SEASONS - THOUGHTS ABOUT BUILDING A SUKKAH

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

This article is only a draft and composite of many of my thoughts about Sukkot and the significance of the Sukkah all jumbled up together.  I leave them here for whatever anyone can glean from their confusing and unorganized order.  I hope to split all the pieces out to create smaller articles over the time leading up to Sukkot.  If you can digest it this way - please feel free!  Just don't judge my writing ability by this composite of notes not yet organized.

If you’ve ever built a sukkah for Sukkot you have probably realized there is a lot of hidden meaning to be found in the building process.  

Jesus taught us all of these things in the Gospel, but all gospel lessons can easily be applied to the simple things that make up our normal lives, or even our special occasions in life, such as the time we experience during Sukkot when we decide to follow God’s instructions and complete the act of building a sukkah and spending our time inside the structure. 

It is called the Feast of Tabernacles because we dwell in booths or temporary shelters called sukkahs. 



The word sukkah in Hebrew actually translates to mean a temporary booth.  For some people this is as deep as building a sukkah will go, for others though – there is so much more to the whole wonderful experience.  

You really won’t get this unless you actually DO this.  

Obedience is the first step to growth in The Kingdom of God.  It is also a straight path to joy.   

So most of us who observe Sukkot joyfully build our sukkahs and enjoy them throughout the season of The Feast of Tabernacles. 











God often lets us find out a few things for ourselves as we go along instead of just spelling out lesson after lesson, making them boring and hard to retain.   This is yet another reason for observing The Fall Holy Days.   God knows the process of doing things is the way we are more likely to retain good lasting knowledge and remember significant matters.  It seems this "going-through"  process is just as important as the results of the process.  


Before we reach this date for The Feast of Tabernacles, if we are observing all The Fall Holy Days, we have judged ourselves and found ourselves lacking during Rosh Hashanah, confessed our sins and begged for God’s mercy and forgiveness.  

We have found that beautiful place in time right after Yom Kippur, where we have confessed all we know, fasted, and even asked forgiveness for what we don’t understand.
  
It is a season when we are beginning a new year of our lives standing clean before God, with atonement provided by the blood of Jesus that cleanses us white as snow.  By the time we arrive at Sukkot we find ourselves raising holy, clean, pure hands before our God in worship, because we have laid our sins and burdens at the feet of Jesus and have been washed in the blood and atoned for by a merciful God.  There is no better feeling! 

We turn our attention to starting a fresh new year in a much better state of mind and heart.  It is a feeling of great celebration!  Once again we have the hope of trying to walk holy before the God we love.  We know we are only human, and we are going to make mistakes; but we know He will guide us and pick us back up when we fall.  It is usually only a matter of time, but in the meantime, we have fresh new lives to build on for the coming year.
  

We will look up through the sukkah roof  of earthen branches and see that there are many, many stars in the sky.  We would realize that there is more sand on the sea shore than any man can count.  These things stand for the great number of Abraham’s children and the sign of the promise God made to Abraham even before he had become an Israelite!  









We always take the time to  remember the promise and to pass the promise on to others who need hope.
  
The sukkah is a place where people come looking for something.  Just like the story of the woman who lost a coin and cleaned and moved everything until she found it.  What we find in the fellowship of the sukkah is  the very thing the coin represented to the woman in the story.   It is a precious treasure.   People come seeking the substance of life here.  

Each year that passes finds my heart growing more tender toward the usefulness of the sukkah.   God’s mind is so unbelievably rich, and all it takes for Him to share it is obedience.  At first I came to building the sukkah blindly, just being obedient to the commandment to build the sukkah; then I began discovering one fact after another that related to joy.  

The woman in the story swept her house and searched it carefully.  I cleaned the floor of my sukkah too, looking around to be sure that it was full of the things that sustained life.  I had found them here, in this little temporary dwelling and like the woman in the story I wanted to call all of my friends and neighbors and invite them to come over and rejoice with me.  I wanted them to know what I had found in this season.  I put several chairs inside my sukkah and sat in prayer for awhile.  I thanked God for the opportunities He has granted to me simply by his instructions of how to build a sukkah.  I placed a bible on the table.  I opened it up.  Reading the bible inside the Sukkah is special!  

