{Disclaimer: these are my rough teaching notes I use in my Mishkan Katan weekly broadcasts. There will be "typos". Proceed at your own risk, lol.You can find all my Mishkan Katan video teachings on my YouTube channel: genahood2818 . Look on the playlist called Messianic LAMB TV Network.}
About 5 years ago, I accepted an invitation to a "painting party" with a group of fine Messianic ladies. We were to paint porch "boards", and I chose the theme of Sukkot, (due to the graciousness of precious Nona, the matriarch of the group, who gave up her template for me). She died two years ago and her homegoing has left such a huge void in my life. Making the board back then, though, I pondered the fact that I was not terribly knowledgeable of this festival. But, I had a lot of fun doing it and now put it out on my porch every Sukkot! (Show board.)
Today is 16 Tishri 5786 on the Jewish calendar, which means we are on the second day of the week of the Feast of Tabernacles, also called the Feast of Booths, also called The Festival of Ingathering (of the harvest) Chag Ha-asif, also called Sukkot, which began this past Monday night at sundown, on Tishri 15. It lasts from 15 Tishri through 22 Tishri, with the 7th day being called Hoshana Rabba (starts next Sunday night) and the last day being called "The Eighth Day" (Shemini Atzeret), which starts next Monday night. An additional rabbinical holiday, called Simchat Torah, or “Joy of Torah” is celebrated by many on the next day, which will start next Tuesday night, to celebrate the end of the Torah reading cycle. Our next broadcast will be on Simchat Torah. It was on this day two years ago that the horrible war in Israel began, which is still going on today. What is the significance of this 8 (or 9)-day feast in both the first advent of Christ as well as in bible prophecy? Let’s explore that today.
The Feast of Sukkot, like the feast of Unleavened Bread, is primarily a festival celebrated in the righteous person’s home. The feast, or festival, commemorates those days when the Hebrew people wandered in the wilderness of Sinai, dwelling in tents or booths, temporary dwellings called, in Hebrew, “sukkot”. That’s the plural. The singular is sukkah. Many of you are familiar with this story. In commemoration, many practicing Jews and Hebraic Christians today construct temporary shelters (sukkot) and sort of "live in" them (eating meals, entertaining guests) for the week of Sukkot. The sukkah represents our dependence upon God, for shelter and provision. The top or cover of the sukkah is commanded to be porous, a material that is grown from the ground, to remind us that God is our only true shelter.
Here are some relevant scripture passages:
33And the LORD said to Moses, 34“Speak to the Israelites and say, ‘On the fifteenth day of the seventh month the Feast of Tabernaclesf to the LORD begins, and it continues for seven days. 35On the first day there shall be a sacred assembly. You are not to do any regular work. 36For seven days you are to present an offering made by fire to the LORD. On the eighth day you are to hold a sacred assembly and present an offering made by fire to the LORD. It is a solemn assembly; you are not to do any regular work.
Leviticus 23:33-36
Sukkot is a time that represents a restored fellowship with our God, because it almost immediately follows the very somber holiday of Yom Kippur. The focus is on God dwelling with His people, first in the Mishkan in the wilderness and later in the Temple. We are told that it was at this feast that Solomon dedicated the First Temple (the one God allowed him to build), on the first day of Sukkot, Tishri 15, 960 BCE (ETC date). (2 Chronicles 5: 3; 1 Kings 8:1-66) For this reason, one of the names for Sukkot is Feast of Dedication. If you will turn to the 1 Kings 8 passage, we will look more deeply at some of this. Sukkot is all about renewal, restoration and new cycles happening. Many rabbis teach that when Solomon built the Temple it was as though the universe was re-created, an intriguing thought. Before the Temple was dedicated, the Ark of the Covenant had been residing in the City of David, which laid below the Temple. Therefore, it had to be brought “up the hill”, to be placed in its designated place in the Temple complex. During this first Sukkot over which Solomon presided as king, thousands of animals were offered as burnt offerings in the new Temple. In verse 14 of chapter 8, look at what Solomon does. He has finished his prayer to Father Yahweh, and then he turns to face the people and blesses them. In all branches of Judaism, the rabbi faces the Torah scrolls when the “ark”, the container that contains the scrolls, is open. But, after the “ark” is closed, the rabbi turns around and addresses the people. And, things are done this way in the synagogue service because of what Solomon did in 1 Kings 8:14. If you look at the behavior of Ezra and Nehemiah, who came along hundreds of years later, you will see that behavior repeated.
But, what about the future, prophetic significance of Sukkot?
