When Yeshua was on earth, perhaps the most dramatic and gigantic of the Lord’s Feasts was Sukkot (meaning “Booths,” or “Tabernacles”). Each family would live in a temporary dwelling (or sukkah) to remember and relive God’s protection over them while they wandered in Egypt. But as this eight-day festival was one of three “pilgrim feasts” where all able Israelites were to “appear before the Lord” in Jerusalem, other Sukkot traditions developed for the Holy Temple in the city. One such ceremony involved massive “Golden Candlesticks.”

On the first day of Sukkot, seventy-five-foot high candlesticks with four bowls and giant wicks each were erected in the Court of the Women, where the treasury was located. Remember the treasury, where the widow put her “mite”? The Court of the Women was a place that gave access to all who desired to enter and experience the joy of Sukkot.

We read in the Talmud that the light from those huge candles was reported to “light all the courtyards of Jerusalem!” Young men would climb up several ladders to light the candle wicks, which were made from old priestly garments. At the base of the candles,

Men of piety and good deeds would dance before them with lighted torches in their hands, singing songs and praises. Levites without number with harps, lyres, cymbals trumpets and other musical instruments were there upon the fifteen steps leading down from the Court of the Gentiles to the Court of the Women (Sukkah 51).  

These celebrations would continue for the full seven days; then the lights were extinguished on the eighth day for a holy and solemn assembly (Leviticus 23:36).
Since Sukkot is a harvest festival (23:39), the question might arise: Why did they light these great candles, dancing and rejoicing around them in the Temple? The prophets help us understand its meaning.  

The prophet Zechariah forever identified Sukkot with the kingdom reign of the Lord, as a time that all the nations, “will go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to celebrate the Feast of Booths” (Zech. 14:16). We don’t know everything we will be doing in the Kingdom when Messiah reigns from Jerusalem, but we do know that we will be celebrating the Feast of Booths.

As Sukkot was a harvest celebration, so Zechariah teaches that it points to the future when the nations will be as a great harvest of King Messiah.
But what do the candlesticks have to do with the kingdom? Looking to that day, the prophets explain,

No longer will you have the sun for light by day, Nor for brightness will the moon give you light ... For you will have the Lord for an everlasting light, And the days of your mourning will be over (Isa. 60:19-20; Zech. 14:6-7).

In the New Covenant, John makes mention of these prophecies looking to the eternal period when the Lord Himself is our everlasting light (Revelation 21:23; 22:5). In traditional Judaism, this future time is simply referred to as “the world to come” (olam haba) and “the days of Messiah.”

The True Light
We see in those candles the expectation of a time where there will be no other light but the Lord’s. Messiah will be the only light for Israel eternally. The kingdom to which Sukkot points is a time when we will no longer walk in the darkness of sin and spiritual corruption. Rather we will walk in the gladness, salvation, and freedom of the Lord’s light.

Moreover, the Messiah of Israel was to go out into the nations of the world!

It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also make You a light of the nations So that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth (Isaiah 49:6).

Thus the rabbis also consistently saw Messiah as the true light of God. I’ve included just a few for our understanding.

"In thy light we see light" What is this light which the congregation of Israel looks for? That is the light of Messiah, as it is said, ‘God saw the light and it was good.’ (Peskita Rabbati, 161a-162b)
 
God replied: ‘No, only until the sun appears’ (ib), that is, till the coming of the Messiah; for it says, But unto you that fear My name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in its wings (Malachi 3:20). (Exodus Rabbah 31:10)

Let the righteous rejoice in the building of Thy city and the establishment of the temple and in the exalting of the horn of David Thy servant and the preparation of a light for the son of Jesse Thy Messiah. (Berachoth 29a)

At Sukkot, Yeshua went up to the Temple (John 7:3, 37-39; 8). At that time, the pilgrims who attended Sukkot from around the world had been celebrating joyously for seven days, and now had come to the 8th day: the solemn assembly. The lights from the candles now extinguished, the Temple was dim.

It was then and there that Messiah spoke to them. John is careful to note the location, “These words He spoke in the treasury, as He taught in the temple” (John 8:20). There, by the great, extinguished candles, at the treasury in the Court of the Women, he declared,

“I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life” (John 8:12).

Messiah is the Light.

1. He is the Personal Light of God. By saying, “I am...” He indicated that He alone is the revelation of God’s glory.

2. He is the Perpetual Light of God, as Yeshua professed to be the only inexhaustible source, or “Light of life,” of spiritual nourishment. The candlesticks were to be extinguished after the feast, but His light would remain.

3. He is the Perfect Light of God, “the Light” by which eternal direction could be established for our lives, so that we might not “walk in the darkness.”

4. He is the Pure Light of God, the clarification of God and truth, the genuine light by which truth and falsehood can be distinguished (John 1:9).

5. He is the Powerful Light of God, “the Light of the world,” able to make the difference for everyone. Regardless of culture and heritage, all people need His light.

This light must be applied! Marriages need spiritual insight; child-rearing needs discernment; businesses need enlightened standards; and in this world of temptations we need spiritual guidance. In anticipation of His glorious Kingdom, may you have the light of life. This feast of Sukkot may you live out His kingdom, shining the light of Messiah in a darkened world.

Finally, Messiah told us we need to pursue the light, he who follows Me, that is, apply the light and use it in our lives. You can have light and not use it.  It is said of the blind musician, Ray Charles, that he lives in his home without ever turning on the lights.  Only when sighted friends come over does he ever use the lights.  You see, one can tell the blind from the sighted not by those who have lights, but by those who actually use them!  Many homes have Bibles, but who actually reads them?  Many have heard of Messiah, but who actually follows Him?  He is the only light worth following.

So, if you have the light, turn it on! Appreciate the light- He alone is the light of the world.  Appropriate the light- have the light in your soul by trusting in Yeshua! And finally, apply the light- by following Yeshua daily you will never walk in darkness, but have the ‘Light of Life."

More on the Feast Days

Word from the Word

Previous Month

Home