Just wondering … Did you know that this past week, Jews around the world have been observing a holiday called Sukkot? If you’re like the vast majority of American Christians, I’m guessing probably not. And it saddens me to confess that for most of my Christian life, I would not have known either. I wouldn’t have recognized the name of the holiday, much less known what it was about or when it occurred. And the reason I didn’t know about it for so long is that for most of my life as a follower of Jesus, I knew very little about what the world He actually lived and ministered in was really like and/or the day-to-day impact of the culture He was a part of.  

Missing the Connection ~
Even though I had read and re-read everything in the Old Testament more times than I could possibly count, I didn’t know much at all about the customs and traditions Jews continue to observe even in our day that are rooted in those texts. The major feasts, festivals, and holidays Jews celebrate have been a part of their life in every generation for centuries. And Jesus, obviously being Jewish himself, observed them throughout His own life as well. If for no other reason, ignoring them and treating the lessons they teach as irrelevant is probably not a good idea from God’s standpoint.

So, I thought it might be beneficial to explore this Jewish holiday called “Sukkot” and see if we can discover a lesson or two that transcends the cultural divide between us and our Jewish neighbors. A good place to begin is to explain that the word Sukkot is the Hebrew word for “booths.” That helps us recognize the event because our English Bibles refer to it as the Feast of Tabernacles. God established this unusual celebration with the following declaration:

You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All who are native Israelites shall dwell in booths, that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God. (Leviticus 23:42–43 NKUV)

Not Our Kind of Celebration ~
So what could we as 21st Century American Christians who don’t happen to have an Exodus from Egyptian bondage in our national heritage learn from this strange kind of holiday? Even those of us who are camping enthusiasts might not consider spending a week outside under a bunch of tree branches to be particularly inviting. But though we don’t share the same heritage as our Jewish brethren, we serve the same God, and that prompts us to ask what might He have been revealing to them about Himself that would enrich our relationship with Him here and now? In response, a few suggestions come to mind . . .

• • The devil always endeavors to portray God as harsh, demanding, restrictive, and one who loves judgment. But the truth is that what God loves much more than judgment is joining His people in celebration of His joyful abundance. He didn’t command them to spend a week every year groveling in the dirt and grieving over every failure, every mistake, and every awful thing they did or wanted to do. But He did the exact opposite. He demanded that they spend a week rejoicing in the shelter of the nature He created and the abundance He provided. They were to remind themselves that our God delights in joyous, communal festivities that highlight His abundant provision. What a difference between Him and the grotesque, demanding, vindictive “gods” created by human hands and worshipped by their Egyptian masters. 
  • The children of Israel learned that hardship and inconvenience were a part of breaking free from slavery and leaving Egypt behind. But they could rejoice now in the memories, because when the hard times came, the One who broke the will of their oppressors and opened a path to their freedom through the midst of the Red Sea, remained with them through it all. Trials will always come, but when they do, the One who didn’t fail them then, will continue to provide what they need.
  • It was clear to those Jews in their little wilderness shelters that the God Who was leading them was a God intent on moving them forward, not leaving them stranded or condoning retreat. They may not have had Egyptian comforts and cuisine, but neither did they have chains and slavemasters, either. And we, as Christians today, can rejoice with them in knowing that though the food in our little tabernacles might not seem abundant at times, but the God who led the Jewish people through the trials and Who fulfilled His promise is still providing for us as well. They eventually declared that the One who brought them out was the One who brought them in to that land He promised. And what He did for them, He will do for us.
  • Life in those wilderness tabernacles demanded a lot, and two of the things it demanded are priceless qualities that we are in dire need of today. Tabernacle living demanded creativity and the capacity to separate necessities from preferences. It seems that every generation that has come along in the past hundred years is less able to tell the difference in those categories. Things that were once extravagant luxuries are now considered absolute necessities and without which, life cannot go on. Tabernacle living for us might affect certain kinds of decisions (like these) that we commonly make:
    
    • • Choosing which clothes to buy based more on fashion’s latest obsessions than actual quality, price, or practical function.  
      • Deciding which car to buy because of the brand’s connection with an ideological preference instead of its performance or reliability. 
      • Choosing which entertainers to support or movies to see based on the  political messages woven into a concert program or a movie’s plot. 
      • Deciding which restaurants are dining preferences because of the social class of their patrons rather than the quality or price of their food.. 
      • Letting the pressure to conform affect everything from hair styles, to phrases we employ in conversation, to our choice of dietary supplements. 

Sukkot might be a strange sounding word to those who are not Jewish, and it might represent an even stranger way to conduct a celebration, but the Living God saw an opportunity in it, and He insisted that His people engage in it through a very specific frame of mind: 

You shall observe the Feast of Tabernacles seven days, when you have gathered from your threshing floor and from your winepress. And you shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant and the Levite, the stranger and the fatherless and the widow, who are within your gates. Seven days you shall keep a sacred feast to the Lord your God in the place which the Lord chooses, because the Lord your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you surely rejoice. (Deuteronomy 16:13–15 NKJV)

So, even though we might choose to sleep inside tonight, let’s remember the promise Jesus made to all who would believe in Him and rejoice that He’s constantly fulfilling that promise every day. Eternal life and the abundance it brings were secured forever when the morning sun illuminated His empty tomb . . . and inside or out, that’s something to celebrate every day.

“TWEETABLES” ~ Click to tweet and share from the pull quotes below.  Each one links directly back to this article through Twitter . . .

• • Though we don’t share the same heritage as our Jewish brethren, we serve the same God, and that prompts us to ask what might He have been revealing to them about Himself that would enrich our relationship with Him here and now? @GallaghersPen (Click here to Tweet)  
  • The Jewish people could rejoice in the memories because when the hard times came, the One who broke the will of their oppressors and opened a path to their freedom through the midst of the Red Sea remained with them through it all. @GallaghersPen (Click here to Tweet)
  • The God who led the Jewish people through the trials and fulfilled His promise is providing for us as well. They eventually declared that the One who brought them out was the One who brought them in to the land He promised. What He did for them, He will do for us. @GallaghersPen (Click here to Tweet)  
  • Tabernacle living for the Jews demanded creativity and the capacity to separate necessities from preferences. It seems that every generation that’s come along in the past hundred years is less able to tell the difference in those categories. @GallaghersPen (Click here to Tweet)
  • Sukkot may be a strange sounding word to those who aren’t Jewish, and it might represent an even stranger way to conduct a celebration, but the Living God saw an opportunity in it, and He insisted that His people engage in it in a very specific mindset. @GallaghersPen (Click here to Tweet)  

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