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!

COME AS A CHILD LESSON 139 GETTING PREPARED TO MEET GOD

GETTING PREPARED TO MEET GOD

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

God said to Moses; “I am going to come to you in a dense cloud so that the people will hear me speaking with you and will always put their trust in you.  Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow.  Have them wash their clothes and be ready by the third day because on that day the LORD will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.  Put limits for the people around the mountain and tell them be careful that you do not approach the mountain or touch the foot of it.  Whoever touches the mountain is to be put to death.  They are to be stoned or shot with arrows.  Not a hand is to be laid on them.  No person or animal shall be permitted to live.  Only when the ram’s horn sounds a long blast may they approach the mountain.”

That last part sounds really serious!  In those days no man went near God unless they were summoned.  They took great precautions not to be unholy in the presence of God when they did. They were not living in the period of grace that Jesus has provided for us today.  There were only certain times when God made coming into His presence possible.  This time is signified by the long blast of a ram’s horn. 

This passage reminds me of how you can’t have the seasons of God out of order.  They follow a pattern.  You must be prepared in the way you approach God for each season, even in a time of grace and mercy, there are certain things to remember.  You must recognize and keep God’s appointed times. 

The long blast of the ram’s horn is more symbolic of the fall holy days instead of the day of Pentecost in which the people were living in our story.  God must have been proclaiming that all they did in this present season (Pentecost), was to be done in order that they might be ready when the ram’s horn sounded later (Rosh Hashanah/Feast of Trumpets.)  The Feast of Pentecost always comes before The Feast of Trumpets. One day we will all hear that long blast of the shofar (the ram’s horn) and we will be summoned to approach the throne of God.  In that Great Last Day; will you be ready?

When I think of the first part of God’s summons delivered to Moses for the people, I am reminded of the words of an old, old hymn, called "Nothing But the Blood of Jesus."  

God tells Moses that the people should wash their clothes and be ready on the third day.  I remember the words of the old hymn being: “What can wash away my sins?  Nothing but the blood of Jesus!”  It was a time of washing; of coming clean.

This time of the people preparing to approach God at the foot of the holy mountain is symbolic of a time that Jesus would come (in the third day of humanity) and cover the people in His blood, washing away their sins and making them acceptable in the eyes of God.  That way; when the ram’s horn blows on the Great Last Day, all who were once unholy sinners will be welcomed to approach because they will be covered with the blood of Jesus.  This will heal their sins and make them clean.  God has provided for His people in every way.

So Moses goes to the people and tells them to wash their clothes and to prepare to meet God on the third day.  They are to remain holy during this time (as holy as humans untouched by God can become) and they were to be paying attention.  Moses instructed them to abstain from sexual relations during this time. 

The people did as Moses instructed.  They cleaned themselves up and put their minds on God.  They waited and anticipated what was to come.  On the third day there was thunder and lightning and a thick cloud came and covered the mountain.  Then suddenly out of nowhere came a very loud trumpet blast!  The whole camp trembled!  Can you imagine how they were feeling?  They knew they were about to face God!  We all will know this feeling soon. 

Moses very carefully lead the people out of the camp to meet God at the foot of the mountain.  They saw Mount Sinai covered in smoke and they knew God had descended in fire on the mountain.  Smoke billowed up from the mountain like the smoke from a furnace and the whole mountain shook!  All this time the sound of the ram’s horn was growing louder and louder; then Moses spoke and God answered him!

The LORD spoke from the top of the mountain and He called Moses to come up.  So Moses went up to the top of the mountain and this is what God said to him:  “ Go down and warn the people so they do not force their way through to see the LORD and many of them perish.  Even the priest who approach the LORD must consecrate themselves, or the LORD will break out against them. “

And Moses answered God saying; “The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai because you yourself warned us to put limits around the Mountain and set it apart as holy.”

 And God told Moses to go down and bring Aaron up with him, but the people and the priest should not force their way through to come up to the LORD  or he would break out against them.

So Moses went back down, told this to the people and took Aaron back up with him. 

At last God was ready to speak to the people and they were all listening.  With Moses and Aaron standing closer to God as witnesses; God uttered the words that have been carried down to the people of God throughout history. 

Next week we will hear what God had to say.  It is much too important to squeeze into the end of this lesson! 

