Welcome to House of Israel’s
Sukkoth Service
Thank you for joining us.
A Word about the Annual Moadim
The Difference between a Moed and a Chag
Moed = Appointed Time, appointment
Chag = Pilgrimage (Festival), to dance,
celebrate
There are 3 annual Chaggim,
but 7 annual Moadim
The So-Called "Seven Festivals of Messiah."
Pesak (Passover)
Chag HaMatzah (Unleavend Bread)
Bikkurim (First Fruits)
Chag Shavuot (Feast of Pentecost)
Yom Teruah (Feast of Trumpets)
Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement)
Chag HaSukkot (Feast of Tabernacles)
The "Seven Festivals of Messiah."
This is a misnomer based on a
misunderstanding of the Hebrew term chag.
Actually, as anyone can see by reading through
Vayiqra 23 and its parallel in Devarim 16,
there are only three annual chags (pilgrim
feasts) while there are seven annual set apart
appointment days of worship.
The Three Biblical Feasts
Feast of Unleavened Bread
Feast of Pentecost
Feast of Tabernacles
The Seven Annual Holy Days
1st, 7th day of 1st month, 50th day of
counting, 1st, 10th, 15th, 22nd day of 7th
month
Chag HaSukkot
The Feast of Tabernacles
The Time of Our Joy
*Introduction to the Feast of Tabernacles
*Do Only Native Born Israelites Need to Live in Booths?
*Why Dwell in Booths?
*What Do We Bring to the Feast?
*What are the Four Items Mentioned?
*What Is the Atmosphere For This Feast?
*Has There Been a “Fulfillment” of Sukkot?
*What Does the Feast of Sukkot Foreshadow About Our
Future?
Introduction to the Feast of Tabernacles
Yehovah said to Mosheh, "Say to the sons of
Yisrael: 'On the fifteenth day of the seventh
month Yehovah's Feast of Tabernacles begins,
and it lasts for seven days. The first day is a set
apart proclamation (miqra qodesh); do no
regular work (melachah). For seven days
present offerings made to Yehovah by fire, and
on the eighth day hold a set apart proclamation
and present an offering made to Yehovah by
fire. It is the closing proclamation; do no
regular work. (Leviticus 23:33-36)
So beginning with the fifteenth day of the seventh
month, after you have gathered the crops of the
land, celebrate the pilgrim feast of Yehovah for
seven days; the first day is a day of rest
(shabbaton), and the eighth day also is a day of
rest (shabbaton). On the first day you are to
take choice fruit from the trees, and palm
fronds, leafy branches and poplars, and rejoice
before Yehovah your Elohim for seven
days. (Vayiqra [Leviticus] 23:39-43)
Do Only Native Born Israelites Need to
Live in Booths During the Festival of
Succoth?
42
Live in booths for seven days: All native-born
sons of Yisrael are to live in booths (Vayikra
[Leviticus] 23)
Read inclusively, not exclusively
Were all those who lived in booths in the
wilderness native-born Israelites? What about
the mixed throng? The Egyptians who joined
them?
There is one Torah for the native born and for the
alien.
Why Dwell in Booths?
Celebrate this as a pilgrim festival to Yehovah for
seven days each year. This is to be a lasting
ordinance for the generations to come;
celebrate it in the seventh month. Live in
booths for seven days: All native-born sons of
Yisrael are to live in booths so your descendants
will know that I had the sons of Yisrael live in
booths when I brought them out of Mitzrayim. I
am Yehovah your Elohim. (Vayiqra [Leviticus]
23:39-43)
The Exodus
During the night Pharaoh summoned Mosheh and
Aharon and said, "Up! Leave my people, you and the
sons of Yisrael! Go, worship Yehovah as you have
requested. Take your flocks and herds, as you have
said, and go. And also bless me." The Mitzrites urged
the people to hurry and leave the country. "For
otherwise," they said, "we will all die!" So the people
took their dough before the yeast was added, and
carried it on their shoulders in kneading troughs
wrapped in clothing. (Shemot 12:31-37)
The Exodus
The sons of Yisrael did as Mosheh instructed
and asked the Mitzrites for articles of silver
and gold and for clothing. Yehovah had made
the Mitzrites favorably disposed toward the
people, and they gave them what they asked
for; so they plundered the Mitzrites. The sons
of Yisrael journeyed from Rameses to Sukkoth.
