Sukkot In The New Testament
There is a connection between the practice of tabernacling and the life of Yeshua:
In Yeshua , God tabernacled among us. He chose to be born into a less-than-glorious space, where certainly the stars might have peeked through cracks in the roof, the elements might well have invaded. Nevertheless, in that lowly place dwelt the glorious presence of God, the transient and the eternal beautifully coming together in Gods provision and Gods presence.9
Not only that, Yeshua deliberately took the festival of Sukkot as an opportunity to speak about himself. The Gospel of John recounts his preaching in the outer Court of the Women on Hoshanah Rabbah:
On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
When Jesus stood in the Temple claiming to be the Light of the World, He was making a radical statement. Those who say that Jesus never claimed to be God have not dealt with this statement. To stand in the middle of the Temple in conjunction with the Feast of Tabernacles and say, I am the Light was like saying, I am the Shekinah, I am the pillar of fire. Its hard to imagine a more graphic claim to deity.11
End Notes:
Yeshua On The Final Day Of Sukkot: Hoshana Rabbah
I wash my hands in purity and circle around Your altar, O Lord.;
The seventh and final day of sukkot, called Hoshana Rabbah , is marked by special synagogue services.
In commemoration of the priests circling the altar with palm branches in their hands once every day of Sukkot, and seven times on the seventh day, on this day, seven hoshanot are made around the synagogue.
On this final day of Sukkot, probably during the water ceremony, Yeshua stood up and proclaimed Himself to be the source of Living Water.; He invited all who were thirsty to come and drink, the water representing the Holy Spirit .
On the last and greatest day of the festival, Yeshua stood and said in a loud voice, Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.; Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.; By this He meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive. ;
Children playing in the Pool of Siloam in Jerusalem, from which the High Priest used to draw the water for the Water Offering in ancient times.
Sukkot In The End Times And The New Jerusalem
For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle.;
Sukkot also has a connection to the Last Days and the New Jerusalem.
The Haftarah that is read for this holiday contains a graphic apocalyptic vision of the destruction of all the nations that will attack Jerusalem.
The judgment on the nations is characterized by earthquakes, plagues, heavy darkness, and signs of nuclear destruction, all manifesting Gods personal intervention on behalf of Israel .
The eyes of the world will be opened and all the nations will see that Israel is the apple of Gods eye.; Woe to those who dare to touch her.
This Israeli is building the roof of his sukkah. ;Vegetation such as palm will be lightly woven;through the beams so the sky is still visible, the stars at night.
The Lord declares through the Prophet Zechariah, It will happen in that day, that I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all the peoples.; All who burden themselves with it will be severely wounded.;
In those days, all nations will be required to come to Jerusalem to celebrate Sukkot .; Those who refuse will be cursed with lack of rain. ;
While many Christians believe that Gods moadim have been abolished, Zechariahs Messianic prophecy clearly indicates that this is not so.
Today, many Christians from the nations come every year to Jerusalem to celebrate Sukkot together with Israel in a beautiful foreshadowing of what will take place after the Lord returns and establishes His Messianic reign on earth.
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Additional Feast Days 2021
In addition to the 7 annual or High Sabbaths , which were already decreed by God at the time of Moses, there are still further feast days in Israel, which in the course of the time that follows have come about through special historical events. They are not connected with the harvest. The most important of these are the Purim Feast in the 12th month and the Tisha BeAv on the 9th of Av in the 5th month of the biblical year. On these two feast days, two books of the Feast Scroll are still read out to this day , namely the Book of Esther and the Lamentations of Jeremiah .;;
The 6th High Sabbath: Sukkot = Feast Of Tabernacles
Five days after the Day of Atonement, the Feast of Tabernacles begins on the 15th day of the 7th month . It is after or still at the time of the main harvest of: grapes, olives, almonds, figs, dates, pomegranates, cactus fruits, citrus fruits and other fruits. It is the “feast of the harvest at the end of the year, when you have collected the harvest of your work from the field” or “the Feast of Ingathering at the year’s end” . The feast was accompanied by great joy, because the tenth saved before could be spent. It was therefore a time of abundance and of physical and spiritual well-being. The Feast of Tabernacles lasts 7 days . The 7th day of the feast is known as Hoshana Rabba , but it is not a feast or high Sabbath.;Sukkot is a Thanksgiving feast, a time to say “thank you” to God that we were able to live and bring such a great harvest .;
Isaiah 11:6-10: “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them. 7 The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 8 The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. 9 They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
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Jesus At The Feast Of Tabernacles
Sukkot, being part of the Jewish autumn festivals does not have a day-to-day match with a New Testament event.; Nonetheless the parallels are striking in a different, perhaps deeper, manner still.; The Gospel of John records Jesus participating in this same Feast of Tabernacles.; But the account records Jesus doing something curious.; It says
