Chap.4-The Feast of Tabernacles

One thing about being a Gentile celebrating the Jewish holidays is that I can break the rules a little. One year our succah or booth definitely broke the rules.
Sukkot or the Feast of Tabernacles centers on the booth or tabernacle that each family builds together. It must be a temporary dwelling place with at least three walls and a roof. The walls and roof are usually made of fresh green branches and one must be able to see the stars through the roof.
Since we live in Southern California our booth is usually covered with palm branches. But one year, I made a change. We put our frame up in the spring and I carefully trained a morning glory vine to grow as our walls and roof. That year we had a living tabernacle.
Not exactly a ‘kosher’ booth but a feast for the eyes, as well as, for the passing bees and humming birds. It’s customary to begin building the booth at the end of Yom Kippur not in the spring as I did.
The solemn holiday of Yom Kippur comes to an end and we have five days to build our succah and prepare for the joyous celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles. A very traditional family would really need those five days to prepare. Their booth would need to be big enough and sturdy enough for the whole family to live in for eight days. In Israel, I remember seeing families bring out carpets and beds as well as tables and food. One family even had their TV in their succah.
Leviticus 23: 39-44
39 ‘On exactly the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the crops of the land, you shall celebrate the feast of the Lord for seven days, with a rest on the first day and a rest on the eighth day.
40 ‘Now on the first day you shall take for yourselves the foliage of beautiful trees, palm branches and boughs of leafy trees and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days.
41 ‘You shall thus celebrate it as a feast to the Lord for seven days in the year. It shall be a perpetual statue throughout your generations; you shall celebrate it in the seventh month.
42 ‘You shall live in booths for seven days; all the native-born in Israel shall live in booths,
43 so that your generations may know that I had the sons of Israel live in booths when I brought them out from the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.’”44 So Moses declared to the sons of Israel the appointed times of the Lord.

Maybe the pilgrims had these verses in mind when they brought in their harvest and had their outdoor Thanksgiving feast. One theme of the Feast of Booths is the harvest celebration. The succah is decorated with fruit and vegetables thanking God for the harvest.
But why live in these little shacks? I’ve heard the theory that families all needed to be on hand in the fields during the harvest and that living in booths made this a bit easier. But I think the book of Leviticus has given us the reason right along with the command.
Lev. 23: 43 so that your generations may know that I had the sons of Israel live in booths when I brought them out from the land of Egypt.

We need to remember that journey out of Egypt to the Promised Land. Our children need to remember it and teach it to their children. Was living in the wilderness in booths a hardship? Perhaps. But it’s not the hardships of the journey that these booths we build signify. They signify the blessings!
These blessings are the blessings of God’s constant provision. That is; manna in a fruitless wilderness, water in a barren desert, escape from ruthless taskmasters. But the greatest provision, the main theme of Succoth is God’s presence, Emanuel or ‘God with us.’
After 300 years of slavery in Egypt, the wilderness was freedom. But even more importantly God was now physically with them. He dwelt or ‘tabernacled’ with them.

Exodus 40: 34-38
34 Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
35 And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
36 And throughout all their journeys whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the sons of Israel would set out;
37 but if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out until the day when it was taken up.
38 For throughout all their journeys, the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day, and there was fire in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel.

As a pillar of fire by night providing light and warmth and as a cloud by day providing relief from the sun and heat, God dwelt with them. He even had his own booth!
Now, as we sit in the succah, a temporary structure, we remember that the wilderness experience was not permanent, that the Promised Land was ahead.
We can see the stars through the branches reminding us of God’s sovereignty.
The walls are heavy with fruit reminding us of His provision.
But most importantly the Booth itself, reminding us that God dwells, that is, tabernacles with us.

Leviticus 23:40
40 ‘Now on the first day you shall take for yourselves the foliage of beautiful trees, palm branches and boughs of leafy trees and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days.

This is another fun part of Feast of Tabernacles, waving branches before the Lord. As we read in Leviticus not just any branches. Four species are wrapped together and waved in four directions, north, south, east, and west, while reciting the Hallel or praise psalms, Psalms 113-118. Palm, myrtle, willow, and an Israeli fruit called a citron (sort of a big lumpy lemon) are raised in praise. Of course, this is another area where I break the rules a little and use whatever branches, I can. But one year while we were living in Tiberias by the Sea of Galilee, I decided to get an official-kosher lulav and citron. With two babies in tow, I made my way to the market place and found the stand selling citrons and lulavs… I should say lulavim (plural for lulav). A lulav is the name for the wrap of branches. The very orthodox salesman looked quite surprised by my request and I was quite surprised by the price. I thought our congregation back home had to pay so much because they brought these in from Israel but I guess they are just plain expensive.
Well, my lulav was lovely. The palm branch was taken from the new shoot right from the center of the tree. It was so fresh that it still pointed straight up like an arrow. The children in our neighborhood were very impressed with my purchase. I suppose only the rabbi or leader of a synagogue get them in Israel just like back home.
I had them wave the branch and repeat the blessing with me:
“Ana Adoni Ho Shiana”
“Lord do save us!”
We waved them to the north, south, east and west.
Then on the last day of the feast, we shared the citron. Most of the children had never tasted one before. I hadn’t either. It was sour with a lovely perfume.

