Tabernacles

“On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine – the best of meats and the finest of wines.  On this mountain He will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; He will swallow up death forever.  The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces; He will remove the disgrace of His people from all the earth.” Isaiah 25:6-8

Right now my dining table is transformed— with the help of three fold-out tables, dozens of blankets, and all of our pillows— into an epic, two-story fort.  My kids and I just returned from the grocery store with candy bars, cookies, and popcorn.  And while the district kept them home from school this Monday in honor of Columbus, it’s the Festival of Booths that we’re celebrating.  This evening we will crawl into our booth with all our indulgent provisions, and enjoy the next installment of our at-home study of the Jewish feasts: Sukkot. 

There is a kind of irony in using a dining table to create a booth, or tabernacle.  The story of God dwelling with us throughout the centuries— in a tent, then in a temple, then in the person of Jesus, and then in our hearts— is also the story of a great banquet.  It is the story of Him securing our presence, the invited guests, at the celebration of a lifetime.  It’s one of restoration and reconciliation, of provision and fellowship and freedom, and He intends to give it a happy ending.  This is the theme of Sukkot.

Also known as the Feast of Tabernacles, Sukkot wraps up the month-long celebration of harvest.  This feast follows closely on the heels of Trumpets and Day of Atonement, and is the grand finale of thanksgiving over all the grain and grapes gathered in from the threshing floor and the winepress.

When the ancient Israelites first received this feast day from the Lord, they were living in the wilderness.  At that time, God ordered that on the first day of the festival, the Israelites were to take majestic tree leaves— palm fronds, leafy boughs, and brook willows— and rejoice before the Lord.  This was to last for seven days, each day with its own specific offerings.  God also commanded that for those seven days, the Israelites were to live in booths— temporary shelters erected out of branches.  This was to remind them of how God made them to live in booths when He delivered them from slavery in Egypt. Sukkot was one of God’s three pilgrimage feasts, a time when all Israelite males were required to come to the Lord and present themselves.  

But over time God’s people forgot this holiday.

After their exile, a Jewish remnant returned to Jerusalem to rebuild their holy city, and they gathered together and read their law aloud.  In so doing, they rediscovered the Festival of Booths.  They went out to gather branches and to make booths for themselves on their rooftops and in their courtyards, and in the public square.  They rejoiced with tremendous joy, and celebrated as they had not done since the days of Joshua.  For that generation, the Festival of Tabernacles was not just about God’s provision for their ancestors following the exodus, but also about His provision for them following the exile.  It was about returning to their holy city, and to their God.  It was about being back with the Lord where they belonged.    

By the time of Jesus, Sukkot was widely celebrated.  Jewish families travelled from afar to Jerusalem.  They built booths for their families, decorated with fall foliage and harvest produce, and they lived and ate inside them.  They gathered in the thousands at the temple courtyard for public readings and celebrations.  

But by that time, the holiday had gained another meaning.  The prophets had foreseen a day when the whole world would come to Jerusalem to celebrate the Festival of Booths, and the coming Messiah’s kingdom— a final, great harvest. Sukkot was not just about God’s freedom from and provision after slavery at the exodus, or their restoration after the exile, but also about a coming messiah and his glorious reign.  It was about a time when everything that was wrong would be made right. 

Priests lit lampstands in the courtyard and marched torches around the temple, setting them around its walls.  This symbolized the prophet Isaiah’s words that the Messiah would be a light to the nations.  A priest would carry water from the pool of Siloam up to the temple to symbolize how the Messiah’s arrival would bring the knowledge of God to the whole earth, as the waters cover the sea.  

We know from the book of John that it was here, during this festival and these ceremonies, that Jesus in the crowded temple complex confidently declared that He could satisfy every thirst.  And it was the following morning at dawn, while the torches from the festival began to fade all about the temple, that Jesus boldly declared, “I am the light of the world.  Anyone who follows Me will never walk in the darkness but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12).

Everything commemorated in the Festival of Booths was manifested in the person of Jesus. In Him we walk in freedom.  Restored. God dwelling within us, every day.  

But there’s more. We also anticipate a future day.  God’s story isn’t over. In His great calendar of redemption, the time for the seventh feast is yet to come: the wedding banquet where peace and joy are plated up under a banner of love.  On that day there will be an even greater dwelling of God among men than our world history has ever known, the one in which God tabernacles with us forever in a new heaven and a new earth: 

“I also saw the Holy City, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband.  Then I heard a loud voice from the throne: ‘Look! God’s dwelling is with humanity, and He will live with them.  They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God.  He will wipe away every tear from their eyes.  Death will no longer exist; grief, crying, and pain will exist no longer, because the previous things have passed away.” (Rev 21:2-4).   

The previous things, the shadowlands where we make our homes, will pass away. We’re simply this side of the final harvest and not yet to the end of the book. But on this the Festival of Booths, let us remember that He is a trustworthy Author, that all His words are good, and that His will be an ending worth the wait.