The Feast of Sukkot (Tabernacles)

(Based on Rev. Kevin Parviz’s 2000 Lenten Series, published by Concordia Pulpit Resources)
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Leviticus 23:33 Again the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 34 “Speak to the
sons of Israel, saying, ‘On the fifteenth of this seventh month is the Feast
of Booths for seven days to the Lord. 35 On the first day is a holy
convocation; you shall do no laborious work of any kind. 36 For seven
days you shall present an offering by fire to the Lord. On the eighth day
you shall have a holy convocation and present an offering by fire to the
Lord; it is an assembly. You shall do no laborious work. 37 ‘These are the
appointed times of the Lord which you shall proclaim as holy
convocations, to present offerings by fire to the Lord—burnt offerings and
grain offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings, each day’s matter on its
own day— 38 besides those of the sabbaths of the Lord, and besides your
gifts and besides all your votive and freewill offerings, which you give to
the Lord. 39 ‘On exactly the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you
have gathered in the crops of the land, you shall celebrate the feast of the
Lord for seven days, with a rest on the first day and a rest on the eighth
day. 40 Now on the first day you shall take for yourselves the foliage of
beautiful trees, palm branches and boughs of leafy trees and willows of
the brook, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days.
41 You shall thus celebrate it as a feast to the Lord for seven days in the
year. It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations; you
shall celebrate it in the seventh month. 42 You shall live in booths for
seven days; all the native-born in Israel shall live in booths, 43 so that
your generations may know that I had the sons of Israel live in booths
when I brought them out from the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your
God.’”
The annual trip to Jerusalem and the Temple began with the Feast of Rosh
Hashannah, the Jewish New Year. That feast lasted 10 days and centered it’s
attention on the stories of creation, the fall, Noah and the ark, Abraham, and the
test of faith in the sacrifice of Isaac.
The Feast of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement began the day of Yom
Kippur ended. The Feast of Yom Kippur lasted 5 days. The observant Jew then,
would so far have logged 15 days in Jerusalem and in and around the
temple/church.
So it must be time for the festival goers to head home, right? No. Not yet.
“Again the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 34 ‘Speak to the sons of Israel, saying,
On the fifteenth of this seventh month is the Feast of Booths for seven days to
the Lord.’”
The Feast of Booths/Tabernacles, in Hebrew, Sukkot followed immediately
on the heals of the Feast of Yom Kippur, Atonement and Sukkot lasted eight days
for a total of twenty-three days. Think about that.
The new emerging religious fad among the church marketing and church
growthers today is something they are calling “the 30 minute church,” a worship
experience that guarantees the worshiper will be in and out of church in just 30
minutes, so their weekends don’t need to be unduly burdened and inconvenienced
with long church services.
Over my 25 years + in the pulpit, on occasion the sermon and service have
run a little longer than the official “one hour” limitation imposed by Protestants
these days. While it hasn’t happened recently, in the past some members would let
me know that I was making them late for the Sunday morning buffet. Sometimes
some of those folks would just leave right after communion. Worshiping the God
who became incarnate, lived in among sinners, was fought with, beaten, mocked,
scourged, and crucified for us seems inconvenient to the modern Christian.
Twenty-three days in the fall. Ancient civilization were agrarian. That was
true of the Old Testament Israelites. They were farmers and herders and the Feast
of Sukkot was a harvest festival. Rosh Hashannah was their New Years. The Feast
of Sukkot was their “Thanksgiving.” Here in the Book of Leviticus, God set aside
twenty-three days during the busiest time of the year, the season of harvest
wherein He comes to His people and they to Him.
Just Who does God think He is? To schedule a church service that
interfered with they very busy schedule of farmers, who needed to harvest and sell
their products before the weather turned and their crops spoiled is just
inconsiderate to say the least.
But this is exactly what God did and true to form, the Lord God, Yahweh
Elohim also set forth in the Book of Numbers the details of how they were to
worship and what sacrifices were to be offered at the Feast of Booths. Always with
the strict instruction that they were not to do any work.
But what better time to remind people that God is truly the giver of all good
gifts? What better time than to remind His people that it was by His hand that
people were fed? What better time was there to remind the people of God that He
has rescued them and provides for all their needs?
God pulls them from the havest and brings them to the tabernacle and
temple to have their sins forgiven and to remind them that they exist, live, eat,
work, and dwell in the land by His gracious favor alone.
In the Feast of Rosh Hashannah, the New Year the people remembered the
creation, fall, flood, and the covenant with Abraham. Now in Feast of Booths, God
reminds them of two things. First, He provides for their daily bread. Second He is
the God who rescued them from salary in Egypt and has made them a nation.
Leviticus 23:40 “Now on the first day you shall take for yourselves the
foliage of beautiful trees, palm branches and boughs of leafy trees and willows
of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days. . .
42 You shall live in booths for seven days; all the native-born in Israel shall live
in booths, 43 so that your generations may know that I had the sons of Israel
live in booths when I brought them out from the land of Egypt. I am the Lord
your God.’”