Nehemiah 8:13-18 shows the Israelites re-instituting this festival, after their return from Babylon.
Zechariah 14:9 and 16-19 foretell a future celebration of this festival by people from every nation on earth, during the Lord's Millennial Reign on Earth.
Some theologians believe this feast will manifest in the future as follows - -
1. Marriage Supper of the Lamb (Rev. 19) in Heaven (Tishri 15-21), and then
2. Jesus Christ's 2nd coming with His saints, to occur on "the 8th day", 22 Tishri (at the end of Sukkot). The feast of Sukkot portrays both the Millennial reign of Christ and the eternity afterwards, in Hebrew called the Olam Haba, the World to Come.
In Rev. 21, after the millennial reign and the Great White Throne Judgment, the New Heavens and New Earth will be revealed. The fullness of God will be among us, because God will be "tabernacling" among us. Paul referred to this as "eye hath not seen, nor ear heard" (1 Corinthians 2:9)... we cannot even begin to imagine.
So, in contemporary practice, the feast of Sukkot is "party time", a time of happiness and rejoicing at the goodness of the Lord. An additional name for Sukkot is The Season of Our Joy (Z'man Simchateinu). Those who celebrate do so by gathering in each others’ homes, having fellowship in each home’s sukkah, enjoying good food and taking part in the various rituals associated with the holiday.
For example: Another feature of Sukkot, in addition to the sukkah, is a bouquet of vegetation, waved in a prescribed manner while reciting special Sukkot blessings each year. The bouquet is made up of what is called in Hebrew the Arba’at HaMinim, or the “the four species”. All four of these types of vegetation are mentioned in the Torah in connection with Sukkot celebrations. See Leviticus 23:40. The first species is represented by an etrog, which sort of looks like a large lemon, a citron, the fruit of a good tree. The second is what’s called the lulav, branches of a palm tree. The third is usually represented by myrtle tree branches, boughs of a leafy tree, and the fourth one are branches of a willow tree, commonly. Collectively, the bouquet is commonly called the ”lulav”, since the palm branch is the most prominent.
It is especially important to give acts of charity during Sukkot. This is considered a time of great thanksgiving to our Father Yahweh for His provision to us and our loved ones. A key way we express our thanks is in giving to others in like manner. With the two major hurricanes that have hit the USA in the past month, there are certainly many opportunities to help our fellowman, in addition to any more local opportunities the Ruach HaKodesh lays upon your heart.
And finally, let me mention one more rabbinical Sukkot tradition, the expectation of the ushpizin. This is an aramaic word meaning “guests”. Each night in the sukkah, a place is laid for a different guest, that is an ushpiz. Does this remind you of the Elijah’s cup at Pesach/Passover? It is similar. Traditionally, the first guest to come to the sukkah on the first night would be Abraham, on the second night Isaac, and so forth. It is said this tradition was in place during the Second Temple period, that is, during the time of Mashiach Yeshua.
The other six biblical festivals center on the people of Israel alone, but this one includes the other nations of the world. (See Deuteronomy 16.) Sukkot portrays that day when King Yeshua will "tabernacle" with men and rule the world. During Sukkot, there were 70 sacrifices offered, one to represent the "70 nations" the Jews believed made up the rest of the world.
Since Jesus and His disciples kept all of the Jewish feasts, being observant Jewish men, there are some interesting parallels in the gospels, concerning Sukkot, which Jesus and His disciples observed/kept. For instance, we know from historical sources that in the Courtyard of the Women (a section of the Temple) four huge brazier lights were placed on high poles, giving light during the night, and earning this festival the name “Feast of Lights.” (Yes, Chanukah, another dedication feast, borrows liturgically from Sukkot, because it has no separate liturgy...) As a result, the three main peaks of ancient Jerusalem (Mount of Olives, Mount Moriah, Mount Zion) were "lit up like a Christmas tree", you might say, even at night. In between the Mount of Olives and Mount Moriah lies the Kidron Valley, which houses the largest Jewish cemetery in the world. Another name for this valley was "the shadow of death" (see Psalm 23 and Isaiah 9:1.)
The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light;
they that dwelled in the land of the shadow of death, on them has the light shined.
Isaiah 9:1
There is only one direct mention of Sukkot in the Brit Chadasha, the New Testament, and that is in John 7 and 9, where we find Yeshua celebrating Sukkot, in Jerusalem. Interestingly, the story about the woman caught in adultery (John 7:53-8:11) is not found in the four most ancient manuscripts of the book of John. It was a later insertion into the Aramaic manuscripts around the 7th century CE, due to the influence of Rome. If you look at John 7:52 and John 8:12, in the original language, the two verses flow together perfectly. Peter SEEMS to allude to Sukkot at the Transfiguration in Matthew 17, because he suggests building sukkot up there on the mountain in Galilee.
