Who doesn’t like camping out? How would you like 40 years of camping out? That’s what our ancestors did when they came out of Egypt. And now there’s an appointed time for us to commemorate both this event and future prophetic events by camping out for a week. In addition, there might have even been a famous birth during this time about 2000 years ago.
Join us in this teaching as we learn all about this appointed time of Sukkot, also known as the feast of tabernacles, from scripture. Join us as we learn the truth: the God Honest Truth.
Transcript
So this teaching is going to be all about the Festival of Sukkot and if this is your first time learning or trying to celebrate Sukkot, this teaching is all for you. You can learn more about it, what it is, how to celebrate it, all that good stuff coming right up. Now like always, if you happen to miss something or you need to go back and review something, the best way to do that is through the post on our website at GodHonestTruth.com.
Click on the post for Sukkot and it will have the on-demand video, it will have the Draw Garage slides that you’re seeing on your screen right now, and it will also have the notes that we took for this subject right there so that you can do your own research and your own study even further than this. And also the scriptures and links and stuff like that are provided for you in the notes as well. Now, of course, the easiest way to get to this post is to click on the link in the description down below, and that link in the description is provided in both the video formats and also on the audio podcast formats as well, so it’s available no matter how you’re learning this teaching.
Now, during this teaching, we’re going to be going over some terminology. We’re going to be looking at Sukkot and the Tanakh, when it was instituted, where it occurs, all that good stuff. We’re going to be looking at Sukkot and Yeshua and the Brit Hadashah, looking at how Sukkot fits in with the future and future prophecies. We’re going to give you something to think about related to Sukkot, and then we’re going to go over some ways that you yourself can apply Sukkot to your current lives and how you can celebrate or observe Sukkot today.
So, to start out this teaching, we’re going to go over some terminology and lay a foundation so that you can better understand what we’re talking about when we go through the scriptures. First of all, the Festival of Sukkot is known by several different names. In English, it’s known as the Feast of Tabernacles, the Feast of In-Gathering. You actually see this in scripture. Some people also call it the Feast of Shelters or Festival of Shelters, and the Festival of Booths, and this Festival of Booths phrase is also found in scripture.
It’s also known by some Hebrew phrases as well. Of course, Chag HaSukkot, and also Chag HaAsif, and both of these terms are found in scripture if you look in the Hebrew text. Now, Sukkot is one of the seven Moedim that are prescribed and ordered, or rather, commanded in scripture. It’s one of the three pilgrimage feasts that we’ll go over during the scripture portion. It’s the last of the scriptural Moedim that’s mentioned in the Tanakh. More specifically, it’s mentioned in the Torah.
Now, there’s also, as you know, Hanukkah, which is coming up later in the end of the Gregorian year, and there’s also Purim, which is the last commonly celebrated feast day on the Hebrew calendar, but neither Hanukkah or Purim is commanded in the Torah as one of the Moedim set forth by Yahweh. It doesn’t make them wrong to celebrate and do, but it’s not commanded by Yahweh in the Torah. Sukkot lasts for eight days. It begins this year at sunset on September 29th, and then ends at sunset on October 6th.
Now, some different words you’re going to be hearing in tonight’s teaching. Of course, the first one you’re going to be hearing is the word sukkah, or sukkah, however you want to pronounce that, and basically what a sukkah or a sukkah is, is a temporary dwelling. It could be a tent, it could be a handmade little hut, but it’s something that’s a temporary dwelling. We’re also going to be using the word sukkot or sukkot, and that is the plural form in Hebrew of the word sukkah.
So sukkah or sukkah is a feminine word, and if you make that plural, it’s sukkot or sukkot. And again, that’s just the plural form of sukkah. It’s also the name of a few places in the Middle East that’s mentioned in scripture, and it’s also the name, obviously, of this Moedim or feast day. Four species. This will come up a few different times in tonight’s teaching as mentioned in scripture, but that is the fruit of good trees, the branches of palm trees, twigs of leafy trees, and willows of the stream.
You’re also going to be hearing the word and term lulav. Now this can refer to either one specifically of those four species or a grouping of three of the species, and we’ll get into that in just a moment. You’re also going to hear the word etrog, and this is a large, generally yellowish looking citrus fruit that kind of reminds you of a lemon or like a rather oversized lemon, but we’ll define that more in a moment too.
