By Elisabeth Hinze
Sukkot is the seventh of the seven festivals we read about in the Bible. It’s a happy festival. I mean seriously happy. So happy in fact, that 1 Kings 12:32 tells us that the Israelites simply referred to Sukkot as “The Feast” (as in, the Feast to end all feasts I presume…) In Israel today, Sukkot, or the Feast of Tabernacles as we call it, is still traditionally known as “the season of our joy”.
Joy isn’t the only thing that the Feast of Tabernacles is known for. This festival is also synonymous with a little something called the sukkah. Technically, a sukkah is a self-made, temporary hut or tent erected outside the home. Decorated beautifully with palm branches, pomegranates and other pretty things, the family will spend all its free time during the Feast of Tabernacles in the sukkah. Yes, that includes time spent sharing meals, visiting and relaxing. Almost like camping out.
Wait… Camping out? Sounds a bit odd right? I mean, where I come from camping doesn’t take place on the front lawn or in the back yard. It usually entails a spot in the wilderness, driving for hours to reach said spot in the wilderness and often, roughing it without the comforts of home. But see, experience teaches that when it comes to our God, and His festivals for that matter, there’s always something significant, something epic behind the seemingly unclear… And so, as with the other festivals, the Feast of Tabernacles holds a picture, a mirror image, a clue of what Yeshua would do as our Messiah. So where is Yeshua amongst all the joy and little temporary tents?
Well, firstly, the sukkah is built as a reminder of the hut-like structures the Israelites lived in during their 40 year journey through the desert en route to the Promised Land. Why the reminder? Because we are human. Because we forget the miraculous. So God has to jog our memory, “Remember when you were trekking through that barren dessert with not a drop of water or morsel of food to sustain you? I provided for you. Miraculously so. That is the type of God I am. Which means you can expect more of the same.” Comforting right? Especially if you find yourself in the middle of your own personal desert. Awesome yes, but still not really a picture of Yeshua.
Okay, here goes. In Exodus 25:8 God instructs Moses, “Let them make me a Tabernacle, that I may dwell among them.” That is God’s desire. It was true thousands of years ago and continues to be true today: God’s desire is to dwell with us, to “tabernacle” with us. Because that is what the word tabernacle means. It’s a verb, a doing word. God dwells with us = God tabernacles with us.
Still unconvinced? John 1:14 reads in our English Bible, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” But that is a translation. The original Greek word used here is “tabernacled”. Yeshua became flesh and tabernacled with us humans here on earth for a short while. But He promised that it wouldn’t be the last time. He promised to return. To tabernacle with us forever.
And so Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles, is it. The big one. It is “The Feast”. The one to end all feasts. The Feast of Tabernacles is a picture, the mirror image of when Yeshua will return to tabernacle with His people (Micah 4:1-7), this time forever. To wipe away every tear, to bring us fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore in His presence (Psalm 16). Now that is what I would call the season of our joy!
Chag sameach (happy holiday!)
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