Today marks the conclusion of what Jesus’ Jewish culture called The Great Feast. Also known as the Feast of Tabernacles, or Sukkot, a week-long celebration that coincides with the beginning of the harvest season.

God instituted this feast by a law given to Moses, described in Leviticus 23. The law required God’s people to set up and dwell in temporary shelters (sukkah) for a week each year. This week was to begin five days after Yom Kippur — the Day of Atonement.

In their temporary tabernacles, God’s people were to pray, eat festive food with family and friends, read God’s word, and be JOYFUL every day of the feast. No mourning was allowed; fasting was forbidden!

The Bible is laced with references to this feast. Even when not mentioned by name, this feast is a frequent backdrop for the life and teaching of Jesus.

The Feast of Tabernacles illustrates beautiful realities about God and his people.

God originally established this feast to commemorate the season when the Israelites lived in the stark wilderness, protected only by His faithful provision and Presence. God’s purpose was that they, and later generations, would never forget His covenant faithfulness and devotion to them there.

Above all, God wanted them to remember that WHY he commanded Moses to build a tabernacle:

Let them construct a sanctuary for Me, that I may dwell among them.

Exodus 25:8 (NASB)

This reveals much about God’s heart.

God didn’t want to be a God far off, but to share life with his people. They didn’t just need His watch care; they needed His Presence. He could have sent a cloud to shield them from the desert heat; instead He chose to be their shielding cloud. He could have provided light and fire for their dark, cold desert nights, but chose to be that warming fire and that light.

Concerning the Feast of Tabernacles, rabbinic sages teach that just as God left heaven and caused His Presence to dwell on earth in the midst of their camp, His people will show God that they also leave their homes and dwell with Him in the sukkah, the protective shelter of His faithfulness.

This is a lovely picture of how we meet with God by faith.

And if you take into consideration all of God’s original instructions, that meeting is meant to be characterized by joy and filled with God’s blessings.

Eliyahu Kitov writes of observant Jews:

“When Sukkos comes, and they leave the comfort of their homes to dwell in the shelter of the sukkah, it is then that they feel secure. Their hearts are filled with trust and joy, for they are no longer shielded by the protection of their own roof, but by the shelter of faith and trust in God. One who places his trust in the shadow of the wings of the Shechinah knows no fear at all.”

The Book of Our Heritage, page

For this reason their sages also call this festival the shelter of faith; it represents the shelter of protection provided by faith and trust in God.

What worshiping Jews celebrate for this one week of the year is a picture of what life in the heart is meant to be every day for the children of God who live by faith in Jesus Christ. We are safer in the shelter of God’s faithful love than anything the world offers.

As the Word of God says, God has chosen our hearts for His tabernacle!

For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, “I will dwell with them and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

(2 Corinthians 6:16, NASB)

Whatever else is going on outside, on the inside — where your life is shared with God — there should be joy, satisfaction, rest, devotion to God’s word, and continual communion with the amazing and gracious God who chooses to live there.

From heaven’s perspective, this world is a type of wilderness for God’s children. Our sojourn here is temporary while we travel towards a better place, a promised eternal home with God — our promised land.

But while here, dear Believer, your heart is God’s tabernacle, and His heart is your tabernacle.

Dwell in the shelter of His love, always, Beloved. I am absolutely convinced that this is God’s joy….

Tonia