So for my fellow scripture nerds out there, here is your dictionary and lexicon entries for sukkah or sukkah. This comes from Strong’s H5521, and Strong’s definition defines it as a hut or a lair, a booth, a cottage, a pavilion, tabernacle, tent, things like that. Browndriver Briggs pretty much says the same thing, a booth, interwoven bows. It’s also used sometimes as a lurking place of lions, a booth, a root or temporary shelter for cattle. This is going to be important later on.
Also a temporary place for warriors in the field, went along pretty much with what Strong defined it originally. Justinius, Hebrew lexicon, says pretty much along the same lines, a booth, a cot made of leaves or branches interwoven, a booth for cattle or livestock, lair of a lion. And then Jastrow’s Dictionary of the Targum, again goes along the same lines, not that complicated of a word. And then we get into Strong’s H5523, sukkot or sukkot. And Strong’s defines it as booths, plural, sukkot, the name of a place in Egypt, and three in Israel.
And like I said, it’s mentioned as a place a few times in scripture. And then Browndriver Briggs states its proper name of location. And also the first station of Israel at Exodus. We’ll be looking at that in just a moment when we get to the scriptural portion of tonight’s teaching. Here’s where Justinius’ Hebrew lexicon entry for sukkot, a town in the tribe of Gad, territory of the city of sukkot, station the Israelites went to after they left Egypt, booths of daughters, et cetera, et cetera.
Now if you’ve never celebrated sukkot before, you might not know exactly what a sukkot or a sukkah is. And as you’ve been getting the meaning of this word, it’s like a temporary dwelling, usually made of something that grows, like branches, small logs, bamboo, things like that. So it can be very rudimentary, like you see on your screen right here. Some people get even more advanced by buying actual lumber and building a sukkah or a sukkah. And then you can get actual sukkah kits that you can buy from online, have them shipped to you, and then build it.
So they can get rather fancy. And if you go rather rudimentary or if you go fancy, it’s all good, it’s all the same. There’s really no requirement one way or the other. Me and my family, me and my children really love sukkot, and what we do is we use a tent. So that is a temporary dwelling, and it fits right in line with scripture. Now you may not have a yard or something like that, but if you’re in a crowded location like the picture you see here is in Israel, and you’ve got a balcony or someplace you can get outside, you can go out there, build a temporary dwelling, a sukkah or a sukkah, and still celebrate sukkot.
Now the etrog, as we mentioned before, is the yellow citron or citrus medica used by Israelites during the week-long holiday of sukkot. And like I said, it’s one of the four species mentioned in scripture. The Bible describes what is usually rendered as the fruit of a goodly tree, traditionally interpreted as being the etrog. Now scripture does not say specifically etrog, so let’s look at that real quick. Leviticus 23, verse 40. And you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of good trees, branches of palm trees, twigs of leafy trees, and willows of the stream, and shall rejoice before Yahweh your Elohim for seven days.
So it doesn’t specifically mention a specific fruit, like an etrog, all scripture says is the fruit of good trees. However, traditionally, it’s been the etrog that’s been used in sukkot celebrations. Now for those of you watching the video, here is what an etrog looks like, or a cross-section of it rather. The large one you see is the etrog, and this is in comparison to other fruits like lemons, oranges, grapefruits, limes. You can see how large these etrogs can get.
Another example here, you see a gentleman holding in his left hand the lulav, the twigs and stuff that we’ll talk about in just a moment, but in his right hand, you see the etrog. And again, this is just the size these things can get, I mean as large or larger than a person’s head. If you ever get one, they smell just absolutely awesome. And earlier today, I checked on Amazon, and you can actually get an entire kit with the etrog and the three other species shipped to you from Amazon for about 40 bucks, and then it goes up higher from there too depending on what you buy, so it’s fairly reasonable.
If you don’t have access to Fruit of Goodly Trees and the other three species, you can buy it online and have it shipped to you. Then we’re going to move on to the lulav, and here from Wikipedia, it states that the lulav is a closed frond of the date palm tree. It is one of the four species used during the Hebrew holiday of Sukkot. The other species are the hadass, or myrtle, arava, or willow, and etrog, citrons.
