The Eighth Day after the seven days of Sukkot is celebrated as a wedding banquet. It looks forward to a time when there will be a celebration of the wedding of the people of God and Messiah, the Lamb. To be ready, we need to admit how unready those God is calling to that banquet are until God cleans us up.
Category: Appointments With God
The Shabbat of the seventh day of each week is a memorial that God is the Creator [Gen. 2:2–3; Ex. 20:11] and Redeemer from bondage [Deut. 5:15] and Sanctifier [Exod. 31:13–15], or the One Who sets apart His people from the ignorant or rebellious world. One of the great last messages to the whole world is to “worship Him Who made the heaven and the earth and sea and springs of waters.” Yet today, most children are learning — in school and/or from popular culture — to doubt God because His people are increasingly more afraid of appearing intellectually backward by accepting His testimony of being the Creator than being strong and standing by the only testimony that makes intellectualism possible.
During the Feast of Tabernacles or Booths (Sukkot in Hebrew), a long-standing ceremony has been the waving of a bundle of plants and a citrus fruit toward the four points of the compass. There is an important message for all times in what those plants symbolize.
The language of a marriage contract, groom and bride are connected in the Bible to God’s deals with Abraham and Israel, Messiah and God’s people (believers), respectively.
The completion of the palace of king Shlomo (Solomon) and the dedication of the temple on the first day of Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles) teaches us about the connection between the symbols of king and priest in Messiah Yeshua (Jesus).
The fall appointed times of God are called the “feasts of ingathering” and are associated with the apocalyptic Day of the LORD. What are the lessons of these festivals that point toward our preparation for what Messiah is going to do?
In part two of a discussion of the seventh month of God’s calendar, Richard looks into the parallel between the construction of Solomon’s Temple in time for one Sukkot (Tabernacles) and the preparation of God’s people for the final Sukkot. Like the stones for the first temple that were cut to size elsewhere then moved into location, the people of God will be “trimmed” to the right “size” before being moved to the final site of the LORD’s dwelling place on Earth.
Yom haKippurim (the Day of Coverings/Atonement) is seen as a time of self-reflection. Yes, in Leviticus 16 God teaches that one is to “afflict your souls,” which is taken to be a call for a fast, as seen in Isaiah 58. However, the apostolic letter to the Hebrews shows that the day is about reflection on the High Priest Who atoned God’s people once and for all time with His own blood.