It's very interesting when we read the Parasha for Sukkot to see that it not only contains the commandment to honour this feast, but it also includes all the other feasts. It begins with the Shabbat, then it moves through the spring feasts concluding with the final feast of Sukkot. What is G-d showing us here? At first reading I wasn't quite sure, but as I read and re-read it became a little more obvious. Hashem has given us His redemption process for man in this parasha, through these appointed times.

The process all starts with Shabbat. Shabbat is the day the L-rd wants us to lay down our burdens and rest in Him. The Shabbat is our island in time where we can relax and remove the heavy yoke of our daily problems and place them on the L-rd's shoulders. That is why Yeshua called Himself the "L-rd of the Shabbat."

He is our rest and He instructs us in: Matthew11:29-30 "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." Do you recognize why Shabbat is the first feast? Why the L-rd placed it before all the other feast day? Firstly because it's the only feat that we are instructed to observe each and every week.

Second, G-d knew that if we couldn't get this one right, if we couldn't honour the Shabbat by taking one day of our week to rest in Him and worship Him, then there's no need to go on. Without the weekly observance of the Shabbat, the rest of the feasts become meaningless to us. So let's assume we're all honouring the Shabbat and go on to review the process G-d has laid out for us in His feast days.

The second feast is Pesach (Passover). It's the day the death of a lamb substituted for the first born of the children of Israel. The blood of this lamb was applied on the door post of each Israelites home. Every house that had the blood applied to it was exempt from the judgment of death. It's by the blood of the Lamb that we too are now saved. The third feast is Hag Ha Matzoth (Unleavened Bread). On this day the children of Israel were redeemed from Egypt by the outstretched hand of the L-rd. They were commanded to eat matzoth for seven days. Have you every look at a matzoth? It's a thin, large cracker made without yeast. It's stripped in appearance, bruised by pock marks (the result of exploding air pockets when it's baked), and it's pierced all over, to insure that it will not rise. Sound familiar? The prophet Isaiah told us in 53:5-6: "But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. 6-All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." This matzoth rep represents Yeshua who is our bread of life.

The forth feast is First Fruits. It's on First Fruits that the children of Israel offer up the best of their Spring harvest to the L-rd. Yeshua is the first fruits of the resurrection.

Fifty days later we celebrate the Feast of Shavuot. It was on Shavuot, rabbis say Moshe received the Torah on Mt. Sinai. It was also no Shavuot, better know to most as Pentecost, that the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit), was poured out on all flesh, and the Torah was written upon our hearts. Jeremiah31:31-33 "Behold, the days come, saith the L-RD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the L-RD: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the L-RD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people." Shavuot ends the spring feasts and as well the first half of G-d's redemptive process.

Then comes the Fall feasts of Rosh Hashanah/Yom Teruah, Yom Kippur.

If you've been following my monthly news letters you will understand that Rosh Hashanah/Yom Teruah is a picture of the rapture, while Yom Kippur is a picture of the second coming of Messiah Yeshua His return inaugurates the establishment of His Kingdom on earth and the and the final judgment, where He separates the sheep from the goats (the righteous from the wicked). Thus ends our redemptive process.

Saved by the blood, feed by the Bread of Life, filled with the Ruach HaKosesh, raptured to be with the L-rd in heaven, returning with the L-rd in our glorified bodies to rule and reign with Him. So where does the final feast fit in?

What is the significance of Sukkot also know as Tabernacles? Sukkot commemorated our desert experience, The trip we each took from slaves of sin to freedom in the L-rd. It's a time set aside for us to take seven days to meditate on where we began our trip in this redemptive process and how we finally arrived. Each and everyone of us have had a desert experience, the redemptive process was not an easy journey.

Sukkot is the feast set aside for us to remember those experiences. Leviticus23:42-43 "Ye shall dwell in booths seven days; all that are Israelites born shall dwell in booths. That your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the L-RD your God." The living in booths is not to remember the Exodus itself, but rather to remember our wilderness experience and the process of sactification (from sinner to saint). It's a time of thanksgiving and will be a perpetual reminder of what the L-rd has done for us. I say perpetual because even during the Millennium Kingdom, Sukkot will be celebrated as a reminder for us and those who will be inhabiting the earth at that time, of what the L-rd has done for us.

Zechariah14:17-18 "And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain. 18-And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, that have no rain; there shall be the plague, wherewith the LORD will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles." Shalom Alechem!

Rabbi Jack "Yaacov" Farber is the spiritual leader of Congregation Melech Yisrael in Toronto, Canada.

Copyright 2002