As older folks, living in the Sukkah, having lost our earthly fathers, we often to remember the once clear but now vague comforts and perfect order and dignity of living in our Father’s house under his rules.  Often the story of the prodigal son comes to mind.   We do not want to live like either son inside our Sukkah, but only a son who loves The Father.    Like the younger son, we, over time have gained some knowledge and understanding about these things we once took for granted, and now we hate ourselves for taking them for granted for so long.  We know we dare not ask for things to be as they were, but in the deepest part of our hearts we want to go back, simply to beg forgiveness and mercy of our Father who had been so good to us for so many years.  We Gentile Christians fit the picture of the younger rebellious son so well.  Especially during the time leading up to Tabernacles, during Elul and Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. 

















We can see the significance of this and so many other bible stories right away when we are living in the sukkah.  It symbolizes the tents that the Israelites dwelled in during their time of wandering through the wilderness.  They camped surrounding the glory of God that led them through a pillar of fire by night and a cloud during the day.  They all kept the front of their tents open facing this glory.  Three sides were closed, but they could look out the open side at any time and see where God dwelt.  Ah, so much can be said for living in a temporary shelter of three sides with the front open and welcoming God, family, friends and neighbors to come inside and enjoy community.  Blessings of community always come from living in a sukkah!  

It takes DOING to see.  Sometimes God just loves for us to read between the lines as we are “doing” the things He has instructed us to do.   God doesn't always EXPLAIN His answers, He let's us discover them on our own.   This seems to be a family trait.  Jesus never gave straight answers either.   He always answered questions with questions.  It seems very possible that communications technique was intended to make us think.  Thinking, after all, can be a very spiritual trait.   If you start to build a sukkah you will find yourself thinking about a lot of things as you build. 

Like any good Father, God waits patiently with all of us as we go through different processes in the different seasons of life.  Every year He waits to see it we are going to build our sukkah.  Every year He teaches us a different way to dwell in the sukkah.

So, I discover it over and over each year, as I think of building this simple little temporary dwelling.  Every year as I go through the motions of The Feast of Tabernacles I learn something new and it all adds together each time, layer upon layer. It is never the same, always different each time.   

One year the learning experience started as I listened to my pastor’s sermon right before Sukkot.  The sermon came from the passage found in Luke 15:  Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. ² But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

Where am I in that passage?  I’m the one they called a “sinner.”  I’m not a tax collector, but it is funny that this passage of scripture came up just about the time we received our property taxes for the year. How odd that taxes and feast days seem to coincide!  I do vividly remember being angry at the tax collectors of our county who decided all of a sudden this year that my detached garage could be taxed as a separate building from this point forward, doubling the extra fire and emergency dues that are to be paid for living where I live.

 Not many people like their tax collectors, or want to hear from them or deal with them on a daily basis.  Have you ever heard anyone say “Oh yea!  I’ve been audited by the IRS and get to meet with them in person this week, can’t wait to see them!”  No, neither have I.  Those tax collectors have their own special brand of “sin.”  The thing we don’t usually see is the fact that all of us “sinners” have some brand of sin that we enjoy more than other sins.  That their sin is different from ours doesn’t change the fact that when you lump us all together – we are all just “sinners.”   This lesson plays out in the ritual of shaking the Lulav and knowing there are many kinds of people.  When you bundle them together, they are all sinners in need of God's grace and mercy.  We become like the Citron fruit when we receive God's love into our hearts, both sweet to the taste and fragrant with His Holy Spirit.

None of us will ever reach sainthood on this earth, but now we’ve come to the season of joy for all “sinners.”   Some have trod further into the valley toward sainthood than others, but each person must and should have given that to God by the time of the feast.   It is The Feast of Tabernacles.  It is a time period that comes after a time when we have considered our sins and examined our lives during the previous month of Elul.  

So how do we go about this? 

We begin to build our sukkahs for the festival of Sukkot. 

It is the very next thing we do after Yom Kippur and Atonement.  We have a festival that is to be celebrated in temporary booths called Tabernacles.  Is this silly?  Perhaps; but, perhaps not. 

Has your earthly father ever given you a chore that you didn’t appreciate or understand until it was complete?  Do you find yourself having fond memories of that special time now that it is years behind you?  Do you sometimes wish you could go back to those days, just for a little while, simply because they are so dear to you?   Years and years later the lessons you learned while carrying out your father’s instructions may still be important to you.  Looking back, you understand and appreciate the lessons learned while completing the project you once did not understand.  You are thankful and amazed at your father’s wisdom and so glad you participated.   God has a way of doing this for us when He is instructing us to build our sukkahs.