As I mentioned before; keeping track of times and days begins to reveal things that often seem to be hiding in the scriptures.  The Word does not come out openly and bluntly admit that the law was given by God to the People of Israel on The Day of Pentecost; but a close count of the days mentioned in the passage we are studying in Exodus 19 gives us all the needed information to figure this out!  

God first spoke to the people that He loved to begin to teach them exactly how He wanted them to live on The Day of Pentecost.  It was an already established agricultural holiday with the people.  It was already a time to be bringing their first fruits of the wheat harvest before God; but now God was going to broaden their view of what this day was all about.  He was going to explain to them how to live holy before Him as they offered up their offerings of Thanksgiving.  Life wasn’t just about making holy offerings and sacrifices; it was also about living holy every day. After 400 years of slavery and bondage, the people needed a refresher course and they were about to be taught this course directly from God.  

A holy pattern of observance had been set with the forty five days after leaving Egypt, with one day spent on the mountain listening to God, one day returning the people’s answer to God, and three days of preparation, making the whole time fifty days from the first Passover (the time they left Egypt) to the giving of the law on the Feast of Pentecost.  

Even today we know that Pentecost always occurs on the fiftieth day after Passover.  The people of God left Egypt on Passover and arrived at Sinai on Pentecost.  During that fifty day period of time, God taught them many things in both of these places. 

God is still teaching us!  We simply need to take the time, follow the instructions and patterns that He has so carefully laid out and presented over and over in the scriptures; in both the Old Testament and the New Testament.  What happened to the People of Israel was a pattern to teach us the way to live before God.  Soon we will hear the rest of the laws that God gave us in order to show us the best ways to live before Him. 

We are just like those Israelites.  We, even now, are being prepared to meet God.  We are to be washing our garments and getting ready.  Jesus is returning for His Bride and to set up The Kingdom of God for eternity. 

Are you ready? 

Are you washing your garments in the blood of the Lamb? 

Are you clean and ready to meet God?

Will you be allowed to go up to the Holy Mountain of God? 

Now is the time to get prepared.  

THE SUKKAH STORY PART TWO

THE SUKKAH THAT JACOB BUILT
(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

Many years passed.  From Abraham came Isaac, from Isaac came Jacob and Jacob had twelve sons, one of them was named Joseph. 

The story of Jacob is long and detailed.  There are a million other stories inside the story of Jacob.  I will be short with the beginning and not tell it all here.  I will simply tell you that Jacob did something terribly wrong to his brother for which he had to ask forgiveness from God, and then he had to go to face his brother and make amends to their relationship.  

Jacob did this and it pleased God greatly to see that the two brothers were finally reconciled and living in peace in the promised land that God had given to Abraham and his descendants. 

Jacob found that he had to live outside of the land until he came back to make peace with his brother.  When the peace was made; Jacob rode back into the land God promised his father Abraham and began to build a home.  He had traveled for many miles with his family and his livestock.  The animals were hungry and tired.  These were the animals that God had blessed Jacob with in a foreign land in spite of his many sins.  These animals had made Jacob’s family prosperous and happy.  Jacob had to build them temporary shelters to live in once they crossed the river and came into the land of Abraham.

Until Jacob, no one in history had ever built a shelter for an animal.  Until then cattle, sheep and donkeys had to brave the elements.  Whenever it was hot or cold, dry or rainy, the cattle, sheep and donkeys were always outdoors, always exposed to the harsh weather.  Because Jacob built these temporary shelters for his family as well as his animals, the first city that Jacob dwelled in when he returned to the promised land was called Sukkot! 

Sukkot is the Hebrew word that is now used to describe the eight days when we celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles!  It means “temporary shelters.”

It is said that the blessings of Abraham came from kindness.  This can be seen by his desire to feed and offer God’s stories to the Angels of God and the strangers and pilgrims that wandered throughout the land.

It is said that the blessings of Isaac came from self-sacrifice.  For Isaac had been willing to offer his life for the glory of God but an angel had stopped him and an animal; a white ram, was provided as the sacrifice in the place of Isaac.  Because of Isaac’s willingness to give of himself and sacrifice himself for the sake of others, we blow the shofar on Rosh Hashanah, which is the sound from a ram’s horn.  Some say it is the horn from the white ram that was caught in the thicket which God provided in Isaac’s place.  Mankind has possession of one horn; God is keeping the other one to use one day at a feast in the future.

