Yahweh says that three times a year all the males of Israel are to appear before Yahweh. We find that Yahshua the Messiah kept the Feast of Tabernacles and that on the last day of the Feast he even stood up and taught. Sukkoth is an important time for Yahweh’s people because it is a time when we are separate from the world dwelling together in temporary dwellings. Many consider Sukkoth, pronounced sook-kaw, a mirror of the coming millennium under the rule of Yahshua the Messiah. The eighth day of the feast is to be kept as a solemn assembly. The eighth day may represent the time when New Jerusalem will come out of the heavens setting up the Kingdom of Yahweh on earth.
Yahshua Kept the Feast of Tabernacles
The most convincing example that the feast is to be kept today is that Yahweh’s Messiah Yahshua kept the feast through out his life. Yahshua even tells his disciples to be open and show their works openly so that the Brethren at the feast would not think that they were being deceptive. In John 7:2 we find that it was the time of the Feast of Tabernacles. In verse 8 of John 7 we find that Yahshua sent the disciples and that he would follow later. He knew that the Jews would be looking for him. In verse 10 of John 7 we find that Yahshua went to the feast secretly. The Jews of his day searched at the feast and didn’t find him.
In the middle of the feast Yahshua began to teach and the people were amazed that he knew the scriptures so well and yet had no formal background in the Biblical Law. (John 7:14-15) Yahshua explained that what he taught was not his own word but the word of Yahweh. (John 7:16-36) Yahshua must have healed some of those at the Feast of Tabernacles on a Sabbath day because he defends the healing as doing good on the Sabbath to his Brethren. The Pharisees say that it is all right for a man to be circumcised on the Sabbath. Yahshua said that healing is doing good and that it is also acceptable on the Sabbath. This amazed the many that watched because even the Pharisees wouldn’t lay hands on Yahshua to take him off to trial. On the eighth day of the feast, the last great day, Yahshua asked everyone that believed him to follow him. (John 7:37-38) He blessed them saying, “out of His belly shall flow rivers of living water.” (John 7:38, John 6:35)
And Yahshua said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. (John 6:35)
Since they knew that Yahshua lived and came from Galilee they had division among themselves even though Yahshua was born in Bethlehem and is a descendent of David. (Micah 5:2, John 7:42) Nicodemus was put down and called Galilean because he said that it is unlawful to judge a man with out first hearing him. John wrote it was not yet Yahshua’s time to be impaled. Yahshua was not impaled until the evening of Passover. Yahshua’s sacrifice has given us the opportunity for salvation.
The Feast of Tabernacles as Yahshua spent it is a time of learning and edification of the body of Messiah. Yahshua kept the feast perfectly quoting the scriptures as a professor of the law. The scholars marveled at this and the people had never heard a common man teach from the law the way Yahshua did. Yahshua wasn’t a common man and as the people listened many started to believe that he was truly the Messiah. We are also to learn at the feast following Yahshua’s footsteps. Ezra and Nehemiah rebuilding Jerusalem after spending generations in Babylon were finally given the opportunity worship Yahweh.
Post Babylonian Feasts
Ezra and Nehemiah returned to rebuild Jerusalem but they had to start by rebuilding the people’s faith to Yahweh. Ezra was a great scribe of Yahweh and returned to Israel to teach the people of Yahweh’s laws. Ezra 3 verses 1 through 5 we find that the priesthood began offering burnt sacrifices and the people started to keep Yahweh’s laws once again just as Moses wrote. The construction of the temple was delayed because the adversary was strong and the nations around Israel plotted to cause all kinds of confusion. When Darius became king he looked at the historical record and found that Cyrus made a decree that Israel was to be left alone so that they could build the Temple of Yahweh. (Ezra 6:3) Darius also ordered that the gold and treasures taken from Solomon’s temple were to be returned. (Ezra 6:5)
In the sixth year of Darius the House of Yahweh was finished. (Ezra 6:15) Israel dedicated the temple to Yahweh with much excitement and joy.
When the wall was complete we find that Ezra stood up with chief men of the families before the people to read the law. (Nehemiah 8:1-8) On the first day of the seventh month, Feast of Trumpets, the people heard the law and it was interpreted for them and they wept. (Nehemiah 8:9) The people were told not to weep because it was a Holy Day of Yahweh. Since it was the Feast of Trumpets the people were told to go eat the fat and drink the sweet and send portions to those that didn’t have anything prepared. (Nehemiah 8:10) The congregation was told not to be sorrowful because the joy of Yahweh is their strength.
