Chag Sameach Sukkot! (Happy Feast of Tabernacles)

Today is the first of seven days of Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles. The streets are abuzz with excitement. All week we’ve heard the sounds of hammering and skill saws as Jews from all walks of life build their sukkot (booths) in their courtyards.  This is the most joyous feast of the year and one of three annual pilgrimage feasts. (That’s a fancy word for an “everyone-go-up-to-Jerusalem” feast.) God has appointments with us, and today is one of those appointed times.  Two thousand years ago and earlier, on this very day, Jerusalem was jam-packed with people who had traveled many miles from their homes to fulfill the biblical laws for Sukkot.

In Deut. 16:13-15 God instructs His people to celebrate Sukkot in gratefulness for the harvest. Verse 15 says, “Seven days you are to keep the festival for Adonai your God…because Adonai your God will bless you in all your crops and in all your work, so you are to be full of joy!”  This feast is also to be a reminder of the 40 years that the Israelites lived in temporary shelters in the wilderness. (Lev.23:41-43)

One thing I’ve just learned recently is that King Solomon finished the new temple, ordered the Ark to be carried up from his father, David’s, tabernacle, and sacrificed over 100,000 oxen and sheep all during the Feast of Sukkot. (I Kings 8 and II Chron. 7)  When the Israelites returned from exile in Babylon, they celebrated Sukkot in the newly rebuilt city of Jerusalem. (Ezra 3)

John 1:14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.  The word “dwelt” comes from the word “sukkah”.  So we can say Yeshua “sukkah-ed” among us.  So Yeshua the Messiah, the glory of God Himself “sukkah-ed” now in flesh among Israel as He did in a cloud in the Tabernacle and Temple. Wow.  And is it any wonder that he was born in a stable, a shelter from the elements, which most likely had three sides and resembled a sukkah! I am of the opinion that this is the time of year in which Yeshua was born. Many signs point to this. Not the least of which every significant event in His life fell exactly on one of the biblical feasts. This is a special time for me personally to reflect on His birth, His humanity and all that He left at the right hand of His Father on the Throne.

And we will celebrate this feast in the 1000-year reign of Yeshua here in Jerusalem!  Zech. 14:16 says, “Finally, everyone remaining from all the nations that came to attack Jerusalem will go up every year to worship the king, the Lord of Hosts, and to keep the festival of Sukkot.”  He will literally be tabernacle-ing with us in the flesh!  Thank you, Lord!  The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come!”

I’ve included some pics of the sukkah we built at Succat Hallel and also of our worship celebration last night.  We had a blast!

Thank you, Abba, for your appointed feasts.  We celebrate your birth on this Sukkot with joy unspeakable!