37 On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them. 39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.
Bible Verses About Feast Of Tabernacles
Also you shall observe the Feast of the Harvest of the first fruits of your labors from what you sow in the field; also the Feast of the Ingathering at the end of the year when you gather in the fruit of your labors from the field.
You shall celebrate the Feast of Weeks, that is, the first fruits of the wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the turn of the year.Three times a year all your males are to appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel.
Then Solomon offered burnt offerings to the Lord on the altar of the Lord which he had built before the porch;and did so according to the daily rule, offering them up according to the commandment of Moses, for the sabbaths, the new moons and the three annual feaststhe Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Booths.
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.
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What Is The Feast Of Tabernacles In The Bible
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The Feast of Tabernacles is the last of three fall feasts appointed and initiated by God in the Old Testament. The Feast of Tabernacles is also referred to as: The Feast of Booths / Ingathering / Shelters or in Hebrew Sukkot.
The word Sukkot is the plural form of sukkah which means dwelling, booth or tabernacle. During The Feast of Tabernacles, the Israelites build temporary booths or huts to dwell in, as a remembrance of Gods provision for them during their 40 years in the wilderness and our continued dependence upon Him through the ages.
The Season Of Our Joy
You shall rejoice before the Lord your God.;
One of the names for Sukkot is Zman Simchateinu . ;In Scripture, in fact, the word joy appears several times in connection with Sukkot.
Be joyful at your Feastyou, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levites, the aliens, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns. ;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. ;
Since Sukkot is also a harvest festival, we can well imagine that there is great reason for joy. ;Indeed, one of the other names for the holiday is the Feast of Ingathering.
Celebrate the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in your crops from the field.;
The roof of the sukkah is often made of palm.
The joy of this holiday is so singular and complete that many rabbinic texts just refer to it asHaChag .
During ancient times, every day of The Festival, except Shabbat, was characterized by music, song and dancing.
Even today, Jewish people gather near the Western Wall to dance, sing and rejoice before the Lord.; People fill the synagogues and streets while singing and dancing with tremendous joy until the wee hours of the morning.
This is in partial fulfillment of prophecy.; The Prophets tell us that a day will come when the exiles of Israel return to Zion, her streets will be filled with the sounds of joyful melodies; and sorrow will disappear.
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What Does This Mean For Christians Today
Some Jewish and Gentile Christians do celebrate these feast days. Many Gentile Christians do not, as we consider Jesus the substance of the shadows that were cast toward Him in the Old Testament. Colossians 2:16-17
However, we can all remember and symbolically observe these sacred days, as our faith is strengthened by deepening our understanding of the breathtaking precision with which our Savior fulfilled each Old Testament prophecy. From this, we can rest in absolute assurance that Jesus will once again fulfill every prophecy of His second coming with the same astonishing accuracy and glory. And we will dwell with our Savior and King forever!Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. Revelation 21:1-3
Additional Resources:
This year The Feast of Tabernacles will be from sundown, September 22-29, 2021. To read more information about Feast Days and dates, check out the Messianic Sabbath website.
