The Feast of Tabernacles is celebrated for seven days by building a booth, or sukah, in the back yard or on a balcony—anywhere outdoors where you can view the sky through the branches placed as a roof on the temporary shelter. Israel was commanded to celebrate it every year and a warning of judgment was given for those nations that wouldn’t celebrate it: no rain was to fall on them. Zech. 14:16-17.
We have celebrated this feast every fall for the last 20 years and find it to be a great time for family to gather and share God’s faithfulness. It is a time to think about how God has blessed through the year. This year we even had a basket of vegetables on the table in our sukah that we had grown in our small garden. We talked about how the Israelis had to live in booths like this for 40 years as they wandered in the wilderness after believing the bad report of 10 spies who had checked out the land promised to them by God. We tried to imagine what it must have been like to live day and night in a booth like this. We also talked about how this flimsy, temporary shelter is a picture of our physical bodies that we will shed some day when we receive our heavenly bodies and live in eternity with our heavenly Father.
After taking meals and even sleeping in a sukah for seven days, the eighth day is called Simchat Torah, which means Joy of the Torah. On this day, the most joyful day of the year, the Jews finish reading the Torah for the year by reading Deut. 33:1 through Deut. 34:1. They also begin reading the Torah for the coming year by reading Gen. 1:1 through 2:3. This is considered the most joyful day of the year because the Torah is life! We could learn much from the Jewish perspective of reverence for the Word! Big celebrations are set up throughout Israel on Simchat Torah—all centered on celebrating the Torah. Circle dances to lively music fill the parks and families joyfully gather to honor the Torah.
As Believers in Yeshua, this day ought to be our day to celebrate the Living Torah and declare all that He has done in setting us free from sin. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Let’s celebrate true life in Yeshua. Happy Feast of Tabernacles and Simchat Torah.
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