Sukkot

This year, in the Biblical Calendar – Tishrei 15, sometime in September or October,  Rabbinic Jews and Messianic Believers around the world will begin the eight-day celebration of the feast of Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles.  What a rich celebration is this.  There are two very significant purposes for this Festival: first, this is the commemoration of God’s tabernacling or dwelling with us in His Tabernacle, during the 40 year wandering through the wilderness, the exodus from Egypt, and His 33 year
tabernacling with us, as He walked the earth in human form.  However, there is a
prophetic future significance of this celebration.  This is the season when both Jews and Messianic Believers anticipate Adonai Yeshua will begin His Millennial Reign on earth.  Although we do not know the date when this will occur, we anticipate the season — Sukkot.  We find this festival ordained for us in Leviticus 23,34,36 – On the fifteenth day of this seventh month is the feast of Sukkot for seven days to ADONAI. . . on the eighth day you are to have a holy convocation and bring an offering made by fire to ADONAI ; it is a day of public assembly; do not do any kind of ordinary work.
Adonai Yeshua, the Lord Jesus, appeared in Jerusalem, during the Feast of Sukkot.  As Sukkot is also the celebration of the fall harvest, people would, and still do, gather in the streets, waving branches of myrtle, willow, date palm and the Etrog, a citrus-like fruit grown only in Israel.  Also during the Festival of Sukkot, the Temple priests would take a golden vessel to the pools of Siloam, gather from the pool mayim chayim, living water – water which had fallen as rain water and considered pure – and took it to the Temple.  Here the priest would pour out the water onto the altar, as an indication of our gratitude for the fresh water He supplies us as rain.  It was on this day, Adonai Yeshua said to the crowds of people gathered at the Temple, recorded in John 7:37,38, If anyone is thirsty, let him keep coming to me and drinking! 38 Whoever puts his trust in me, as the Scripture says, rivers of living water will flow from his inmost being!
How might you acknowledge Sukkot, as a follower of Adonai Yeshua, the Lord Jesus?  Physically, you might visit a local synagogue, tour their sukkah or three-sided booth, constructed of natural wood poles, pine boughs and produce from the fields.  The sukkah is three-sided to indicate its being open for hospitality; this is a fragile structure, signifying the temporary nature of our life here on earth and the fragility of human beings.  The roof of the sukkah is open to the elements, so we may gaze up to the stars and marvel at His creation.
If you are unable to visit a synagogue, Rabbinic or Messianic, you might take the time to reflect on the connections all Believers have to Adonai Yeshua, the Lord Jesus, on this very special Feast Day of the Lord.  Focus on His being the source of Mayim Chayim, Living Water, often referring to the Blessed Holy Spirit of our Living God.  May Adonai Elohim Tzivaot, Lord God of Hosts, bless you richly.