When bound together, the lulav, hadass, and arava are commonly referred to as the lulav. So the green parts of the four species, those three, when they’re bound together, they’re collectively called the lulav, but one of those four species is individually also referred to as the lulav. We look again at Leviticus 2340, and it states, and you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of good trees, branches of palm trees, twigs of leafy trees, and willows of the stream, and shall rejoice before Yahweh your Elohim for seven days.
So these three green parts of the four species are bound together, and here you can see another example of the grouping called the lulav that combines those three different green parts of the four species mentioned in Scripture. So that’s the terminology, and now you know what we’re talking about when these words and these phrases come up. But let’s now go and switch gears into the meat of the whole thing, the actual Scripture, what we should base our foundation and beliefs on, the word of Yahweh.
So we look at, first of all, Genesis 33, verse 3 and verse 17. And he, Yaakov, himself passed over before them and bowed himself to the ground seven times until he came near to his brother Esau. And Yaakov set out to Sukkot and built himself a house and made booths for his livestock. That is why the name of the place is called Sukkot. So this is the very first mention of the word Sukkot in Scripture, and it’s referring to a place, an actual location, where Yaakov, or Jacob, stopped and made booths for his livestock to dwell in while they were stopped there.
These, again, are temporary dwellings for livestock. Again, we look in Exodus 12, 37. And the children of Yisrael set out from Ramses to Sukkot, about 600,000 men on foot besides the little ones. Now just a point to bring up, again, is that it wasn’t just the Hebrews that went out of Egypt when they come out of slavery. It was also a mixed multitude that went with them. Okay? So it’s not just a genetic, ethnic thing. It was a mix to include the Hebrews.
So there was a massive group of people that went out. And the first place they stopped was a place called Sukkot. Now I had difficulty trying to find the exact place named Sukkot on a map. The first one I found was farther south than Cairo or Goshen, and you can see here on the map the white arrow pointing to that first location that I found. And the second location I found was more north of that, closer to Goshen.
So if anybody has further evidence or research to put forth, we would really love to have that to include in our notes, send it to us in the comments down below, or send it to us through email at team at godhonesttruth.com. So now we get into the establishment or the commandment regarding Sukkot, and we look at Leviticus chapter 23, verses 33 through 43. And Yahweh spoke to Moshe, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, saying, On the fifteenth day of this seventh new moon is the festival of Sukkot for seven days to Yahweh.
On the first day is a set-apart gathering. You do no servile work. For seven days you bring an offering made by fire to Yahweh. On the eighth day there shall be a set-apart gathering for you, and you shall bring an offering made by fire to Yahweh. It is a closing festival. You do no servile work. These are the appointed times of Yahweh which you proclaim as set-apart gatherings, to bring an offering made by fire to Yahweh, an ascending offering and a grain offering, a slaughtering and drink offerings, as commanded for every day, besides the Sabbaths of Yahweh, and besides your gifts, and besides all your vows, and besides all your voluntary offerings which you give to Yahweh.
On the fifteenth day of the seventh new moon, when you gather in the fruit of the land, celebrate the festival of Yahweh for seven days. On the first day is a rest, and on the eighth day is a rest. And you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of good trees, branches of palm trees, twigs of leafy trees, and willows of the stream, and shall rejoice before Yahweh your Elohim for seven days. And you shall celebrate it as a festival to Yahweh for seven days in the year, a law forever in your generations.
Celebrate it in the seventh new moon, dwell in booths for seven days. All who are native born in Yisra’el dwell in booths, so that your generations know that I made the children of Yisra’el dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Mitzrayim. I am Yahweh your Elohim. So here we get the establishment of the command to celebrate Sukkot. Now let’s go back and look at some important points here. So first of all it starts out by saying that it’s to be observed on the fifteenth day of the seventh new moon.
They call it the festival of Sukkot and to do it for seven days. Then it goes on to say on the first day you do no servile work, that’s a day of rest. And then for seven days it then outlines the various offerings to be made. And then it says on the eighth day you also have another set apart gathering. So it gets a little bit confusing here, but you celebrate it for seven days and then the eighth day after those seven days you come apart again, you have another gathering.
So then it goes on to reiterate that you have it on the fifteenth day of the seventh new moon. And then the eighth day is speaking of as a rest again, so when you have a set apart gathering on the eighth day, just like the first day, it’s a day of rest. And then on the first day you take the fruit of good trees, the branches of palm trees, twigs of leafy trees, and willows of the stream.