 You start out with the knowledge of the fact that the sukkah is only temporary.  You will dwell there for awhile, but only for awhile.  The time you set aside to dwell there should be a time of joy and celebration.  When the temporary time is over you will go to live in a more permanent structure.  So, build now – while the time is here.  Do not wait until it is time to go to a more permanent place.  This is a time you can never re-gain.  Live it out NOW.  One day you will look back and remember.

To build something like a sukkah, you first need to learn to follow instructions from someone who knows how to build properly.   God is the master builder.  He gives the instructions for the sukkahs in the scriptures that follow:

"Set up the tabernacle, the tent of meeting, on the first day of the first month.  (Exodus 40:2)

As I pondered building a sukkah and all the process you usually go through in building one, our pastor’s sermon and the words of the scriptures spoken kept coming back to me.  I kept remembering that if not for the grace of God I would always be “just a sinner” and I kept thinking about how all the people I considered to be pagan and ungodly were probably just like those tax collectors, just a different flavor of sinners who were in the same boat as me – in need of restoration and resurrection. 

As those walls went up on the sukkah, a few walls between me and my neighbors began to fall down.  Then I read the second part of the scripture passage that my pastor had preached about again:

Luke 15:2   But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

Ah, those very religious ones; those old Pharisees!  Perhaps I could fall into that definition – was I too being very religious in keeping the commandment to build this Sukkah?   These guys were in the same boat in that we all were sinners, be our sin self righteousness or murder; but they missed the point.  They were living in their own self righteousness and counting on the fact that if they simply did everything right they would not be condemned.  They couldn’t see that we were ALL sinners.  They were telling God how perfect they were and not humbling themselves in their obedience.  There was no worship involved here, only duty.  All of their laws had to make sense to them.  They knew no simple, humble obedience.  

I, on the other hand was just taking God at His word, looking at my little pile of boards and branches and saying “Okay Lord, I don’t get it completely, but I’m willing to do as you have instructed just because I love you and want to be with you in the things that you enjoy.”  My sukkah was about worship, not legalities.  I wasn’t constructing it out of duty or fear, but out of love.    So, on this realization, I continued building.

The Sukkah was to be shared with God and family and anyone who wanted to join in on the celebration.  Hmmmmm, I hoped once I got done that I would not turn into a Pharisee in my Sukkah.  Sometimes we can start off right but lose our way and go wrong.  I had to be careful of this.  I thought about how I needed to open up the front wall so that anyone who wanted to draw close and come inside could experience the same joy that I would find here.  A sukkah is for sharing.   I left the front open.  I welcomed other sinners to join me.  This is what Jesus did, yet even He was often condemned by judgmental people.  There would probably be a few who would judge me even for building this Sukkah in my yard.  They simply would not understand. 

People are often afraid of things they do not understand. They might even say I had misinterpreted the law and forgotten all about how The Messiah’s coming had completely changed things.  I wouldn’t listen to their judgments though, because I knew that everything happening about my sukkah WAS about how The Messiah had changed things.  I would simply invite them inside to experience the joy with me.  No one would be turned away.  Everyone would be welcomed in this Sukkah.  They would be welcomed into the shade, there would be food to share with them  if they were hungry, a chair if they needed to rest, and lots of good companionship.  I was liking this “sukkah” experience more and more.

I pondered the next part of my pastor’s sermon scripture reading: 

(Luke 15: 3-7:)  ³ Then Jesus told them this parable: “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? ⁵ And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders ⁶ and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ ⁷ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.

Hmmm……I was okay with inviting the judgmental casual acquaintances inside the Sukkah, but what about those who had truly offended me?  What about those who had once worshiped with me but had taken offense at some human part of the whole experience and walked away?  What about those that I knew had made a real profession of faith but had not even begun to live it out yet?  Was there hope for them too?  I knew The Good Shepherd would be looking for them, even during the feast days, hoping, watching, searching the horizon, looking to see if they would be coming back.  Who did I know like this? I needed to make it easy for them to be found.  I needed to make it comfortable for them to come back into the fold.  I would open my sukkah to them.  I would call them and invite them over for some cool refreshments during the time of the feast. 

I was seeing more and more why God had asked us to keep this ritual every year.  It was more than a harvest festival for the land, it was a harvest festival for the soul.  

The Good Shepherd wanted all His sheep in the fold.  It was time to look around and noticing who had not been among us lately and inviting them to come back inside.  What better way than a party in a festive sukkah?

