The Feast of Booths (Sukkot) is a harvest festival. Sukkot was a way of both looking back to remember God’s provision in the wilderness for forty years and also rejoicing in God’s goodness and blessing of the present harvest in the promised land. As a harvest feast, it reminds us of the Lord’s wonderful provision for our lives. One of the provisions from the Lord is His security when we are vulnerable.

In the wilderness, the Israelites appeared easily conquerable by the desert tribes living there, but the Lord was their secret weapon that guaranteed victory. As Israel was redeemed from Egyptian bondage by God’s power, so they are kept through the wilderness trials by God’s power. It is all the sovereign work of God. At Sukkot we are reminded of Passover, where we see the secret to enjoying both the sufficiency and security the Lord has for our lives. During Sukkot we are commanded to dwell in a booth or sukkah for seven days as a memorial. The booth pictures not only freedom from bondage, but also true security in God.

Today, in our ‘wilderness journey,’ reliance upon Him is still our hope and protection. Sukkot reminds us that the people of God can never live as if we could manage spiritually on our own (Leviticus 23:43). We need the Lord. He is our sufficiency. As illustrated in the wilderness, our protection is in the Lord, for He Himself is our booth. As John writes:  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:1, 14).

The Greek word used for “dwelt” among us is skeine, which is the verb form for the sukkah, alluding to Sukkot. Messiah appeared weak, frail, flimsy, just as a booth would appear. Little did people realize that beneath that ordinary exterior was the fullness of the omnipotent El Shaddai, God Almighty, the Holy One of Israel.

OUR COVERING

The word sukkah means to cover, as in protection. God’s hand was Moses’ sukkah in the cleft of the rock. When Moses asked the Lord to show him His glory, God said to Moses: Behold, there is a place by me, and you shall stand upon a rock: And it shall come to pass, while my glory passes by, that I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and will cover you with my hand while I pass by.” (Exodus 33:21-22)

Whatever victory king David achieved, he acknowledged that the Lord was a sukkah of protection in the battle. He praised God with this song of deliverance from Psalm 140:7, “O God the Lord, the strength of my salvation, thou hast covered my head in the day of battle.”

OUR PROTECTION

And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain. (Isaiah 4:2-6)

When the Scripture promises, “there shall be a tabernacle” that, too, is the sukkah. In the Kingdom, Messiah will be all the protection Israel or any nation will ever need. Our security is not found in our own abilities or possessions, but in Him, our Sukkah. Though to the world we may look weak and frail, in Messiah we are secure and strong. He will cover and protect us. Paul seems to hint at this very idea when he writes, Therefore if anyone is in Messiah, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. (2 Corinthians 5:17)

In Yeshua we are a new creation, but only in Him. Whether in war or wilderness, in Yeshua our Sukkah, and in Him alone, we are secure. God has fully provided our salvation and new life.

There is an additional reason God wants future generations to remember the wilderness experience. Sukkot testifies to the transitional nature of this world, and helps us remember the temporary nature of this life. There was no true rest in the wilderness. The booth itself had to be a temporary dwelling, we are to “dwell in a temporary abode” (Leviticus 23:42).

When you live in booths you testify to your neighbors that this world is temporary and is not your home; we are all just passing through. Whatever you and I own now will one day pass away. My certain hope is to one day be with God, in the true Promised Land of Heaven. Even the Patriarch Abraham had this hope.

By faith he [Abraham] lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise. For he looked forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. (Hebrews 11:9-10)

All of this present age (Olam HaZeh) is like the wilderness. Therefore, just as we were not to live as permanent residents of the wilderness, so let us not live as though this temporal world is our permanent home. Like Abraham, we also look forward to our heavenly home, which our Lord has gone ahead of us to prepare:

Yeshua said, “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” (John 14:2-3)

OUR ETERNAL SUKKAH

One day we will be in the very presence of the Lord, and still Sukkot will be pictured as the eternal hope of all who believe in Yeshua. There will be no more hunger, thirst, or weeping because “the Lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and will guide them to springs of the water of life; and God will wipe every tear from their eyes” (Revelation 7:17). Why will this be so fulfilling? We will be covered by “the Lord’s tabernacle [sukkah]” (Revelation 7:15). Every nation, tribe, people, and language will give honor and praise to Yeshua, the Lamb, the Lord of hosts, “when He comes, in that day, to be glorified in His saints and to be admired among all those who believe” (2 Thessalonians 1:10). This will happen because Messiah our Sukkah will dwell among us:

And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and be their God.” (Revelation 21:3)

As we anticipate Thanksgiving Day, let us be thankful for His protection and provision in all circumstances, and appreciate the covering He provides in all seasons of our lives.