SUKKOT (III)

FROM YOM KIPPUR TO SUKKOT

According to tradition, Moses descended from Mount Sinai with the second set of tablets of the Law on the day of Yom Kippur (Atonement). On the next day, Moses gave them the instructions to build the Tabernacle (Heb. Mishkan). The materials needed to build it were gathered during the days that preceded Sukkot, and its construction began on the days that the feast was being celebrated.

Why was the Tabernacle built on the desert?

(Exodus 25:8) And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst.

God asked that they would build the Tabernacle to show the people a way to get back to Him. God wants to live among his People and to maintain a close relationship with them.

Scripture says that Jesus became flesh and lived (literally: “made tabernacle”) among us (John 1:14). He came to earth on His first coming and lived among men temporarily. But He will come back to live among us. On His second coming, he will not only live with us, but He will also be our King forever. For a thousand years we will be on this Earth, and then in a new earth for eternity (Rev. 21:1-4).

FEAST OF THE NATIONS

During the Millennium, all the nations will celebrate Sukkot (Tabernacles).

(Zechariah 14:16) Then everyone who survives of all the nations that have come against Jerusalem shall go up year after year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Booths.

There will be consequences for those who don’t honor the Lord during the Feast.

(Zechariah 14:17-19) And if any of the families of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, there will be no rain on them. (18) And if the family of Egypt does not go up and present themselves, then on them there shall be no rain; there shall be the plague with which the LORD afflicts the nations that do not go up to keep the Feast of Booths. (19)This shall be the punishment to Egypt and the punishment to all the nations that do not go up to keep the Feast of Booths.

70 NATIONS

During the Sukkot week, 70 bulls were sacrificed on the altar (Numbers 29:12-35). These offerings are connected to the 70 nations in which the Lord divides the world.

(Deuteronomy 32:8) When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God.

(Genesis 46:27) And the sons of Joseph, who were born to him in Egypt, were two. All the persons of the house of Jacob who came into Egypt were seventy.

(Exodus 1:5) All the descendants of Jacob were seventy persons; Joseph was already in Egypt.

When Salomon built the Temple in Jerusalem, he knew that people from other nations would also go there to worship the God of Israel. These were some of his words when Salomon inaugurated the Temple:

(1 Kings 8:41-43) Likewise, when a foreigner, who is not of your people Israel, comes from a far country for your name’s sake (42) (for they shall hear of your great name and your mighty hand, and of your outstretched arm), when he comes and prays toward this house, (43) hear in heaven your dwelling place and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to you, in order that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your people Israel, and that they may know that this house that I have built is called by your name.

The God of Israel is the God of all the Earth. He is YHWH, and there is only one.

CELEBRATION OF WATER

During the feast of Sukkot a ceremony was made with water known in Hebrew as “Simchat Beit HaShoeivah” (lit. rejoice in the house of the spilling of water). This ceremony was done every day during Sukkot, except on the first day.

A group of priests went out of the temple by the eastern gate and went towards the Motza valley. There they would cut several willow trees of at least 25 feet high. Then the priests had to take them to the Temple. Everyone would hold the trees by making a long file. On the way back, the people would go out to see the procession of priests bringing the willow trees.

On another end, the high priest would go out of the Temple by the Gate of Water, to head to the pool of Siloam (lit. living waters). From there he would draw living waters (Heb. mayim hayim) with a golden vase. Meanwhile, another priest would hold a silver vase full of wine.

As soon as the priests that brought the willow trees came back in their procession to Jerusalem, the priests that were in Siloam would join them, so that they would all enter the Temple together. When they all arrived at the Temple together, the shofar was blown.

By then, all the people were gathered on the courts of the Temple to presence the water ceremony. In that moment, everyone sang the song known as “Mayim” (lit. waters), from the text of Isaiah: “With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation” (Isaiah 12:3).

“Salvation” in Hebrew is “Yeshua”.

It is very likely that it was at this moment that Jesus (in Hebrew, Yeshua) said the following words:

(John 7:37-38) On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. (38) Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water’.

In the ceremony, the priests would place the willow trees around the Altar, as a kind of Sukkah. Then, the high priest would spill the water and the wine on the corners of the Altar.

RAIN

The ceremony of water had a meaning related to the harvests. The water is related to the rain, on which the agricultural production of Israel depends.

During the feast of Sukkot, the people of Israel ask God to send them water for the next harvest. On these days, the “early rain” began falling.

During the Millennium, the nations that don’t go up to celebrate Sukkot on Jerusalem will not receive rain from heaven.