|
| Life and Faith from a Messianic PerspectiveHome Articles Our Mission Resources Statement Of Faith Link To Us Newsletter Tell A Friend About Us Support Us Contact Us "Praise the Lord, all you nations; extol Him, all you peoples. For great is His love toward us, and the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever." - Psalm 117, NIV All contents copyright © 2001,2002, all rights reserved. |
Hag Sukkot/Tabernacle
by Rabbi Jack "Yaacov" Farber
The reading list for Sukkot is: Vayikra/Lev. 22:26-23:44; Bamidbar/Num. 29:23-31; Zekharyah/Zech. 14:1-21; Kohelet/Ecclesiastes 1-12; Hitgalut/Rev. 21:1-4. Need a testimony? Vayikra {23:41} You shall keep it a feast to HaSHEM seven days in the year: it is a statute forever throughout your generations; you shall keep it in the seventh month. {23:42} You shall dwell in booths (Sukkot) seven days; all who are home-born in Yisrael (Israel) shall dwell in booths; The words in this passage which caught my eye are: "all who are home-born in Yisrael shall dwell in booths;" If that is the case, why is Sukkot celebrated by Jews throughout the world? Why do they build Sukkahs, and eat and sleep in them if they are not native born Israelis. Why more importantly do we as Messianic believers, both Jew and non-Jew, build, eat and sleep in Sukkahs? After all we represent almost every country of the world; at least that is the case here at Melech Yisrael. I can not at this time explain why traditional Jew around the world celebrate Sukkot, but I do believe I understand why we as Messianic believers do and should celebrate it according to Scripture. First a few thing we need to get straight. Remember that following G-d’s instructions, Moshe gave this mitzvah (commandment) on Sukkot to a generation of people born in Mitzryim (Egypt). Therefore none of them would have qualified to celebrate Sukkot. More importantly we need to understand what the land of Yisrael represents. Yisrael is our (believers) land of promise, it is the culmination of our salvation, it is our land of milk and honey, our return to the Garden of Eden relationship with G-d. Every believer in Messiah Yeshua upon accepting Him as L-rd and Saviour has physically and spiritually crossed over the Jordan and has entered into Yisrael, G-d’s land of promise. We are tied to the land physically as part of the commonwealth and spiritually as part of the body of Messiah. Physically Yisrael is a piece of real estate chosen by G-d as the final abode of His people. It is a place where He will bless us with all physical blessings as we continue in His commandments. It is also the place where G-d had chosen to place His Name, particularly in the city of Yerushalyim (Jerusalem), from where spiritual blessing will emanate. Yisrael therefore represents the physical culmination of a process of sanctification which began for the Hebrews and for us in the wilderness. (see my previous teaching on Sukkot). Now let us look at the reason G-d gives for this mitzvah: Vayikra {23:43} that your generations may know that I made Bnei Yisrael to dwell in booths (Sukkot), when I brought them out of the land of Mizrayim: I am HaSHEM your G-D. {23:44} Moshe declared to the Bnei Yisrael the set feasts of HaSHEM. So Sukkot although it was not meant specifically for that generation, the mitzvah was given to them for a purpose. They need to be prepared to pass on the wilderness experience to their children, who were going to be born in the land. These children might not otherwise understand the process of sanctification. G-d has given us His plan of salvation in the feasts. If we have properly fulfilled our responsibility and celebrated each feast day according to G-d’s instructions then we have also communicated their significance to G-d’s sanctification process to our children. Children born in a saved community will not necessarily experience what the fist generation of believers experienced. In an ideal saved community, one G-d envisioned for us, children would have a relationship with G-d at a very early age. We see this often today in saved families. The children are born again, because of the teaching and environment in the home. Children who are saved at a very early age do not have any testimony. Their testimony is that they were reborn at the age of five and that they have always know the L-rd Yeshua as their Saviour. Well it is to this generation that G-d was referring, in giving instructions on the feast of Sukkot. These children who were born in the land (born in a saved environment) need to have a testimony, they need to know what salvation and sanctification is all about, they need to be able to relate to Mitzryim (sin) and they need to relate to Yisrael (the promise). Through salvation every person becomes part of Yisrael, we are either naturally born and repatriated or foreign born and grafted in, but which ever the case we have entered into the promise land. The existence of physical Yisrael today is our guarantee of that promise. Now it is our responsibility to pass on the wilderness experience of the Bnei Yisrael, which has become our wilderness experience to our children, so that it may become their wilderness experience. They were born in the land, born in an environment of promise. We have passed on the vision, they have received salvation, now they need a testimony, and the feast of Sukkot gives them one.Rabbi Jack "Yaacov" Farber is the spiritual leader of Congregation Melech Yisrael in Toronto, Canada. Copyright 2002
- Romans 1:16, NIV |