This past week I had the privilege of celebrating the Jewish Festival of Succoth with some of my Jewish friends and family members. Also known as the Feast of Booths or Tabernacles, it commemorates God’s provision in the wilderness for 40 years when His people lived in temporary shelters, protected by His Clouds of Glory. To prepare for the week-long festival, we built a temporary structure or sukkah using leaves and other natural materials. We covered it with a roof made of branches that allowed us to see the night sky above. Here is the work in progress on our back deck.
When the booth was finished, we decorated it in fitting style for an outdoor, candlelit feast.
We enjoyed all our meals outside in the sukkah, but I especially loved our dinners after sunset when the air was cool and crisp and fall-scented. On the night of the lunar eclipse, we had a beautiful view of the “blood moon.” Dwelling outside is an act of faith. We leave our sturdy houses and all our material goods behind and step into a flimsy shelter to remind ourselves that our trust is in God and not in our own strength.
God commanded His people to “Celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days after you have gathered the produce of your threshing floor and your winepress. Be joyful at your feast . . .” (Deut. 16:13). Our menus included produce that we grew this summer in our garden, as well as fall favorites like carrots and beets and squash and apples from our local farmer’s market. The final harvest had been brought in, and we rejoiced in God’s provision.
The Feast of Succoth is one of the three great festivals that God’s people are commanded to celebrate each year in Jerusalem (see Leviticus 23). The Festival of Passover celebrates Israel’s redemption from slavery in Egypt—Christians celebrate Christ’s sacrifice for our redemption on Passover (Good Friday), when we were redeemed and given new life. The Feast of Pentecost celebrates God’s gift of the Torah, the instruction book for this new life of freedom—Christians celebrate God’s gift of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, equipping us to grow in faith and live for God. The Feast of Tabernacles celebrates our faith in God’s provision for our everyday lives; it’s a feast with God, our Beloved, where we invite Him to dine with us in our sukkah—Christians not only enjoy fellowship with God now, but we look forward to this promise given in Revelation 21:3– “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them and be their God.” To celebrate inside a sukkah is to get a tiny taste of the joy we will experience on that future day.
“Celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles . . . 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” (Deut. 16: 15). May God bless the work of your hands and give you His joy.