Another important Temple rite of Jesus' era was the Water Pouring Ceremony, called Beit haShoevah (House of the Water Pouring), which took place on the 7th day of the festival, the day known as Hoshana Rabba. Every day, during Sukkot, Temple priests performed three coordinated functions:
1. Certain priests prepared the animal sacrifices laid out in Leviticus 23.
2. Other priests went out and cut large tree branches (25 feet in length), which they placed on their shoulders and waved back and forth in a prescribed pattern as they walked in unison back toward the city. The tree branches were of four varieties: willow (which has no smell and no fruit), citrus (has scent and bears fruit ), myrtle (has fragrance, no fruit ) and palm (no smell, has fruit). Could Jesus' parable of the types of soil, in Matthew 13, have reminded the people of the trees used in this ritual? At any rate, this priestly function is why the lulav and etrog bundles are waved during Sukkot even to this day.
3. The High Priest would go with a third group of priests to the Pool of Siloam and retrieve a vessel of Mayim Khayim (which means Living Waters).
As the group with the tree branches processed back to the city, so did the group that had gone to the Pool. This was accompanied by the music of the shofar and the flute. The group with the animals ascended to the altar and placed them on the fire as the group with tree branches encircled the base of the altar, leaning their cut saplings against the base to form a sukkah over the top of the altar. Simultaneously, the High Priest ascended to the altar and poured the Mayim Hayim along with wine at the altar.
However, on the 7th day of the feast, this water-pouring ritual reached its apex. All during this ceremony, the assembled people waved their lulavot and sang a song based on Isaiah 12:3.
"Therefore with joy shall you draw water out of the wells of salvation."
and also Psalm 118:25-26
You see, then, why this festival is often called Season of our Joy. The Hebrew word for “joy” is “simchah”, a word that appears in Sukkot scriptures many times.
In looking at John 7, we see that Jesus was in Jerusalem to celebrate this feast. Sukkot was one of the three "mandatory" feasts, the regalim feasts where every Jewish male was required to go to Jerusalem for the keeping of it. The Hebrew word “regalim” means “feet”, because they walked there. The other two regalim festivals were Pesach (Passover) and Shavuot (Pentecost or "Weeks") Watch His words spoken on 22 Tishri, on the 7th day of the feast, Hoshanna Rabba, most likely at the apex of the Water Pouring Ceremony. Look at verse 37:
37On the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood up and called out in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. 38Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said: ‘Streams of living water will flow from within him.’” 39He was speaking about the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive. For the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet been glorified
Do you think He said this in the Temple as the people were rejoicing at the Water Pouring Ceremony?
Did you catch the reference to Living Water?
Water is definitely important to our physical and spiritual well-being, it represents what nourishes our spirits. In Jeremiah 2:13 the prophet speaks of how God’s people had forsaken His living water and instead been using broken vessels, broken cisterns that were of no use. I know at times in my life I too have done that.
According to rabbinical sources, after the water ceremonies on each day of Sukkot, there would be a “light show” put on every night of the festival by the priests, there where the four towering light poles were erected and filled with burning oil. Other priests would sing and play music during these festivities. The sages say it was so spectacular that if you had not had a chance to see it then, you have never seen what rejoicing looks like. It must have been grand!
The 8th Day - - Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah
The very next day, on Shemini Atzeret according to John 8:12, Jesus proclaimed Himself the "Light of the World", in fulfillment of Isaiah 9:1. This would have been declared by our Mashiach on 23 Tishri, the 8th day, the day of Simchat Torah (Joy of Torah) and Shemini Atzeret (8th Day of the Solemn Assembly), perhaps as the large light poles in the Courtyard of the Women were being disassembled and taken down?
Outside Israel, in the Diaspora, Shemini Atzeret is celebrated on the 8th day and Simchat Torah is celebrated on the following day, day 9. Inside the land of Israel, both these are celebrated on the 8th day.
Have you ever had a guest who indicated his or her readiness to return home and you begged your guest or guests to stay an extra day? This happens at our house when our children visit. They indicate they are ready to leave and we try to get them to stay a little longer. This is the spirit of Shemini Atzeret, the 8th day. In Numbers 29:35, it is referred to as ”the 8th day of assembly”, which the sages have interpreted to mean that God asks all who made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem for this regalim feast to “tarry a little longer”. Or, maybe you asked one or two special guests to hang back and stay a little longer, after the other guests were preparing to depart. In Temple times, as I have already mentioned, 70 bulls were offered on the Temple altar, representing the 70 nations of the earth in addition to Israel, which would make 71. But, on Shemini Atzeret, only one bull was offered, and that one was offered for Israel, God’s special “ushpiz” or guest, who was invited to stay over one more day, in a more intimate setting.
