof of pretzel sticks and hold it all together with frosting. They then decorate it with candy to symbolize the harvest of this season.

Chag Same’ach Sukkot!