Then I read the next part of the scripture reading my pastor has just quoted from a few days ago:

(Luke 15:8-10:) ⁸ “Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins^[a] and loses one. Doesn’t she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? ⁹ And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ ¹⁰ In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

This parable gave me some good instructions as to how to furnish my sukkah.  The woman had lost something, a coin that would sustain her with the food that gave her life.  I was interested in lost people and helping them to find the value in life, and the tools the woman used in the story were the same tools I would need in my sukkah.  She needed a light.  She lite a lamp to make it easier to find her valuable coin.  I went to get some candles to put on the table in my Sukkah.   I was reminded of how many festivals God gave us that portray Jesus as the light of the world.  I would light the candle in the Sukkah,and we would thank God for bringing us Messiah.  He would furnish the light in the Sukkah, as well as the stars in the sky.   

The pages flipped to the rest of the passage from my pastor’s sermon:

Luke 15: 11-31: ¹¹ Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. ¹² The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.

¹³ “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. ¹⁴ After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. ¹⁵ So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. ¹⁶ He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.  ¹⁷ “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! ¹⁸ I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. ¹⁹ I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ ²⁰ So he got up and went to his father.  “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.  ²¹ “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’  ²² “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. ²³ Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. ²⁴ For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.  ²⁵ “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. ²⁶ So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. ²⁷ ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’  
²⁸ “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. ²⁹ But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. ³⁰ But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’  ³¹ “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. ³² But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”

It was the age old story of the prodigal son.  It starts out mentioning that there were two sons.  I thought of the two sons in this story as I had come to see them; so often I had thought of those two;  I could see that the older son symbolized Israel and the younger son symbolized the Gentiles.  The two sons were very different, but they had the same Father. 

We Gentiles have been a lot like the younger son in the story.  We have wanted everything we have coming to us NOW, and we have asked God to give it to us NOW.  And God, just like the Father in the story divided His possessions out and gave us a our portion NOW.  He sent His only Son to save us with his life.  He sent His Holy Spirit to sustain us.  We took it all for granted and went out and lived like kings, feeling rich and important from all our blessings.  We thought we had it all, but we were actually very poor because we had not yet learned the true values in life at all.  We have squandered our wealth in wild sinful living.  Sin has run rampant among us, even to the top level of the leaders of our churches and denominations.  Our sins have brought the land that God gave us into captivity.  We find ourselves in financial bondage to strange people in strange lands.  We have to work hard for anything to put on our tables now, and we often stop to remember how blessed we were before we threw God’s laws out the window and tried to live however we wanted to at the moment.  

So we turn and go home to a loving and merciful Father who meets us with a cloak that covers us and a ring that says who we really are.  It is amazing and crazy to us that He loves us so much to totally forgive how selfish and rebellious we have been.  He still loves us!  Our times of sorrow and repentance turn to joy and celebration!  We have found out who we truly are and we only want to be the restored child of the father forever.   We celebrate our restoration in The Feast of Tabernacles inside our temporary dwellings called sukkahs.

We return to a land and a way that our brother has never left.  The older brother is Israel.  Israel and the people of Judah who have always done everything right.  They have stayed with the Father all along.  They have carried out His instructions to the letter.  They resent the fact that the younger brother has come home from all the waste and repented to the Father and found favor.  They resent that the father did not met them at the door with a cloak and a ring and present it to them for all their righteousness all these years.  They resent that the Father has not seen their total loyalty and devotion and recognized them for it in the land. 

So, here they are, the two brothers.  They are both back together in The Father’s House, and it is the time of joy and celebration.  It has been the Father’s custom to celebrate this season of harvest.  When the sons reach the Father’s House the temporary dwellings become permanent.  They are both home forever.    The Father never stops teaching.  He will keep showing them lessons in life and letting them walk through the process until they learn to love each other again and live in harmony in His House.   The Father understands the needs of each son.  He knows the lessons they both need to learn.

  So, with all of this in my mind and heart, I open up my little temporary sukkah.  

I open it up to all who will come inside and find the joy and love that dwells in this place because One Father loved so very much that He was willing to sacrifice His only son. 

 I know one day that Father will take these fragile temporary things and make them real and permanent structures forever.  

SEASONS - MARTHA CHANGES BACK TO MARY

The time has arrived for The Feast of Tabernacles!

On the fifteenth day of this seventh month is the Festival of Sukkot, seven days for the LORD (Leviticus 23:34)

I LOVE Sukkot!!!!!  THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES!!!!! 