The word ”atzeret” in Hebrew comes from a root meaning “to hold back”. The word also means “to store” as you would store away goods for “a rainy day”. And that is a segue to this next point!
A key feature of this day is the Prayer for Rain, which is prayed right after the morning service. If you wonder why this would take place, the majority of the rain Israel receives falls during the latter part of October, usually beginning right after Sukkot, and continuing on into the late winter. The spring harvests depend on this rainfall.
I've been pondering with amazement and bemusement the fact that my local Baptist church for seven years minicked Sukkot somewhat, without even realizing it.
Like the ancient Hebrews, our congregation was a people with no "permanent temple". Each Sunday, we constructed our "tabernacle", our church "tent", when we moved our worship items into a local elementary school early on Sunday mornings; and then we moved them out again in the early afternoon. But on a Tishri 17, a couple of years ago, we held a celebratory service to mark one year in our new building, as well as moving to having two services for the first time that day. And, we rejoiced, yes, we partied in the season of our joy, celebrating the funds He (again) miraculously provided for the expansion of our "temple".
14And you shall rejoice in your feast—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levite, as well as the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widows among you.
15For seven days you shall celebrate a feast for the LORD your God in the place He will choose, because the LORD your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that your joy will be complete.
Deuteronomy 16:14-15 (BSB)
Now that I’ve gone over the basics of this last major feast of the biblical year, I want to dig a bit deeper with you.
I don't seek controversy or "vain arguments", which the Bible tells us to avoid (Titus 3:9). Because the Bible is an extremely complex, supernatural book, there is ample room for differences of opinion about interpretations.
Generally, I was "raised" with a very Western frame of reference for interpreting biblical events, a framework also influenced by church decisions made in the 4th century, decision made with the exclusion of Jewish believers in Messiah from the decision-making bodies. These factors can lead to erroneous assumptions, such as the date on which Jesus was born. Most of us were taught in church that December 25th is Jesus' birthday. We never had cause to question this date, although it never appears in Scripture, just as the church-created date called Easter never appears.
I have since come to question the accuracy of the Christian birthdate of Jesus, especially since Dec. 25th was celebrated throughout the Roman Empire as the birthday of Mithros, the patron sun god of the Roman military. Could this be why Constantine and the Council of Nicea in 325 CE chose this date as Jesus’ birthday? Based on my study, I believe along with AGR that Yeshua was born on the first night of Sukkot, in 5 BCE, a Friday night, the equivalent of Sept. 13th on our Gregorian calendar. I celebrate His birth, personally, on this date. However, the majority of the Messianic community does not make a big deal out of Yeshua’s birth, and I think that is a shame and lost opportunity. So, although I don’t get involved in the abhorrent trappings of the Christmas season, I also celebrate His birth in late December as well. I don’t have time here this morning to go exhaustively into the “proofs” for this topic. I can recommend the Star of Bethlehem teachings, done by AGR on his website onefaithonepeopleministries.com. That extensive teaching explains all of it very well. But, we will dig into a bit of it this morning
I present this information merely as a topic of interest, not to "convert" you to this position. We, after all, live in a very different culture than that of 5 BCE. It is a wonderful thing to celebrate Jesus' birth, any and every day of the year.
In reality, the actual calendar date of Jesus' birth is not overly important in the overall scheme of things. It is not a major theological issue.
That being said, grab your shovel and let’s dig.
In order to establish the date of Jesus' birth, we must look at what the Bible says. It gives clear clues as to when Jesus was born. The problem becomes our lack of understanding of Levitical practice and of Judaism in general. These impede our understanding. No detail given in the Bible is insignificant, though we may "read past" some phrases that seem so.
One such detail is found in Luke 1:5 - -
In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah, and whose wife Elizabeth was a daughter of Aaron.
(Berean Study Bible version)
Of the many times I've read this verse, I've skipped right over the underlined portion. "What does it even mean anyway? What difference does it make anyhow?"
In 1 Chronicles 24, we see that King David divided the priestly, Levitical families up into 24 "courses" or "service divisions". Each family was assigned two weeks each calendar year to serve in the Temple - - one week in the first half, and one week in the second half. These two weeks of service were in addition to those of the three "mandatory" festivals - - the ones where all the Jewish males had to come to Jerusalem for the religious events. Those three were Unleavened Bread (which includes Passover), Shavuot (the Christian term is Pentecost) and Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles). During those three festivals, all of the priests served in the Temple, due to the many festival-related tasks needing doing.
