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The repetitive cycles of our lives feel pointless. God created the world cyclical, but He did not create cycles of suffering and sin. These cycles seem pointless, but what God has created is never pointless.
From the Bible book of Ecclesiastes and related passages, we learn that our current world is abnormal. This is not the way God created it. It’s only our “normalcy bias” that leads us to assume that these cycles of history — of life and death — are normal. Death is an aberration in time, but we have become accustomed to it because we live with it.
History moves in cycles, and so do the LORD’s appointments with humanity:
- Shabbat (Sabbath) comes weekly.
- Rosh Chodesh (New Moon) comes monthly.
- Pesakh (Passover), Shavuot (Pentecost), Rosh Hashanah (Yom Teruah, Trumpets), Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) and Sukkot (Tabernacles) come yearly.
Generations come and go, but handing off the truth from one generation to the next is a crucial duty we have to God. This is why the book of Ecclesiastes traditionally is required reading during Sukkot. That way, during this time of joyous exuberance we don’t forget to observe where our world is going in the here and now. We can get so wrapped up in joy that we forget what the joy is actually about. Undirected joy can be futile in and of itself. Obsessing over joy and despair are both vanity — like wind that blows and ebbs.
Ecclesiastes reminds us that history and even nature operates in cycles. Even our water moves about in a cycle. It evaporates from the ocean, rises to the air and then comes down elsewhere as either rain or snow. The rain flows, the snow melts and flows into rivers and streams and returns to the ocean again.
Although we are created from the dust, our lives are not meaningless. Actually it’s the opposite, our lives have great meaning, particularly when we faithfully pass on the things of God that were passed on to us to the next generation, just as prior generations did for us.
Only ‘living water’ slakes that deep-down body thirst
We are told in Zechariah that living water is going to flow out from the mountain of the LORD.
“And in that day living waters will flow out of Jerusalem, half of them toward the eastern sea and the other half toward the western sea; it will be in summer as well as in winter.”
Zechariah 14:8 NASB
This “living water” that flows out into all the world is something that will slake your thirst, just as Yeshua told the Samaritan woman (John 4:1–42).
He also repeated this message when he visited the Temple on the Great Day, otherwise known as the Hoshana Rabbah (Great Hosanna/Supplication). The great exaltation is commonly held on the seventh day of Sukkot.
The water of blessing that flows from Jerusalem is water that quenches the thirst in our hearts.
Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.'”
John 7:37–38 NASB
Food that truly satisfies our hunger
We are also encouraged to seek bread that soothes our hunger, which is the bread that came down from Heaven. In the wilderness, God gave them a bread-like food called “manna.” He gave it to them every day, except on Shabbat, because He provided an extra portion on the sixth day of the week (Friday). The point is, God preserved them through the wandering in the wilderness as they escaped from the house of bondage to the land of rest.
Yeshua haMashiakh (Jesus the Christ) was the bread Who came down from Heaven (John 6:31–35), foreshadowed in the manna and made flesh when the Word came to earth (John 1:14; Deut. 8:3).
God gave them the manna in the wilderness to preserve them through their time of wandering in the wilderness before they entered the Promised Land. They received seven days worth of manna in six days. God is the one who gave them their daily bread, and He is the one who lead them to the Mountain to reveal Himself more fully to home. He lead them to the Promised Land. He also gave them water out of the rock.
Why did most of those who ate the manna from heaven die in the wilderness, never reaching the land of rest? Because they did not trust that the Creator who brought them out of Egypt, who gave them their daily manna, would also give them the land of rest.
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To the author of Ecclesiastes, every kind of learning is vanity, except the wisdom that is passed onto the next generation. The primary purpose of knowledge is not to just keep to ourselves to carry to our graves, but to teach it to others, especially the next generation. That is what makes learning profitable.
Cast your bread on the surface of the waters, for you will find it after many days.
Ecclesiastes 11:1 NASB
There is a danger to living life in a cyclical manner. Observing the same patterns over and over again in our culture can easily lead to “normalcy bias.”
Normalcy bias can be deadly. When faced with a dangerous situation, we can lull ourselves into a false sense of security, it we assume that a culture that lives in peace and security will always live in peace and security. If faced with a threat to the peace and security, normalcy bias will cause one to hesitate rather than to respond.