You have the four species, right? And it also tells you that this festival of Sukkot, while you’re observing it, that you shall rejoice, be joyful. That’s going to be an important part coming up later in this drash. Then it goes on to reiterate some more things it’s already said to make it clear. It says to do it for seven days and it also states that this is a law forever. That in the seventh new moon you dwell in booths for seven days.
All who are native born dwell in booths. Now it goes a little bit further, but to rightly understand this, and I would suggest you go on and do even further study and research beyond this teaching, but these commandments and these laws and these Torah are for everyone that is Israel. Both those who are ethnic Israel and those who are grafted in. Didn’t really get into that much in this teaching, but we have covered that before, as well as others.
Those who are grafted in are considered Israel and it says you shall have one law for both the native and the foreigner who sojourns among you, right? But not to belabor the point, let’s move on. Deuteronomy chapter 16 verses 13 through 15. Perform the festival of Sukkot for seven days after the end gathering from your threshing floor and from your wine press and you shall rejoice in your festival, you and your son and your daughter and your male servant and your female servant and the leewite and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are within your gates.
For seven days you shall celebrate to Yahweh your Elohim in the place which Yahweh chooses because Yahweh your Elohim does bless you in all your increase and in all the work of your hands and you shall be only rejoicing. Again this is supposed to be a joyous time. Sukkot is a festival of joy and for those of you out there who are like me, you really enjoy camping out and stuff like that, it’s easy to be joyful during this time.
But also notice another thing here in this passage that you shall rejoice in your festival, you and your son and your daughter and your male servant and your female servant and the leewite and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow. So this is for everyone. Deuteronomy 16, 16-17. Three times a year, all your males appear before Yahweh your Elohim in the place which He chooses, at the festival of Matzot and at the festival of Shavuot and at the festival of Sukkot, and none should appear before Yahweh empty-handed, but each one with the gift of his hand, according to the blessing of Yahweh your Elohim which He has given you.
So this is another command for three different Moedim. You have Pesach, you have Shavuot, and you have Sukkot and at these three specific Moedim, all the males are supposed to go up to Jerusalem, specifically here the place where Yahweh chooses to place His name, right? That’s what Scripture tells us, but we know that eventually came to be Jerusalem where the temple was. And at these three times, all men are supposed to go to the temple and present themselves before Yahweh, that’s Pesach, Shavuot, and Sukkot.
Keep that in mind because this is going to come into play when we get into the B’rith Chadashah. Then we look at 2 Chronicles 7, 8-10 and we see that King Solomon himself kept Sukkot. And this reads, And Shlomo at that time observed the festival seven days, and all Yisrael with him a very great assembly from the entrance of Hamath to the wadi of Mitzrayim. And on the eighth day they held an assembly, for they performed the dedication of the slaughter place seven days, and the festival seven days.
And on the twenty-third day of the seventh new moon, he sent the people away to their tents, rejoicing and glad of heart for the goodness that Yahweh had done for Dawid and for Shlomo and for his people Yisrael. So you may have remembered this when we covered Shlomo in the scriptural dossier about him. But when the temple was built, they had a dedication ceremony. That lasted for seven days and then immediately after that they had Sukkot.
There was one mention that Hanukkah was involved, right? But it wouldn’t have been the Hanukkah that we know today because that was a long time after Shlomo. But the word Hanukkah does mean dedication or rededication. So in a sense it was a Hanukkah, the seven days they used to sanctify and dedicate the temple. So that would have been approximately the eighth of the seventh month, seven days of dedication for the temple, and then immediately right after that on the fifteenth they started the celebration of Sukkot.
So how does Sukkot relate to Yeshua? Well it gets very, very interesting here and this is something you should definitely take it down for your notes because it does bear further study. We did not include everything and did not go into a full exegesis on all of this for the sake of time, which is one of the reasons why we advise you to go on after these teachings and do your own study for further information. But if we look at John 114 it has something very interesting here.
It reads, and the word became flesh and pitched his tent, meaning dwelt or lived, among us and we saw his esteem as of an only brought forth of a father, complete in favor and truth. So here it says that the word became flesh and pitched his tent, given the imagery of Sukkot. Again, John 37-38, and on the last day, the great day of the festival, Yeshua stood and cried out saying, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and let him who believes in me drink.
