Description
In this compelling teaching, we delve into Sukkot (The Feast of Booths/Tabernacles), one of the appointed times established by Yahweh in the Torah. Sukkot is a time of joyous celebration, reflection, and gratitude, commemorating Yahweh’s provision and presence with His people during their wilderness journey. This ancient biblical festival, commanded by Yahweh, is not merely a historical commemoration but a powerful foreshadowing of Yeshua’s first and second comings.

We will explore the divine command to dwell in temporary shelters, or sukkot, and examine how this practice serves as a reminder of Israel’s journey through the wilderness and our own transient existence. This teaching is perfect for those interested in biblical feasts, Messianic teachings, or deepening their understanding of Yahweh’s calendar and provides a thoughtful and accessible guide to celebrating Sukkot with purpose and reverence.

Whether you are new to the moedim (appointed times) or seeking a deeper understanding of their relevance for followers of Yeshua (Jesus), this teaching aims to provide clarity, insight, and education in your walk of faith. So join us as we learn the God Honest Truth about Sukkot!

#Sukkot #Sukkot2025 #FeastOfTabernacles #BiblicalFeasts #GodHonestTruth #Moedim #FeastOfBooths

Transcript

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Teaching Introduction

In this video, we’re going to be diving in to one of Yahweh’s appointed times that’s full of joy and prophecy and meaning, it’s the festival of sukkot, the feast of tabernacles commonly known as sukkot. This is the time when Israel was commanded to dwell in booths, to remember the wilderness journey, and to rejoice before Yahweh. But sukkot is not just about past history. It points forward toYahweh dwelling with his people in the time to come. In this teaching, we’ll uncover its deep roots within scripture, its messianic significance, and how you can celebrate this moedim or appointed time. Whether you’re new to the moedim or seeking seeking a deeper connection,you’re in the right place. So, let’s open up the scriptures together and discover the richness of this feast of sukkot.

Video Start

So this draw is going to be all about the feast day or moedim of sukkot. But before we get into that, I just want to remind everyone that if you’d like more notes on than what we get to tonight in this particular draw or presentation,make sure to go to our website at godhonesttruth.com. Not only can you find more resources and information to help you in your just general walk in faith, but you’ll be able to find the article post for this particular teaching. And there on that article post, you’ll be able to find the ondemand video. You’ll be able to seethe draw slides that are up here on your screen if you’re watching on a video platform. You’ll also be able to find the notes that we took for this particular subject and the transcript if that’s so helpful to you. But it’s all available for you right there on godhonestruth.com. But we’ve also made it even easier for you. If you go down below in the description, we provided a convenient link down there that’ll take you directly to the article post on our website. just go down below and it should be there in the description whether you’re watching on a video platform or an audio podcasting platform. 

Outline

Now, just to give you an outline of what we’re going to be getting into this evening for the teaching on SEO. Number one, we’re going to define Sukkot plus also go over the various elements real quick of the moedim of Sukkot. After that, we’re going to look at the sukkote as it comes from scripture because as always, scripture should be the foundation for our beliefs and doctrines. After that, we’re going to look into the connection between Yeshua and Sukkot because there are some very powerful connections between the two. So, you definitely don’t want to miss that section. Then, we’re going to look at some symbolism with the four species.If you don’t know what the four species are, don’t worry. You’ll learn all about that coming up here in just a moment.Then we’re going to look at the uh relation of Sukkot and the end times, prophetic connections with the moedim ofSukkot. And this gets really powerful and eye-opening as well, especially if you’re someone like me who’s come from a mainstream churchianity background. You’ve never made this connection or even known about it before. But once you do understand it, man, it’s so eye opening. So stay tuned for that as well. Then we’re going to look at some historical SEO events that happened in history. And this is fairly interesting,or at least I thought so. But of course, I’m one of those nerds. Hopefully you are, too. But we’ll look at that when we get to it. Then we’re going to go through a thought experiment about Yeshua and Sukkot. And this is going to be in addition to the previous section that we do before that. Then we’re going to look at some celebration tips and information. If you’re someone who is going to be celebrating SEO for the first time, this is definitely going to be a section for you because it’ll help you in your celebration of Sukkot on your first time out. And after that, like always, we’re going to do a wrap up of the entire teaching and just go over real quick or a quick memory refresher of what it is that we covered during the teaching.

What is Sukkot?

