Tag: sukkot

Having looked at Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement in our last episode, we now come to the third of the fall holiday celebrations: the festival of Sukkot, or Shelters.

Leviticus 23:33-36, 39-43 – Yahweh spoke to Moses: “Tell the Israelites: The Festival of Shelters to Yahweh begins on the fifteenth day of this seventh month and continues for seven days. There is to be a sacred assembly on the first day; you are not to do any daily work. You are to present a food offering to Yahweh for seven days. On the eighth day you are to hold a sacred assembly and present a food offering to Yahweh. It is a solemn assembly; you are not to do any daily work.  … You are to celebrate Yahweh’s festival on the fifteenth day of the seventh month for seven days after you have gathered the produce of the land. There will be complete rest on the first day and complete rest on the eighth day. On the first day you are to take the product of majestic trees ​– ​palm fronds, boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook ​– ​and rejoice before Yahweh your God for seven days. You are to celebrate it as a festival to Yahweh seven days each year. This is a permanent statute for you throughout your generations; celebrate it in the seventh month. You are to live in shelters for seven days. All the native-born of Israel must live in shelters, so that your generations may know that I made the Israelites live in shelters when I brought them out of the land of Egypt; I am Yahweh your God.”

The Story of the Wilderness

During the Exodus, after the Israelites were delivered from Egypt, they were brought out into the desert wilderness on their way to the land that God had promised Abraham. After receiving the covenant of the Ten Commandments, they were to trust God and take the land. 

Deuteronomy 1:21 [Moses said,] ‘See, Yahweh your God has placed the land before you; go up, take possession, as Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has spoken to you. Do not fear or be dismayed.’

However, due to their fear of those dwelling in the land, they chose instead to rebel and to try to revert course back to Egypt.

Numbers 14:2-4 All the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron; and the whole congregation said to them, “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness! “Why is Yahweh bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become plunder; would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?” So they said to one another, “Let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt.”

Moses recounts what he told them at that time.

Deuteronomy 1:26-27, 34-36, 38 “Yet you were not willing to go up, but rebelled against the command of Yahweh your God; and you grumbled in your tents and said, ‘Because Yahweh hates us, He has brought us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us. … Then Yahweh heard the sound of your words, and He was angry and took an oath, saying, ‘Not one of these men, this evil generation, shall see the good land which I swore to give your fathers, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh; he shall see it, and to him and to his sons I will give the land on which he has set foot, because he has followed Yahweh fully.’ … ‘Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall enter there; encourage him, for he will cause Israel to inherit it.'”

Because they did not trust God but were stubborn in their hearts, God forced them to wander in the desert wilderness for 40 years until that rebellious generation all died off. However, he had promised to remain with them to guide and provide for them.

Exodus 25:8 – “They are to make a sanctuary for me so that I may dwell among them…”

While they were in the wilderness, God still provided food (manna) and water and whatever else was needed for them to survive. During this time, they lived in tent-like dwellings or shelters (sukkot). This was a long-lasting event that Moses encouraged them to recall with each generation.

Deuteronomy 8:2-5 “You shall remember all the way which Yahweh your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of Yahweh. Your clothing did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. Thus you are to know in your heart that Yahweh your God was disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son.”

The forty year wandering was a discipline process, readying the next generation to be faithful to inherit the land and everything that had been promised to Abraham and the patriarchs. Now, let’s take a look at some of the symbolism of these activities.

The Sukkot

To begin with, these events were to be remembered symbolically by living in sukkot for a week once a year to remind them of those desert wanderings and the provision of God. The sukkot or shelters served as a reminder, not only of the shelters they lived in during that time, but of the shelter and protection of God during the desert wanderings. For example, in Psalm 31, we are shown how God protects those who take refuge in him:

Psalm 31:19-20 – How great is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you. In the presence of everyone you have acted for those who take refuge in you.  You hide them in the protection of your presence; you conceal them in a shelter [besukKah] from human schemes, from quarrelsome tongues.

