By Rabbi Eric carlson

The Festival of Sukkot begins on Tishri 15, the fifth day after Yom Kippur. It is quite a drastic transition from the most solemn feast in the Biblical year (Yom Kippur) to the most joyous. Sukkot is frequently translated "The Feast of Tabernacles". Sukkot commemorates the forty-year period during which the children of Israel wandered in the desert, living in temporary shelters. Sukkot is also a harvest festival, and is sometimes referred to as Chag Ha-Asif, the Festival of Ingathering.

The festival of Sukkot is instituted in Leviticus 23:33-37 “The LORD spoke to Moshe, saying, Speak to the children of Yisra'el, saying, On the fifteenth day of this seventh month is the feast of Sukkot for seven days to the LORD. On the first day shall be a holy convocation: you shall do no servile work. Seven days you shall offer an offering made by fire to the LORD: on the eighth day shall be a holy convocation to you; and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the LORD: it is a solemn assembly; you shall do no servile work. These are the set feasts of the LORD, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, to offer an offering made by fire to the LORD, a burnt offering, and a meal-offering, a sacrifice, and drink-offerings, each on its own day” It is common practice, and highly commendable, to decorate your sukkah with seasonal decorations celebrating the harvest and God’s provision in the desert for 40 years. In the United States dried squash, corn, colorful fall foliage, grape, and pumpkins are used to decorate the sukkah. When seeing a decorated sukkah for the first time, Americans remark on how much a decorated sukkah reminds them of the American Holiday of Thanksgiving. The early settlers of America who began the Thanksgiving tradition were a deeply religious people. The looked to the Bible for a way express their gratitude to God for their bountiful harvests and their survival of another year. They based their early thanksgiving celebrations in part on the Biblical Holiday of Sukkot.

Bible historian Alfred Edershime recorded what a fantastic celebration Sukkot was in Jerusalem. Four great oil lamps several stories tall were placed through Jerusalem. These lamps were tended by young men lit all night long as the Children of Israel danced and worshiped before God around the clock for 7 days! This was not a secular party, but praise worship before the Holy One of Israel!

The Torah also commands the lifting of the Lulav: "You shall take... the beautiful fruit (Esrog/Citron, similar to a lemon)), a palm frond (Lulav), myrtle twigs and willow branches of the stream -- and rejoice for seven days before the Lord your God." (Leviticus 23:40) To fulfill this command, all the branches are bound together (the two willows on the left, one palm branch in the center, and three myrtles on the right). You hold the bundle in your right hand, and then lift them together with the Esrog. You then gently wave them all together, three times in each direction: To the East, then North, then West, then South, then up and down while saying the following blessing:

"Baruch ata Adonoy, Elo-heinu Melech ha'olam, asher kid'shanu bi'mitzvo-sav, vi'tzivanu al ni-tilas lulav."

Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the Universe, who sanctified us with His mitzvot, and instructed us to raise up the Lulav.

The Messianic significance of Sukkot.

Exactly six months after John the Baptist was conceived, Mary conceived Yeshua:

(Luke) 1:5-6, 23-33 5 In the days of Herod, King of Y’hudah, there was a cohen named Z’kharyah who belonged to the Aviyah division. His wife was a descendant of Aharon, and her name was Elisheva. 6 Both of them were righteous before God, observing all the mitzvot and ordinances of Adonai blamelessly. 7 But they had no children, because Elisheva was barren; and they were both well along in years”.

The eighth course of Aviyah, when Zekharya was ministering in the temple, was the week of Sivan 12 to 18 (Killian n.d.). Using the calculation for a normal pregnancy, forty weeks, we see that John the Baptist was born at approximately the time of Passover (Nisan 14).

Lets pick back up in Luke 1:23

23 When his period of his Temple service was over, he returned home. 24 Following this, Elisheva his wife conceived, and she remained five months in seclusion, saying, 25 Adonai has done this for me; he has shown me favor at this time, so as to remove my public disgrace.” 26 In the sixth month, the angel Gavri<el was sent by God to a city in the Galil called Natzeret, 27 to a virgin engaged to a man named Yosef, of the house of David; the virgin’s name was Miryam. 28 Approaching her, the angel said, “Shalom”, favored lady! Adonai is with you!” 29 She was deeply troubled by his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 The angel said to her, “Don’t be afraid, Miryam, for you have found favor with God. 31 Look! You will become pregnant, you will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Yeshua. 32 He will be great, he will be called Son of The Most High, God, will give him the throne of his forefather David; 33 and he will rule the House of Ya‘akov forever—there will be no end to his Kingdom.”

