To:	 "Hebraic Heritage Newsgroup"<heb_roots_chr@geocities.com>
Date:	 Tue, 14 Oct 1997 02:14:36 
Subject: The Feast of Tabernacles

From:	 Eddie Chumney
To:      heb_roots_chr@geocities.com
Subject: The Feast of Tabernacles

       UNDERSTANDING THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES
  (Taken from the book, "The Seven Festivals of the Messiah")

In Leviticus 23:33-36 it is written:

"And the Lord spake unto Moses saying, Speak unto the children of 
Israel, saying, the fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the 
feast of tabernacles for seven days unto the Lord. On the first day 
shall be a holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein. 
Seven days ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord: on 
the eighth day shall be a holy convocation unto you; and ye shall 
offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord: it is a solemn assembly 
and ye shall do no servile work therein"

        Sukkot usually translated as "Tabernacles" or the festival of 
booths occurs for seven days from Tishrei 15 to 21. There is 
therefore a quick transition from the high holidays with their somber 
mood of repentence and judgment to a holiday of rejoicing and 
celebration for which God's people are commanded to build a hut 
(sukkah) and make it their home. 

        The feast of tabernacles (Sukkot) completes the sacred 
festivals of the seventh month. In contrast to the somber tone of 
Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur, the third feast of Tishrei is a time of 
joy.  Sukkot is called "the season of our joy". 

         The Torah identifies the sukkah (booth) with the temporary 
dwellings in which the children of Israel lived in the wilderness 
after they left Egypt on their way to the Promised Land (Lev 23:42).
A Sukkah in Hebrew means "an abode, a dwelling place".

         Sukkot is a remembrance of the time in the wilderness when 
God protected, led, and sustained the children of Israel in the 
wilderness. Prophetically, the feast of Tabernacles foreshadows how 
things will be during the Messianic Age. Personally, the sukkah or 
booth (temporary dwelling) symbolizes man's need to depend upon God 
for his provision of food, water and shelter (both physically and 
spiritually). 

          In II Corinthians 5:1 it is written:

"For we know that if our EARTHLY HOUSE of THIS TABERNACLE were 
dissolved (our physical bodies), we have a building of God, a house 
not made with hands (our immortal bodies) eternal in the heavens"

       Spiritually, our physical body is described as being a sukkah 
(a temporary dwelling) which houses our souls and spirits (I Cor 
6:19-20). We need the SPIRITUAL FOOD that the Word of God provides 
(Matthew 4:4, 6:11, John 6:33-35), the cleansing, rinsing, and 
washing that the Word of God brings to our lives (Eph 5:26) and the 
shelter and protection over our lives from the evil one (Matt 6:13, 
Psalm 91). 

         The Hebrew word for tabernacle is sukkah. It means "a booth, 
a hut, a covering, a pavilion or tent". The Greek word for tabernacle 
is "sk'en'e" which also means "a tent, hut, or habitation". Let's 
look how the tabernacle is used in scripture.

#1) Yeshua tabernacled among us (John 1:14)
#2) Peter spoke about his body being a tabernacle (II Peter 1:13-14)
#3) The Apostle Paul (Rav Sha'ul) told us that our earthly bodies 
       were earthly houses or tabernacles (II Cor 5:1-5)
#4) The tabernacle of Moses (Moshe) was a tent of habitation (Acts 
        7:44, Hebrews 9:2-8)
#5) Abraham, Isaac and Jacob lived in tabernacles (tents) (Heb 
      11:8-9)
#6) The tabernacle of David was a tent or dwelling place (Acts 15:16, 
        Amos 9:11). 
#7)  Yeshua/Jesus entered the temple on the Feast of Sukkot (John 
        7:2, 27-29)
#8)  The Bible speaks of heaven as being a tabernacle (Heb 8:1-2, Rev 
        13:6, 15:5)
#9)  Yeshua is the true tabernacle of God (Heb 9:11)

         Sukkot: Names, Themes, Idioms

#1) The Season of our Joy
#2) The Festivals of Ingathering
#3) The Feast of the Nations
#4) The Festival of  Dedication
#5) The Festival of Lights

              THE FESTIVAL OF INGATHERING

     Sukkot (Tabernacles) is the fall harvest festival.  Like the 
other pilgrimmage festivals (when the children of Israel were 
commandmend to go to Jerusalem to keep the feast ... Deut 16:16), 
Sukkot has an agricultural element.  It marks the time of the 
harvest, the final ingathering of produce before the oncoming winter. 
In Exodus 23:16 it is written:

"You shall celebrate the FESTIVAL OF INGATHERING, at the end of the 
year, when you gather in your labors out of your field"

         Spiritually, Yeshua told us that the harvest represents the 
end of the age (Matthew 13:39). The harvest refers more specifically 
to people who choose to accept the Messiah Yeshua into their hearts 
and lives (Matt 9:35-38, Luke 10:1-2, John 4:35-38, Rev 14:14-18).

                       THE FEAST OF DEDICATION

King Solomon dedicated the Temple during Sukkot (I Kings 3). 
Therefore, this festival is also called the Feast of Dedication. 

 
                         THE FEAST OF THE NATIONS

Another name for Sukkot (Tabernacles) is the "Feast of the Nations". 
Sukkot will be celebrated by ALL the nations during the Messianic Age 
(Zech 14:16-18). 

In Numbers 29:12-35, during the week of Sukkot 70 bullocks were 
offered on the altar. The connection of the 70 bulls to 70 nations is 
taken from Deut 32:8, Gen 46:27, and Exodus 1:1-5.  When Jacob and 
his family went to Egypt, there are 70 people listed in Exodus 1:1-5 
and it was there that they became a nation. 

                           THE FOUR SPECIES (Arba Minim)

In Lev 23:40 it is written:

"On the first day you shall take the product of goodly trees, 
branches of palm trees, boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the 
brook and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days"

The four species are known as the Lulav and Etrog (the palm branches 
and citron). So, "the product of goodly trees" is interpreted by the 
rabbis to refer specifically to an etrog (citron) and the branches 
"boughs of leafy trees" and "willows of the brook" have been 
interpreted as a lulav (palm branch), hadasim (myrtle), and aravot 
(willows) respectively.         

                       THE FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS

A ceremony done in the days of the Temple was done at the end of the 
first day of the Feast of Sukkot as the priests and levites went down 
to the court of the women in the Temple. Four enormous golden 
candlesticks were set up on the court with four golden bowls placed 
upon them and four ladders resting on each candlestick. Four youths 
of priestly descent stood at the top of the ladders holding jars 
containing about 7.5 gallons of pure oil, which they poured for each 
bowl (Talmud, Sukkah 5:2).  The priests and levites used their own 
worn-out liturgical clothing for wicks. The light emanating from the 
four candelabras was so bright that the Talmud says in Sukkah 5:3 
that there was no courtyard in Jerusalem that was not lit up with the 
light of the libation water-well ceremony.  Jerusalem glistened like 
a diamond that night and her light could be seen afar. Therefore, 
Sukkot was also known as the FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS.

     This is only a VERY BRIEF teaching on the Feast of Tabernacles.
It is more comprehensive in the book.

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