The prophet Isaiah reveals a majestic vision of prophetic Zion or the Kingdom of God would have deep ties back to the provision and protection of Yahweh over his people during their desert journeys.

Isaiah 4:5-6 – Then Yahweh will create a cloud of smoke by day and a glowing flame of fire by night over the entire site of Mount Zion and over its assemblies. For there will be a canopy [vesukKah] over all the glory, and there will be a shelter for shade from heat by day and a refuge and shelter from storm and rain.

Just as God demonstrated he could protect them for those forty years, he was revealing how he would provide that same shield and protection over his eternal Kingdom.

The harvest

Additional symbols of this week include the command to rejoice in that which God has provided. This is a harvest festival after all, sometimes called the Feast of Ingathering, as it is in the book of Exodus.

• Exodus 23:16 – “Also … observe the Festival of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather your produce from the field.”
• Exodus 34:22 – “Observe … the Festival of Ingathering at the turn of the agricultural year.”

The bounty of the fall harvest is brought in and shared among friends and family, kind of like an ancient Thanksgiving. Actually it is believed by some that the American Thanksgiving holiday was based on the festival of Sukkot by the biblically literate Pilgrims who were looking for a way to honor God with their survival in the New World.

Rest

Along with celebration in the provision of God is the theme of rest, with the first and last days being Sabbaths, or days of rest. The rest after a great harvest provides a deep sense of satisfaction and joy, as it is the completion of all of the hard work that has occurred throughout the spring and summer months. A seven-day festival indicates a complete cycle, just like the seven days of Creation. The fact that it takes place in the seventh month illustrates the sabbath-rest of the eternal kingdom of God, with God ever dwelling, tabernacle-like, in its midst.

Offerings

Each day was also to have an offering made by fire, which as we have seen in other studies as being representative of complete consummation in service to God. Even through the rejoicing in the hard physical work which has been completed, there was always to be a remembrance of who was ultimately responsible for their bounty, and their undivided devotion to his purposes.

On the subject of offerings, we find that the narrative in Numbers 29 regarding this holiday defines a very detailed and specific number of offerings that were to take place each day, inclusive of bulls, rams, lambs and goats, along with grain and drink offerings. Now this very specific numeration of sacrificial animals could be a whole study within itself. But what I find interesting is the sheer magnitude of trying to sacrifice, for example, thirteen bulls in one day, besides the 2 rams and 14 lambs and the goat. Additionally, the number of bulls diminishes each day, beginning at 13 on the first day, then the next day at 12, 11, and so on, until by the seventh day, they reach seven bulls in number. Therefore, when all the bull sacrifices are added up, you reach seventy bulls sacrificed over seven days, ending with seven bulls on the seventh day.

There are many extra-biblical references to the number seventy relating to the totality of the world. Even among ancient Hebrew oral traditions, seventy is considered the number of nations outside of the nation of Israel. At the Jewish site Chabad.org we can find the following explanatory quotes:

Rabbi Avraham Dov Auerbach of Avritch: “It is the task of the People of Israel to bring the glory of G‑d’s kingdom to all of creation, even to the nations of the world, and the offering of the seventy bulls on the festival of Sukkot is in order that the influx of G‑d’s kingdom flows to all of the seventy nations.”

Elana Mizrahi: “In the times of the Holy Temple, not only did everyone come to the Temple to celebrate and wave the lulav and etrog [the fruit and branches], but they also came to bring offerings to G‑d. Each day a number of animals were brought, including bulls. On the first day 13 bulls were brought, and each day one less bull was brought, totaling 70 bulls. These 70 bulls represent the 70 nations of the world.”

This is why, according to rabbinic sources, that only one bull is sacrificed on the Eighth Day of the festival, as it represents the sacrifice for the one remaining nation, Israel. We’ll talk more about the Eighth Day significance in our next episode.

