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Temporary shelters, branches of palm, willow and myrtle, and citrus fruit — the symbols of the Sukkot, the biblical festival of Tabernacles, or Booths. Plants clean the air and subtly effect us by their fragrance. We see them as physical things that are useful to us in the physical realm, while God uses references of them in the Bible to teach spiritual lessons as symbolic representations of people.
In this study, we’ll explore what each of these symbols teach us about ourselves and how the Holy One of Israel wants to recreate us.
Sukkot is seven days plus one. The first and eighth days are holy days, and we are called to live in booths, which are temporary dwellings, during the first seven days. The general rule is the booths should be uncomfortable enough that one would not want to live in them if it started raining or snowing.
Four plant species are customarily waved, shaken and displayed during Sukkot. There are two species of plant specifically named in Leviticus 23: date palm and willow. The myrtle and olive came later and the citron, which is called an etrog in Hebrew, came into use even later than that.
At the time of Moses, the most common fruits in the land of Israel are listed in Deuteronomy 8. The etrog and other citrus fruits were not used at that time, as the etrog is native to China not to the Promised Land.
We see in Nehemiah 8:13–18 that Nehemiah added the use of olive and myrtle tree to the Sukkot celebration along with an unknown “oil” tree.
Plants clean the air and subtly effect us by their fragrance. We see them as physical things that are useful to us in the physical realm, while God uses references of them in the Bible to teach spiritual lessons as symbolic representations of people.
The book of Judges gives us some more details about the spiritual nature of different trees. Read through Judges 4:1–9.
Date palm (tamar): Righteous judgment
Jericho was also known as the city of palms, which Joshua conquered. The palm tree was closely associated with the prophetess Deborah, who by all accounts, was very well known as a woman of wisdom, judgement and greatness. Psa. 92:12 also refers to the righteous and wise as a palm tree. The righteous also produce fruit even in their old age.
When Messiah came into Temple at the Triumphant Entry, the people were waiving palm leaves, which were still heavily associated with righteousness and His role as the judge of all.
Myrtle (hadas): Pleading before the judge
In Isaiah 41:14–24, we read how the people are thirsting and desiring God. When we fast on Yom Kippur, you experienced literal thirst and hunger and that was not on accident.
We also see that Queen Esther was intimately associated with the myrtle. Her real name was Hadassah, a Hebrew word related to the word for myrtle. Her name was changed to hide her Jewish identity.
“’For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place and you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this?’ Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai, ‘Go, assemble all the Jews who are found in Susa, and fast for me; do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my maidens also will fast in the same way. And thus I will go in to the king, which is not according to the law; and if I perish, I perish.’ So Mordecai went away and did just as Esther had commanded him.” (Esther 4:14–17 NASB)
Esther already called for a fast but she adds that she will also pray and plead to God for peace and security for her people.
The angel in the book of Zechariah is standing in a myrtle grove asking for God to judge a situation (Zechariah 1:7–17). The myrtle represents fasting, prayer and pleading a case to a king or judge.
Willow (arabim): Sadness and stress
“By the rivers of Babylon, There we sat down and wept, When we remembered Zion. Upon the willows in the midst of it We hung our harps. For there our captors demanded of us songs, And our tormentors mirth, saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion.” How can we sing the LORD’S song In a foreign land? If I forget you, O Jerusalem, May my right hand forget her skill. May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth If I do not remember you, If I do not exalt Jerusalem Above my chief joy. Remember, O LORD, against the sons of Edom The day of Jerusalem, Who said, “Raze it, raze it To its very foundation.” O daughter of Babylon, you devastated one, How blessed will be the one who repays you With the recompense with which you have repaid us. How blessed will be the one who seizes and dashes your little ones Against the rock.” (Psalms 137:1–9 NASB)
This is a dark, sad, sorrowful example of what the willow trees represent. It’s a symbol of mourning, depression, and lacking of any joy.
These trees don’t only represent Israel but can represent gentile nations, too, as we see in Isa. 15:1–9 regarding Moab.
Willows need a lot of water, there’s a reason they live near river beds. A lack of water for willows represents sadness and stress.
Isa. 44:1–12 show us how God will pour out His spirit on us and give us an abundance just as a willow needs an abundance of water. The only reason we have hope in something beyond what we can see is because of God. When we are in mourning, it’s hard to see beyond what we can see but when we get past our sorrow and grief, we can have hope that we will see those who we mourn again. As the body needs water, our spirits need God’s spirit to pour out on us.
Olive (zayit): Cleansed righteousness
“You shall charge the sons of Israel, that they bring you clear oil of beaten olives for the light, to make a lamp burn continually. In the tent of meeting, outside the veil which is before the testimony, Aaron and his sons shall keep it in order from evening to morning before the LORD; it shall be a perpetual statute throughout their generations for the sons of Israel.” (Exodus 27:20–21 NASB)
Olive oil is used primarily to make light, and it’s used in the menorah for that purpose. All the doors of the Temple were made of olive wood. The door is how we enter and leave a building. To use olive wood for the doors to God’s home, has a special meaning too.
The olive oil brought to the Temple is made by the children of Israel, not by the Levites. Clean olive oil is not easy to produce so when an Israelite brings their vial of clean olive oil for use in the Menorah, it’s an offering from the heart of their hard work, that it would be used and give clean light for God’s house.
When the children of Israel offer their clean olive oil, they are offering their righteous work to Him. God’s Temple is opened or closed to us depending on our whether our heart’s desire is to be with Him or not.
Leafy thick trees (cedar, eretz): Haughtiness
Ezekiel 31:1–18 speaks about these trees at length. They were used in pagan offerings. Why would God want that? The pagans used these leafy tree groves to engage in their abominations and God had wanted those places to be destroyed, yet He asks us to use them in our Sukkah’s. Why?
God compares Pharaoh to the cedar of Lebanon, which was full of pride. Many kind of birds seek shelter in cedar tress but if God deprives it of water, that tree will fall and their shelter disappears. This is a parable for Pharaoh. God says that Pharaoh is so powerful that foreigners came to shelter under Pharaoh, God knocks Pharaoh down.
We can’t allow ourselves to become haughty. Our righteousness is not valuable in and of itself. It only has value when we acknowledge in humility that it is only when God dwells in us that we have any fruit to give Him anyway.
Summary: Tammy