Category: Tabernacles

Feast of Tabernacles or Festival of Booths, or Sukkot in Hebrew for “booths”

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Appointments With God Discussions Tabernacles

The sukkah experience: How humility builds community, interdependence and spiritual growth

"The sukkah experience: How humility builds community, interdependence and spiritual growth." (Leviticus 23, Nehemiah 8, James 4, 1Kings 8)

Why did Messiah Yeshua (Christ Jesus) initially say He would not go to Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles, as recorded in John 7, but then showed up later incognito? This study suggests the answer seems to be in the key element of the celebration itself, living in a temporary dwelling for a week.

Sukkot calls us to humble ourselves, remembering our dependence on God. By dwelling in fragile shelters, we recall Israel’s wilderness wanderings — a time of stripping away self-reliance to learn trust in the divine Provider. This annual celebration challenges us to let go of earthly securities, to live vulnerably before our Maker.

In an age of increasing self-sufficiency, Sukkot’s message rings prophetic: true strength comes not from what we can accumulate, but in recognizing our smallness before the Almighty. By embracing this humility, we open ourselves to receive God’s grace and blessing.

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Discussions Tabernacles Torah

Sukkot: A reminder of Heaven’s extreme makeover of our lives

Sukkot: A reminder of Heaven's extreme makeover of our lives

In the First Commandment, God says, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery” (Ex. 20:2). As ancient Israel fled from Egypt and travelled to the Promised Land, they lived in booths, or סֻכֹּת sukkot in Hebrew. They weren’t supposed to live in these temporary shelters for 40 years in the wilderness. It was only because of their disobedience that they had to live that way for so long.

This study explores a key lesson of Sukkot (Festival of Tabernacles): We should be orienting ourselves towards God, not expecting Him to orient Himself toward us. 

It’s crucial for us to understand God’s character, to submit to His timing and molding us into His image — revealed through Messiah Yeshua (Christ Jesus) — so that we will be a suitable people for God to dwell with for all time.

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Appointments With God Discussions Tabernacles

Don’t let your joy in the spiritual world blind you to the harsh reality of this world

Don't let your joy in the spiritual world blind you to the harsh reality of this world. Split view of a Sukkot sukkah and a crime scene with police tape.

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.

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Discussions Jubilee Pentecost/Shavuot Tabernacles Tithe & Finances Torah

How to be a dependable part of Heaven’s rescue mission to Earth (Leviticus 25)

How to be a dependable part of Heaven's rescue mission to Earth (Leviticus 25). Shown is a mountain climber helping another climber to get to the top.

The Torah reading בְּהַר Behar (“on mount” [Sinai]; Leviticus 25) teaches us how to be a kinsman-redeemer. It’s a beautiful ancient role for a family member with the character to step up and bail out a relative who has fallen on hard times.

The Bible book of Ruth provides an example of such a redeemer in action, and the Messiah is foretold to be the ultimate one for the world.

In the greater family of God on Earth, the lessons of the annual festivals of Shavuot (Pentecost) and Sukkot (Tabernacles) plus the multiyear cycles of Shemitah (sabbatical year) and Yobel (Jubilee) instruct us in how to be of service to the less fortunate within our sphere of influence.

A successful kinsman-redeemer helps others with the blessing of means that God has provided. We are not called to go into debt to help others, we are not compelled by God to drown ourselves to save someone else. 

From these cyclical memorials of God in action past, present and future, we also can learn how God is building up His Kingdom. It starts with the call of individuals then nations into His Kingdom to live as citizens in His presence.

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Discussions Prophets and Writings Tabernacles Torah

‘You will call His name Immanuel’: Heaven’s desire has always been to be with us

'You will call his name Immanuel': Heaven's desire has always been to be with us (Exodus 3; Isaiah 7-12)

At Sukkot (Festival of Tabernacles), we celebrate Heaven’s work to heal the breach between the God and humanity, so that once again, the Creator can live with His creation. And one of the most enduring and repeated reassurances the Holy One is Immanu El — God with us.

In the Torah reading שמות Shemot (“names,” Exodus 1:1–6:1), we see Heaven’s revelation of “the Name,” translated as “I am” or “I will be.” But in this passage, we also see a foreshadowing of the “name above all names”: God With Us. This study explores the “now and not yet” prophecies of Messiah Yeshua (Christ Jesus) in the “Book of Immanuel” (Isaiah 7–12).

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Discussions Prophets and Writings Tabernacles Torah

Genesis 32–33; Hosea 11–12: Sick of the false allure of the temporary?

The Torah reading וַיִּשְׁלַח Vayishlach (“and he sent,” Gen. 32:4-36:43) gives us an active example of what the apostle Paul calls the “ministry of reconciliation” (2Cor. 5:18).

What we see in Jacob and Esau is a profound message for us today, buried amongst sibling rivalry. We should strive to live at peace with everyone, but there still must be a division between the Kingdom of the Eternal and the Kingdom of the Temporary. God wants everyone to leave the Kingdom of the Temporary and join Him in the Kingdom of the Eternal, because the Kingdom of the Temporary will be destroyed on the Day of the LORD.

The LORD sends us into the world to be His ambassadors and part of the kingdom of priests. Will we go? Will we face challenges of our own making or ones that are out of our control?

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Appointments With God Tabernacles

Tabernacles: Why the LORD wants us to remember challenges of journey to the Kingdom

Every sukkah (or tabernacle) is different

None of us would want to experience on purpose what ancient Israel did in the 40 years of wilderness travel between Egypt. For those of us living 4,000 years later, we can’t presume we would have acted better than they did. Considering how spoiled and comfortable we are with modern conveniences and dwellings, we probably would have complained even more about God’s “inadequate” hospitality in the wilderness.

Human nature doesn’t change. Only God can change human nature.

That’s where the annual celebration of Sukkot (Tabernacles or Booths) comes in. Each sukkah (booth) looks different, even if the same person builds it. Taken as a personal lesson, each our sukkot (plural) has a different calling, a different reason for being. Let’s explore further these lessons from the words of God and the Word Who tabernacled with us (John 1:14).