From my perspective, considering there were seventy bulls over seven days, I was also reminded of Peter’s inquiry of Yeshua as to how many times we should forgive those who sin against us:

Matthew 18:21-22 – Then Peter approached him and asked, “Lord, how many times must I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? As many as seven times? ”  “I tell you, not as many as seven,” Yeshua replied, “but seventy times seven.”

Such an odd way of phrasing this famous response: “seventy times seven.” Now, I wouldn’t be dogmatic about this, but could it be that Yeshua was hinting at the responsibility of believers to mimic the totality of forgiveness that Yahweh annually offers the nations of the world in the seventy bulls over seven days? In this sense, seventy times seven would be indicative of complete forgiveness of everyone, something which also very closely aligned with the mission of Messiah in this world.

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The branches and fruit

Leviticus 23:40 – On the first day you are to take the product of majestic trees ​– ​palm fronds, boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook ​– ​and rejoice before Yahweh your God for seven days.

Now this aspect of the holiday week has a certain meaning among modern Jews, as they believe that this verse relates to a specific group of “four species” of plants that they are commanded to worship with each day. These consist of the following:

• Lulav: A ripe green, closed frond from a date palm tree.
• Etrog: A citron fruit with a thick rind and a sweet fragrance.
• Hadas: Three myrtle branches with leaves.
• Arava: Two willow branches with long, narrow leaves

There is, in fact, ancient extra-biblical historical evidence that this rejoicing with the fruit and branches was a practice that, to outsiders, appeared to be a revelry similar to that of honoring Bacchus, the god of wine, or other pagan deities. The Greek philosopher Plutarch relates the following in his text Table Talk:

“First of all, he said, the time and character of the greatest, most sacred holiday of the Jews clearly befit Dionysus. For when they celebrate their so-called Fast, at the height of the vintage, they set out tables of all sorts of fruit under tents and huts plaited for the most part of vines and ivy. They call the first of the days Booth. A few days later they celebrate another festival, called openly, no longer through obscure hints, a festival of Bacchus. This festival of theirs is a sort of bearing of branches and of thyrsi [“rods”] in which they enter the temple carrying the thyrsi. What they do after entering we do not know, but it is probable that what they are doing is a Bacchic revelry, for in fact they use little trumpets to invoke their god as do the Argives at their Dionysia.”

Now while Plutarch may be interpreting the actions of the Jews in light of the pagan Greek gods, it is evident that there was a celebratory mood among the Jews during the time of Sukkot and the bearing of the branches into the Temple area. The waving of branches was an act of celebration, much like waving a team flag at a sporting event might be today. Today it is customary to wave these “four species” in a specific fashion each day of Sukkot, as this waving becomes be a representation of “rejoicing with the fruit and branches.” It is considered to be an exhibition of praise to Yahweh for his good provision in the land that he had promised them.

Waving branches as an act of celebration and acclaim should not be unfamiliar to believers in Messiah, as a similar practice was bestowed upon Yeshua as he entered Jerusalem on a donkey in fulfillment of prophetic texts:

John 12:12-13 – The next day, when the large crowd that had come to the festival heard that Yeshua was coming to Jerusalem, they took palm branches and went out to meet him. They kept shouting: “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord ​– ​the King of Israel! “

Besides the celebratory aspect of the waving of the branches, this command in Leviticus comes on the heels of the previous verse which states to celebrate the holiday “for seven days after you have gathered the produce of the land,” (Leviticus 23:39). This produce of the land would naturally include the fruit of the various fruit-producing trees of the land as well.

But the branches and fruit also have prophetic overtones for the future of Israel as God’s eternal kingdom, as well:

Hosea 14:1, 4-7 – Israel, return to Yahweh your God, for you have stumbled in your iniquity. … I will heal their apostasy; I will freely love them, for my anger will have turned from him. I will be like the dew to Israel; he will blossom like the lily and take root like the cedars of Lebanon. His new branches will spread, and his splendor will be like the olive tree, his fragrance, like the forest of Lebanon. The people will return and live beneath his shade. They will grow grain and blossom like the vine. His renown will be like the wine of Lebanon.