Sukkah means tent, hut, or tabernacle. It was a temporary dwelling. In time
Jewish families would build a tent in the yard or on roof tops. The first order of
business at the Feast of Booths was to set up a booth. Originally, the booths were
made of various kinds of plants and trees (olive, palm, myrtles, and willow
branches).
God ordered them to live in the tent for seven days to remind them of the
wilderness wanderings and of how God had provided them with their daily bread,
literally, manna, meat to eat in the quail, and water that ran from the rock on
Mount Horeb.
The ceiling of the tent was made of foliage and spread across the top in such
a way so the people inside could see the sky, especially the night sky. It was not
designed by man to protect him from the outside world. It was designed by God to
remind His children He was their protection.
As we have learned, over time people get confused about who they are and
what they are suppose to be about, not unlike church committees. It is pretty easy
to forget and turn something into busy work and our good intentions.
Well so also the Israelites. It didn’t take lone for them to forget and get
confused. They turned everything around too. They added traditions and
interpretations yo the original ordinances of God and messed Sukkot all up.
Palm branches for example came to symbolize the human spine as in
courage and steadfastness. A good Jew was to demonstrate courage and
steadfastness.
The myrtle branch has a pattern in it that looks like an eye. The Rabbis
taught that the eye in the myrtle branch is to remind us to see good in a man and
shun the sin of envy. The willow branch is said to represent the mouth to teach a
man to think and speak rightly.
The Sukkah itself became a picture of the good Jew, a wanderer on this earth
and one who displays kindness, courage, freedom from envy, and cleanness of
speech. In short, the Feast of Booths, Sukkot was turned into a picture of what it
meant to be a righteous and God pleasing Jew. The focus again became on what a
good man did toward God, not what God had done and does for His children.
That which was meant to remind them that God alone is righteous, that God
alone rescued them, and that God alone is their Protector and Provider, became a
good deed to please God. But it was their failure, their doubt, cowardice, and sin
that led to their condemnation to wander the wilderness for forty years.
The only Jew that fit the description of a righteous Jew, was Jesus. The
Gospel lesson this evening shows that Jesus observed the Feast of Booths. The
opening verses of the Gospel lesson have Jesus’s brothers urging Him to go to the
Feast and make a public show of His righteousness, power, and glory.
They wanted Him to go to prove to the world and to themselves that He was
more than a mere man. Verse five “For not even His brothers were believing in
Him.”
In the mind of the average Jew of the day, the Feast of Booths was about
their courage and steadfastness, their kind judgment regarding their neighbors, and
their minds and mouths which they thought were filled with right thinking and
speaking.
Jesus knew what the Feast was for. He knew it was to remind the people of
what God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit had made them to be and what He had
done to bring them to the promised and to bring the Promised Messiah to them.
Listen again to what Jesus told His brothers. “7 The world cannot hate you,
but it hates Me because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil.” The Feast is not
about the celebration of the goodnesss of man. It is a celebration about the
goodness of God. At this point in time, Jesus’s brothers share the “world’s”
evaluation of the goodness of observant Jews.
Jesus continued “8 Go up to the feast yourselves; I do not go up to this
feast because My time has not yet fully come.” 9 Having said these things to
them, He stayed in Galilee. 10 But when His brothers had gone up to the feast,
then He Himself also went up, not publicly, but as if, in secret.”
Even under these circumstances, Jesus obeys the law. He goes to the Feast
of Booths not as a show of righteousness, but as a confession of His Heavenly
Father’s goodness in adopting, delivering, protecting, and providing His children.
The last day of the Feast of Booths has its own name. It is called “Hosanna
Rabbah.” On the last day of the Feast of Booths the priests takes a large urn filled
with water and pours the water into a large basin. The water represented the Spirit
of God and also served as a prayer that God would bless the land in the year to
come with rain and an abundant harvest.
Jesus heard a lot of “Jesus” talk during the week. There was a lot of
argument over for and against. At some point, Jesus decided the time had come to
correct some of the doctrines He had heard.
On the last day of the feast when they poured the water into the basin, Jesus
said, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. 38 He who believes in
Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living
water.’” 39 But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him
were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet
glorified.”
In Christ Jesus the Feast of Booths comes together. The wilderness
wandering, the water that flowed from the rock, the prophecies of Isaiah,
Jeremiah, and the others regarding the Lord coming to His temple and the Living
Water, the pouring of the water into the basin, and the outpouring of the Holy
Spirit all come together in Jesus Christ.
Jesus was the ultimate and only perfect wandering Jew. Matthew 8:19
“Then a scribe came and said to Him, “Teacher, I will follow You wherever You
go.” 20 Jesus *said to him, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have
nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”
Yet, He was the Word of God, that “became flesh, and dwelt among us,
and we,” St. John wrote, “saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the
Father, full of grace and truth.”
Now we are the wanderers, the strangers here.
1. I’m but a stranger here, Heav’n is my home; Earth is a desert dread,
Heav’n is my home. Danger and sorrow stand Round me on every hand;
Heav’n is my fatherland, Heav’n is my home.
Amen
May the peace that surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in
Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.