One of Jesus’ best friends while he walked in Israel, was a young man named John. Jesus had a nickname for him and his brother, ‘Sons of Thunder.’ Their father’s name was ‘Zebedee’ meaning thunder but the fact that they were quite outspoken and self-assured, probably also had something do with the nickname.
But I’d imagine Jesus usually called John by his Hebrew name Yochanan. Yochanan had been a follower of John the Baptister but quickly became a disciple of Jesus, when he was told, “this is the Lamb of God.”
Yochanan loved the Biblical Holidays and included them in the book he wrote about his time with Jesus.
In the first chapter, Yochanan speaks of Messiah, calling him the Word.

John 1:1
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and Word was God.

John goes on to describe how Messiah would come into the world but not be accepted by the world.

John 1:10-13
10 He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.
11 He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him.
12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name,
13 who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

Then in verse 14, John gives us the true reason why the Feast of Tabernacles is such a beautiful holiday.

14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt (or tabernacled) among us.

Jesus was Emanuel, which means in English, ‘God with us.’ He dwelt with us; living God made flesh, tabernacling with us.
In John 15: 1-11, Jesus speaks of his followers as branches. These branches must abide in the Vine, the Vine that he claims to be.

John 15: 5 I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from me you can do nothing.

Surrounded by our booth made of branches, which symbolize Jesus dwelling with us, we can truly feel the way John must have felt when he wrote these words of Jesus’. We can bear fruit if we abide in him as He abides in us.
Sit and feast in the Succah of the Lord. Rejoice in his provision of abundant fruit. Feel his presence, Emanuel, God dwells with us.

Yochanan writes of lulav waving in his book.

John 12: 12-13a On the next day the great multitude who had come to the Feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took the branches of the palm trees, and went out to meet Him,

This didn’t happen during the Feast of Tabernacles but the people seemed to be caught up in the Spirit of Succoth. They began to quote from the Hillel Ps. 118:25-26 directly.

John 12: 13b “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel.”

Like the kids in our succah in Tiberias they were shouting out, ‘Lord Save Us!’ while waving the palm branches.
If we read a few verses earlier from this Hillel Psalm we find a mirror of John’s words from the beginning of his book.

Ps. 118:22
The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief corner stone.
John 1:11
He came to His own and those who were his own did not receive Him.

But did this Son of David, this Galilean claim to be the ‘chief cornerstone’? Yochanan shows us the answer at another Feast of Tabernacles celebration he spent with Jesus. They were in Jerusalem and it was the last day of the feast, the great day.
A joyous procession took place on this final day of Succoth. Water was drawn from the Pool of Siloam and carried by the Priest to the temple where he poured it out upon the altar. In the midst of these joyous festivities John tells us that a voice cries out.

John 7:37 Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If any man is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.
38 “He who believes in Me, as the scripture said, ‘From his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.’”

This man stands up and claims to be the answer to the prayers being offered up. As the people pray for rain and as the traditional song from Isaiah 12:3 says “ water from the wells of salvation,” is sung.
A man, whose name, Jesus or Yeshua, means salvation, calls out that he is that living water. He is the fountain of living water spoken of by Isaiah.
A man claims to be in no uncertain terms, the well of salvation, the foundation, the Chief Cornerstone.
Was Jesus thinking of Zechariah or was Zechariah thinking hundreds of years ahead when he wrote:

Zechariah 14:8a And it will come about in that day that living waters will flow out of Jerusalem…

One thing for sure Zechariah was looking forward to the days of Messiah. He had faith that those days would come. He ended his book with an amazing account that I’m sure Yochanan loved to read:

Zechariah 14:16-18 Then it will come about that any who are left of all the nations that went against Jerusalem will go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to celebrate the Feast of Booths.
17 And it will be that whichever of the families of the earth does not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, there will be no rain on them.
18 And if the family of Egypt does not go up or enter, then no rain will fall on them; it will be the plague with which the Lord smites the nations who do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Booths.

I believe Zechariah was looking even beyond our time when he wrote these words. He was looking to the time of Messiah, to the time when Messiah will tabernacle with us without end, to the time when the Feast of Booths will never end.
So perhaps my unconventional succah holds a special message. A living tabernacle representing our living God who will dwell with us forever and forever, in Hebrew, 'Vaed!'

Questions for Succoth
1. Whenever I see a new palm shoot pointing straight up on the top of a palm tree, I think of the lesson of God’s presence with us. Are there certain examples in nature that make you mindful of God?
2. Read Nehemiah 8:18. The Israelites discovered a tradition which had been lost and immediately began celebrating and practicing it again. Do any of your discoveries of the Biblical Holidays cause you to want to begin celebrating?
3. Read Psalm 113. Can you find Jesus in this Hillel psalm? (verse 6a compare with Phil.2:8.)
4. Read John 15. How can you abide in him even when the Succah is taken down for the year?
5. John 7 takes place during the Feast of Tabernacles. Outline this chapter giving special attention to the days of the Feast.