This year I am feeling so blessed to be spending the time with my family at the beach.  The anticipation is escalating every day as the feast time approaches.  I've caught myself thinking of how great it has worked out to have a place provided by a family member that is large enough for all ten of our minion!  Eight days with our grown kids and grandchildren in a lazy, fun atmosphere that gives honor to our Creator!  I'm so excited.  

It is a sweet, sweet time before the Lord that I treasure every year.  It doesn't always work out this easy and we have not always had a place to stay together and we can't always get everyone together under one roof every year, but that just adds to my joy of this particular year, to know it has all come together.  I've had different types of blessings on other years.  Of course, we can’t be in Jerusalem this year, and we are not a members of a Jewish congregation that understands the joy of this celebration, but we are a family full of  born again, believing Christians who have come to understand the great significance of The Feast of Tabernacles, and celebrating this time before the Lord is always a big HUGE thing in the year. 

Below are some notes of my celebration from the year 2012, two contrasting situations, but still, two great blessings!  God is good all the time.

NOTES FROM FEAST OF TABERNACLES DAYS OF 2012

This season I’ve have to literally claw my way through the trappings of the world in order to get to God’s way of celebration.   It should be easy, not hard, but it hasn’t happened that way this year. Arriving in the proper place has not been at all easy.  At least one thousand things have happened to distract me and try to prevent me from the joy of the feast.

I have dreamed all year of gathering the whole family together into a little mountain resort town, worshiping together every day, and celebrating the joy of The Lord together all during the feast week.  How nice it would be to just spend family time and relax together in the evenings.  Things gradually one by one fell apart for this plan.  Everyone has some other plans; work was busy for some; money was tight for some; people were too scattered; etc., etc. 

Well, yes, that was MY perfect plan, but alas, God has allowed a situation where I have unexpectedly had to forfeit MY plan for something much simpler. 

My first prayer was one of frustration.  Nothing should stop the joy of the feast, so I just begin to passionately hold that up to God.  He answers me that I am absolutely right.  Hmmmm…..seems to be a strange answer under the circumstance, so I say "but Lord; my budget will not allow a trip with the family this time.  I’ve done everything that I can, but it just isn’t happening."  

“Yes, I know” is what I hear back. 

But Lord, why has it worked out this way? 
And the answer is the most surprising thing, but I do hear it:

“Because I have called you to be content in all circumstances.”

I suddenly remembered the verse I long ago chose for my life verse; Philippians 4:11-13.

The words screamed out to me:   Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.  I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.


I had no idea that keeping this wonderful time I've previously kept with such ease was going to be so hard and complicated this year.  You know what?  Sometimes God REALLY calls on you to live out those life verses. 

Now, that word  “contentment” isn’t exactly what pops into my mind when I think of celebrating a week-long festival before the Lord.  I envision feasting, dancing, singing in crowds of joyful people with great fanfare. 

So finally I gather my courage and  I ask The Lord what HE has planned for me this week, knowing that asking HIM was the very first thing I should have considered all along.  He says back to me those hard to digest words I often hear:

“I will show you.  Trust me.”

I am sure it is wrong to complain, but those words didn’t give me much direction.  Next thing I know, my work calls to tell me they have a great need for me to be in the office on Monday and they want me to postpone my vacation time I’ve set aside for at least one day, maybe more.  I had been trying to regroup and at least make a not so extravagant plan for something special to do at home with the family during this feast, but now I can’t even get the first day off from work, and will possibly even have more time than that tied up at work.   

It seems that,The Ox is in the ditch. 

Some people would say it is a sin for me to go on to work, and I should just take the time off anyway.   I have to confess to these zealots that I am living in grace because I have for awhile been in a bondage that I created for myself – I have a mortgage and need my job in order to pay my bills.  We all were going through through tough financial times in the business world during 2012.  If you were employed you were one of the blessed, and you should not take that for granted in today’s economy either!    My heart was still hurting for those that I worked with that had been "let go" for no fault of their own.  I do have to remember that  God says we should be responsible stewards.  I must keep my word and pay my bills.  I need my job, and have actually had on my mind that maybe I no longer need the mortgage; but God will had to led me through that decision and process over time.  I couldn't change anything overnight.   It was something out of my control.  

There I stood in the midst of turning one way and the other until I finally just ended up saying:

 “Okay, Lord, I trust You.” 