It is said that the blessings of Jacob came from his care and concern for the animals of God's creation.  God had originally put Adam in charge of the animals and let him name them in The Garden of Eden when they were created; but Jacob was the first to provide a temporary shelter from the elements for them.  Jacob carried on the purpose that God gave to Adam in tending to the creatures of the earth.  

It was Jacob who said to his son Joseph to “Please go check on the welfare of the sheep!”  We will hear more of that when we hear Joseph’s story.  But Joseph, being the youngest son of Jacob, was with him when Jacob returned to the promised land.  Joseph lived in the sukkah with Jacob and Joseph helped Jacob build the temporary shelters (sukkahs) for the livestock.

Now close your eyes and think far ahead many years past the times of Jacob and Joseph.  There was a young couple coming into the city to pay their taxes and to be counted among their people for the census.  Their names were Mary and Joseph.  This was ANOTHER Joseph. Mary, his wife, came riding on a donkey, and she was great with child. 

They had traveled into the area early in order to be there in time to spend Rosh Hashanah with some of their relatives.  The relatives feared that Mary could not endure the bumpy donkey ride for so long a journey.  They were afraid she might be forced into labor because of the bumpy ride, and perhaps end up giving birth to the child too early.  So on the way they stopped often and rested from the journey.  They spent time resting and celebrating Rosh Hashanah with their relatives who lived right outside the city of Bethlehem.  Afterwards they rode on into the city to find shelter during Sukkot, and to be counted in the census among their people who were of the City of David. 

The city was very busy and crowded.  

It was the time of Sukkot!  Everyone had entered Jerusalem to celebrate!

Sukkot was the Hebrew name given for the festival we call The Feast of Tabernacles.  In the days of Mary and Joseph it was the time when all the men from everywhere came to Jerusalem and built temporary shelters to dwell in for eight days in order to have a harvest festival before God.  They built shelters for themselves and their families, and they built shelters for their animals and livestock in honor of the temporary shelters Jacob had built for his livestock when he had re-entered the promised land.

Mary and Joseph had not had enough time to gather together what they needed to build a shelter.  Even if they had; they would not have been able to carry it with them on this long journey.  They had planned on finding and building such a place when they arrived.

They had no money and it was almost time for Mary to deliver the child!

They were hoping to find an open door or room in an inn.

Frantically Joseph knocked on the doors of inn after inn and house after house asking for a place for his wife to lay down to give birth to their child.

Joseph did not tell them the things that were racing through his head.  He did not say “THIS IS THE CHILD OF GOD!!!!  YOU MUST LET US HAVE A PLACE!!! Joseph knew no one would believe him, and they would probably just think he was crazy; so he kept up his stressful search, house after house and inn after inn until he realized he was not going to find a place. 

Finally, in desperation, Joseph sat down beside the road and buried his head in his hands.  He did not want to go back to tell his wife she must give birth to The Messiah on the side of the road.  He prayed for God to help! 

When Joseph looked up a kind man was standing next to him.  “What is the matter my son?” asked the kind man.

“My wife is with child and will deliver any minute.  I do not have a place for her.  I have tried to get into the inns in the city but with the harvest festival going on everywhere, everyone is booked up, and every house is filled to the brim with guests from out of town.  There is NOWHERE for us to go.  I do not want to go back and tell this to my poor wife.”

“My son,” said the kind stranger, “I do not wish to see you in such distress in the time of such a joyful celebration and festival!  Surely God has picked the perfect place and time for the birth of this child.  Come with me.”

And the kind stranger led Joseph to a temporary shelter, a sukkah where the animals of the people coming to the festival were kept. 

Will this do for awhile, until the child has come?  The entrance is temporary and the roof is only covered with palm branches, but in the back of this shelter is the entrance to a cave.  You can find water and privacy there, even though people will be coming and going to look in on and use their animals.  Will this work for you?”

‘Yes!” said Joseph.  He thanked the man over and over and ran all the way back to Mary.  He loaded her up on the donkey and brought her into the little temporary shelter where the animals were being housed.  Joseph had thoughts of his ancestor Jacob as he entered the place.  God had started making a way for their provision many, many years ago!  Joseph pondered how amazing this was.  Now Mary would lie down on a bed of soft hay and give birth to a perfect son in this little sukkah that backed up to a cave that was located next to a well of fresh spring water.