So to kick it off, let’s go ahead and look at what sukkot is. Here’s a quick overview of sukkot itself. Sukkot is one of the seven moedim or the appointed times from Torah. And that is the first five books of the scriptures.The other six are Passover, feast of unleavened bread, first fruit, festival of weeks, feast of trumpets, and the day of atonement, as well as the weeklyShabbat, which is generally included with the moedim that’s appointed inTorah. Sukkot is also one of the three pilgrimage feasts. We’ll get more into that as we go through this teaching. Sukkot is the last of the scriptural modem for the year that’s mentioned in the Torah. Now, of course, there is Hanukkah and there is Purim, but that is not commanded and prescribed within Torah. We’re talking about the last of the scriptural moedim that is commanded within the Torah. So, last for eight days or is it seven? No, it’s eight.Seven. We’ll get into that as we go through the scriptures. So, stay tuned. Have your notes ready. Now speaking ofSukkot, this year it starts on October 6th at sunset and runs through October 13th at sunset. Now Sukkot is also known by other names as well. It’s also known by the name of Feast of Tabernacles, the feast of in gathering, which is actually used in scripture. It’s known as the festival of shelters. I’ve rarely ever heard that. It’s also known as the festival of booths. Something else that’s used within scripture. And those are theEnglish names that Sukkot is also known by. Some other names in Hebrew that sukkot is also known by is hag ha sukkot which literally comes from festival I’m sorry literally means festival of booths and then haga which means festival of in-gathering. So, we covered those inEnglish. Now, we’re covering them in Hebrew. And there are these scripture references if you’d like to go look those up for yourself in something like the Maseretic text or whatnot. What are the various elements of Suko? Well, number one, you have what’s called a sukkah. And this is a temporary dwelling.Some kind of tent or something that’s constructed out of readily found material such as branches or bamboo, things like that. But that is what’s called a sukkah. Sukkah is a is the singular form for the plural that you probably already know. The plural is sukkot. sukkah is singular. Sot is the plural. sukkah or sukkah is a singular singular one hut whereas sukkot is more than one hut or one more than one temporary dwelling. sukkot is also the name obviously of the moedim that we’re going to be discussing here because it’s in the plural. We also have the four species that was mentioned earlier and these are central or one of the central elements to the celebration of sukkot and the four species are the fruit of good trees, branches of palm trees, twigs of leafy trees and willows of the stream. We’ll get into those as we go into the scripture because it’s defined right there for us in the verse. You have also what’s known as the lulav. Now the lulav is one of the four species.But collectively when they’re put together a lot of times during sukkot if you’ve never celebrated Sukkot before but the lulav is the combining or the grouping together of three of those particular species. We’ll get into that in just a moment as well when we get into scripture. You also have what’s called the etrog. This is the fourth of the four species. But the etrog is a fruit. And well, we’ll get into that in just a moment. You’ll see some examples of what an etrog is. Very interesting fruit. Here is your Strong’s number for sukkah or sukkah, whichever way you want to pronounce it. Technically, it’s the way I learned it is called sukkah.And that is Strong’s H5521 sukkah sukkah. And the outline of biblical usage from blueterbible.org has it defined as thicket, covert,booth, booth, rooe or temporary shelter. Strong’s definition defines it as a hut, lair, booth, cottage, pavilion,tabernacle, tent. Kind of makes sense, right? Something usually associated with a temporary dwelling, but not always. Then Brown Driver Briggs entry has it defined as thicket or booth rude or temporary shelter. Here’s your Jinius’s Hebrew lexicon defining it as a booth, a cot tent made of curtains poetically of the habitation of God because if God’s dwelling somewhere here on earth, you know, it’s going to be temporary because it can’t hold him. It’s also defined as a booth for cattle. We’ll get into that in just a moment as well as we look at the scriptures. Then it’s defined as the layer of a lion. Here’s your Jastrow’s dictionary of the Targums defining it as cover of twigs, booth, booth covered with twigs. And here is your Klein dictionary defining it as booth or tabernacle and name of a Mishna which yeah, if you look in the Talmud,one section of that is defined or titled as Sukkot. And it’s where you can find a lot of information from Judaism, Orthodox, rabbitic, Pharisaical Judaism.And there is your Hebrew and Aramaic lexicon of the Old Testament or a halot definition or entry for sukkah or sukkah meaning a thicket a lion’s layer made from twigs and matting for those who fear God for God. And here is your list of references where this word sukkah is actually found within scripture. And you can look at those or go back and look at the notes. And once again, we look at that verse converter tool that we have for you on our website if you’d like those converted into clickable links for your study. You can find that on our website and the list here of scripture on the notes file. And here’s yourStrong’s number for the plural form sukkot. And that is H5523.Again, that is H5523 sukkot. sukkot. And the outline of biblical usage has it as sukkot meaning boost in the plural. Strong’s definition