After these words, while I’m looking out my bedroom window  still feeling a bit sorry for myself, I catch myself thinking sadly that I haven’t even built a sukkah!  I feel like a failure before God actually, not living up to my own testimony about keeping God’s feast and festivals.  It isn't a good feeling.  I know in my heart He wants us to keep them!   Then, almost as if someone was standing behind me and tapping me on the shoulder, God reminds me that my back deck is a three sided structure that you can see the stars through.

Hmmm……………

He has provided what I was not prepared for.  I think of this simple little miracle, a hidden blessing that My Father just points out to me, and my heart becomes happier.  I go about planning a festive outdoor dinner to be eaten on the deck for that night.   We may not be starting the feast in a fancy place, but our home is a GOOD place.  The view from our deck will be great!  There will be lots of stars shining through the shelter.  This is great!

I consider the food.  My planning has been bad.  My budget has been so tight that the menu will probably need to be very limited.  This is not how God wants us to feast.  I feel ashamed of my own poor planning.  I look in my pantry and find some great selections that I had just overlooked before.

God always provides what we need.  

How long will it take for me to always remember this and never doubt.  Even when I plan amiss, He blesses me anyway.  True grace.  I had the physical things all along without even realizing they were there.   

Now I just had to bring my mind and my spirit to the right place.  

That was the thing most needed.  I confessed my sins of worry and anxiety to God.  I felt His forgiveness flood over me.  I thanked God for his awesome provision, and asked Him to keep my eyes wide open to all the daily blessings He brings from now on.  I had everything that we needed right here under our own roof to offer a joyful feast of thanksgiving to God on the first night of the festival.  What more could a daughter ask from her Father?  I knew I was loved.  I felt the first spark of joy that belongs at the table of the King, and I welcomed it into my heart.

I thought of all the people of God throughout history who had to celebrate their feast days under truly hard circumstances.  I considered that I truly had no problems.  There were those who celebrated under  the rule of captivity.  I thought of those Jewish heroes that had to celebrate their feast days in concentration camps.  I remembered Corrie Ten Boom and her messages of how she found hope when there was no hope.  I thought of Joseph worshiping God in the pagan life he was forced to live in Egypt.  I began to see that my problems were all in my head.  It finally occurred to me that clearly my problems were very small and my God was very big.

I resolved that after work tomorrow, I can do the same again.  We could have our feast on our sukkah on the deck after dark and look up at the stars and thank The God of Heaven and Earth every night during this week. 

Suddenly I felt very rested and not at all stressed.    

Maybe I was just anxious for nothing? 

Once again, I apologized to God for being so stressed over the details.  I am usually such a “Mary,” always worshiping at The Master’s feet; but this week I have been caught acting and behaving just like a “Martha” getting all bogged down in the details and the work and so much so that I almost missed the whole point of setting aside the time to listen, worship, rest and just be thankful and joyful in  the Lord.  I rested in His provision. 

I  have been reminded this week that God simply wants me to sit at His feet and worship.  It doesn’t have to be elaborate, it can be as simple as a dinner on my back deck with my husband.  We will feast with the things that He has provided and offer thanksgiving prayers, ever grateful that we have food and shelter for this day, for this moment and for this season.   It is enough to bask in God’s presence right where we are, right in the moment that we are living in, in the temples of our bodies that He has given us and with our spirits that will never be destroyed or pass away. 

When the stars come out in the night sky, we will look up to see God’s story written in them. 

Is it not a great miracle? 

Is it not a wonderful thing just to sit after a full meal and look up at the night sky and be ever thankful that God is in control and we are not?  

The God who thinks way beyond anything that I could ever imagine reminded me that we own a telescope that is not even being used.  I had not thought of it in years.  I hurried out to the storage area to clean it up and place it next to our table on the deck.  Yes, we have everything that we need, and even more!

And so way back, even in the year of 2012 I was able to proclaim: Happy Feast of Tabernacles Everyone! I expect to do the same this year as our whole family gathers together at the beach.  

May you be able to see God’s blessing unfold before you as you worship and sit at His feet at your feast this year, no matter where or under any circumstances.  I pray that the world will not be able to keep you from all the good God has blessed you with.

May we all live in eager anticipation for the time when Messiah returns to set up His Kingdom and rule and reign, for a thousand years of peace on this earth.

He will graciously provide everything that we need, and it could just be that  the simple things are actually the richest things of all.