There were about six hundred thousand men
on foot, besides women and children. (Shemot
12:31-37)
The Hebrew word sukkot is the plural form of
the word sukkah, (Hebrew, hK'su ) which
means a thicket, a booth made of interwoven boughs. This booth could be a
shelter in the field for cattle, a shelter for
workers in the field at harvest time, or for
men in battle, or a shelter from the sun.
Live in booths (Heb. tKoïSu or "sukkot") for
seven days: All native-born sons of Yisrael
are to live in booths so your descendants
will know that I had the sons of Yisrael live
in booths when I brought them out of
Mitzrayim. I am Yehovah your Elohim.'"
(Vayiqra 23:42-43)
By day Yehovah went ahead of them in a pillar
of cloud to guide them on their way and by
night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so
that they could travel by day or
night. Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor
the pillar of fire by night left its place in
front of the people. (Shemot 13:21-22)
In all the travels of the sons of Yisrael,
whenever the cloud lifted from above the
tabernacle, they would set out; but if the
cloud did not lift, they did not set out-- until
the day it lifted. So the cloud of Yehovah
was over the tabernacle by day, and fire was
in the cloud by night, in the sight of all the
house of Yisrael during all their travels.
(Shemot 40:36-38)
Take up your stake and follow me
Greek stauros, stake, pole “cross”
Chag HaSukkot lasts for seven days. But an
additional day following the feast is another setapart day. This last day is an tr<c,ä[]
(pronounced atzeret), which is usually translated
as assembly. But this word comes from the root
word rc[; which means to restrain, to detain,
to retain.
While this day does include an assembly for the
purpose of miqra (proclamation), the word
atzeret is referring to the need to be detained for
yet one more day of worshipping Elohim. It is
like a bookend, marking the end of the festival
season.
What Do We Bring to the Feast?
So beginning with the fifteenth day of the
seventh month, after you have gathered the
crops of the land, celebrate the pilgrim feast
of Yehovah for seven days… (Leviticus 23:39)
Three times a year all your men must appear
before Yehovah your Elohim at the place he
will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread,
the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of
Tabernacles. No man should appear before
Yehovah empty-handed: Each of you must
bring a gift in proportion to the way Yehovah
your Elohim has blessed you.(Deut 16:16-17)
Be sure to set aside a tenth of all that your fields
produce each year. Eat the tithe of your grain,
new wine and oil, and the firstborn of your
herds and flocks in the presence of Yehovah
your Elohim at the place he will choose as a
dwelling for his Name, so that you may learn to
revere Yehovah your Elohim always.
Deut 14:22-23
But if that place is too distant and you have been
blessed by Yehovah your Elohim and cannot
carry your tithe (because the place where
Yehovah will choose to put his Name is so far
away), then exchange your tithe for silver, and
take the silver with you and go to the place
Yehovah your Elohim will choose.
(Deut 14:24-25)
Use the silver to buy whatever you like: cattle,
sheep, wine or other fermented drink, or
anything you wish. Then you and your
household shall eat there in the presence of
Yehovah your Elohim and rejoice. And do not
neglect the Lewites living in your towns, for
they have no allotment or inheritance of their
own. (Deut 14:26-27)
What Is the Atmosphere For This Feast?
We are to Rejoice at this Feast
“The Time of our Rejoicing”
Hebrew xm;f', (samach)
Celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days after
you have gathered the produce of your threshing
floor and your winepress. Be joyful at your Feast-you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and
maidservants, and the Lewites, the aliens, the
fatherless and the widows who live in your
towns. For seven days celebrate the Feast to
Yehovah your Elohim at the place Yehovah will
choose. For Yehovah your Elohim will bless you in all
your harvest and in all the work of your hands, and
your joy will be complete. (Deut 16:13-15)
17
You must not eat in your own towns the tithe of
your grain and new wine and oil, or the firstborn of
your herds and flocks, or whatever you have vowed to
give, or your freewill offerings or special gifts.