defines it as the plural of sukkah and it has it defined as boost or the name of a place in Egypt. Now check that out or keep that in mind. That’s going to come into play here in just a moment. And there is your brown drivers entry for SOT. Here’s your Justinus’ Hebrewlexicon entry for SEO as well as your Hebrew and Aramaic lexicon or the OldTestament entry for sukkot. And there is a list of scriptures where this word sukkot is found within the Bible. So once again, I want to remind you, go check out the tool that will convert all these into clickable links for you to bring up the particular verse or bring up a comparison of translations for that particular verse. on our website, click on the resources menu and then go to tools and there you’ll find the ver converter tool. Now this is just a general bird’s-eye overview of what sukkot is, what it means and the various elements of it. But that is the nerdy definition of it. I like visuals to go along with my learning too. So maybe you do as well. Here is what a sukkah looks like or a sukkah looks like. It’s generally very crudely constructed out of temporary materials and it can be very basic as you see here on your screen with just three walls, a mostly open roof, but not completely. And here is one that’s a little bit more fancy, a little bit more time and effort put into it, but still sort of a temporary kind of dwelling place. And here’s an even more fancy version of a sukkah or sukkah. And you can actually buy these online. You can go probably toAmazon and buy them yourself to put up for the year celebration of sukkot. But as you can see here, it doesn’t always have to be something B. You can just most people usually just do it with the things they find around where they live. And this is something I like to do because we can find twigs and branches and bamboo fairly easily where I live and the children enjoy it. I enjoy just putting it up and then taking it down so it’s not hanging around all year. But yeah, it can get as basic or as elaborate as you want, but generally it’s like a temporary sort of dwelling, a tent or something that is quickly constructed like this. And of course, here’s an image of a sukkah in Israel where, you know, you might be a living area where it’s very populated and you don’t have a yard or woods to go find stuff in. But if you got a balcony like you see here on this image, you can build a sukkah or a sukkah and still celebrate Sakodes. And just in general to look at some of the four species, the etrog itself is what’s known as well, it’s known as et, but it’s a yellow citroron or what’s called citrus medica used by theIsraelites during the week-long holiday of sukkot as one of the four species. And the Bible describes what is usually rendered as the fruit of a goodly tree. And we’ll look at that as we get into the scripture itself because scripture is actually non-specific. But traditionally, it’s the etrog that gets used within Israel and pharisaical Judaism. And this is what an etrog actually looks like. It’s very, very similar to a lemon, but it gets much,much, much larger than a lemon. For size comparison, here is a Jewish man holding in his left hand a lulav, which we’ll get into in just a moment. But in his right hand, you see the etrog. And this etrog is ginormous. This thing is as big or bigger than this gentleman’s head. I mean, they get big. When I order them here in America, they come much, much smaller than that. But if they’re not picked until they’re ripe, wherever they’re grown this, they probably get much larger as you see from that example in that picture. But speaking of the other three species, and like I said, when it’s bound together, they’re commonly referred to as the lulav, but the lulav is one particular aspect as well. So a lulav specifically is quote a closed frond of the date palm tree. It is one of the four species used during the Israeli holiday of Sakov. The other species are the Adas, Arava, and et. When bound together, the Luluav, Adas,and Erava are commonly referred to as the Lulav. End quote. One of these three is referred to specifically as the Lulav and all three bound together is collectively also referred to as theLulav. Again, this is, you know, related to Hebrew and Hebrew is huge on context.So when someone speaks of a lulav, consider the context in which it’s being used to determine whether it’s the individual species or the collection of the three species together. But here is the collection all bound together. The three species with the etrog sitting right beside it.So in summary, let’s recap what we’ve learned during this first section. Just a brief overview of sukkote. Number one,sukkot is one of the moedims. It’s also one of the three pilgrimage festivals and it’s the last of the scripturalmoedim for the year mentioned in the Torah. Sot last for 8 days, but we’ll get into that in just a moment. It’s on October 6th this year and it runs through October 13th.Sot is also known as the feast of tabernacles, the festival of in-gathering, the festival of shelters or the festival of booths. A sukkah is the singular form. It is the temporary dwelling that we live in during sukkot and sukkot is the plural form meaning more than onesukkah or the festival or moedim of sukkot itself. The four species as we learned earlier is the fruit of good trees traditionally understood as being the etrog. It’s also number two, the branches of palm trees,the twigs of leafy trees, and the willows of the stream. And one of these,the palm trees that specifically is called the lulav. But collectively,three branch things that three the branch types of the four species on the ground bound together are collectively called the lulav.