As the scripture said, out of his innermost shall flow rivers of living water. Now we read back in the Torah that we are to celebrate Sukkot for seven days and then on the eighth day we’re to have another day of rest and a set apart gathering, right? Well that eighth day is commonly referred to as the great day. That also has prophetic implications and connections as well, but we see here in this passage in John it says, and on the last day, the great day of the festival, referring to Sukkot.
So we know that Yeshua celebrated Sukkot and we know from scripture also that we are to be imitators of Yeshua. So we should also be celebrating Sukkot. Later on, when Yeshua is transfigured on the Mount, Peter is there with him and Peter makes an interesting statement. In Matthew 17-4, it says, and Kepha, or Peter, answering said to Yeshua, Master, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, let us make here three booths, one for you, one for Moshe, and one for Eliyahu.
Kepha, or Peter, is wanting to make booths or temporary dwellings for Yeshua, Moshe, and Eliyahu. He probably would have been very well experienced with making these booths or sukkah or temporary dwellings because all his life as a good Judean, he would have been celebrating Sukkot. We find this passage or this event also in Mark 9, 4-5 and Luke 9-33. Then we find another instance where Yeshua was celebrating Sukkot. We look at John 7-2 and it states here that the festival of the Yehudim was near, the festival of Sukkot.
Now all through scripture, you find the Moedim referred to as the feast days of Yahweh, right? Or the festival of Yahweh. We just saw that when we read it back there in Leviticus. But you don’t ever find it described as the feast days of the Jews or the festivals of the Jews. With the long exception of the book of John. That is the only place you will find these described as the feast days or festivals of the Jews.
It does this also with Passover. Even though we know it’s not the feast days of the Jews, it’s the feast days of Yahweh, right? But there’s reasons for that. John is writing to a rather Greek audience when he writes the Gospel of John. One way to understand why John is calling it the festival of the Jews instead of the festival of Yahweh. But anyways, it goes on in John chapter 7 to state this. And Yeshua said, you go up to this festival.
I am not yet going up to this festival. For my time has not yet been filled. But when his brothers had gone up to the festival, then he also went up, not openly, but as a it were in secret. The Yehudim therefore were seeking him at the festival and said, where is he? In about the middle of the festival, Yeshua went up into the set-apart place and he was teaching. So again, we see Yeshua going to the temple as commanded by scripture and celebrating Sukkot.
Now Sukkot has implications for future events as well in multiple different ways. We look at 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 1 and the Apostle Paul states here, for we know that if the tent of our earthly house is destroyed, we have a building from Elohim, a house not made with hands, everlasting in the heavens. Now here when he’s referring to our earthly house, he’s referring to our own bodies, which we know are temporary. They’re not going to last forever.
One day we are going to die and our bodies will return to dust, so our bodies are temporary. He then goes on to say that we have a building from Elohim that is everlasting. That is our resurrected, everlasting bodies that those who are saved, born again, will receive upon the resurrection from the dead. Now there’s also, I guess you could say, a purpose for us now observing Sukkot because of things that might occur in the future.
The words of Yeshua in Matthew chapter 24 verses 15 through 16 and verse 20. So when you see the abomination that lays waste, spoken of by Daniel, the prophet, set up in the set-apart place, he who reads, let him understand. Then let those who are in Yehudah flee to the mountains and pray that your flight does not take place in winter or on the Sabbath. So when the abomination of desolation takes place during the end times, Yeshua tells us to flee, right, especially or specifically those who are in Judea.
So if you’re fleeing from your home, you’re fleeing from Yerushalayim, you’re on the run as it were, you would need somewhere to live. You would need a tent, a temporary dwelling, a sukkah or a sukkah. Celebrating Sukkot now gets us in that practice and gives us that experience of not only building and erecting temporary dwellings, but also how to manage living in one for a temporary amount of time. Also when we get into the end times, scripture tells us that everyone will be keeping Sukkot.
Zechariah chapter 14 verses 16 through 19. And it shall be that all who are left from all the nations which come up against Yerushalayim shall go up from year to year to bow themselves to the sovereign Yahweh of hosts and to celebrate the festival of Sukkot. And it shall be that if any one of the clans of the earth does not come up to Yerushalayim to bow himself to the sovereign Yahweh of hosts, on them there is to be no rain.