Joseph made the area as clean as possible.  He lay blankets down on the hay.  Mary lay down with joy on the the fresh soft bed and looked up through the covering of the roof of the little sukkah that was full of the creatures from God’s creation.  The animals quietly looked on with wonder, as if they knew the secret that Mary and Joseph shared about the child that was being born that very night!  

Mary saw the stars of the sky twinkling through the covering of the shelter as if they too were preparing their welcome for her little child that was soon to be born.  She could almost hear the stars saying “God always keeps His promises, God always keeps His promises!”  These words went through her head and she repeated them to herself as she labored in childbirth. 

When the little boy was born they wrapped him in the cloth they had brought for him, and laid him inside a soft hay-filled manger. 

The livestock huddled around in wonder at such a sight of a holy baby being inside their dwelling!  

The animals and Mary and Joseph could hear the angels singing, even though the people passing by did not even notice the heavenly choir in the sky.  

The stars were singing a lullaby to Baby Jesus and Mary and Joseph gave thanks and praise to God.

Seven Shepherds appeared at the door of the shelter.  They were there on that special night simply to look in on and to feed and water the animals in their charge.  They came into the shelter with excitement on their faces, telling the astounding stories of how they looked up into the sky from the hills of their tents while keeping the feast and heard a glorious heavenly announcement that a child would be born in Bethlehem and they would find him laying in a manger.  

Then the shepherds saw Jesus!  

They fell on their knees with praise and adoration when they entered the sukkah and saw the child the angels had sang about. 

Mary and Joseph, though they were very preoccupied with the birth of the child, welcomed the seven shepherds into the little sukkah.  They invited them to share their meals and to sing joyful hymns with them.  

One by one the seven poor humble shepherds who had only been able to come to the harvest festival at the expense of their wealthy masters because they were given the lowest of jobs, that of tending to the needs of the rich people’s animals while they celebrated the feast, were the very first people who were invited to know Jesus. 

One by one they were all allowed to hold the Christ Child in their arms! 

Those poor, humble, uneducated men knew from God that a special miracle had happened at this feast and in this sukkah.  

Not one shepherd ever forgot that holy night.  Not one shepherd failed to pass the story on to their children and grandchildren.  They were reminded every Sukkot afterwards, and they filled their sukkahs with joy and praise for Christ the King, the One the Angels of Heaven sang about that night on the hills of Bethlehem. 

After the child was born on the first day of the feast, Joseph took their offering of two turtle doves up to the temple and gave them to the priest.  Then Mary and Joseph watched and listened to the whole world in joyful celebration of the harvest coming and going outside their little temporary shelter. 

From a distance they could hear the parades as the people took their offerings up to the temple.  They could hear the songs, the hymns from the Psalms of David, and they knew there was dancing.  The people were celebrating the end of a good harvest year and the beginning of a brand new year. 

Joseph and Mary smiled at one another, knowing that from this moment on, the blessings of the world were going to be so much greater! 

God always keeps His promises! 

Jacob had passed away long ago, but the legacy of his sukkah lived in Bethlehem that night and the descendants of Abraham saw the coming of The Promised Messiah.

The Messiah had come down to earth to dwell with mankind and hardly anyone even noticed he had come, but the form of a little tiny baby was laying in a manger inside a temporary dwelling in Bethlehem!

AND THE STARS KEPT SHINING, AND THE WAVES OF THE SEA KEPT BRUSHING THE SAND ON THE SHORE, AND THE ANGELS KEPT SINGING FOR JOY BECAUSE GOD ALWAYS KEEPS HIS PROMISES!

THE SUKKAH STORY PART ONE ABRAHAM'S SUKKAH

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

Long ago, even long before your great-great-great-great-great-great  grandparents were born,  Abraham built a sukkah. 

It was near a tamarisk tree and a well of fresh spring water.  It was positioned in an area of Canaan near the road where the caravans of merchants and traders traveled back and forth to the large cities to sell their goods at the markets. 

Abraham would sit in the shade of his sukkah and welcome these guests to the land as they went by.  He would invite them to come inside his sukkah and have a meal with him.  He would tell them the stories of God. 

Abraham believed there was only One God; the God of Heaven and Earth, Our Creator.  Abraham worshipped no other gods such as the pagans around him did.  He wanted them to know about The One True God, so he would welcome them and tell them God’s stories at his table in his sukkah.

