“What did you know, and when did you know it?” That could have been what Yeshua asked the experts in God’s words upon their challenging of His authority to teach as and what He did. Instead, Yeshua reached into their “toolbox” — Torah, Prophets and Writings — and revealed that not only were some of their “tools” rusty from neglect but also neglected maintenance left them in danger of a catastrophic failure of the machinations they created about God’s Anointed One.
Yeshua’s excited anger at the leaders of the Temple came with quotations from prophets Yeshayahu (Isaiah) — “My house will be house of prayer for all nations” (Isa. 56:7) — and Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) – “den of robbers” (Jer. 7:11). The full context of those prophecies directly relates to why the leaders should have understood why Yeshua was quoting from those passages and why those prophecies applied to them.
The common name for the day following seven days of Sukkot (Festival of Tabernacles) is Shmini Atseret in Hebrew, or “Assembly of the Eighth (Day).” The day also is called Simchat Torah, Hebrew for “joy of the Torah,” based on the centuries old practice in synagogues of restarting the cycle of Torah readings at that time.
Shmini Atseret is a bookend to the miqra qodesh on the first day of Sukkot. Its place following Sukkot suggests that God wants to memorialize what is planned for when the time period of “wandering” in these mortal bodies and rebellious minds finally comes to an end, and humankind enters total lasting “rest.”
A number of theologians have wondered publicly if the festivals of the LORD are relevant for today or are just historical or intellectual curiosities. Many dismiss Sukkot as either a harvest festival only applicable in the Land of Israel or only relevant with a standing temple. Let’s explore what the Bible says about the past, present and future layers of meaning in these annual appointments and how they teach us about the Messiah and ourselves.
We will look at the different layers of the festivals: past, present and future.
In a sense, they are like a wedding anniversary, on which the couple remembers all the experiences layered on top of one another since the cutting of that first wedding cake.
There is so much emphasis in Luke 19:29-40 about Yeshua’s riding into Yerushalayim (Jerusalem) on a donkey that had never carried a burden and about the proclamation, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD.” That donkey’s first burden was a profound burden, and we see throughout Scripture a number of donkeys carrying important burdens that prophetically point toward that triumphal entry.
Two key themes in this passage are the arrival of Yeshua into Yerushalayim on a donkey and the responsive public cry, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.” That blessed One came as the Lamb of God, yet Israel’s “shepherds” ignored Him, searching for the prophesied Lion of Yehudah. When the Lamb of God returns as the Lion of Yehudah, no one will be able to ignore Him.
These seemingly randomly inserted passages do fit the previous theme of learning to see people how God sees them: Few rich people in heaven, a camel through the eye of a needle, a warning about the restoration of Yeshua three days after humiliation and suffering, healing of a blind man, repentance of Zakkai (Zaccheus) the tax collector, parable of 10 coins for servants of a king.