Otherwise known as the Feast of Tabernacles, the Feast of Ingathering, or the Feast of Booths, Sukkot begins just five days after Yom Kippur. It is a seven-day period when the Jewish people recall God’s faithfulness and provision through their forty-year period of wandering in the wilderness.
They remember God’s provision of food, water, shelter, clothing, guidance, light, and heat during the wilderness years. During this week, each Jewish family lives in a small temporary dwelling (or booth) made of branches. At night, they look up at the stars and recall God’s promise to Abraham that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the heavens.
For me, this festival points directly to Yeshua. First, just as God provided for their physical needs in the wilderness, Yeshua is spiritual bread and water for all who believe in Him.
I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me will never go hungry, and he who believes in Me will never be thirsty.– John 6:35
Yeshua identified Himself as “the bread of life” and then pointed out, “Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is My flesh, which I give for the life of the world” (John 6:48-51).
A ceremony called Nissuch Ha Mayim (drawing of water) was carried out every day during Sukkot. The High Priest and his assistant drew water from the Pool of Siloam and poured out water and wine onto the altar of the Temple as the people sang “with joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation” (Isaiah 12:3).
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God said to the Prophet Zechariah, “Here is the man whose name is the Branch, and He will branch out from His place and build the temple of the Lord. It is He who will build the temple of the Lord, and He will be clothed with majesty and will sit and rule on His throne. And He will be a priest on His throne. And there will be harmony between the two” (Zechariah 6:12-13).
Jeremiah also anticipated this day:
In those days and at that time I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David’s line; He will do what is just and right in the land. In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. This is the name by which it will be called: The Lord Our Righteousness.
- Jeremiah 33:15-16
Clearly, these Prophets looked expectantly to the day when Yeshua our Messiah takes His throne in Jerusalem and assumes His position as Priest and King.
I am convinced this wonderful and glorious day is near.