Significance Of Sukkot In The Bible
The observance of the Feast of Tabernacles is recorded in Exodus 23:16, 34:22; Leviticus 23:34-43; Numbers 29:12-40; Deuteronomy 16:13-15; Ezra 3:4; and Nehemiah 8:13-18.
The Bible reveals dual significance in the Feast of Tabernacles. Agriculturally, Sukkot is Israel’s “Thanksgiving.” It is a joyous harvest festival celebrating the completion of the agricultural year.
As a historical feast, its main characteristic is the requirement of Israel’s people to leave their homes and to dwell in temporary shelters or booths. The Jews built these booths to commemorate their deliverance from Egypt and their protection, provision, and care by the hand of God during their 40 years in the wilderness.
As a feast instituted by God, Sukkot was never forgotten. It was celebrated in the time of Solomon:
He offered the sacrifices for the Sabbaths, the new moon festivals, and the three annual festivalsâthe Passover celebration, the Festival of Harvest, and the Festival of Sheltersâas Moses had commanded.
In fact, it was during Sukkot that Solomonâs temple was dedicated:
So all the men of Israel assembled before King Solomon at the annual Festival of Shelters, which is held in early autumn in the month of Ethanim.
The Bible records the Feast of Tabernacle being observed during Hezekiah‘s time , and also after the return from exile .
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The 4th High Sabbath: Yom Teruah = Day Of Trumpets
The 1st day of the 7th month in Israel is called “Rosh Hashanah” because after the Babylonian exile it became New Year’s Day in the new state Jewish calendar. The reason was that, according to Talmud, the creation of the world and Adam and Eve were assumed this month. “Rosh Hashanah” is a term invented by humans, which does not appear once in the whole Bible. However, the biblical name for the 4th yearly Sabbath and the first biblical autumn feast day is “Yom Teruah“. The Hebrew teruah means literally “day of shouting or blasting”, because especially on this day the Shofar horn had to be blown several times. Yom Teruah is thus the “day of noise blowing”, the so-called “Feast or Day of Trumpets”. It is a day of alarm and warning of the coming judgment and plagues. On the Day of Trumpets the shofar horn had to sound particularly loud and a meeting was to be held in memory .
The Spring Feast Days
The Passover Jesus died on the cross on this day. He was the sacrificial Lamb whose blood covered the wooden posts on the cross, that our sins would be atoned for and the wages for sin, which is death, would pass over us. 1 Corinthians 5:7Romans 6:23
The Feast of Unleavened Bread This begins the first night of Passover and continues for seven days. Gods people do not eat anything with leaven, remembering their delivery from the bondage of slavery in Egypt and quick exodus that did not allow for bread to rise. Additionally, leaven is often a Biblical symbol for sin. We remember that likewise, Jesus, our sinless Savior, delivered us from the bondage of slavery to sin. We symbolically eat of His body when we celebrate communion, as He commanded at the Last Supper. 1 Corinthians 11:23-25
The Feast of First Fruits Jewish believers celebrate The Feast of First Fruits the Sunday after Passover, commemorating the day Jesus arose from the grave, His resurrected body, the first fruit of the kingdom of God. 1 Corinthians 15:20
The Feast of Weeks or Pentecost This is held fifty days after Passover and pointed ahead to the great harvest of souls. The Holy Spirit was poured out on the believers and the church was initiated on this day. Acts 2
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Mourning For The One They Pierced
10;And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son;
On that day a fountain will be opened to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity.;
Whether one believes in the Biblical prophets or not, it is clear that in this passage the speaker is God, since he stretches out the heavens who forms the human spirit within a person .; He is warning of a future day, a terrible day when nations will be destroyed.; But paradoxically the mourning and grief will not center in those nations facing destruction, but rather in Jerusalem, being rescued from destruction by a one they have pierced.; Who would that be?; Let the descriptions by Isaiah and the Psalmist of one being pierced help you answer that question.; Zechariah himself predicted his name.; Yet the pierced one is still, by using the pronoun me, the same I who stretched the heavens and forms the human spirit in a person.; Pretty heady stuff.