Sometimes, in the days of Awe before he sat in his sukkah, Abraham would go down by the sea.  He would sit on the shore and look at the sand and the waves rushing in.  Abraham would find he was in complete awe of the things God had created.  They were indeed wonderful!  Abraham would give thanks to God as he sat by the sea shore.

One day while Abraham was sitting near the ocean in awe, God make him a promise.  God told Abraham that his descendants would be as many as the sands of the sea.  Abraham knew that the sands of the sea were so many that it would be impossible to count them!  Abraham thanked God for this promise, even though as of yet, he did not even have one son with his wife Sarah.  Abraham still believed the things that God promised and he looked forward to the blessings that would come.

Back at home near the road that the merchants traveled, Abraham sat in his sukkah again.  On many cool clear nights Abraham looked up through the covering of his sukkah’s roof to see the stars in the sky twinkling back at him.  They were so bright and so beautiful that Abraham just had to praise God for creating them! 

When Abraham worshiped God and praised Him as he sat in his sukkah, God made Abraham another wonderful promise.  God told Abraham that his descendants would be as many as the stars in the sky.  Abraham knew he could never count the number of stars in the sky, and that would be a great miracle!  As of yet, Abraham and Sarah had no children.  They were old!   Still; Abraham had faith in God and he believed God’s promises and he looked forward to the blessings of the future.   

As the people traveled to and fro on the main trade route of the country, Abraham would invite these strangers into his sukkah.  Abraham would prepare feasts for his guests.  A feast is not just an ordinary meal, but a feast is a very festive meal with a purpose behind it.  Abraham’s purpose was to tell the stories of God to the people in the land.  Abraham and his wife Sarah were known for their gifts of welcome and hospitality to all the people of all the lands. 

You would be amazed at the guests that Abraham entertained under the roof of his sukkah! 

Red, yellow, black or white.  Skin color did not matter to Father Abraham.  If you were rich or poor or in-between; you were invited to Abraham’s sukkah for a festive meal.  The only requirement was that you had ears.  Ears are for listening and Abraham liked to tell the stories of God to each of his guests.

One day The Angel of The Lord (who was really Jesus in another form long before He came to earth as a man) and two other angels came to visit in the sukkah of  Abraham.  They were passing through the land  when Abraham spotted them in the distance, ran to them and invited them into his sukkah for a festive meal.

The three were on a mission from God.  Part of their mission was to deliver a message to Abraham, but Abraham did not know this.  Abraham was so honored to have someone from The One True God that he worshiped sitting in his sukkah and gathering around his very table!  Abraham had Sarah to cook an elaborate and very special feast for them.  Abraham brought his very best offerings.  They shared a festive meal full of some serious talk but also some laughter. 

After the meal they shared a glass of wine together.  Sarah was waiting inside the tent where she and Abraham lived, tending to some of the things she would bring out for dessert and she could hear their voices carrying on the wind as they spoke inside the sukkah.  Sarah heard The Angel of The Lord tell Abraham that a son would be born to them.  Sarah could not help but laugh out loud because she was very old and past the age of having children. 

 So when Isaac, the son of Sarah and Abraham was born in their old age; it was a great miracle and Abraham and Sarah remembered the words that were told to Abraham as their special guests dined with them under the roof of their sukkah.  Sarah remembered her laughing and so they named him Isaac, which means “laughter.”

Abraham had faith to believe the things that God promised and he looked forward to the blessings to come. 

SEASONS - PREPARING FOR THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES - THE JOY OF BUILDING A SUKKAH

PREPARING FOR THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES
(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

God is happy to meet us where we are, but once He shows up; you must be willing to take the journey!

Late September, early October brings the seven fall holy days we call Sukkot, or if you prefer English; The Feast of Tabernacles.  It is called The Feast of Tabernacles because we dwell in temporary booths or shelters during this time.  These temporary booths are called sukkahs.  The word “sukkah” actually translates from Hebrew to English to mean “temporary booths.”  

For some people, learning the name of the shelter and building it is about as deep as the meaning goes.  For others there is SO MUCH MORE to the whole experience.  For those willing to open their eyes and see, there are awesome surprises waiting in the sukkah.

