Sermon Tone Analysis

Feast of Tabernacles:

Commemorates the Forty- Year Wilderness Journey.

The feasts (lit.

Appointed times, not banquets) concluded with the feast of tabernacles, also called the ingathering.

Sukkot (Soo- KOTE), also known as “Feast of Tabernacles,” is a week- long celebration of the fall harvest and a time to build booths (temporary shelters of branches) to remember how the Hebrew people lived under God’s care during their forty years in the wilderness.

Nehemiah 8:14-17

The celebration is a reminder of God’s faithfulness and protection.

He had called them out of bondage, through the desert, and into the liberty of their own nation.

As we celebrate independence day, we should remember how God called those first settlers out of the bondage of religious persecution, across the ocean, into the liberty of a new land.

We should also remember how God called each of us out of the bondage of sin, into the liberty of His Salvation.

Sukkot is one of the three pilgrimage feasts when all Jewish males were required to go to Jerusalem to “appear before the Lord”.

Deuteronomy 16:16

The Jewish people continue to celebrate Sukkot by building and dwelling in temporary booths for eight days.

The four special plants used to cover the booths are citron, myrtle, palm, and willow.

Leviticus 23:39-40

Fascinating Facts:

Sukkot is a happy feast when people rejoice in God’s forgiveness and material blessings.

The sukkah, or booth, is a temporary structure built of wood or wood and canvas.

The roof is made of branches and leaves, with enough open spaces to see the stars.

It is decorated with fall flowers, leaves, fruits, and vegetables.

Many Jewish people erect booths on their lawns or balconies and eat at least one meal a day in them.

A lulav, made up of willow, palm, and myrtle branches, is waved in all four directions (north, south, east, and west) and up and ­down to symbolize that God’s presence is everywhere.

JESUS:

Being the conclusion and fulfillment of the other feasts, at the end of the harvests, it is a foreshadowing of Christ, who was the fulfillment of the law.

Two ceremonies were part of the last day of Sukkot:

Lampstands indicated that the Messiah would be a light to the gentiles.

Giant golden lampstands were lit in the temple courtyard, and people carrying torches marched around the temple, then set these lights around the walls of the temple, indicating that Messiah would be a light to the Gentiles.

Isaiah 49:6

Water indicated that the earth would know God as the waters cover the sea

(2) A priest carried water from the pool of Siloam to the temple, symbolizing that when Messiah comes the whole earth will know God “as the waters cover the sea”.

Isaiah 11:9

When Jesus attended the Feast of Tabernacles, on the last day of the feast, he said, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.

Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him”.

Jesus provides living water

John 7:37-38

The next morning while the torches were still burning, he said, “I am the light of the world”.

Jesus is the light of the world

John 8:12

Sukkot represents the final harvest when all nations will share in the joy and blessings of God’s kingdom.

During that time, all believers will celebrate this feast.

During the millennial reign, all will celebrate this feast

Zechariah 14:16-19

This will be after the 7 year tribulation, during the Millennial reign of Christ.

The word tabernacle is also translated as “dwell”

John 1:14

In the Old Testament, the tabernacle was God’s way of dwelling with His people.

The millennial reign is a time when Christ will physically dwell with His people and rule with a “rod of iron”.

During this millennial reign, christ will dwell with His people, and He will rule the nations with a rod of iron.

Revelation 19:15

This final feast forshadowed the culmination of Christ’s work of salvation, when He would physically dwell with His people.

This is the ultimate end that all believers look forward to, an eternity with Christ.

BONUS

CHRISTMAS CONNECTION:

The feast began on the 15th day of Tishri (toward the end of September), and lasted for 7 days.

Jesus became flesh and dwelt (tabernacled) among us.

It is possible that He was born during the feast of tabernacles.

The feast lasts for one week, and there is one "week" of unfulfilled prophecy from Daniel's 70 weeks.

At the conclusion of this week, the harvest will be complete, as Israel will be redeemed.

It could likely be that Jesus came to dwell with us during the feast of tabernacles, and the conclusion of His work will be at the end of the final week (tribulation period), when He conquers and subdues the earth.

The eighth day would be symbolic of the millennial age.

It all works together, and the necessary beginning is with the incarnation of Christ.

Feast of Booths in the Hebrew Scriptures:

Num.

29:12- 40; Deut.

16:13- 15; Ezra 3:4

Feast of Booths in the New Testament:

John 7