And if the clan of Mitzrayim does not come up and enter in, then there is no rain. On them is the plague with which Yahweh plagues the nations who do not come up to celebrate the festival of Sukkot. This is the punishment of Mitzrayim and the punishment of all the nations that do not come up to celebrate the festival of Sukkot. So no, the Moedim and the feast days have not been done away with and they are still ongoing now for those of us who follow scripture and trust in the word of Yahweh.
But in the end days, everyone will be required to come up and celebrate Sukkot or else they will not have rain which will lead to no crops, no food, no trees for building, stuff like that. But they will have no rain simply because they did not come up and celebrate Sukkot. Now we also see the imagery of Sukkot in the book of Revelation in regards to the end times as well. Revelation chapter 21 verses 1-4. And I saw a renewed heaven and a renewed earth, for the former heaven and the former earth had passed away, and the sea is no more.
And I, Yohanan, saw the set-apart city, renewed Yerushalayim, coming down out of the heaven from Elohim, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the heaven saying, See, the booth of Elohim is with men, and he shall dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and Elohim himself shall be with them and be their Elohim. And Elohim shall wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, nor mourning, nor crying, and there shall be no more pain, for the former matters have passed away.
So in the end days, when heaven comes down to earth, the new Yerushalayim, Elohim, Yahweh, will be tabernacling with us on earth. How amazing is that? All using the imagery of Sukkot. So if you learn about Sukkot, you celebrate and experience Sukkot. When you read through scripture, and you come across things like this, it’s going to make the scriptures come alive even that much more. And if you look through the rest of the book of Revelation, there is a lot more of the imagery of Sukkot that is used to talk about the things that are going to happen in the end times.
And now, just to give you something very, very interesting to think about, especially if this is your first time learning about Sukkot, or maybe your first time celebrating Sukkot, and you’ve never heard this before, this will definitely get the wheels in your mind to turning. But check this out, okay? We’re going to start with Luke chapter 1, verse 5. There was in the day of Herod, the sovereign of Yehudah, a certain priest named Zechariah of the division of Abiah, and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisheva.
So what does this have to do with anything, actually? We have someone there, we’re speaking of Herod, and then there was a priest named Zechariah and his wife. So what are we even trying to get at here? Well, think for yourself. At Passover, who is it that we set an extra place for at Passover? Do you know? We set an extra place for the prophet Elijah, or Eliyahu. Luke 1, 17, And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Eliyahu, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the insight of the righteous, to make ready a people prepared for Yahweh.
So we’ve got the priest and his wife, and then we’ve got Eliyahu, Elijah, but how does all this fit together? Well, the thing is, the child that this priest and his wife had is named John the Baptist. And John the Baptist is that person that Luke is speaking of here in verse 17, that will come in the spirit and power of Eliyahu. We just read about the priest, Zechariah, and his wife, Elisheva, right? But shortly after this time that we just read about, where Zechariah was in the temple doing his duty, right? Shortly after this, his wife, Elisheva, or Elizabeth, became pregnant with their son, John.
So when you add all that up, and I should have put all this in there, but Zechariah’s temple service would have ended sometime in the summer. Given a full-term pregnancy, nine months, that means that John the Baptist would have been born on or right around Pesach, so that’s very interesting. He was born on or around Pesach. He came in the spirit and power of Elijah, and we set an extra place at Pesach for Elijah the prophet.
You can see how things are kind of lining up, but it gets even better. Now we’re told in Scripture in Luke 1, verses 24 through 26, that our Messiah, Yeshua, was conceived about six months after John the Baptist was conceived. So that means that if John the Baptist was born on or about Passover, then six months later, Yeshua was born. Now do the math. If John the Baptist was born on Pesach, or right around Pesach, that would have been month number one.
Six months later, in month seven, would have placed Yeshua’s birth. Now what happens in month seven, the seventh month? Sukkot, right? If this all plays out, then that means that Yeshua’s conception would have been right around the time of Hanukkah. Hanukkah is known as the festival of lights, and Yeshua is described as being the light of the world. So how interesting is that, that the light of the world was conceived during the festival of lights, again, if all this pans out.
So we see also, again, in John 1.14, which we’ve already read, it says here, and the word became flesh and pitched his tent among us, and we saw his esteem, esteem as of an only brought forth of a father, complete in favor and truth. So he tabernacled among us, good chance he was born on the feast of tabernacles, Sukkot. The word here in John 1.14 for pitched his tent means to dwell or live, right? It’s the word skenuo, hopefully that’s right, but it’s Strong’s G4637, it means to tent or encamp, to reside, to dwell, and that’s from Strong’s definition.