The next day after Trumpets the people returned for more scripture and understanding. Once again the chief fathers of all the people, the priests, and the Levites returned and taught more from the law of Yahweh which was commanded to Moses. (Nehemiah 8:13) They also understood that they should keep the feast of Sukkoth. So they built booths to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. They made the booths out of olive branches, pine branches, myrtle branches, palm branches, and branches of thick trees as it is written in Leviticus 23:40. This was an exciting time for Israel. Nehemiah wrote that the feast had not been kept this way since the time of Joshua the son of Nun. (Nehemiah 8:17) There was great gladness because of this return to Yahweh.
Also day by day, from the first day unto the last day, he read in the book of the law of Elohim. And they kept the feast seven days; and on the eighth day was a solemn assembly, according unto the manner. (Nehemiah 8:18)
The fathers of Israel read the law to the people. It had been so long since they were able to listen freely to Yahweh’s law and the beauty of the scriptures. Every seven years, the sabbatical year, at the Feast of Tabernacles we are to read the law among the congregation just as Israel did after their return from Babylon.
And Moses commanded them, saying: “At the end of every seven years, at the appointed time in the year of release, at the Feast of Tabernacles, “when all Israel comes to appear before Yahweh your Elohim in the place which He chooses, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing. “Gather the people together, men and women and little ones, and the stranger who is within your gates, that they may hear and that they may learn to fear Yahweh your Elohim and carefully observe all the words of this law, “and that their children, who have not known it, may hear and learn to fear Yahweh your Elohim as long as you live in the land which you cross the Jordan to possess.” (Deuteronomy 31:10-13 NKJV)
This may take quiet a few days but when you listen to the law being read it leads to further understanding. Moses wrote in Leviticus the command to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.
Tabernacles Commanded by Yahweh
Moses writes that Yahweh spoke to him saying that in the fifteenth day of the seventh month shall a Feast of Tabernacles be kept. (Leviticus 23:33-34) This pilgrim-feast is to be kept for seven days. Verse 35 says that the first day is to be a holy convocation on which we will do no servile work. The eighth day is to be a holy convocation also but it is also to be a solemn assembly on which not servile work is to be done. (Leviticus 23:36) A solemn assembly is a sacred or festive meeting. The eighth day is set apart from the rest of the feast as the last holy day of the Biblical year and the seventh holy day of the year.
And Yahweh spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the feast of tabernacles for seven days unto Yahweh. On the first day shall be an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein. Seven days ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto Yahweh: on the eighth day shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto Yahweh: it is a solemn assembly; and ye shall do no servile work therein. These are the feasts of Yahweh, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, to offer an offering made by fire unto Yahweh, a burnt offering, and a meat offering, a sacrifice, and drink offerings, every thing upon his day: Beside the sabbaths of Yahweh, and beside your gifts, and beside all your vows, and beside all your freewill offerings, which ye give unto Yahweh. Also in the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when ye have gathered in the fruit of the land, ye shall keep a feast unto Yahweh seven days: on the first day shall be a sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a sabbath. And ye shall take you on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook; and ye shall rejoice before Yahweh your Elohim seven days. And ye shall keep it a feast unto Yahweh seven days in the year. It shall be a statute for ever in your generations: ye shall celebrate it in the seventh month. Ye shall dwell in booths seven days; all that are Israelites 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 Yahweh your Elohim. And Moses declared unto the children of Israel the feasts of Yahweh. (Leviticus 23:33-44)
We find that feast is to be a joyous time. This would be a time when the honey and the fruit of the trees would be brought together for a sweet harvest. Also wine and fruits of the vine would be fermented. As we read in Nehemiah the fat could be eaten during this time. This is truly a feast both for the spiritual body as well as the physical body. Tabernacles is called the Feast of Yahweh in Judges 21:19 and a feast unto Yahweh in Leviticus 23:39.