Sukkot in the Tanakh

So now let’s look at scripture itself and look at sukkot in the Tanakh where it’s actually mentioned and commanded. The very first mention that you’ll find of sukkot in scripture comes from Genesis 33 verse 1 17. And Yakob set out to Sote and built himself a house and made booth for his livestock. That is why the name of the place is called sukkot. So this is the very first mention that we have of the word sukkot and sukkot is mentioned as a place. It says that Jacobor Yakob set out to a place called sukkot. So why was it called sukkot? Because thereJacob built a booth or he built sukkot temporary dwellings for his livestock.That is why that place is called sukkot. And here in the septuagint, I found this very interesting, but in Septuagint, it actually refers to this as tense or booths, which is, you know, pretty much the same thing as to coat or suck up. Yeah, that Septuagint translation translated as tent was very interesting because it can be a tent, whether it’s a canvas like they used back in the old days or a modern, I guess, polyester kind of thing used nowadays, but it can be a tent. It doesn’t have to be something you make out of hand as long as it’s a temporary non-permanent dwelling that you dwell in during the course of sukkot over the 8 days. Now, as they the people go on in their generations as they go into slavery and then they come out of slavery. Remember the Exodus sukkot is actually also mentioned in the exit from Egypt. We look at Exodus 12:37. And the children of Israel set out from Ramses to Sakot about 600,000 men on foot besides the little ones. So when they come out of Egypt, he’s got this big mass of people. It says that there’s 600,000men. And that’s not counting the children and the women and the livestock and all that. So it’s probably well over a million people that were coming out ofEgypt. And the first place they stop as it mentions in scripture is a place calledsukkot. Now I tried to look up the definite place for sukkot where it might be and I found two different possible locations. If you’re looking on your screen here, here is one down a little further south probably about midways down on that little peninsula.I guess you call it the Sinai Peninsula maybe. I don’t know. I’m not good with geography. But that’s one location.Another location I found was much much nearer to Cairo and the pyramids. And this seems to be the most common interpretation of where the place called sukkot actually was. It’s actually near awadi right outside of where Cairo and the pyramids are.But sukkot is not just a place. It’s not just a temporary dwelling, but it’s amoedim. Obviously, that is commanded in scripture. It’s one of the seven moedim of the three pilgrimage festivals. And the commandment first comes from Leviticus 23:es 33-43.And Yahweh spoke to Moshe saying, “Speak to the children of Israel, saying, “On the 15th day of the seven new 7th new moon is the festival of Sakot or 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. Itis a closing festival. You do no servile work. These are the appointed times ofYahweh, 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 Sabbath of Yahweh, and besides your gifts, and besides all your vows, and besides all your voluntary offerings which you give to Yahweh. On the 15th 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 booth for seven days. All who are native born in Israel dwell in booths. So that your generations know that I made the children of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Misrahim. I am Yahweh yourElohim. So, a bunch of stuff going on right there. Let’s go back and look at this for just the main points to try and remember. These are the definitely write down the verse range for the commandment. So, you can have that in your notes, but write down these points as well. It’s on the 15th day of the seventh new moon of the seventh month. And that means of the biblical or hebraic calendar, not the Gregorian.This is also defined as the festival of sukkot and were to celebrate it for seven days. Then it goes on to say the first day you do no survi work and you have a set apart gathering. Now remember all this cuz all this information is going to come into play as we go through the rest of scripture. It’s going to remind you to remember this these points it’s really going to click when we get to that. So write these down, remember them, do whatever you have to do. Then it says for seven days you bring an offering because the celebration is for seven days and then on the eighth day the day after the seven days obviously there’s to be a set apart gathering. So again they come together. It is a closing festival and you do no servile work.Once again, it reiterates you do this, you celebrate sukkot on the 15th day of the seventh new moon of the seventh month. And it says the first day is a rest and the eighth day is a rest. The first day you take the listen to this.First day you take the fruit of good trees. Very generic, non-specific at all. Not saying, it’s not saying orange or pineapple or anything like that. It just says the fruit of good trees. So take that as you will. Use what you decide as long as say good tree and you take the fruit of it. Then you take the branches of palm trees. That is specific. Branches of palm trees, twigs of leafy trees. Very non-specific, very generic again. And then finally the fourth one, willows of the stream.Again, very specific. So you got two non-specific generic things that you use but you also have two very specific thingsJeff you have to use for the celebration of sukkot. These are the four species. Then it goes on to command and this is a a commandment as a part of sukkot. It says you shall rejoice you shall be joyful. You should be happy and rejoicing during the celebration of sukkot. So definitely write that down and remember that be joyful during this moedim. And it says you celebrate it for seven days a law forever. Remember that too. This is not something you learn in mainstream churchianity that forever means forever. That’s not something they teach. But here in scripture it says that sukkot is a law forever. Celebrate on the seventh new moon in seventh month.And it says to dwell in boost, dwell in temporary dwellings for seven days.So there is the main points. I hope you got wrote down or remembering somehow because it’s really going to come into play as we go throughout the rest of this teaching. Going on, we have the second iteration or second reiteration of the commandment from Deuteron Deuteronomy 16 13-15.Perform the festival of sukkot for seven days after the in gathering from the 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 Levite 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. So again, it’s got that commandment to be joyful, to be rejoicing. And it’s commanded and it tells you everyone who is supposed to celebrate this. It’s you, your son, your daughter, your children, your male servant or your female servant, those who work for you, the Leewite, meaning the priest, the stranger, those who are not normally part of your fold, the fatherless, those who are illegitimate or have no father. the widow. Though obviously you know what a widow is, but this really goes on to continue to show the heart of Yahweh for the fatherless, the orphan, the widow, the stranger, and things like that. Something that we should all really consider as well, especially widows and the fatherless.But like we mentioned before, Zukote is also one of the three pilgrimage festivals commanded in scripture. We look at Deuteronomy chapter 16 16-17. Three times a year all your males appear before Yahweh your Elohim in the place which he chooses at the festival ofMatzot, at the festival of Shàuot, and at the festival of Sakot. 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 according to scripture, you’re the males. So if you’re a male, there’s only two genders. There’s male and female. If you’re a male, you’re commanded in scripture to go and present yourself at the temple or tabernacle three times a year. This is during the festival of Matzo. otherwise known asPesak because all those are generally run together. So Pesak or Passover, the feast of unleavened bread. Number two, the festival of Shàuot. Now if you’re helenized in the mainstream churchianity, the festival of Shàuot is also known as Pentecost, but scripture calls it Shavuot. That’s what we’re going to call it. And number three, the third time is the festival of sukkot. So,sukkot, which we’re learning about now, is one of the three pilgrimage festivals of which the males are supposed to go and present themselves before Yahweh at the temple or the tabernacle. Now, unfortunately, the temple is not standing. In fact, there is a big old Islamic zit on the temple mound at the moment. But if the temple were standing,all of us males would be commanded to go and present ourselves before Yahweh at the temple. And I know a couple people who actually go to Israel for the Moedim of Sot even though there’s not a temple there just they just like being there for the moed.So let’s do a recap of sukkot in the Tanakh as it’s commanded. Number one,Sot is first mentioned in 33 Genesis 33:17 with Jacob making booths for his livestock. After leaving Egyptian captivity, the Israelites first stopped at a place called sukkot. Sot is on the 15th day of the seventh new moon or rather the seventh month. The first day is a Shabbaton, a minor Sabbath where you do no servile work. So the first day there’s to be no servile work. On the first day, we’re also to take the fruit of good trees, the branches of palmtrees, twigs of leafy trees, and willows of the stream. Sukkot lasts for seven days. And then the eighth day is ashabaton. The eighth day is a day where you do no servile work. It’s also like the first day, a time of gathering. So you get together with other people. It’s a closing festival as is described in scripture. Sot is commanded. We’re actually given the commandment to be rejoicing beforeYahweh during the celebration of sukkot. And sukkot is a law forever. Now, if this is your first time hearing the word forever, let me explain. Forever does not mean for a few months. Forever does not mean just, you know, a couple years or a couple decades. Forever does not mean just until Jesus comes. Forever means forever from that point on till the end of time. That’s what forever means.Hopefully, we’re good on that. 