Thayer’s Greek lexicon goes right along the same lines, to fix one’s tabernacle, abide, live in, dwell, cover or protection, the Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament. This is very interesting. It says, to come to dwell in a place defined psychologically or spiritually with a possible implication in some context of a temporary arrangement, take up residence, come to reside, to come to dwell. This word means to dwell, temporarily, generally, permanently, but in a certain place at a certain time.
That’s what Yeshua did. Yeshua tabernacled or dwelled with us for a temporary amount of time. We also read in Deuteronomy 16, verse 16, three times a year, all your males appear before Yahweh your Elohim in the place which he chooses, at the festival of Matzot, and at the festival of Shavuot, and at the festival of Sukkot, and none should appear before Yahweh empty-handed. Now, when Yeshua was born, remember his father and mother, Yosef and Mary, that they had come to Jerusalem because of a census, but they could not find a room at the inn because everything was booked and filled up.
So why was there so many people in Jerusalem that they could not even get a room? Could it possibly be because everyone else from far and wide was coming to Jerusalem because of the commandment to show up three times a year? So that would be a possibility of Pesach, Shavuot, or Sukkot. Most likely, again, if all of that had been sensed, it would have been Sukkot. So further information for dating. Now, Yeshua was 30 years old when he started his ministry.
We get this from Luke 3, verse 23. Actually most people, scholars in this instance, believe that Yeshua had a ministry that lasted for about three and a half years. He would have been about 33 and a half when he was crucified and died. And we know from Scripture that he was crucified and died on Pesach. So that means that six months prior, he was 33 and a half, and six months prior to Pesach would have been Sukkot.
So again, more things to kind of bring all this together. Now here’s something really interesting that’s come to our attention in the recent past. The season of our joy. This festival, this Moedim of Sukkot, the Jews refer to it as Z’man Simchatenu, right? Meaning the time of our joy. So how does this all fit in? Well, the reason they call it that is because we are told to rejoice as a part of the observance of Sukkot, right? We read that earlier back in Leviticus.
Deuteronomy also tells us that we are to rejoice, be joyful during Sukkot. Then we’re told at the birth of Yeshua that the angels came to the shepherds in the field and said, I bring you good news of great joy. A Sukkot greeting. Now remember, well, we haven’t gotten to this yet, but there is something called the Halel that within Judaism, they read once during Pesach or Passover and for Sukkot, they read it every night of Sukkot and this is Psalms 113 through Psalms 118.
Sounds like a lot, but it’s not that much. Within this Halel, specifically Psalms 118, we get this. The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. That’s from Psalms 118.22. That is a part of the Halel that has for who knows how long been read every Sukkot. We also get this from the Brit Hadashah about Yeshua. They state, this is the stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone. A quote from Psalms describing Yeshua and it’s a quote from the section of Psalms that’s read every Sukkot.
I mean, how cool is that? Some additional evidence real quick. The angels came to the shepherds that were out in the fields and told them that we bring you good tidings of great joy, right? Now shepherds would not have been out in the field in the cold of winter. What I’m getting at is here that shepherds would not have been out in the field with their herds in December. However, the Sukkot timeframe in fall would still have weather that would be suitable for keeping livestock outdoors, out in the fields.
Now average temperatures in Israel for October run from about 57 degrees Fahrenheit to 79 degrees Fahrenheit. You know, reasonably comfortable, so it’s not bad at all. However, average temperatures for December in Israel range from about 43 degrees to 59 degrees. Quite chilly. Also remember that the rainy season for Israel happens to fall right there in December. So not only would these shepherds and this livestock be out in the cold, but they would also be wet and cold.
And a shepherd or someone who keeps livestock is not going to do that. It runs a health risk not only for your animals, but you as well. So they would have been indoors during the rainy season whenever they could. They wouldn’t have been out in the field. But the time of Sukkot, it would have been no problem for them to be out in the field. And it would have been the perfect opportunity for these angels, like we’re told in Scripture, to come to these shepherds and tell them that they bring tidings of great joy because of Yeshua.
