“Then in accordance with what is written, they celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles with the required burnt offerings prescribed for each day.” Ezra 3:4
Back in verse one, we learned our newly-returned exiles set up house until “the seventh month” when they all gathered in Jerusalem. This month in the Jewish calendar is called Tishri, which includes our September/October.
This month is also the most holy month of the Jewish year.
The first day of Tishri, the people of God were to celebrate the Feast of Trumpets.
“The LORD said to Moses, ‘Say to the Israelites, ‘On the first day of the seventh month you are to have a day of rest, a sacred assembly commemorated with trumpet blasts. Do no regular work, but present an offering made to the LORD by fire.'” (vs. 23-25)
The Feast of Trumpets, now called Rosh Hashanah, was the beginning of preparation for the Day of Atonement ten days later. With the trumpet blast, the nation knew it was time for some introspection. Who had they sinned against? What wrongs needed to be made right as the priest was to enter the holy place soon and atone for the community’s sins?
Then on Tishri 15-21, an abrupt about-face was commanded, and the people of God were to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles – with joy. This Feast reminded the Israelites how the LORD had sustained them in the wilderness until they entered the Promised Land.
Pillar by day, Fire by night (Source)
“All native-born Israelites are to live in booths so your descendants will know that I had the Israelites live in booths when I brought them out of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.” (Lev 23:42-43)
As they lived in tents in the wilderness, so His people were to remember each year by dwelling in temporary shelters or booths. In Hebrew this feast is called Sukkot, which means booths. These booths were to be made with two and a half walls and a ceiling made from “something that grew from the ground and was cut off.” So things like tree branches, corn stalks or sticks. These days, Orthodox Jews will use wooden two-by-fours. (See this informative site.)
I love how practical God is. Not only is He commanding His people to remember each year what He did for them by sustaining them in the wilderness, He does it in a fun, joyful way. The site above mentioned building a booth (singular form is sukkah, to rhyme with Book-a) is a fulfillment of the childhood desire to build a fort. And dwelling in it for 7 days is like camping in your backyard.
A row of Sukkot in Jerusalem ( Source)
Not only that, but the practicality extends to the time of year: it was a feast to celebrate the harvest at the end of September. And He commands joy:
“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 – you, yours sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levites, the aliens, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns. For seven days celebrate the Feast to the LORD your God at the place the LORD will choose. 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.” Deuteronomy 16:13-15)
Isn’t He beautiful? He commands us to remember. He loves for us to celebrate with joy. And He didn’t just sustain the Israelites in the wilderness; He sustains us too.
We know this isn’t Heaven. In what can feel like the wilderness – and what truly is a war zone – He sustains us.
He came the first time to inhabit a temporary shelter of a human body and dwell among us.
Until He returns and creates a New Heavens and a New Earth and rules with the kind of justice and compassion our world longs for, we remember. We celebrate. And we let him sustain us in these earthly tents.
Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven…
One more beautiful thing about this Feast I originally learned from this study. The Feast of Sukkot was one of the Three Great Feasts for which the Jews were commanded to return to Jerusalem. Every day after the sacrifice was burned, the priests would pour wine on the altar. By Jesus’ day, this wine pouring also included a water pouring ritual during Sukkot.
According to this site, “each morning of Sukkot, the priests went to the pool of Siloah near Jerusalem to fill a golden flask…They then ascended and poured the water so that it flowed over the altar simultaneously with wine from another bowl.”
And one more: “This ceremony was even more important on the final day of the feast, called the ‘Last Great Day.’ When the priest poured the water onto the altar, it was referred to as ‘living water.'”
Want to see something cool? In John 7, Jesus’ brothers try to encourage Him to go to Jerusalem during the Feast of Tabernacles and show off His miracles. He didn’t respond well to their request because their hearts were full of unbelief, but halfway through the Feast, Jesus did begin teaching in the temple courts.
Then “on the last and greatest day of the Feast” – when the priest poured water onto the altar and referred to it as living water – “Jesus stood and said in a loud voice,
‘If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.'” (John 7:37-38)
Doesn’t He just get better and better?
He is our Atonement.
He is our Shelter.
He is our Living Water.