Yeshua & Sukkot

So now let’s look at Yeshua and sukkot as it comes from scripture. When we look in the Bible and we read scripture for ourselves, it literally tells us thatYeshua tabernacled among us. Look at John 1:14.And the word became flesh and pitched his tent or dwelt or lived among us. And we saw his esteem esteem as of and only brought forth of a father complete in favor and truth. So the New Testament, the Brithadesha,the messianic writings, whatever you want to call it, tells us that Yeshua, our Messiah, tabernacled among us.Remember that sort of language. There’s going to be more coming up. That’s going to all come together here in just a little bit. So remember that language where it says that Yeshua tabernacled or pitched his tent or dwelt or lived among us. And of course the whole context here is temporarily because he wasn’t here on earth forever. He was just here temporarily. Now the word used here fortabernacled or dwelt or pitched his tent is Strong’s G4637.That’s G4637 and that is the Greek word sku. Scanu.I’m pronouncing that correctly. The Allen biblical usage has it defined as to fix one’s tabernacle or have one’s tabernacle live or abide in a tabernacle or tent or to dwell. Strong’s definition was defined as to tent or encamp to occupy, reside, or dwell. And here’s your Thayer’s Greek lexicon, which is pretty much the same thing. Abide, have one’s tabernacle in a tabernacle equivalent to dwell. And here’s your Greek English lexicon of the New Testament and your BDAG entry for Sku.And here is your list of scriptures where you can find this particular word in scripture if you want to go look up the verse for yourself. And once again, don’t forget about the verse conversion tool we have on our website at godhonestruth.com. Now, not only does scripture tell us that Yeshua tabernacled or pitched his tent among us, it also tells us thatYeshua himself celebrated sukkot. Check this out. This comes from the book of John 7:es 28 10-11 1437-39.And the festival of the Yehoudim was near, the festival of Sakov. And Yeshua says, “You go up to this festival. I am not going up. I’m 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 it were in secret. The Yehoudim therefore were seeking him at the festival and said, “Where is he?” And about the middle of the festival, Yeshua went up into the set apart place, and he was teaching. And on the last day, the great day of the festival, Yeshua stood up 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. And this he said concerning the spirit which those believing in him were about to receive. for the set apart spirit was not yet given because Yeshua was not yet esteemed. Now, a couple of things to note real quick here. Number one, we saw from the Torah that sukkot is one of those commanded moedims that we are to celebrate every single year when in the seventh month on the 15th day of the month. So, that gives us the time frame for that particular year where Yeshua was and what he was doing. And like I said, the time of the year, but also remember that sukkot is a commanded modem. And if Yeshua had not celebrated sukkot, Yeshua would have been sinning. And Yeshua was our sinless and perfect and spotless lamb. He is without sin. So we know that Yeshua kept not only sukkot, but all of the moedim.Also take note that Yeshua did not go up on the first day. At least what we get from scripture. What we get here is the notion that it was about the middle of the celebration. That’s when he went up to the temple and started teaching. And then on the last day, he made that famous quote. He said, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and let him who believes in me drink.”Now, why is that famous and why is that important for our studies? Well, because there is, we’ll get to this in just a moment, but there is this practice or this ceremony within Judaism. And as faras I can tell, it was happening way back then and even before the time of Yeshua.The ceremony is the water drawing ceremony and the water pouring ceremony. So this whole imagery of Yeshua being the fountain of living water, the one who gives living water,this really has strong connections or parallels to this whole water drawing ceremony that was already being done.Now, let’s put it out there in the open. Full disclosure, this water drawing ceremony does not come from scripture, or at least not that I found. It only comes as a Jewish tradition, but there’s strong parallels to what Jesus or Yeshua tells them with water and this water drawing ceremony. We look at John 4:es 10 and 13-4.Yeshua answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of Elohim and who it is who says to you, give me to drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” Yeshua answered and said to her, “Everyone drinking of this water shall thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water I give him shall certainly never thirst, and the water that I give him shall become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”So, lots of water imagery used with Yeshua and his life and what he says and teaches and stuff like that. And has parallels to the water drawing ceremony within Judaism. And this water drawing ceremony, according to chabad.org, or they say, quote, “From the time KingSolomon built the temple in Jerusalem until the day it was destroyed by the Romans with a brief interim for temporary exile to Babylonia, the can’t miss it event of the year for Israelites was the water drawing a celebration.”End quote. And this comes from myjewishlearning.com. Quote, “Each morning of sukkot, the priest went to the pool of Siloa or Saleom near Jerusalem to fill a golden flask.Chofar blast greeted their arrival. They then ascended and poured the water over the altar simultaneously with wine from another bowl.” End quote. And finally, from safaria.org, or quote he who has not seen the rejoicing at the place of the water drawing has never seen rejoicing in his life end quote and this comes from the tractate called sukkot from the Talmud so that’s a tradition from pharisaical or I won’t say feroc but general Judaism it seems like and they’re saying here from chabad.org or that is started from when Solomon first built the temple from then on up until the Roman destruction in 70 AD. But that is a general overview of what the water drawing ceremony is. And there’s all sorts of water imagery used throughout scripture itself. In fact, we’re told that Yahweh, our heavenly father, is the source of such living water. We look in Jeremiah 2:13.For my people have done two evils. They have forsaken me the fountain of living waters to he out for themselves cisterns,cracked cisterns which do not hold water. And then from Proverbs 14 27, the fear of Yahweh is a fountain of life to turn away from the snares of death. And the last one we’re going to look at comes from 1 Corinthians chapter 10:es 1 and 4. For I do not wish you to be ignorant,brothers, that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual rock that followed, and the rock was Messiah.So, there’s a few scriptures. We got a lot more listed out here on the screenthat you can see or you can go look in our notes at godhonestruuth.com for this episode,but you can see that Yahweh is the source and the fountain of living waters. He’s the source of livingwaters. And it’s Yeshua that we’re told in scripture that gives this livingwater multiple times, but just one more. Let’s look at John 4 10 and 13-4.Once again, Yeshua answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of Elohim and who it is who says to you, give me todrink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” Yeshua answered and said to her,”Everyone drinking of this water shall thirst again. But whoever drinks of the water I give him shall certainly neverthirst. And the water that I give him shall become in him a fountain of waterspringing up into everlasting life.So this living water that gives everlasting wa life is given to us nowby Yeshua, our sacrificial lamb, our Passover lamb who took away the sins ofthe world. He gives this living water and the source of this living water isYahweh our heavenly father. It all fits perfectly. But that is the connection orone of the multiple connections between Yeshua and sukkot. The early believersthat Yeshua went around teaching and hanging out with, they were very used tocelebrating sukkot. They did this all the time and it was nothing to them just to put up a temporary dwelling. We lookat Mark 9:es 4-5. And there appeared to them Eli Yahu withMoshe and they were talking with Yeshua. And Kea responding said to Yeshua,”Rabbi, it is good for us to be here and let us make three boos, one for you, andone for Moshe and one for Eli Yahu.” So here, Kea or Peter, they he sees Elijahand he sees Moses up there speaking with Yeshua and he says, “Let’s make sometemporary dwellings. Let’s make some tabernacles. Let’s make some boos for you three to stay in while we’re here.”So, it was nothing for them just to gather up some materials and make a temporary dwelling real quick becausethey had done it over and over and over again throughout their lives. they wereprepared for being able to make a temporary dwelling at a moment’s noticealmost. So keep that in mind. The whole preparation thing, making temporarydwellings, keep that in mind because it’s going to come into play here in just a little bit. So just to recap thisparticular section of Yeshua and Sakope, Yeshua, it’s told us in scripture thatYeshua tabernacled among us. We also see that Yeshua kept the commandments. Hedid not sin. And one of the commandments that Yeshua kept was the commandment tocelebrate sukkot. Parallels can be drawn between the water drawing ceremony within Judaism andYahweh as the fountain or source of living water and Yeshua as giving thatliving water. The apostles and the believers in the British as well as the early first century early believers werewell accustomed to celebrating sukkot and building sukkahs or sukkahs. But once againthe whole preparation aspect of sukkot and booth temporary dwellings keep that in mind.