If you actually participate in building a sukkah for Sukkot you will more than likely realize there is a lot of hidden meaning to the simple building process.  You really won’t get this unless you DO this.  The doing has a lot to do with obeying God just because He is God.  Obedience is the first step toward growth in any part of God’s Kingdom.  It is also a straight path toward joy!  You can be happy from using your human reason and doing what is logical, or you can have JOY from having faith in God and doing what He says.  He knows the difference.  He looks on the condition of our hearts.

Those of us who have enJOYed our Sukkah’s at the feast have realized after building the first one that there were many reasons God asks us to do this.  It is all about stopping to savor the journey, remembering the past and moving on to the future, and it is spiced with love, worship, compassion and mercy.  All of these things come filtering through to us from building and living in a sukkah. 

At first though, it is all about obedience.  This is the scripture that we are obeying:

“Also in the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruit of the land, you shall keep a feast unto the LORD seven days: on the first day shall be a Sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a Sabbath, and you shall take on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God seven days.  And you shall keep it a feast unto the LORD seven days in the year.  It shall be a STATUTE FOREVER in your generations; you shall celebrate in the seventh month.  You shall DWELL IN BOOTHS SEVEN DAYS; all that are Israelite born shall dwell in booths; that your generations may know that I made the Children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD thy God.”  (Lev. 23:39-43)

So if you are wondering if you REALLY should obey this because you might not have been born Israeli; think again.  Are you a Christian?  Then you have been grafted into the family of God and you are an adopted Son of God.  That gives you the same rights, privileges and responsibilities as the natural born children.  The other Christian customs you observe came from the Children of Israel, such as baptism and communion, so why would this be different?  God commanded them all for The Children of God.

Building the sukkah and observing the Feast of Tabernacles makes  us consider many things in a more careful manner.  God always shows us something new!  It never gets old or boring.  Each year our lessons are layered on top of the last year’s lessons until we are full of the knowledge of what God wants us to have inside our hearts and minds at this feast.  Like everything else in life it is a process.  When you begin any process you have to make a conscience decision to begin, carry on and finish the process.  Every phase carries a different meaning,and each season the meanings deepen.  Please don’t take my word for it, test me and find out if what I am saying isn’t true.

God knows we humans have short attention spans.  Sometimes just hearing words isn’t enough for us.  When we are involved in the process of building something, we consider what we are doing and grasp the meanings that correspond with our actions.  Our attention span last longer and we are able to retain the lessons learned much longer.  They also mean more to us because we were “hands on” with our first memory of the event.  We have a visual image in our brain of what we were trying to accomplish.  It is like a photograph that we can pull back up and look at closer whenever we decide to ponder our actions deeper at a later time.

 

By the time we begin building our sukkah for Sukkot those of us who keep all of God’s holy days have already passed through a process of examination of our lives for the past year.  We have found ourselves unworthy and lacking and we have asked for God’s mercy and forgiveness.  We have received atonement and cleansing for our mistakes over the last year.  This all happens through The month of Elul, Rosh Hashanah, The Days of Awe and The Day of Atonement that lead us up to Tabernacles.  By the time we are finished with all of those days and their processes and we come to the place of building our Sukkah for Sukkot; we approach the building process with clean hands, hearts and lives.  By entering the temporary shelter after it is built on good instructions from God we come to a new place in life, a new beginning again of the rhythms of life with everything in sync with God and ready to make a glorious new song for all the world to hear.  We don’t have all our “stuff” in the sukkah, so we feel much less inhibited and a lot less stressful because we have been reminded of what we REALLY need and dropped off the extra baggage before The Day of Atonement and we are refreshed from not having to carry it around anymore.

To build a proper sukkah, you need to be willing to follow God’s instructions for doing so.   It isn’t hard, but God wants things the way God wants things.  After all, He IS God.  His way is the way to go when building and using the sukkah.  It does seem that most Christians today have either forgotten or are not inclined to follow God’s instructions.  It was this way during the days of Nehemiah too.  The people had been in captivity so long they had forgotten God’s customs and how important they were to God.  Ezra had to remind them by reading the scriptures and repeating what they had been forgetting to do.  We can read about this in Nehemiah 8:1-8 and Nehemiah 8:14-18.