Messiah Yeshua captures some of this prophetic imagery in his parable of the mustard seed:

Mark 4:30-32 – And he said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable can we use to describe it? “It’s like a mustard seed that, when sown upon the soil, is the smallest of all the seeds on the ground. “And when sown, it comes up and grows taller than all the garden plants, and produces large branches, so that the birds of the sky can nest in its shade.“

Ultimately, he claims to be the very source of the true branches and fruit in which believers can rejoice for all time:

John 15:5 – “I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me.

If this meaning is layered onto the celebration of Sukkot at this time of year, there is additional reason for rejoicing in the living and fruit-producing branches of the Kingdom of God, harvesting the nations of the world for Yahweh.

Living in the shelters

Leviticus 23:42 – “You are to live in shelters for seven days. All the native-born of Israel must live in shelters…”

It’s interesting how a distinction appears to be made between the native-born and those who are resident-aliens in the land. Only the native-born are required to live in shelters during the festival. By contrast, in the instructions for the Passover feast, it is stated that if the resident-alien desires to keep the Passover, they and their households have to be circumcised.

Exodus 12:48 – “If an alien resides among you and wants to observe Yahweh’s Passover, every male in his household must be circumcised, and then he may participate; he will become like a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person may eat it.

Here at Sukkot there is no such caveat. It’s almost as if this command is specifically for those descendants of the generation which wandered in the desert, as the resident alien would have no connection to that event, and no need for the discipline of heart that that generation struggled with. God was very clear when he told the Israelites the reason they should reenact this scenario of living in shelters for a week each year: “so that your generations may know that I made the Israelites live in shelters when I brought them out of the land of Egypt…” (Leviticus 23:43).

It’s not that the resident-aliens could not learn from that event, just that they were not required to live in sukkot for that week, even though they were still invited to participate in the festivities. Moses had instructed them:

Deuteronomy 16:13-14 – “You are to celebrate the Festival of Shelters for seven days when you have gathered in everything from your threshing floor and winepress. Rejoice during your festival ​– ​you, your son and daughter, your male and female slave, as well as the Levite, the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow within your city gates.

So this command to live in shelters appears to be more directed toward the physical descendants of that generation that was forced to wander in the wilderness, as an echo of their ancestral propensity toward stubbornness of heart. To live in shelters for a week would remind them to never again engage in that level of disobedience to the commands of God in establishing his Kingdom.

Probably the best applications of this biblical festival can be drawn from the Deuteronomy 8 passage we read earlier, a passage where Moses is recounting to the Israelites everything he has ministered to them over the past forty years in the wilderness before they enter the land of Canaan.

Deuteronomy 8:2-5

“You shall remember all the way which Yahweh your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years…”

They were to be reminded that even in their unfaithfulness and stubbornness of heart, God still chose to live among them, to lead them safely through the wilderness, and provide for all of their needs.

“…that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.”

Through this process, God was determining what was really in their hearts, demonstrated by how faithfully they were to keep his commands. It is one thing to believe what is right; it is another thing to show how strong the belief is by what is done. The apostle James famously stated this truth:

James 2:18 – But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without works, and I will show you faith by my works.

This disciplinary process of the desert experience was more for the Israelites to learn about their own hearts, and for them to demonstrate what it is they really wanted in their relationship with God.

“He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of Yahweh.”

The miraculous provision of food during their wilderness journeys was because God had promised he would take care of them. If he declared they would have food, they would have food, even if it was miraculous bread from heaven. But it was not the bread that they should focus on, but the faithfulness of God. The bread was a demonstration that they should honor his words because he is a faithful God. His words were the true source of their life.

“Your clothing did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years.”

There were no clothing stores and no medical facilities in that desert wasteland. Forty years is a long time to go wandering about in the same clothes, and to not have major physical problems due to all of that travel on foot. And yet, once again, God miraculously provided for them.