Symbolism of the four species

 So now let’s take a really quick look at the symbolism of the fourspecies. This is kind of neat. Take it for you will as you will because it’s very fairly interpretive. So do youremember the four species? If not, that’s okay. Let’s go over them real quick one more time.This comes from Leviticus 23:40. On the first day, you are to take choicefruit of trees, branches of palm trees, bows of leafy trees, and willows of the brook, and rejoice before Adonai yourGod for seven days. So that’s the four species. the choicefruit of trees, branches of palm trees, boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook. Again, two specific, twonon-specific. And once again, the lulav is one of the threebranches that or bows or whatever you want to talk about. It’s the palm tree branch. But when you put the palm treebranch, the bows of leafy trees and the willows of the brook together that collectively is called the lulav. Sowhat’s some of the symbolism that we can kind of draw out of this whole conceptof the bound together lulav? Well, number one, the four species representthe inclusion of the nations. The nations, gentiles, pagans, heathens, whatever you want to call them. andincludes the inclusion or the grafting in of those people so that they’re nolonger of the nations. They’re no longer of the Gentiles. They’re no longer of the pagans. They’re no longer of theheathens. In fact, they are now Israelites like us. They are now messianic. And it represents theseoutsiders who are grafted into Israel through Yeshua. Just as the LU love isbound together, all who believe in Yeshua, regardless of whether you come from a Judeian or a Gentile background,you’re united as one. Yeshua is the one who ultimately unites everyone to theFather, Yahweh. Let’s take a look at Ephesians 2:es 13-16.But now in Messiah Yeshua, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of the Messiah. For he is ourpeace, who has made both one. and having broken down the partition of the barrier, having abolished in his fleshthe enmity, the Torah of the commands in dogma, so as to create in himself onerenewed man from the two, thus making peace, and to completely restore to favor both of them unto Elohim in onebody through the stake, having been destroy having destroyed the enemy by it.So when we come to Yeshua, doesn’t matter if you’re from a Judeian or Gentile background. We’re made as one inYeshua. You’re no longer a Judeian. You’re no longer a Gentile. You are nowone in Yeshua with everyone else. You are now no longer what you used to be.You’re now a Israelite. You’re now a messianic. You’re now a Christian as it were. Or if you want to use, you know,the word that comes etmologically from Greek or etmologically from Hebrew, it’sall the same thing. But you’re no longer what you want were. You’re grafted in. You’re bound together by Yeshua as one.Very much like the three branches are put together into one and bound together as a lulah.The second point I want to bring up real quick is that the waving of the four species, and again, this is somethingthat’s not commanded in scripture, but it’s a tradition within Judaism. The waving of the four species in everydirection, shows Messiah’s reign reaching to the ends of the earth, wherever you can get to, that is whereMessiah’s reign will be. They signify the great harvest when Yahweh gathers every tribe and tongue under Messiah’srule. And also a third point I didn’t put up here on the slide but a thirdpoint you’ve got the four species. This is also a parallel with the tetragrammaton which has four different letters in Hebrewhas the yod the hey the wow and the hey yode hey w yahwehand four letters four species draw a parallel there pretty easily too. 

