Chag Sameach Sukkot Friends!
Hello Friends, Happy Festival of Sukkot to you! Sukkot or the Feast of Tabernacles began Monday evening and it is celebrated for 7 days. I absolutely love the Jewish feasts and I love learning about them. Every year, I learn something new and this year, I definitely learned something new about Sukkot! Sukkot is a feast about joy and celebration and I will explain why in a few paragraphs. Sukkot is of course one of the fall feasts and it hasn't been fulfilled by Jesus yet. Just as He fulfilled the first 4 Spring feasts, He will fulfill the 3 fall feasts. (I plan to do a blog post on the Purim a little later, I have do my research and study a little bit more before I begin writing about it.) If you cannot already tell, I am excited about writing this blog post! So I hope you are ready to learn with me as we journey through the Feast of Tabernacles! By the way, you may want a cup of tea or coffee. So without further ado, let's begin our journey!
So, if we go back to the Old Testament to Leviticus chapter 23 verses 40 and 42-43, we see where God is commanding the children of Israel to build sukkahs. Now what is a sukkah? A sukkah is a tent made of palm branches, willow branches, and fruit. I have seen some pictures of impressive sukkahs over the last few days. The Jewish people will live and dwell in the sukkah for seven days. They usually have a table in the middle so they can dine and eat together enjoying each other's company. Sukkot is a time of joy and peace, rest from their hard labor from the harvesting the wheat, the last of the fruits and vegetation. Friends, there's more to this feast and it definitely matters to you! God made a promise to the prophets and it's stated throughout the Bible. In Acts chapter 17 verse 24 He says, "The God who made the universe and everything in it. He is Lord of heaven and earth and He doesn't live in temples built by man's hands." Okay friends, I really want you to pay close attention to this verse. If we look back to the old testament, God dwelt with man, but in tents or sukkahs. Now that Christ has come and made the ultimate sacrifice, God doesn't want to dwell in tents like in the wilderness anymore.
There is a clue in the beginning of Genesis. When God created Adam and Eve, He walked and talked with them daily. Did they dwell in tents? Not that we are aware of, God says, He walked and talked with them daily. Genesis 3:8 God's greatest desire has been and always will be to dwell with us. He wants to be close to us, but this time not in a tent. He wants to be closer than that, He wants to dwell in your heart, your mind, your entire being. That's pretty much up close and personal don't you think? Do you see a pattern in these feasts? God wants to be close to us, to dwell in us, to commune with us. He longs for that up close and personal relationship with us. It's His biggest and most precious desire. Oh don't you just love God, He always goes above and beyond anything we could ever think of or ask! Friends, won't you let Him open the door to your sukkah today? Your sukkah which is temporary dwelling is your mortal body. That is your tent, you will not take your body with you when you leave this earth, you will be given a new body. A new sukkah, an eternal sukkah! I can't even begin to imagine what that day will look like, pure joy and peace!
Now let's bring this feast home! When the angel of the Lord blows the trumpet on that great day, we will go and be with Jesus in heaven. Then we will be judged according to our works on this earth and then here comes the best part! We will celebrate, rejoice in the Lord. We will come to His supper table and dine with Him! Sukkot is a picture of the coming wedding feast with Jesus! Think about a wedding, it's joyful day, a day of celebration of the bride and groom, so will be the heavenly wedding feast. Friends, God is saying to us today, this is my love story and I want you to be apart of it! He has such a love for His people and He is writing this beautiful love story between Him and His bride! How can we not celebrate and rejoice! His greatest delight to be with His beautiful bride!
My friends, I have truly cherished the time to study this feast and to write about this feast! It has been a true delight and it I give all the glory and honor to God because He is the One who inspired this blog and all the blog posts I have written. Without Him, I can do nothing, without Him, I wouldn't know anything about the wonderful feasts that I have written about. I pray that this blog post has blessed you, encouraged you, and inspired you to move forward in your relationship with God. I pray that you will go deeper in Him, in His love for you. I pray that you will want to know Him more and more! I pray that He will give you a great hunger for Him and that you will begin to tell others about what He has done for you. May the Lord live and reign in your hearts forever more! May the Lord bless you and keep you and may you rejoice in the Lord during Sukkot and even afterwards! Chag Sameach Sukkot friends! (Happy Festival of Sukkot!) Until next time!
* I am planning on writing another blog post about the celebration of the Torah and explain what this means to us so be looking for that one!
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