Feast of Sukkot (Tabernacles)
Shalom! I decided to share this post copied from last year. The information regarding the feast is all still relevant and I believe it is great to review these previous posts from time to time. The Feast of Tabernacles, or Feast of Sukkot, can also be translated Feast of Booths. Sukkot is plural for Sukkah, which can mean a booth, a tent, or a stable, but in the wilderness when God dwelt with men, was translated as the tabernacle as it applied to the dwelling place of God while the Israelites wandered the Arabian deserts after their exodus from Egypt.
The sukkah as a temporary mobile shelter in the wilderness can be a metaphor for our lives on earth. The Feast of Sukkot was celebrated as one of 3 pilgrimages to Jerusalem before the destruction of the temple by the Romans in 70AD.
However, I also believe there is something significant that has been overlooked, and that the Feast of Sukkot also celebrates 2 times in history when God dwelt with men. The first being in the tabernacle in the wilderness, and the 2nd being the life of Yehshua on earth. The 3rd and final fulfillment of prophecy will be when His permanent dwelling place is with men on earth as the new Jerusalem comes down from heaven upon the new earth (see Revelation 21). The timing of this bride adorned for her husband (the new Jerusalem) is controversial among scholars and theologians, because the book of Revelation is written in an encoded fashion called a “chiastic structure” and is not a linear vision from beginning to end. Rather, it is impulsive and difficult to decipher by design of the Holy Spirit, in order that only those who truly seek God may come close to understanding the book. I will argue that almost NO ONE today completely understands the book of Revelation. I certainly am not yet one of those fully enlightened readers, but am getting closer to comprehending Revelation as it relates to the rest of the bible and the prophetic insights of Daniel, Jeremiah and others. By the will of God, I hope to understand Revelation sooner than later. For this reason, I believe that the book begins in chapter 1 verse 3 “Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.”
I have read so many hundreds of arguments for the accurate time of the real birth date of the Messiah, and nearly all of them are impossible to prove. After the crucifixion, there is some interesting evidence that the Feast of Sukkot was also celebrated as the birthdate of the Messiah, and that this date was well known in the early church in the 1st century. I believe we have lost track of the true date because of the steady persecution of Jews and Christians by the Caesars, until the time of Constantine in 325AD when Christians were granted a reprieve. Jews were still persecuted under Constantine, but did not hold to the truth of their Messiah and never included the celebration of the birth or death of Yehshua. Rather, they forbade even the mention of His name in their homes or synagogues.
But if we know God, we know that He connects everything like thread and needle, from beginning to end until everything is perfectly stitched according to His perfect plan for humanity. A loose “midrashic” line of approach advocates comparing the birth of John the Baptist to that of Yehshua. According to Luke 1:26 and 1:36, the conception of Yehshua followed that of John the Baptist by six months. If so, Yeshua’s birth should also follow John’s by the same interval. If one could determine when John the Baptist was born, he could determine when Yehshua was born. This is nothing new for those who have sought to discover the real date of His birth, but I mention this for what I am about to present.
In the gospel of Luke, the angel Gabriel tells John’s father Zechariah that his aged, barren wife, Elizabeth, is about to conceive a child. Zechariah expresses skepticism. Gabriel punishes him by striking him temporarily mute. The story clearly alludes to the annunciation to Abraham and Sarah where the Angel of the LORD appears to the elderly couple to predict the birth of Isaac. Like Zechariah, Sarah expresses skepticism. In the gospel story, Gabriel tells Zechariah that he will be mute “until the day that these things take place … which will be fulfilled in their [appointed] time” (Luke 1:20). Gabriel’s prediction alludes to Genesis 18:14 when the angel told Abraham, “At the appointed time I will return to you … and Sarah will have a son.”2 In the Torah, the biblical festivals are called “appointed times.” According to Jewish interpretations, “the appointed time” at which Sarah gave birth to Isaac was the first day of Passover:
And how do we know that Isaac was born at Passover? Because it is written, “At the appointed time I will return to you [… and Sarah will have a son].” (b.Rosh Hashanah 11a - credit: first fruits of zion)
In the Gospels, John the Baptist comes in the role and spirit of Elijah. Jewish tradition maintains that Elijah will appear at Passover to announce the coming of the Messiah. For that reason, we read Malachi’s prophecy about the coming of the Messiah on the Sabbath before Passover, and Jewish homes set a place at the Passover Seder table for Elijah. If John the Baptist was “the Elijah who is to come” (Matthew 11:14), is it not reasonable to assume that his birth took place at the “appointed time” of Passover? And if John the Baptist was born on Passover, then Yehshua should have been born six months later at the onset of the Feast of Tabernacles. It is also interesting that Luke points out in chapter 2 verse 7, that Yehshua was born IN a Sukkah, or stable, the same word from which booth and tabernacle are both translated correctly.
Then there is the significance of Sh’mini Atzeret or the 8th Day Feast or Last Day Feast after the Feast of Tabernacles. Eight days after the Yehshua’s birth, Joseph circumcised the newborn child. On that day, they gave him the name Gabriel announced to Mary at the time of the conception, the same name an angel revealed to Joseph in a dream; “Yehoshua = I will be salvation” (shortened to Yehshua). The last day of the Sukkot is an additional festival day that the Torah calls “The Eighth Day” (Leviticus 23:36, 39). If Yehshua was born on the first day of the feast of Tabernacles, they would have circumcised him on the day called the “Eighth Day,” thereby fulfilling the scripture, “On the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised” (Leviticus 12:3). (Credit: first fruits of zion)
In my opinion, and because I know that God leaves no biblical dots unconnected, it is my belief that Yehshua was born on the fall feast that celebrated the 40yrs when God dwelt with men in the Sukkot or Tabernacle in the wilderness, roughly 2000yrs later. Yehshua would again dwell with men as God among them for 33yrs before His death, reserving an additional 7 years to be fulfilled at the Galilean wedding in the Father’s house with His bride. The first Feast of Tabernacles was prophetic to the time when Yehshua would again dwell with men as God among them. And both events in times past are forward looking to the time when both Father and Son will dwell among us, or we with them.
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
Revelation 21: 1-3
The Feast of Sukkot is a High Sabbath, and will begin tonight at sundown.