Sukkot & the End Times

Now, I’m not generally a prophecy or esquetological kind of guy, but I know some of you out there are. So, let’slook at sukkot and the end times. And even if you’re not an esqueological kindof guy like me, then you may find this interesting just as I did. Now, when youthink about sukkot, we’ve said this a couple times already during this teaching, but sukkot generally involvesliving or dwelling in a temporary dwelling for the celebration or the weekof sukkot. Well, this is a symbolic and it’s also parallel to what we experiencehere on earth. Let’s look at 2 Corinthians 5:1.For we know if the tent of our earthly house is destroyed, we have a building from Elohim, a house not made withhands, everlasting in the heavens. That’s 2 Corinthians 5:1. So here we’retold, we have a temporary dwelling, the tent of our earthly house. What is that referring to? That’s referring to thisbody of ours. It’s temporary. It gets injured. It hurts. It there’s pain. Itgrows old. It will die. It is temporary. It may take many many decades for it todie, but it’s still temporary in the grand scheme of things. And this isrepresentative and parallel with the temporary dwelling that we used duringsukkot. Another thing it says we also have a building from Elohim, a building fromYahweh. Remember that mansion that Yeshua spoke about in the Brit Hadesha?There’s going to be a permanent dwelling for those of us who are rewarded witheternal life after the first resurrection. So what we got now is atemporary dwelling. We have a sukkah as it were. But in everlasting life, we getthat living water given to us by Yeshua from Yahweh. We have that eternal life.Then we’ll have a permanent dwelling, a building from Elohim after theresurrection. But only for those who are saved, who are born again, who have everlasting life.So that is one parallel we can draw and a lesson that sukkot can teach us even nowadays and what even the brhes tellsus as well. But another thing is that sukkot it could be also apreparation practice for the end times. Let’s look at Matthew 24 15-16 and 20.So when you see the abomination that lays waste spoken of by Daniel the prophet set up in the set aart place. Hewho reads let him understand. Then let those who are in Yehuda flee to themountains and pray that your flight does not take place in winter or on theSabbath. So here in the end times there may be times that we have to flee. We have to do what we have to do in orderto take care of the innocent of our loved ones and our family. We may be outof our h our homes. We may be living on the run and we’ll need temporarydwellings. Well, celebrating Sukkot. Now, this is one of the things that it will teach usin preparation for maybe the end times. If the end times come during ourlifetime, it will teach us to be able to live and build and survive in temporarydwellings. So, that’s a connection with sukkot and with the end times. Anotherone, this is something that will blow your mind if you’ve never heard this before, if you never read this inscripture, is this is this is scripture. This is not me making it up. This is not some tradition from a particular faith.This is scripture. And if you’re like me and you’ve got a mainstream churchianity background, you’re not taught this inchurchianity school. But anyways, let’s read it. Let’s checkit out. Zechariah 14 16-19. And it shall be that all who are leftfrom all the nations which come up against Jerusalem shall go up from yearto year to bow themselves to the sovereign Yahweh of host and to celebrate the festival of sukkot. And itshall be that if any one of the clans of the earth does not come up to Jerusalem to bow himself to the sovereign Yahwehof host on them there is to be no rain. And if the clan of Mitzim does not comeup and enter in, then there is no rain. On them is the plague with which Yahwehplagues the nations who do not come up to celebrate the festival of Sakot. Thisis the punishment of Mitzim and the punishment of all the nations that do not come up to celebrate the festival ofsukkot. So here the very scriptures itself tells us that in the end times allnations all a ll spells all everyone will be celebrating sukkoteverybody in the end times will come up to Jerusalem bow themselves before Yahwehand celebrate sukkot and anyone who doesn’t get rain. No rain means no crops. Nocrops means no food. So everyone in the end times will becelebrating sukkot. How does that line up with the notion that Jesus done awaywith the feast? It doesn’t. Cuz here it tells us that even if you’re one ofthose people who don’t celebrate it now, in the end times you will be, everyone will be because the feast days as wellas the rest of the Tanakh has not been done away with. still applicable and isstill relevant to our lives today. This is point and proof from scripturethat it’s still relevant. It’s still applicable and that Jesus has not done away with the OldTestament, not done away with the moade, not done away with the feast days, thescriptural evidence. So that’s another connection between sukkot and the end times with esquetologyas it were. Another thing if we look in revelation chapter 21 verses 1-4and I saw a renewed heaven and a renewed earth for the former heaven and the former earth had passed away and the seais no more. And I, Yohanan, saw the set aart city, renewed Yerushelim, comingdown out of the heaven from Elohim, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice fromthe heaven, saying, “See, the booth of Elohim is with men, and he shall dwellwith 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 andthere shall be no more death nor mourning nor crying and there shall beno more pain for the former matters have passed away.So here is a beautiful description of the end times when the kingdom of heavencomes down and is established here on earth. It’s not somewhere you go up andplay a harp while wearing cloth diapers on clouds all day. That’s not heaven.No, heaven is the kingdom of heaven. That’s the kingdom that’s established here on earth when the earth and theheavens are renewed and the new Jerusalem or new Jerusalem comes down out of the heavens.But here we’ll see at this point the booth or the tabernacle or the sukkah ofElohim will be with us be with men. Hewill be dwelling with us. It will be permanent this at this point and then wewill be his people and he will be our God. But that language there, the booth of Elohim, the tabernacle, the sukkah ofElohim that connects sukkot directly with the end time. So it’s very veryrelevant. sukkot is very very relevant to esquetology and prophecy and things like that. So just to recap uh the section onsukkot and the end times. Our earthly bodies are only temporary like the sukkahsthat are used in sukkot. Sukkot helps prepare us for hard times in addition toremembering hard times. So it can be in preparation for the end times when we will have hard times as believers. Butit’s also to remember the hard times that our ancestors had when they came out of Egypt and they were journeyingthrough the wilderness. In the end times, all nations, al spells all, allnations, all people, every single human being will go up yearly, year after yearto Jerusalem to celebrate Suko. When the new Jerusalem comes down, the tabernacleor booth of Yahweh will be with man. and he shall be he shall dwell with us. Wewill be his people and he Yahweh will be our God. But his booth, his tabernacle,his sukkah will be with us and permanently so. So now just to lighten things up a