Yeshua, in many of His sermons and parables, as recorded in the Gospels, are a warning that the way things are now will not stay this way. Big changes are coming.
But Israel’s leaders of the first century largely weren’t really paying attention and hadn’t learned the right lessons from the destruction of the first Temple.
A remnant of Israel exiles rebuilt the Temple after 70 years. Then there’s back and forth civil unrest in Israel until the Maccabean crisis, and then gentile overlords are invited in. From the time of the Maccabean revolt to the time the Hasmoneans (the descendants of the Maccabees) invited the Romans under Julius Caesar to arbitrate their internal disputes was only about 100-150 years.
The generation who left Egypt in the Exodus weren’t much different. They seemed to prefer exile under the gentile boot rather than freedom in their own land of rest. They seemed more comfortable with gentiles ruling over them than ruling themselves. This is normalcy bias coming in again.
Ancient Israel have always had those who were completely comfortable living in exile, from Egypt, to Rome and even to our day. They were so comfortable living under Rome, that they could not or would not acknowledge their Messiah.
Israel’s leaders of the first center didn’t realize that they’re in a crisis. They didn’t recognize the Messiah had come. They didn’t recognize what Heaven is trying to do.
So what happens when the Messiah comes in to shake things up to hit the reset button on Israel? They revolt against the One who’s trying to shake up what they have become accustomed to. They side with their oppressors (Romans) against their Liberator (Messiah Yeshua).
That’s the danger of normalcy bias. Just as in a physical emergency, when danger comes you must react quickly to the threat in front of you. You must not act as though nothing is wrong, following the pattern of life one lives when there’s no threat.
They had a pre-conceived idea of the nature of the Messiah’s mission and how He would accomplish it. They didn’t want a Messiah who would do things His way but their way. They didn’t want someone to come and shake things up, at least not too much.
When Yeshua spoke in the Sermon on the Mount, so much of what He said harkened back to Deuteronomy. Recall that one of Moses’ last prophesies is that some day, there would be a prophet who would speak him and he told the children of Israel to listen to that prophet.
Just as God’s voice spoke on Mt. Sinai, God’s voice also affirmed Yeshua at His Baptism and at His transfiguration.
While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud said, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!” When the disciples heard this, they fell face down to the ground and were terrified.
Matthew 17:5–6 NASB
During Sukkot, we are encouraged to decorate our sukkahs with different kinds of foliage. In previous years, we have done deep studies into these different elements and what they mean.
For example, palm branches are one of the main decorative elements of Sukkot, not only used to decorate the sukkah’s but also a key component of the lulav. Palm trees symbolize bending in adversity without breaking. This is a picture of one of the traits the people of God need to develop.
Another key symbol of Sukott is the willow tree. Willow trees plant their roots next to water, eagerly seeking water. They will seek water, wherever they can, whether it’s living water near a stream or rivers or a septic system. We have to be very discriminating about there we find our water.
Olive trees produce oil that brings light. The holy menorah in the Temple was lit with olive oil. It brought light into a dark place. So as we see in the symbols of Sukkot, and the setting of Sukkot, that this is a time that the kingdom of heaven is going to break into reality. Break into reality, like we read about in the book of Revelation, that’s when these things come upon the world.
God tells us that He is going to come to our world and He is calling us to be prepared for that eventuality. Our normalcy bias tells us that our world will simply go on as it has up to now, that nothing will break the cycles of history.
We celebrate Sukkot by building a sukkah, that appears to be quite vulnerable to the elements. Just as in life, we know deep down that we are vulnerable, but as Messiah Yeshua tells us, we should not fear that which can kill the body, but fear Him who can kill both body and soul and wipe them out in Gehenna.
This is a time of rejoicing and anticipating God coming to live with us and us living with Him. There is one plan. There is no plan B.
Our current world is abnormal. This is not the way God created it. It’s only our “normalcy bias” that leads us to assume that these cycles of history — of life and death — are normal. Death is an aberration in time, but we have become accustomed to it because we live with it.
Summary: Tammy
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