“Thus you are to know in your heart that Yahweh your God was disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son.”

And here is where the rubber meets the road, where the real need for remembering those forty years would come into play. They were being disciplined because they had rejected God’s command early on to take the land. Because they feared the Amorites more than they trusted Yahweh, he caused them to wander in the desert until all of the stubborn generation died off. Only then could they enter the land of Canaan. Discipline is real, and hard to endure, but it bears fruit in the end.

• Hebrews 12:9-11 Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.
• Proverbs 3:11-12  My son, do not reject the discipline of Yahweh or loathe His reproof, for whom Yahweh loves He reproves, even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights.

If the week of Sukkot was to be a reminder of those forty years in the wilderness, then these are the things that they were to be reminded of. It was to show them how stubbornness of heart has consequences, even though Yahweh was still willing to be faithful. Even in the most trying of circumstances, God was able to provide for them when they recognized they truly lived by every word that God had spoken. These were the lessons that were to be handed down to each generation at the annual week of Sukkot.

Second Exodus fulfillment and application for today

Just as the Israelites wandered for forty years in the desert wilderness, there was also a forty-year duration between Messiah and the destruction of the Temple and nation in 70 AD. This has been suggested to be a Second Exodus, a calling out of a faithful remnant from among the unfaithful of the corrupted religiosity of carnal Judaism which held its man-made traditions and rituals above the Word of God.

So if we are to carry the themes of the First Exodus with Moses into this Second Exodus beginning with the ministry of Messiah Yeshua, we can conclude the nation of Israel in the first century was being disciplined during this time for rejecting God’s promised kingdom which Yeshua announced during his ministry. Yeshua had taken them to the brink of the land so they could see the Kingdom of God for themselves, but they wavered in faith and rejected his message, just as Caleb and Joshua’s report was denied. They were choosing instead to hold tight to the principles of Egypt (the political world and their traditions) rather than recognize the presence of God among his people to lead them into the spiritual land of promise: Zion. 

Yet, just as the protege of Moses, Joshua (whose Hebrew name is Yeshua), caused Israel to inherit the physical land, another Yeshua caused them to inherit the spiritual land. Those who were faithful, the disciples and those who believed in Messiah, were provided for with supernatural gifts of the Spirit of God, and with hope for the soon-coming consummation of the national promises. The faithful were brought into the kingdom, while that rebellious generation perished.

Even for believers today, just like the resident-aliens who were not required to live in Sukkot for that week, we are still invited to be involved in the memorial of this festival time of our spiritual ancestors and recognize and take to heart some of these great truths:

• We can be reminded that if we are disobedient to God’s commands, God still provides for our needs while he may be disciplining us for our own good. 
• As a harvest festival, it teaches us to be thankful for all that God has provided for us each year, and to rejoice in God’s ongoing harvest of faithful believers everywhere. 
• As a time of rejoicing, we are to celebrate the establishment and growth of the vine-branches and fruit of the kingdom of God until it grows to fill the earth.

So as we view this seasonal moed or appointed time of Sukkot, we can catch a glimpse of its renewed nature and purpose in the symbolism of the core of the Bible parameters. Having received the Ten Commandments and the covenant of God, the Israelites were to establish the Kingdom of God on the earth in the Promised Land. Just as Yeshua taught, this was to be a Kingdom based on the structure of those Ten Commandments, as both a near and present reality. There were many dangers in the desert that the Israelites had to be aware of and avoid, so this was a life where vigilance would be required of those who sought to participate. The believers in Messiah would be set apart and holy, trusting God for all of their needs, just as their forefathers had to do in the desert wilderness, and they were to operate with God’s characteristics of forgiveness and compassion, demonstrating that they are the children of God.

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Well, I hope these studies on the fall festivals of the biblical calendar are bringing you some concepts and ideas to meditate on and to study out further on your own. But remember, if you have thoughts or comments that you would like to explore further with me, feel free to email me at coreofthebible@gmail.com.