At sunset on October 12, a weeklong holiday celebrating the yearly cycle of biblical observances called Sukkot begins. The feast ends at sundown, Thursday, October 20 with a special Sabbath. The day is called Shemini Atzeret, or the Eighth Day Assembly.
Sukkot is also known as the Feast of Tabernacles or the Feast of Booths and is the third of the pilgrimage feasts when all the men of Israel were called to Jerusalem to the Lord’s presence:
Three times a year all your men must appear before the LORD your God at the place he will choose: at the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Weeks and the Festival of Tabernacles. Deuteronomy 16:16.
This is a festival of rejoicing, celebrating God’s goodness and sharing hospitality and much preparation goes into this holiday after the somber and reflective Days of Awe which are the Feast of Trumpets and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.
Celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles for seven days after you have gathered the produce of your threshing floor and your winepress. Be joyful at your festival—you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, the Levites, the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns. For seven days celebrate the festival to the LORD your God at the place the LORD will choose. For the LORD your God will bless you in all your harvest and in all the work of your hands, and your joy will be complete. Deuteronomy 16:13-15.
In Jewish homes a sukkah, which is a small temporary shelter, is built and often elaborately decorated in various places as a way to experience the joyous seven days of dwelling in booths. Meals and entertaining take place in the sukkah and the men will often sleep in it. The roof is covered loosely with materials such as palm fronds that allow the night sky to be seen as a reminder of the Israelites’ journey from Egypt when God guided them by a column of smoke by day and a pillar of fire by night
Celebrate this as a festival to the LORD for seven days each year. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come; celebrate it in the seventh month. Live in temporary shelters for seven days: All native-born Israelites are to live in such shelters so your descendants will know that I had the Israelites live in temporary shelters when I brought them out of Egypt. I am the LORD your God. Leviticus 23:41-43.
The Jewish people dwelt in simple tents and tabernacles so that when the cloud moved by day or the pillar of fire moved by night they could follow. The pillar and cloud represented the presence of God.
Jews continue to dwell in booths to commemorate God’s faithfulness and miraculous preservation when they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years.
In these troubled times we need to pray that Jews and all other people seek the face of God, remembering He is the hope and strong tower for all men.
Christians can learn from this example, for we too are sojourners, passing by this place in such a way that when the Lord moves, we are prepared to move with Him and trust Him for our protection and provision.
The word booth is synonymous with tabernacle, which is similar to the word John used when he said that Jesus became flesh and dwelled, or tabernacled, among us in John 1:14. He tabernacled among us. Some theologians speculate that He was born on Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles.
Sukkot is the final wheat harvest of the year. The Feast of Tabernacles is symbolic of the final ingathering of souls into the Kingdom of God before Jesus returns. The day will come when the angels gather God’s elect.
And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other. Matthew 24:31.
The final shofar blast will be heard, signaling the final ingathering of all souls into the Kingdom of God.
May God richly bless you in this season.