In Exodus 23:13 we find that we are not to mention the names of other deities during the feasts. Yahweh says three times a year all males to appear before Yahweh El. (Exodus 23:14, 17, Deuteronomy 16:16) Solomon kept the Feast of Tabernacles and offered offerings three times a year. (II Chronicles 8:12-16, I Kings 9:25)
Tent or Booth
There is a small controversy over whether the children of Israel stayed in booths or tents while they were in the wilderness. This is an interesting study because the current sukkah according to Judaism is built by specific dimensions and is covered with branches. The following is taken from the Encyclopedia Judaica under the topic Sukkah:
Details of the sukkah’s construction are discussed in the talmudic tractate Sukkah. According to Bet Shammai (whose ruling is here accepted, Maim. Yad, Shofar, Sukkah ve-Lulav, 6:8), the sukkah must be large enough to contain a man’s head, most of his body, and his table (Suk. 2:7), an area defined as seven handbreadths square (Sh. Ar., OH 634:1; Yad, loc. cit. 4:1; for a conical or circular shaped sukkah, see Suk. 8a). The height of the structure must not be less than ten handbreadths, nor more than 20 cubits (Suk. 1:1; see also Weights and Measures). The most important section in the construction of the sukkah is the roof made of covering known as sekhakh. The sekhakh must be cut from that which grew in the soil and which is not susceptible to ritual impurity (Suk. 1:4; 9b; Rashi, ad loc.; Yad, loc. cit. 5:1). An overhanging tree, for example, in invalid as sekhakh (Suk. 1:2). The sekhakh must be so arranged that the shaded area within the sukkah will exceed the unshaded (Suk. 9b—10a; Sh. Ar., OH 626:1). Any material may be used in the construction of the walls (Suk. 1:5), at least two of which must be complete, while the third may be partial (Suk. 6b; Yad, loc. cit. 4:2; Sh. Ar., OH 630:2). It is particularly meritorious to begin construction of the sukkah at the conclusion of the Day of Atonement (Isserles to Sh. Ar., OH 625:1). Despite the opinions quoted in the Jerusalem Talmud (Ber. 9:4, 14a, and see also Rashi to Mak. 8a), no benediction is said on the construction of the sukkah because the biblical commandment is fulfilled by “dwelling” in it and not in its construction (Sh. Ar., OH 641:1).
This is interesting because the Feast of Tabernacles is to remind us of the forty years that Israel spent in the wilderness and that it was Yahweh who brought His people out. (Leviticus 23:42-43)
And the children of Israel shall pitch their tents, every man by his own camp, and every man by his own standard, throughout their hosts. (Numbers 1:52)
And when the cloud was taken up from the tabernacle, then after that the children of Israel journeyed: and in the place where the cloud abode, there the children of Israel pitched their tents. (Numbers 9:17)
The word for tent in both of these verses is Strong’s number 2583 for the Hebrew word chanah which means to set up a camp. This is not the same Hebrew word ‘ohel used in the following verses and means tabernacle, tent, and dwelling. (Strong’s number 168)
So they gat up from the tabernacle of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, on every side: and Dathan and Abiram came out, and stood in the door of their tents, and their wives, and their sons, and their little children. (Numbers 16:27)
And ye murmured in your tents, and said, Because Yahweh hated us, he hath brought us forth out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us. (Deuteronomy 1:27)
One school of thought is that the branches mentioned in Leviticus 23:40 are actually used as a structure to form the cloth or fabric into a tent while others believe that the branches constructed the whole booth. Most sources including the Encyclopedia Judaica teach that the Children of Israel went through the wilderness in tents. When we look at the word sukkah used in Leviticus 23 that was translated booth (Strong’s number 5521) we find that it is a thicket or booth defined by OBH Lexicon as a rude or temporary shelter.
The temporary shelter definition seems to be what was used in Nehemiah 8:15 but the scripture doesn’t give specifics on exactly what was built. In Isaiah 1:8 the translators translated sukkah as a cottage. A sukkah is defined to have been made from branches whether fabric was used or not. We know that a sukkah is a temporary dwelling. Keeping the feast in a temporary dwelling harmonizes the points that are discussed here.
Conclusion
Yahweh’s feasts are wonderful. We must separate ourselves from this world and come together as a family under Messiah. The Feast of Tabernacles is a time when those who as Yahshua said thirst for the word come to be fed. The Feast of Tabernacles is a time when we are to be thankful and enjoy the feast that Yahweh has given us to keep. This is a feast where we are all together mindful of each other working together for Yahweh. Yahweh’s blessings and protection are upon you when you are at the feast.
Unity and true peace is impossible in this world with out the return of Yahshua. Sukkoth is a feast where we can learn to live in harmony practicing for the coming Kingdom of Yahweh. Every feast is different because the new brethren and sisters that come in add to the body. The Body of Messiah is made up of many different parts. Each part being equal except the head which is Messiah.
I pray that each Feast of Tabernacles is better for both your spiritual and physical body. We are getting closer each day to the return of Yahshua the Messiah and we must always be striving to become better servants of Yahweh. The feast represents a continued growth in knowledge, love, and truth. The knowledge, love, and truth will be needed if we are to live harmoniously in the Kingdom of Yahweh.