So, six months after John the Baptist is born, Yeshua was born. Therefore, since John was born on Passover, Six Months later Yeshua would be born on approximately the 15th day of the seventh month Tishri. The 15th day of the seventh month is Sukkot, or the Feast of Tabernacles. Yeshua was born on Sukkot, not in December! Read with me from John 1:14 The Word became flesh and tabernaled (sukkah) among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” God’s Son was born in a sukkah, or the Greek word is Tabernacle, of which Manger is the Old English word for Tabernacle. This was God’s plan from the beginning of time. The Lord moves mightily on His Holy Convocations, or Feast Days! Let’s read on, there’s so much more!

The second letter of the Hebrew Alphabet is the letter beit b, which literally means "house”. Notice how this letter looks like a sukkah! Our Father desired a dwelling place with us, here on Earth! The Torah begins with the Hebrew word B’resheet / hycarb (In the beginning). The Word B’resheet begins with the Hebrew letter “Beit” b. This humble beginning in the Torah is a prophetic vision of God’s plan of Salvation through the Tabernacle (Sukkah). Exodus 25:8 states "They shall build me a Temple and I will dwell in them." Not "in it," the ancient Jewish Sages explain, but "in them", you, I, and every child of God! In the first letter of the first word of the Torah, B‘resheet hycarb, the three "servant" letters (the first letter beit"b and the two suffix letters (or the second to last and last Hebrew letters), yud y and tav t) spell the Hebrew word bayit hyb, or literally "house". The root letter of "B’resheet,"(The second letter) rosh r, means "head." This takes us to the most natural transmutation of b’resheet is: rosh bayit, "the head of the house" who is God, He is the Head of the House! God’s plan as outlined in the first letter of the Torah and the purpose of the Torah is to construct a heavenly Sukkah! God’s dwelling place for us to enter into! Read these scriptures with this new revelation:

II Corinthians 5:1-5 We know that when the Tabernacle which houses us here on earth is torn down, we have a permanent building from God, a building not made by human hands, to house us in heaven. For in this tabernacle, our earthly body, we groan with desire to have around us the home from heaven that will be ours. With this around us we will not be found naked. Yes, while we are in this body, we groan with the sense of being oppressed: it is not so much that we want to take something off, but rather to put something on over it; so that what must die may be swallowed up by the Life. Moreover, it is God who has prepared us for this very thing, and as a pledge he has given us his Spirit.

Psalm 15:1. A Psalm of David. Lord, who may abide in Your tabernacle? Who may dwell in Your holy hill? Psalm 27:5. For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion; In the secret place of His tabernacle He shall hide me; He shall set me high upon a rock.

Psalm 43:3. Oh, send out Your light and Your truth! Let them lead me; Let them bring me to Your holy hill And to Your tabernacle.

Now, let us go one step further and see God’s complete plan of Salvation in this beginning of the Torah and Sukkot! When a line or gate is added to the letter beit, it becomes like that of the 13th letter of the Hebrew alphabet, the letter “Mem” m. A “Beit” b with a gate! In Hebrew the letter “Mem” m stands for water (mayim). Mem symbolizes the fountain of the Divine Wisdom of Torah, the River of Life! The living water! The Hebrew words for complete “echad”, and love “ahavah” both equal thirteen! Yeshua, the gate or entry way to our Father’s house in Heaven, Father’s dwelling place, Father’s Sukkot, is our river of life. Yeshua said He is the living water! He is Echad (complete) with the Father and is divine Love (ahavah)! In John 14:6 “Yeshua said, “I AM the Way—and the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father except through me’”. Yeshua is the gate to the heavenly Sukkah! Read with me in John 7:37-38 “Now on the last day of the festival (Sukkot), Hoshana Rabbah , Yeshua stood and cried out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him keep coming to me and drinking! Whoever puts his trust in me, as the Scripture says, rivers of living water will flow from his inmost being!” And we also see the final visions of God’s tabernacle in Revelation 21:1-8 1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth are passed away; and the sea is no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven of God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of the throne saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he shall dwell with them, and they shall be his peoples, and God himself shall be with them, [and be] their God: and he shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death shall be no more; neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more: the first things are passed away”

Sukkot will be celebrated by all, Jew and Gentile, in the Messianic Age after Messiah Yeshua returns the second time as we see in Zechariah 14:16-18 “And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. And it shall be that whichever of the families of the earth do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, on them there will be no rain.

Fathers House is the Heavenly Tabernacle and Yeshua is the gate, the door. Not enters to Father but through the Blood of Yeshua! The Festival of Sukkot is God’s teaching to us of His salvation for us, of His Son Yeshua, and His provision for us always! As the scripture states, these are Holy Convocations, Rehearsals of Yeshua’s return for us!