Today begins the third fall feast in the month of Tishri, the Feast of Tabernacles. Also called the Feast of Booths or Feast of Dwelling, it is a seven-day feast celebrating God's love and provision. As a "season of joy," this feast is a reminder of how the Israelites lived in booths, or tents, for forty years in the wilderness after their release from Egyptian captivity (Leviticus 23:42-23). God provided all they needed—cloud cover by day, fire by night, manna, and water. The Feast of Tabernacles is a week of celebration during which the Jewish people travel to Jerusalem and live in temporary tents that symbolize God as their permanent shelter. Today, booths, or sukkots, are built at home in backyards to honor the feast. They are decorated with flowers and plants and include a table inside where families and friends can spend time eating together and in fellowship during this week of Sukkot.
The Feast of Tabernacles is a prophetically unfilled feast that will be fulfilled at the End of Days when God tabernacles on earth with His people (Revelation 21:3). This will begin the 1,000-year reign of Yeshua on earth and a long Sabbath rest for the earth (Revelation 20:6).
This feast is a feast of sevens. It is the seventh feast, occurring in the seventh month. It is a seven-day outdoor celebration, and it is connected to the seventh day of creation and Sabbath rest.
Other important aspects of Sukkot include:
Day one and day eight are Sabbath days of rest. They are both national holidays in Israel.
We should bring an offering to the Lord during this feast. God's people were commanded not to come empty-handed (Deuteronomy 16:16-17).
This feast honors the end of the harvest season. God's people should pray for rain for the following year's harvest.
This past Saturday, October 12, 2024, was Yom Kippur. The last day of the High Holy Days from Rosh Hashanah and the end of the 40 days of teshuvah that began on Elul 1. This Yom Kippur was arguably the most important in modern times. Currently, families hang in the balance. Churches hang in the balance. States hang in the balance. Nations hang in the balance. Yom Kippur is known as the day God closes the books of life and death and renders verdicts of judgment from His courts. People and nations are weighed in the balance. Those who are found wanting will suffer judgment; those seen as righteous will be protected.
How does all this relate to the Feast of Tabernacles?
We are in a very serious time in the United States and the world. The church of Jesus Christ is in a very serious time of shaking. Families and individuals are being judged and shaken. Because of the verdicts that have been rendered from the Courts of Heaven, we will see things upon the earth that will shake us and cause us to fear. As God's verdicts are rendered and manifested, things will shake and topple. There will be exposures where things hidden in darkness now come to light. In Proverbs 3:21, 25-26, God tells us to never lose sight of His wisdom and stay calm. There is no need to be afraid of sudden disaster or worry when calamity strikes the wicked. For the Eternal is always there to protect you. He will safeguard your each and every step (Voice). Our God is always there to protect us. No matter what our eyes see in this time, we can live under the shelter in the sukkot of the Most High.
This time is like the time described by the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 4:4-6.
4Â When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and purged the bloodshed of Jerusalem from her midst, by the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning, 5Â then the Lord will create over the entire area of Mount Zion and over her assemblies a cloud by day, and smoke, and the brightness of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory will be a canopy. 6Â And there will be a shelter to give shade from the heat by day, and refuge and protection from the storm and the rain (NASB).
God is washing away the filth of His Church, and He is purging all things. He is using the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning. The spirit of judgment is for the wicked. Those who have not surrendered their lives to Him in dependence and intimacy. The spirit of burning is for those who are His children and His disciples to take us through the refiner's fire to purge us of anything that would keep us from being able to carry His glory and fulfill our destiny. Both are in operation at this hour. God promises His children and true disciples to be a canopy of glory over us. He promises to be our shelter and refuge to protect us from the storm.
The word shelter in Isaiah 4:6 is the same word represented here at the Feast of Tabernacles!
shelter- çukkâh (H5521) thicket, covert, booth, hut or lair; from çôk (H5520) thicket, lair, covert, booth; from çâkak (H5526) to hedge, fence about, shut in, to block, overshadow, stop the approach, cover, protector, to weave together; to entwine as a screen, to fence in, cover over, protect.
When we are in God's shelter, we are covered, protected, and shut in from the outside forces. His shelter stops the enemy's approach!
We can go one step deeper into the Hebrew letters. Remember, you often want to use the deepest root of the word to look at the letters.
Çâkak is comprised of the Hebrew letters shin (300) and kaf (20). Shin means to devour, to consume, to destroy, eat, something sharp, to press. Kaf means to cover, allow, to open, strength, to bend the will; it is a picture of the open hand of God and a wing.
As we look at these meanings of the Hebrew letters, we see that when we are under the shelter of the Most High God we are under His covering. His hand and wings of protection are over us. Psalm 91 describes the kaf. The shin looks like fire. God's shelter becomes a hedge of fire around us that keeps us from being consumed and destroyed by the enemy. No matter what we see happen to the wicked as judgment falls in this hour, we can stay under God's shelter of protection. Notice the kaf also means to bend the will. To be sheltered under the hand of God, we must be in a posture of humility and submit our will to His. God will not protect those who are in pride and rebellion. Pride and rebellion are what God is judging in this hour. The pride of man will fall, and those standing upon their own strength and ways will crumble to dust. Some will crumble unto salvation and rebirth. Others to total destruction.
God is saying to His people during this week of the Feast of Tabernacles: rejoice and celebrate, for you are covered by Me! But judge yourself, so you will not have to be judged alongside the wicked and prideful (1 Corinthians 11:31).
Go read Psalm 91 in light of this awesome feast! God is our tabernacle, He is our shelter, and we are covered under His wings during these times of shaking.
Blessings,
Brandee