THE SUKKAH STORY PART THREE

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

THE SUKKAH OF MOSES

Now you have heard the stories of Abraham’s sukkah which might have been the very first one.  You have heard the story of the sukkah that sheltered The Christ Child; the most important one.  But now I must tell you of the sukkah of Moses; the one which God proclaimed we should always remember at our feasts and festivals.

I’m sure you have heard of the child Moses who was the baby hiding in the

bulrushes of the river.  He was found by an Egyptian princess and grew up Egyptian, though later he found out he was actually a Hebrew.  The Hebrews were slaves of the Egyptians at the time and God used Moses in a mighty way to lead God’s people out of the bondage of slavery and to The Promised Land, the land that Abraham had been promised so many years before Moses was born.

Moses was born after Abraham and before Christ.  Moses lead the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt into the wilderness where they lived in temporary shelters, similar to our sukkahs.  They also had a temporary shelter for God Himself!  They called it a Mishkan (Tabernacle).  A cloud of glory hovered over God’s Mishkan by day and a pillar of fire hovered over God’s Mishkan by night. 

When the cloud moved during the daytime, the people took down their temporary dwellings, packed them up, and moved with the cloud of God. Once there, when the cloud stopped moving, they rebuilt their temporary dwellings which were more like tents and made all the doors of their tents face God’s Mishkan. 

When the pillar of fire moved at night, the people took down their temporary dwellings, packed them up and moved with the pillar of fire from God.  When the piller of fire stopped moving, the people rebuilt their temporary dwellings which looked a lot like tents, and they made all the doors of their tents face God’s Mishkan.

Moses was given directions from God on how to decorate and arrange the Mishkan they built for God’s temporary dwelling among the people.  All of God’s people brought their gifts and talents and participated in the decorating of the Mishkan where they would go to dwell with God. 

We remember Moses and his leadership in the wilderness during Sukkot.  

We think of the freedom that Moses helped God to give to the people.  

We think of the holy worship that went on between Moses and God and how that was shared with the people traveling through the wilderness.  

They would worship in the Mishkan, God’s temporary dwelling.  We build our sukkahs in order to remember how God provided all that was needed for the People of God in the wilderness.  

We give thanks, just as they did for the blessings that God has given to us over the last year of our life. 

Just as Moses led the People of God to decorate the Mishkan (God’s temporary dwelling) in the wilderness, we too will decorate our sukkahs. 

What will you do to give beauty that honors God to our sukkah?  

What decoration will you make, or what special thing can you bring inside? 

 Moses brought his leadership.  
Miriam brought her dancing.  
Aaron spoke eloquently to the people; that was his gift.  

Perhaps someone has a poem or a craft or a picture to hang on the walls of our sukkah?  

Perhaps someone has a special song to sing or a special story to tell?  

Even a tiny little baby can bring a cry or a smile!

Everyone has some way to decorate the Sukkah with their presence.

We must bring God our best as we worship God in beauty and holiness inside the sukkah!

Like the people of God we travel to our feast not knowing what will transpire when we get there.  We are totally dependent on God for our blessings.  We go to the feast because God commanded us to go.  We take glad hearts and happy hands with us to the Feast of Tabernacles! 

Sometimes, like the people who went with Moses when God said “Go,” we go with no money in our pockets and no food in our suitcases, but God provides what we need.  

God gave the people in the wilderness with Moses manna to eat!  Bread from Heaven!  

God gave them pure water to drink right from a special rock that moved along with them.  Our Rock is Jesus!  He moves right along with us.  He will provide festival food and drink for us too. 

 Sometimes God uses other people to bring his blessings through to us at our feast.  The love and companionship they bring is their decoration!

Sometimes people use their talent for cooking to bring festive foods into the sukkah.  The food they bring is their decoration! 

There are a million beautiful ways to decorate the sukkah and make it beautiful; either physically, spiritually or mentally. 

So, What will you bring?

As we enjoy the gifts of the sukkah and invite God to come and live within our sukkahs with us, we will be thinking and remembering all the stories and in our hearts we will KNOW that: 

Just as the stars keep shining and the waves of the sea keep brushing the sand on the shore, God’s blessings will pour out to us by the acts of the people who love Him. 

Just as the pillar of cloud brought glory to God, the people celebrating Sukkot will bring glory to God.  

Just as the cloud hovered over the covering of the Mishkan of God, the glory of God will hover in the beautiful clouds that float over our sukkahs as we feast before God and give our thanks for the blessings of the year gone by. 

Above all things we know that God is leading us to a very special place, just as He led the people of Moses to the promised land.  We will enjoy the earthly journeys in our sukkahs and be thankful that:

GOD ALWAYS KEEPS HIS PROMISES!