18 Instead, you are to eat them in the presence of
Yehovah your Elohim at the place Yehovah your
Elohim will choose-- you, your sons and daughters,
your menservants and maidservants, and the Levites
from your towns-- and you are to rejoice before
Yehovah your Elohim in everything you put your hand
to. (Deuteronomy 12)
A Look into Our Future: Isaiah 30
27 See, the Name of Yehovah comes from afar, with
burning anger and dense clouds of smoke; his lips are
full of wrath, and his tongue is a consuming fire.
28 His breath is like a rushing torrent, rising up to the
neck. He shakes the nations in the sieve of destruction;
he places in the jaws of the peoples a bit that leads
them astray.
29 And you will sing as on the night you celebrate a holy
festival; your hearts will rejoice as when people go up
with flutes to the mountain of Yehovah, to the Rock of
Yisrael.
What are the Four Items Mentioned?
So beginning with the fifteenth day of the
seventh month, after you have gathered
the crops of the land, celebrate the pilgrim
feast of Yehovah for seven days; the first
day is a day of rest, and the eighth day also
is a day of rest. On the first day you are to
take choice fruit from the trees, and palm
fronds, leafy branches and poplars, and
rejoice before Yehovah your Elohim for
seven days. (Vayiqra [Leviticus] 23:39-43)
The instruction is to take choice fruit from
the trees, and palm fronds, leafy branches
and poplars, and rejoice before Yehovah
your Elohim for seven days. Literally, the
Hebrew of this verse reads, "take fruit of
ornamented (plump, swollen) trees, palms
of palm trees, and branches of leafy trees,
and poplars of the wadi, and rejoice
before Yehovah....“ (Lev 23:39)
The Rabbis call the four items named above
"the four species." The choice fruit from the
trees they interpret to be etrog (citron,
similar to a lemon). The palm fronds they
identify as lulav. The leafy branches they
represent by the chadasim (myrtle). And the
poplars of the wadi they represent by the
aravot (willows). These four species are
collectively represented by the Etrog and the
Lulav (see picture).
The Celebration After Returning from Exile
On the second day of the month, the heads of all the
families, along with the priests and the Levites,
gathered around Ezra the scribe to give attention
to the words of the Law. They found written in
the Law, which Yehovah had commanded through
Mosheh, that the sons of Yisrael were to live in
booths during the feast of the seventh month and
that they should proclaim this word and spread it
throughout their towns and in Yerushalayim:
The Celebration After Returning from Exile
"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 booths"- as it is written. So the people went out and
brought back branches and built themselves
booths on their own roofs, in their courtyards, in
the courts of the house of Elohim and in the
square by the Water Gate and the one by the
Gate of Ephraim.
The Celebration After Returning from Exile
The whole company that had returned from exile
built booths and lived in them. From the days of
Yehoshua son of Nun until that day, the sons of
Yisrael 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
Elohim. They celebrated the feast for seven days,
and on the eighth day, in accordance with the
regulation, there was an assembly. (Nehemiah
8:13-18)
Has There Been a “Fulfillment” of Sukkot?
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among
us. (Yochanan 1:14, NIV)
The phrase, "made his dwelling" is actually a
translation of the Greek word, skay-no-o, which means
"to tabernacle." Skay-no-o translates into Greek the
Hebrew word, sukkah, which means "tabernacle," or
"temporary shelter." Young's Literal Translation
accurately renders this verse:
And the Word became flesh, and did tabernacle
among us.
Luke 2:1-7
In those days Caesar Augustus issued a
decree that a census should be taken of the
entire Roman world. (This was the first census
that took place while Quirinius was governor of
Syria.) And everyone went to his own town to
register. So Yoseph also went up from the town
of Nazareth in Galilee to Yehudah, to Bethlehem
the town of David, because he belonged to the
house and line of David.
He went there to register with Miryam,
who was pledged to be married to him and
was expecting a child. While they were
there, the time came for the baby to be
born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a
son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed
him in a manger, because there was no
room for them in the inn.
