Teachings
Feasts of the Lord
The Holiday of Sukkoth
Yaakov, Béla Orbán
For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens … Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. (2Cor. 5:1.9)
Sukkot: The Feast of Booths, Feast of Tabernacles and the Feast of Ingathering.
Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle, who shall dwell in thy holy hill? (Ps. 15:1)
We received from the Everlasting God all the yearly holidays and we finally arrived at the seventh, the last one, which is the most spectacular and joyful feast in its external appearance.
If we look at the past, we can thank the Lord for having led His Choosen People through their desert wanderings with much love, goodness and dedication. It is in memory of that protection that the Jews build temporary tents today, and in accordance with the Torah live in them and remember that event with joy.
Concerning the present, we are grateful again that God has blessed this year’s harvest which was rich and abundant. And because of this abundance, we can see that the pilgrims hurried up to Jerusalem to bring cheerfully their offerings and their tithes in front of God.
When those faithful ones reached the destination of their pilgrimage, they constructed their homes in temporary tents as near as possible to the Temple. And the maximum walking range on the shabbat of 2,000 cubits (3,049.5 feet, 0.596 miles (960 meters)) was not only a known law, but gave the disciples the possibility to spend more time with God instead of having to think about distances and travels to do.
The construction of the tents still remains the key motif of the holiday, not only for the Jewish pilgrims, but also for the Christian ones.
May these constructions made by the Choosen People also serve as an example to everyone. It was after the Covenant and the giving of the Torah that the construction of the Temple was undertaken.
In our personal life if we accept God – as revealed through Yeshua HaMashiach, who perfectly lived according to the Laws and ordinances, we enter the covenant with God when we repent and are born again.
After that the temple of Yeshua HaMashiach is built up in our hearts, above all soul and flesh.
This order (that is the conversion, the rebirth followed by the giving of the Holy Spirit who builds this Temple) cannot and should not be modified. Because without the Law and the Covenant, we remain simply religious, like Balaam, and will only admire from a distance the multitude of tents in Jerusalem.
The reason why many people and many assemblies remain outside is because they reject the Law, gather around others and build their tents and their cities around another person but not Yeshua.
When somebody tries to build towers or cities instead of tents, he is similar to Cain, the builders of the tower of Babel, Babylon and Egypt, and all those who acted in the same way. Everyone who builds and puts himself in the centre of everything is like Amalek.
And concerning the distribution of the tents, it is a „foreigner”, Balaam, who gives us some information:
1. Israel settled in the desert
2. By clans
3. Under the protecting wing of God’s Spirit
1. During our life as a disciple, we often forget that our stay on earth is just temporary. How many times have we tried to make our tents more comfortable, more luxurious?
2. How many Christians do not know their roots, their identity and their calling? Instead of settling at the feet of Christ, they submit themselves to some sort of „chief”, a pastor or a congregation. Thus they become simple doormen instead of levites who serve at the altar, and dishwashers instead of serving with songs.
Yet there is order with God. He is the One who wants to restore the identity of today’s Jews. Consequently, He will bring them out from the assemblies which deprive them of their identity, and will place them into the environment and calling that He has determined for them.
3. I wish that Balaam’s third prophecy were also true today.
Instead of having a protecting cover, we are more likely to have a kind of stifling sheet under which we are suffocating. Theology, dogmatics, philosophies and many other sciences weave themselves above our heads like spiderwebs, methods, which hinder us from seeing our sins.
Prostrating himself before God and worshipping Him at the sight of the tents, we can hear from the mouth of Balaam: „How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel!”. Also today, when a Jewish man enters a synagogue, he worships the Lord with these words. This is the praise which expresses the abundance, the wealth and the certainty. Where have these words disappeared from the doors of our assemblies?
It is also interesting to say a few words about the arrangements of those tents.
When Israel built those tents, they constructed them with only three walls. On today’s sukkas, we still cannot find any door. Despite of that, no inhabitant could look into the tent of his neighbour, since the arrangement was made such that no open wall would ever face another open wall. The tents were arranged in a simple 90 degrees’ rotation.
Nowadays the assemblies need to become aware again of the need for such an arrangement.
The fact that we belong to a „tribe”, a congregation, does not prevent us from living independent lives! A Christian community is not a mass shelter, a fire station dormitory or an overcrowded hospital. This community should be a camp composed of living tents which are spiritually and physically independent from each other. Those tents should in the same way be open towards each other even if their ministry, their calling, their services and their way are the same.
This arrangement around the sanctuary is still valid for today.
The Body of Christ is composed of equal members who have a different calling and Balaam saw something similar on that day from the hills of Jerusalem. The picture of people who camp around Golgotha, with Yeshua in their midst already in Jerusalem, who have eternal life already here on earth, but still travel on the narrow road.
But after we have learned about the arrangements, the multitude and the order of the tents, we have to mention the one Tent which we must absolutely enter.
We so often declare that we want to live in the presence of God. But when do we really approach Him?
David gives us the answer in Psalms 15:1-2:
”Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill? He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart.”
He that walketh uprightly:
According to the Bible, the way of God (Ps.31), the Law of God (Ps.19), the perfection of the Father (Matth.5:48), the perfection of the Master (Luk.6:40), the Lord’s will (Rom.12:2), He had made us the gift of the perfect High Priest in the person of His Son (Heb.2:23).
Although the list is far from being exhaustive, it is very obvious that everything that comes from God is not only good but perfect too. Above all, perfect is the One who was sent for us, was crucified and who rose again, and who has completely won the victory: Yeshua HaMashiach.
Perfect is also the work of the Holy Spirit who leads us into all truth.
The bond which ties us perfectly together is the love (Col.3:14) that God showed to us by sending Yeshua HaMashiach who by living in us is the only One who can unite us.
We walk in perfection if Yeshua’s spirit lives in us. This love should be above all spiritual or physical desire in our lives and in our assemblies.
He that worketh righteousness :
Let’s finally get rid of the „truths” which are often defined and enforced upon us by ourselves, by our Church, by our assemblies or even by other people. Some words of the Bible show the truth: the word of the Lord (1 Ki.17:20), His judgement, His ways, the acts of His hands are faithfulness and rightousness, and everything He says is true.
The work of the truth can be seen in our lives:
Righteousness and peace kiss each other; (Psa. 85:10), the truth will set you free (Joh.8:32), In the way of the righteousness there is life. (Pro.12:28), Righteousness guards the man of integrity (Pro.13:6).
This lifts us up, strengthens and fills us with peace. This is the strenght and the inheritance of God’s servants; an armour which protects, comforts and sets free (John 3:32): The Comforter is the Spirit of Truth, who corrects (us), who is a weapon and whose fruit is the light.
He speaketh the truth in his heart:
The mouth of a righteous man is a well of life, (Pro.10:11)
The tongue of the just is as choice silver, (Pro.10:20)
the righteous doth sing and rejoice. (Pro.29:6)
The above gifts are the results of the spiritual condition, when the newborn disciple gives his life to Yeshua HaMashiach and serves Him. And this is when the theorical Christian becomes a spiritual Christian and begins to live.
Translated from hungarian by Richard (Zeev Shlomo)
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