Right now, even before Rosh Hashanah comes, begin anticipating the feast times you will spend with God this year.  He is waiting with open arms in the places that He will put His name and call you, living and breathing and walking around inside his temples, to be!

COME AS A CHILD LESSON 85 WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU WRESTLE WITH GOD AND HE LETS YOU WIN

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

The place where the angels met Jacob and his family was near Harran.  After spending one night in the camp near Harran Jacob sent his caravan on across the Rabbok River. This included his wives, his sons, his servants and all of his many possessions.

The Zarqa River, as we now call it, is said to be about 30 million years old.  It is a tributary of The Jordan River, and it flows through the valley of Jordan.  This river is what Jacob knew to be the river Rabbok.  It leads west into the Sukkot Valley, from where one crosses over the Jordan and can easily reach Shechem.  This river later became the boundary separating the territories of Ruben and Gad from Ammon.  The Rabbok valley was an important passageway connecting the Eastern Desert with the Jordan Valley.

Present day Jordan is trying to restore the water quality of this river which has been heavily polluted by oil companies and other industrial endeavors.  The estimated cost to restore it is $30 million, and it seems a hopeless task.  In the days of Jacob though, the water was probably clean and useable.

He helped his family across the river and he waited on the other side.  Does anything about those words sound familiar?  I get a vivid vision of all those who have gone on to God’s eternal life before those of us who are left on this earth.  Jacob waited on the other side and did not cross the river  yet. 

So, Jacob was left alone and the scriptures tell us a man wrestled with him until daybreak.

What strange words!  Whatever does that mean?

We are not given the meaning of the “man” but we are told that the man could not overpower Jacob but he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that Jacob’s hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. 

Who was this mysterious “man?”

Most have come to believe that the “man” was a Christophany, or the pre-incarnate form of Christ in the bodily form of a man. 

Could Jacob have wrestled with Christ and won? 

To know Jacobs story is to know of deep, deep struggles against huge odds.  That night as Jacob lay his head down to rest he was at the place of his largest struggle ever, that of facing his brother Esau.  He had actually reached a place of “in-between” struggles.  He was forced to leave his father-in-law because of the mistreatment he received from him, yet leaving made him have to face the brother who wished him dead. There were struggles any way Jacob turned.

In order to face his brother, he had divested himself of all he owned.  He sent his possessions and his family on ahead of him.  He is left alone, with nothing.

 

It is just Jacob and God at Peniel.  There will be a Peniel for all of us, a time when nothing that we own or no one that we know can help us.  Everything will be laid bare before God and we will have to give account for our own actions.  Whoever leaves Peniel either goes God’s way or continues in their own strength. 

 Jacob had conned his way out of every situation up until this point; but could he con God? 

He knew he could not.  

He had learned through all this time of struggling that eventually you had to face things honestly and straight on.  This was Jacob’s time to face God with who he really was.  It was a time  to receive forgiveness for his past mistakes, and convince God that he was worthy of another chance at being the person he was designed to be. 

Basically, at Peniel Jacob was going through the process that all devout Jews and a few Christians follow during the month of Elul that lead up to Rosh Hashanah.  He was reevaluating himself before God.  He was reconsidering where he had been, looking and learning from his past mistakes and begging for God’s mercy to try again.

These are the things that Jacob “wrestled” with at Peniel. 

Frederick Buechner said Jacob’s divine encounter at the Jabbok River symbolized the magnificent defeat of the human soul at the hands of God.  Like Jacob all of mankind has struggled with fear, darkness, loneliness and vulnerability.  At some point we all experience empty feelings of powerlessness and exhaustion and relentless pain.  There is only one thing that will change it, and that is the blessings of God.  

In order to get through to God for His greatest blessings, we all must have our wrestling encounters with Jesus Christ.  If He needs to, Christ will inflict pain in order to save our souls from eternal damnation.  Whatever it takes to save us, that is just what Jesus has in mind.  That is exactly what happened to Jacob.

God could not forgive Jacob and have mercy on him because he had been basically unrighteous in his deeds.  There was one hope though, the atonement of the blood of Jesus.  God would never deny that sacrifice.  This Angel of The Lord that wrestled with Jacob was Jesus before the cross.  God would grant Jesus the power and ability to negotiate with Him for the souls of mankind.  Jacob had to prevail with Christ in order to keep his place in the family.  God loved Jacob.  He came, through Christ, in Jacob’s place in order to live the life that Jacob could not live.  Jacob’s place, my place, your place, none of us measured up.  We all have been wrestling and we all have our broken hips to prove it.