“All the people came together as one in the square before the Water Gate.  They told Ezra the teacher of the Law to bring out the Book of the Law of Moses, which the LORD had commanded for Israel. So on the first day of the seventh month Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, which was made up of men and women and all who were able to understand.  He read aloud from daybreak till noon as he faced the square before the Water Gate in the presence of the men, woman and others who could understand.  All the people listened attentively to the Book of the Law.  Ezra the teacher of the law stood on a high wooden platform built for the occasion.  Beside him on his right stood Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah and Maaseiah; and on his left were Pedajah, Mishael, Malkjah, Hashum, Hashbaddanah, Zechariah and Meshullam.  Ezra opened the book.  All the people could see him because he was standing above them; and as he opened it, the people all stood up.  Ezra praised the LORD, the great God; and all the people lifted their hands and responded “Amen!  Amen!  Then they bowed down and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground.  The Levites – Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan and Pelaiah – instructed the people in the Law while the people were standing there.  They read from the Book of the Law of God, making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people understood what was being read. 

They found written in the Law, which the LORD had commanded through Moses, that the Israelites were to live in temporary shelters during the festival of the seventh month and that they should proclaim this word and spread it throughout their towns and in Jerusalem:  “Go out into the hill country and bring back branches from olive and wild olive trees and from

myrtles, palms and shade trees, to make temporary shelters” as it is written.

So the people went out and brought back branches and built themselves temporary shelters on their own roofs, in their courtyards, in  the courts of the house of God and in the square by the Water Gate and the one by the Gate of Ephraim.  The whole company that had returned from exile built temporary shelters and lived in them.  From the days of Joshua son of Nun until that day, the Israelites had not celebrated it like this.  And their joy was very great.

Day after day, from the first day to the last, Ezra read from the book of the Law of God.  They celebrated the festival for seven days and on the eighth day, in accordance with the regulation, there was an assembly.”

 So you see the people in the days of Nehemiah were a lot like the people of today.  They had been away from God’s laws and God’s Holy Scriptures so long that they had forgotten He said to keep the Feasts!  Those wise people corrected their nation and God had mercy on them for the time that they remained faithful.  Can ours do the same?  Have they even considered this, I wonder?  I’m not just speaking of just Holy Days here, but a million subjects where America has forgotten to chose to follow the ways of God. 

But I regress, I was telling you all that God shows us when we begin to build a sukkah and keep Sukkot simply out of obedience and respect for God’s word and commandments. 

We begin to think about many things in the building.  The family becomes a team and works together in the building.  We all want to make our sukkah special and bonds are formed among family members that might never happen otherwise.  Father’s teach sons, Mothers teach daughters, grandparents pass down their stories and everyone learns history and how to get along well together. Memories of being family are made!  Everyone learns if they work together they can accomplish more.  Abilities and talents shine forth from some that had never been noticed previously in the day to day struggles of family life.  Confidence is built.  People are bonded together in love and respect.  People are more appreciated for what God made them to be here at the feast while building the sukkah.  This all happens like in the days of Nehemiah, where people learned a lot about each other from simply building walls and gates.

Then comes the “MORE” part.  There is an element of the sukkah that makes it more than an agricultural shed, that element is the structure of the roof.  There are several reasons that the builders learn that make the roof special.  First, because it is a canopy made from stalks or branches everyone appreciates the shade that is given by the roof.  Then when night comes everyone realizes it is special because they can see the stars through the leafy holes in the roof.  You grasp for the first time that by looking through something grown by the earth you can see glimpses of heaven!  Now how do you think that helps the relationships of different types of family members to improve?  Even better, how do you think that type of thinking improves us when we leave our temporary shelters and go back to a more permanent structure of day-to-day life? Have you ever caught a glimpse of heaven by looking into the eyes or seeing the actions of another person?  This is yet another lesson of the sukkah. 

We also learn that the roof acts as a covering.  This is the most important element of the whole structure.  It reminds us of how God covers all of our needs, both spiritually and literally.  He provides a covering for us.  The covering of the blood of Christ.  That roof over our soul provides us salvation.  

We are also reminded to remember that God COVERED all of the needs of the people as they wondered through the wilderness in their temporary shelters.  They did not want for a thing because they had a mighty God looking after them.  Each night that they looked up through the covering of the roof and saw the stars of the heavens they were reminded of God’s provision for their every need.  We too, remember when we build and dwell inside our sukkah!

 There is SO much to learn from building the sukkah.  So much that it cannot be contained in this one little article.  I will be writing more on this subject of building and living in a sukkah as time goes on.  

Do you have all that you need for your sukkah?  The Feast of Tabernacles will be here before you know it!