So now you’ve learned all about this. You’ve learned the terminology that we’ve been speaking about. You’ve learned where it comes from in Scripture. You’ve learned some things from the Brit Hadashah about Sukkot, the end times about Sukkot. We’ve learned some information about dating, the timing of Yeshua’s birth. And just a quick point of transparency here. The dating evidence we gave is all circumstantial, okay? We’re not presenting it to try and prove a rock-solid point about the dating of Yeshua’s birth.
This is all things to think about. It’s all circumstantial at the moment. Further research needs to be done, but a lot kind of lines up. A lot really makes sense. And like we said, it’s just something to think about. So you learned about that as well. But now you’re thinking, okay, I want to keep Sukkot. We’re told to do this. It’s a law forever. How do I do that? Well, if we’re going to celebrate and observe Sukkot, and we just want the scriptural command of how to observe it, well, number one, we dwell in a sukkah, right, or a tent for seven days.
So take a camping trip. Go out in your backyard, your front yard, the cow pasture, or your back porch, right? Build a sukkah out on your back porch, your back patio, and dwell in it for seven days according to the commandment. Remember that the first day and the eighth day, remember the eighth day is called the great day. The first day and eighth day are rest days, so it means no work on the first and the eighth day of Sukkot.
During this time of Sukkot, while you’re observing it and celebrating it, make sure to rejoice before Yahweh. And then during Sukkot, especially on the first day of Sukkot, you take those four species, right? Those are the fruit of good trees. Most people use etrog nowadays. The branches of palm trees, twigs of leafy trees, and willows of the stream. Don’t have to get legalistic about it. Just go according to what the scripture tells you to do. That is how you observe it according to the scriptural commandment.
Now let’s look at how Judaism celebrates Sukkot. They do things in observance of Sukkot like build a sukkah or live in a tent, right? That’s according to the scriptural command. So that’s pretty good. Their sukkahs that they build themselves, if they build one, it generally has an open top. There’s no roof on it. And this is to be able to see the stars when they look up at night when they’re sleeping in their sukkah, right, or their sukkah.
Now this is not a commandment from scripture, so it’s not something that we are required to do, but it’s something that the Jews do. And thinking about it personally, I don’t think there’s any harm in it. So if you want to go that way, hey, go for it. It might rain, get wet then, but I don’t really think there’s any harm in it other than that. Next, they observe the first and the eighth days as Sabbaths.
But again, that comes straight from scripture. They traditionally decorate their sukkahs as well, mainly with the four species, but they decorate it with other things in addition to that sometimes. They put lights up in their sukkahs, flowers, all sorts of things. Don’t see anything wrong with this, and if you want to go for it, go for it. Decorate your sukkah. They read from the Torah or the scriptures every day. That’s not a commandment from scripture regarding Sukkot, but that’s always a good thing to do.
They read the Hallel like we were mentioning earlier, which means Psalms 113 through Psalms 118. And it seems like a lot, but when you actually get into looking at it, a lot of those are very, very short chapters and you can get through it in a reasonably quick amount of time. But they read this Hallel, Psalms 113 through 118, every day. This is not something that’s commanded in scripture, but it’s reading scripture, so it’s always a good thing to do.
Candles are traditionally lit on the first two days at sunset in or around the sukkah. Again, it’s not something commanded from scripture, and I don’t really see what’s wrong with it, so hey, go for it. Meals that are eaten during Sukkot within Judaism, they usually eat these meals in their sukkah. This is not something that is commanded in scripture, but it kind of makes sense, right? If you’re going to dwell in a sukkah for seven days, it kind of makes sense that you would eat in your sukkah or somewhere right near your sukkah.
And the last thing that we have on the list here that Jews do for Sukkot is they take the lulav, that bundle of those three green species, right? They take the lulav and they wave the lulav. They do it in four different directions, north, south, east, and west. I don’t know where this practice comes from, but again, it doesn’t come from the commands in scripture about Sukkot, so judge for yourself if you want to incorporate that into your observance or not, because again, we don’t know really where it comes from, so each to their own.
You decide for yourself. Thank you for joining us for this teaching about Sukkot. We truly hope that you got something out of this, that you learned something, and if we happened to miss something, and we know we did because there’s a lot of things that we did not include for sake of time, we try to include the most important things, but if you feel like we’ve forgotten something, leave it down in the comments for us down below or send us an email to team at godhonesttruth.com.
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