In 1 Chronicles 24:10, the division called Abijah (each course or division was named for its ancestral family head) was listed as the eighth course/division. Every year, the first division/course served the first week of Abib (Aviv) and so on, allowing for the "exception" weeks mentioned above. That being the case, the Abijah group served the 10th week the first half of the year, which is when Zechariah would have been in the Holy of Holies encountering the angel.
In Leviticus 12:5 and 15:19 and 15:25, we learn that there were certain times priests were prohibited from having sexual relations with their wives. Therefore, if two additional weeks are factored in, and allowing for a normal 40-week pregnancy, the birth of John the Baptist would have occurred at the Feast of Unleavened Bread (and Passover).1
Traditionally, the Jewish people have looked for the appearance of Elijah at the Passover feast. This expectation is so strong and widely held, the fifth cup of wine poured at the Passover feast is called "Elijah's cup", and is left untouched. At one point in the meal the door to the home is held open, so that Elijah can enter and join the feast. This belief, that Elijah will return to herald the advent of the Messiah, is established from Malachi 3:1.
1“Behold, I will send My messenger, who will prepare the way before Me. Then the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to His temple—the Messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight—see, He is coming,” says the LORD of Hosts.
You may recall the words of John the Baptist, recorded in John 1:23. His words echoed these words of Malachi, who had been hearkening back to Isaiah 40:3. John the Baptist apparently saw himself as the Elijah who was to come, who would prepare the way for the advent of Messiah.
Twice in the gospels, Jesus referred to John the Baptist as having fulfilled that role, as being the "Elijah" of their day. (See Mark 9:11-12 and Matthew 17:10-11.)
I'm getting rather far afield here, but the most cogent point is that John the Baptist was born at Passover.
Then.....
Luke 1:26-33 tells us that the archangel Gabriel visited Mary in the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, which on the Jewish calendar would have been toward the end of the month of Kislev or the beginning of Tevet (December, on the Roman calendar). This is the time of the more recent feast of Chanukah (Hanukkah), which runs Chislev 25 through Tevet 3. This feast was celebrated in the years leading up to Yeshua’s birth. If you count from there on the biblical calendar through the nine months of a normal pregnancy you arrive at . . . Sukkot, Feast of Tabernacles.
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
John 1:14 (King James 2000)
The Greek word translated "dwelt" here is eskēnōsen . I have heard my pastor translate that word as "pitched His tent". Biblehub.com3 translates it as: "to dwell as in a tent, encamp; have my tabernacle". The Apostle John used a Sukkot reference (building a sukkah, or tabernacle) here because Jesus was born during Sukkot, the Season of our Joy, perhaps? I think it is likely. “Joy to the world, the Lord has come!”, indeed….
Another indicator that this was the time of Yeshua’s birth is Isaiah 9:2 (KJV).
"The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.
Remember? The Valley of the Shadow of Death in Jerusalem was the Kidron Valley, and during Sukkot, those 4 huge oil lamps up on 20-ft. tall poles would have illuminated the entire city. The Kidron Valley is butted right up against the Temple Mount. So, it would definitely have been illuminated during Sukkot. This passage from Isaiah 9 is considered to be highly Messianic, that is to point to the birth of Messiah.
One final “proof”, if you will, is that when Yeshua was born the shepherds were abiding in the fields. In December they would not be abiding in the fields, because it would be too cold, and also the lambing season would be over. The lambing season extends from the spring through the fall, in other words, during the time of the harvest in Israel. It was during lambing season that the shepherds could be found “abiding in the fields”, to watch over the lambing ewes. December would have been too late for that.
Additionally, and conversely, there can be a case made that Yeshua will return during the week of Sukkot, on the anniversary of His earthly birth. But, equally strong arguments can be made that He will return on Yom Teruah or on Yom Kippur, which occur earlier in the same month of Tishri. However, there is wide agreement that He will return during the first 3 weeks of Tishri, during the period between Yom Teruah and Shemini Atzeret. Tishri is the 7th month on the Bible’s religious calendar, the one that sets the dates of the festivals each year, and 7 is the biblical number symbolizing “completion”.
In Deuteronomy 16:14-15, the LORD God said that in celebrating Sukkot “your joy will be complete” because the Lord will bless His people. If Yeshua were to return at Sukkot, that would certainly make our joy complete, would it not?
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