Luke 2:8-14 And there were shepherds living out
in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their
flocks at night. An angel of Yehovah appeared to
them, and the glory of Yehovah shone around
them, and they were terrified. But the angel said
to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news
of great joy that will be for all the people. Today
in the town of David a Savior has been born to
you; he is Messiah the Master. This will be a sign
to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and
lying in a manger."
Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host
appeared with the angel, praising Elohim and
saying, "Glory to Elohim in the highest, and on
earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."
When the angels had left them and gone into
heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let's
go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has
happened, which Yehovah has told us about." So
they hurried off and found Miryam and Yoseph,
and the baby, who was lying in the manger.
The word manger is the Greek word phatnay. It
is the same word translated as "stall“ or “stable”
in Luke 13:15, where Yeshua answered the
Pharisees,
"You hypocrites! Doesn't each of you on the
Sabbath untie his ox or donkey from the stall
(Gr. fa,tnh ) and lead it out to give it water?"
It is obvious that both of these passages are
referring to the shelter where animals are kept.
The Hebrew term for stall or stable is succah.
Genesis 33:17
Ya'akov, however, went to Sukkoth, where he
built a place for himself and made shelters
(Hebrew, sukkot, which is the plural of sukkah)
for his livestock. That is why the place is called
Sukkoth.
The baby was laying in a sukkah! Why?
What Does the Feast of Sukkot Foreshadow
About Our Future?
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for
the first heaven and the first earth had passed
away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the
Holy City, the new Yerushalayim, coming down
out of heaven from Elohim, prepared as a bride
beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard
a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the
dwelling of Elohim is with men, and he will live
with them. (Rev 21:1-5)
They will be his people, and Elohim himself
will be with them and be their Elohim. He
will wipe every tear from their eyes. There
will be no more death or mourning or crying
or pain, for the old order of things has passed
away." He who was seated on the throne
said, "I am making everything new!" Then he
said, "Write this down, for these words are
trustworthy and true.“ (Rev 21:1-5)
The Greek word employed here (in Rev 21)
which is translated dwelling is skhnw,sei ,
pronounced skay-no-sai. This word is
defined by Thayer as "to fix one's tabernacle,
have one's tabernacle, abide (or live) in a
tabernacle (or tent), tabernacle." And yes,
this Greek word corresponds to the Hebrew
word sukkah. Literally, it reads, "the
tabernacle of Elohim is with men."
When are the New Heavens and the
New Earth?
1. First, the New Yerushalayim is compared to a
"bride beautifully dressed for her
husband." But we also know that the
marriage supper of the Lamb occurs at the
beginning of the Messianic Age about the
time of the coming of Messiah to the Mount
of Olives.
2. Second, the "dwelling of Elohim" is with
men and "he will live with them" when the
Messiah sits on the throne of David in
Yerushalayim to reign over the whole
earth. This, again, takes place at the
beginning of the Messianic Age, when
Messiah touches down on earth.
3. Third, this time of the new heaven and
new earth is the time for the "old order of
things (to) pass away."
Repent, then, and turn to Elohim, so
that your sins may be wiped out, that
times of refreshing may come from
Yehovah, and that he may send the
Messiah, who has been appointed for
you-- even Yeshua. He must remain in
heaven until the time comes for Elohim
to restore everything, as he promised
long ago through his holy prophets.
(Acts 3:19-21)
The day of Yehovah will come like a thief. The
heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements
will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and
everything in it will be laid bare. Since
everything will be destroyed in this way, what
kind of people ought you to be? You ought to
live holy and godly lives as you look forward to
the day of Elohim and speed its coming. (2
Kepha 3:10-13)
That day will bring about the destruction of the
heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in
the heat. But in keeping with his promise we are
looking forward to a new heaven and a new
earth, the home of righteousness. (2 Kepha
3:10-13)
Feast of Tabernacles is a remembering of
Yehovah dwelling among men.
Feast of Tabernacles Forshadowed and was
fulfilled by “The Word becoming flesh and
tabernacling among us.”
Feast of Tabernacles pictures the future
Messianic Age when our Elohim will live among
us.