It must have been a tough struggle, because at one point “the man” almost left without giving Jacob a blessing.  It seems that He needed Jacob to acknowledge that He was the only One who had the power to bless him.  Jacob was pretty stubborn, and so are we; but Jacob did finally have the good sense to admit this. By asking for the blessing, Jacob acknowledged his inferiority and Christ's supremacy over him.

The man noticing it was daybreak told Jacob to let him go, but Jacob held on to him and said he would not let him go until he blessed him.

The best advice I could ever give you is to hold on to Jesus until He convinces God to bless you.  It was through wrestling with Christ that Jacob came to see God face to face.  That was the greatest blessing of all blessings!  Jacob saw the face of God and lived to tell about it.  It  could have only happened through Christ who came to this guilty man in the form of humanity and brought him to a place where God would agree to face him yet have mercy on his soul.  Christ did this for Jacob, and He did it for us. 

Jacob had finally wised up.  He knew that God’s will was more powerful and better than his own will.  He had an injured hip to remind him of that for the rest of his life.  

We all need reminders.  What is the broken hip in your life?  I have many injuries, each one of them have taught me and led me to a place of God’s will and purpose for my days.  Without the scars I would not be able to see the stars.  I’m thankful for the broken hips.

The man asked Jacob’s name and he told him.

Then the man said “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, for you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.

Therein friends lies the secret to eternal blessings, to struggle with God and humans and to OVERCOME.  Many think this implies that Jacob overcame the strength of Christ in the wrestling; but that is not so.  I take this to mean that by wrestling with Christ, Jacob overcame the problems he had within him that came from sin and his own ways.  He did this by surrendering to God.  In overcoming, Jacob surrendered to Christ and to God’s way of life totally and completely.  He had already started this process as he worked for Laban, but at Peniel, Jacob surrendered all.  By asking for the blessing he gave God total authority over his life.  If he had not met Christ and wrestled with Him at Peniel, this might not have ever happened. 

Revelations 3:21 speaks of a type of Jacob’s victory in this battle: “to the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne.”

We can expect to see Jacob with a changed name sitting on a throne in the Kingdom of God.  He will be called Israel.  Under his new name he will represent the House of David before God.

Just as Jacob had faced his troubles in the world and was in the process of bringing the house of Abraham home, Christ too has faced the sin of all nations and is in the process of bringing all of us who follow him into the Kingdom of God.  We know this from the words of John 16:33:  These things I have spoken unto you that in me ye might have peace.   In the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.

Jacob had overcome his fears and faced God at Peniel.  He was being strengthened and prepared to meet his worst enemy, and to come out of it victorious.  At Peniel God assured Jacob of who he really was, and  reminded him of the covenant of God that covered him. 

Jacob then said to the man who wrestled with him “Please tell me your name.”But the man replied “Why do you ask my name?”  Here we are reminded of that passage in John 14:9 from a later time where Christ speaks to Philip and says:  “Don’t you know me Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time?  Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.  How can you say, ‘Show us the Father.”

Christ has appeared to Abraham and his people over and over in the form of The Angel of The Lord.  He had appeared to Jacob at Bethel.  He had appeared to him in his pastures as he was tending sheep in a dream back in the land of Laban.  Jacob should have recognized The Angel of The Lord, and by seeing him, face to face, Jacob had looked into the face of God, because Jesus said if we have seen Him, we have seen the Father.  The two are One.  Jacob should have recognized Christ as The Angel of The Lord.  This is why he did not tell him his name. 

And after that “the man” “The Angel of The Lord” “Christ Incarnate” “God Himself” blessed Jacob.

And Jacob called the place Peniel because it was there he saw God face to face, yet his life was spared.  When Jacob realized that he had wrestled with Christ, he also knew that he had only been allowed to win the wrestling match.  After wrestling with all his strength all night, the Angel Of The Lord simply touched the place on his hip and it was permanently injured.  Jacob had thought he was winning on his own strength, but after that moment, he knew for sure that nothing good ever happened to him unless it was allowed by God.   This was a continuous lesson that played out over and over again in Jacob's life. 

When the sun was high in the sky Jacob passed out of Peniel and he was limping because of his hip.

To this day the Jewish people do not eat the meat that is the tendon that attaches to the socket of the hip, because that was where the socket of Jacob’s hip was touched.