Sukkot 2022
Tabernacles
Tabernacles (Sukkot)
This Feast is also known just as The Feast in our Bibles. Sukkot is the seventh Appointed Season of God, and also marks the end of the harvest year (Exodus 23:16).
The Hebrew word Sukkot means booths or tabernacles (portable dwellings), and God tabernacled (dwelt in a portable Temple) with His people in the desert, and provided ALL their needs while Israel wandered in the desert for forty years.
Yeshua came during Sukkot to dwell again with His people two thousand years ago (temporarily), to begin the process of bringing His people into a place where He could dwell among them permanently.
Another name for this Festival is the Feast of Ingathering (Exodus 23:16 & 34:22), which gives it an agricultural theme because the Hebrew word asif (aw-seef), means to gather in the crops (at the end of the harvest year).
The Jews believe this Ingathering is referring to the gathering of the Jews back to Israel (Psalm 106:47 & Jeremiah 32:37), which would mean it is happening right before our very eyes today.
Sukkot is the most festive of all God’s Feasts and is mentioned more often in Scripture than any of the other feasts. It is also a Commandment of God for all who believe in Him, and it is one of the three mandatory Appointed Times when all the Hebrew men were required to come before Yahweh.
During this Festival, God's people remembered His provision of food, water, shelter, clothing, guidance, light and heat during the desert (wilderness) years. During this Sukkot week (eight days of celebration), in ancient times and today, each Hebrew family lives in a small, dwelling (or tent) covered with specific branches of leaves, flowers, and possibly fruits.
In Exodus 23:14 God tells the Israelites about the Feast of Tabernacles. There is no detail yet in this passage, but it was before they were condemned to wander in the desert for forty years. Because this Appointed Season is a statute forever, God tells them that they will dwell in tabernacles (booths or sukkot) each year at this time––even though they were already living in tents at that time in the wilderness.
It isn’t until Leviticus 23 where God tells of all His Appointed Seasons, that there is much more detail concerning the offerings; and also in Numbers 29:12-40, where we find a little more information.
In Deuteronomy 31:10-13 God instructs the Israelites that every seven years, in the Year of Release (the Jubliee year), the Torah is to be read during the eight days of Tabernacles.
In Nehemiah (8:1-12) we find Ezra reading the Torah, beginning on the first day of Etanim, on Yom Teruach (Day of Trumpets), and then he read more each day until the last day of Sukkot. The Israelites had not heard the Torah since the days of Joshua at that time (Nehemiah 8:9 & 17).
Trust
Sukkot is about thanking God for His supernatural provision and where we learn to humble ourselves before God, thanking Him for everything He has given us. This is the true Thanksgiving feast.
It is a remembrance of trusting God completely––for EVERYTHING. Emunah is one of the Hebrew words usually translated as faithfulness, but a truer meaning is trust or trustworthiness. The root of this word is aman, which means to go to the right hand or to take the right hand Way. So faith or trust, comes from taking the right hand Way. To go to the Right Hand is to go toward Yeshua.
Celebrating Sukkot will not only teach us about trusting and knowing God, it is a Teaching of God that we can hold onto whenever Yeshua draws us into a wilderness experience.
The Eighth Day
It was on the eighth day of this Feast, during the celebration of the pouring of the water on the altar that Yeshua (Jesus) stood up and said, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink,” (John 7:37-38). This was an eternal statement, and the Hebrews knew Yeshua was stating that He is the Messiah, because they knew the Messiah is the Living Water.
The Hebrew leaders were infuriated when Yeshua stood up and said what He did. A debate erupted among the Pharisees and Sadducees, many of whom did not realize, or did not believe that Yeshua is the Son of David, born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2). They thought He came from Galilee. While the Pharisees had memorized the written Scriptures inside and out, they still did not recognize their Messiah because of all their added traditions.
This added celebration of the water being poured out on the altar, was something that God had not yet shown His people before the first celebration (which most likely began several years before this particular day, since they all were used to this celebration by Yeshua's time). He had let them know that it was symbolic of the Latter Rain, which represented God's Spirit being poured out upon the Hebrews, as well as His Salvation––Himself coming to save the people as Yeshua (Joel 2:23).
Also on this eighth day was a joyous celebration in Yeshua's time––the High Priest would walk to the Pool of Siloam to fill his pitcher with its water, a congregation of people would follow him to the pool, and then back to the Temple. They would dance and sing, "with joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation...," (Isaiah 12:3-6), and wave palm branches around, back and forth.
According to the Jewish traditions the Messiah was to come after four thousand years, during God's Fall Appointed Seasons––so they were very excited and were very expectant during the first century. They knew that everything about these Appointed Seasons pointed to the Messiah (Yeshua). Today, this vital information concerning God’s Feasts has fallen by the wayside.
Celebrating Sukkot
• The first and the eighth day are holy convocations (miqra) which means they are days off from work. The eighth day is to be a holy day, where there are extra offerings (Numbers 15:3), and it is the culmination of God's Holy Days.
• On this eighth day we are to have a special meal with Yeshua (Leviticus 23:36––this is only correct in the ESV, as it is the only version which speaks of the food offerings). This meal is actually an offering to God. The two Hebrew words for offering are minchah or korban, and both mean a bloodless sacrificial gift (to God). Korban has a deeper meaning in that it also means to draw near to God.
• While Yeshua offered Himself to all mankind as the final Sacrificial Lamb for His Blood Covenant (when we accept God’s Blood Covenant, we accept His Eternal Redemption as well). • In return we are to offer Him our Sacrificial offering––in the form of a meal in honor of Him.
• Sukkot is very holy, and these days especially should be celebrated with reverence for Yahweh Yeshua (Yahweh, our Salvation).
• Sukkot is a Feast of rejoicing. It is a very happy Festival where we are to rejoice and feast for eight days.
• Build your sukkah (a small portable dwelling or tabernacle––you can also put up a tent instead): The Bible says to cover your sukkah with palm branches, foliage of beautiful fruit trees, boughs of leafy trees and willows of the brook (Leviticus 23:40). In Nehemiah Chapter 8, the Israelites are told that they are to gather olive branches, oil tree branches, myrtle branches, palm branches and branches of leafy trees to build their sukkah with. With these two passages we have plenty of information to build our sukkot (plural of sukkah). If you don’t have a backyard to put up your sukkah, just improvise (I doubt God will be too upset if it doesn’t look exactly right––He only cares that you are observing this Feast).
• We are to live in the sukkah during these eight days. The Jews take this time to remember and celebrate God’s provision during this time (Scripture does not state this, however I believe it is a good thing to do).
• In Deuteronomy 31:10-11 Moses states that God's people are to read the Torah (first six books) every seven years during Sukkot (Tabernacles), and in a Jubliee year (2Chronicles 34:30, Nehemiah 8:8 & 18 & 9:3). Therefore, although it isn’t in Scripture to do so, you may want to read the Torah any year as well (as a reminder), possibly read by the head of the family. A teaching on the latter reign celebration might be appropriate as well.
• Sukkot is also a celebration of the Last Harvest of the year, and this Last Harvest not only has meaning in that the Hebrews celebrate in faith that God will provide them with rain for a great harvest for the year––it also represents the last Harvest of God's people who will cross over into Paradise when they die, to live forever with Yeshua.
• This festival is called the Feast of Ingathering (Exodus 23:16;; 34:22) because it is observed after all the fall crops are harvested––God referred to this harvest as the ‘harvest at the end of the (harvest) year’ (Exodus 23:16).