Significant Sukkot Stories

So now just to lighten things up a little bit, let’s look at some stories and some events that happened over history that are also connected to SKOjust like Yeshua is, just like end times prophecy is. Let’s take a look at some stories that happened over the course ofhistory that you may not be thinking about are connected to sukkot. Did youever know or ever think about Noah and the flood being connected to sukkot itself?We look in Genesis 8:4 and in the seventh new moon, the 17th day of thenew moon, the ark rested on the mountains of Adarat. And this is the endof their journey of floating around in the ark. The ark finally comes to reston the mountains of Ararat in the seventh new moon on the 17th day of thenew moon. When is that? That is during the week of sukkot. We know that sukkot isduring the seventh month, the seventh new moon and runs from the 15th to the 22nd 23rd of the 7th month. So the 17thday would have been right in the middle of the week of SKO. So that’s one waythat Noah in the flood is connected to the feast of SKO. There’s also otherthings as well. We got the imagery of a temporary dwelling or shelter within thestory of Noah and the flood. Noah and his family, his wife, his sons and their sons wives or his sons wives. They’re inthis temporary dwelling called an ark. Just like we have a temporary dwellingin sukkot. Like I said before and you seen from scripture, it happened during the seventh month on the 17th day of themonth during the week of SKO. And this is also something that is aend and a beginning. And with Noah in the flood, you’ve got the when it’sresting on the mountains of Ararat. It’s the end of the flood, the end of a sinful world that was back then and thebeginning of a new and cleansed world. This is right there and connected withthe symbolism of sukkot. Just like the Israelites in the wilderness were it wassymbolic of their ending their slavery in Egypt and the beginning of getting into the promised land, the land ofIsrael. even as it comes down to us today. Another connection, you’ve probably heard of this before, but youhave the dedication of the first temple once Solomon got done building thatfirst temple. We look in First Kings 8:2 and 65-6.And all the men of Israel assembled to sovereign Shalom at the festival in the month of Ethna Ethanim,which is the seventh new moon. And Shalomo at that time performed the festival and all Israel with him, agreat assembly from the entrance of Hamoth to the Wadi of Mitzim before Yahweh our Elohim 7 days and seven days,14 days. On the eighth day he sent the people away and they blessed thesovereign and went to their tents rejoicing and glad of heart for all the goodness that Yahweh had done for hisservant Dawed and for Israel his people. So here once they get the temple builtfinally finally get it built then they have a dedication ceremony that lasts for seven days at the end of which theyimmediately turn right around and celebrate sukkot as part of that dedication of the first temple. So yougot that connection there as well. But that comes up that whole dedication and temple thing comes up a little bit lateron that we’ll get to in here in just a moment. The people also celebrated sukkotonce they returned from exile in Babylon. We look at Ezra 3:es 1 and 4.Now when the seventh new moon came and the children of Israel were in the cities, the people gathered as one manto Jerusalem and they performed the festival of sukkot as it is written andthe daily ascending offerings by number according to the right ruling for each day. Now this is the first time they asection of the people come back from Babylon back to Jerusalem back to Israeland what do they do? They celebrate sukkot even after being away and beingin exile for so long. There was a second group or another group that comes backfrom captivity a little bit after that and they also celebrate sukkot and weread that in Nehemiah 8:es 2-3 58 13-18.And Ezra the priest brought the Torah before the assembly of both men and women and all who could hear withunderstanding on the first day of the seventh new moon. And he read from it inthe open space in front of the Watergate from morning until midday before the men and women and those who couldunderstand. And the ears of all the people listened to the book of the Torah. And Ezra opened the book in thesight of all the people for he was above all the people. And when he opened it, all the people stood up, and they readin the book of the Torah of Elohim, translating to give the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.And on the second day, the heads of the father’s houses of all the people with the priest and Levites were gathered toEzra the scribe, in order to study the words of the Torah. And they found written in the Torah, which Yahweh hadcommanded by Moshe, that the children of Israel should dwell in booths in thefestival of the seventh new moon, and that they should announce and proclaim in all their cities, and in Jerusalem,saying, “Go out to the mountain and bring olive branches, branches of oil trees, and myrtle branches, and palmbranches, and branches of leafy trees, to make booths, as it is written.” Sothe people went out and brought them and made themselves boos, each one on theroof of his house, and in their courtyards, and in the courtyards of the house of Elohim, and in the open spaceof the watergate, and in the open space of the gate of Ephraim. And the entire assembly of those who had come back from the captivity made booths, and sat under the booths. For since the days of Yeshua,son of Nun, until that day, the children of Israel had not done so. And there wasvery great rejoicing. And day by day from the first day until the last day, he read from the book of the Torah ofElohim. And they performed the festival seven days. And on the eighth day, therewas an assembly according to the right ruling. So here we read in Nehemiah after thepeople, another group of people come back. They’re reading the Torah and they’re all excited to hear it and they’re hearing all these great thingsand they’re eager to hear it. And then they come back the second day right after that and they hear about thiscommandment to celebrate sukkot. They were in exile. They hadn’t been doing itbefore. They might have even forgotten about it. But they heard it and they rejoiced and they celebrated sukkot. Theybuilt sukkahs all over the place on their houses in the courtyards. Even within the courtyards of the temple, within thegates, everywhere they could build a sukkah, they built a sukkah and they celebrated sukkot and they were rejoicingduring this whole time. And that’s something for us to learn today. If you’re from mainstream churchianity,this is scriptural. This is something that’s commanded for us to do as believers and followers of Yeshua, aspart of the people of Yahweh. We are to celebrate sukkot. This is a lesson for us.We’ve been in captivity in the Catholic, Roman,early Protestant captivity of our minds, not understanding and knowing scripturelike we should. Now, we’re rediscovering it. We’re getting back into the Torah. We’re learning all these things. Andsukkot is one of those things we’re learning about and that we’re learning that we should be doing, that we can do,and is still relevant to us today. And this is something that’s happened before and we’re reading about it here in thebook of Nehemiah after the people returned from Babylon. They heard the Torah. They started understanding itagain for the first time, probably some of those the first time in their lives. And they were rejoicing and theycelebrated sukkot because they were told to in the Torah because they had a zeal forcelebrating and obeying Torah and the same zeal that we should have nowadays.So let that be a lesson to us. Once the people came back from exile, they were excited to hear the Torah, learn aboutit, and keep it, including celebrating sukkot. Now, sukkot has a connectionwith another event that happened in history, and that is the story of Hanukkah. Coming up a little bit laterthis year, we’ll have a draw or teaching dedicated all to the feast day of Hanukkah. But for rightnow, just let it suffice. This summary is that the Greeks came in, theyoppressed the Judeans who were still there in Israel and the Judeians fought back and they were able to take controlof Israel again. And once they did, they rededicated the temple after it had been profaneed by the Greeks. And that’swhere the celebration of Hanukkah comes from. But we understand that they gotthis 8 days of Hanukkah from the festival of sukkot. We read here in 1Mcabes 4:es 52-53 verse 56 and 59.Now on the 5 and 20th day of the 9th month which is called the month kisv in the 1408th year they rose up b times inthe morning and offered sacrifice according to the law upon the new altar of burnt offerings which they had made.And so they kept the dedication of the altar eight days and offered burnt offerings with gladness and sacrificedthe sacrifice of deliverance and praise. Moreover, Judas and his brethren with the whole congregation of Israelordained that the days of the dedication of the altar should be kept in their season from year to year by the space of8 days from the five and 20th day of the month kisv with mirth and gladness.So how do we know this is connected to Sako? Well, there’s a couple of clues here in this passage we just read.Number one, it says they kept the dedication for eight days. So, there’sone clue. Another clue is the words gladness. And of course, again,gladness, rejoicing. Where else do you hear that? Within the commandments for sukkot that were commanded to be glad, tobe rejoicing, to be joyful during sukkot. And here the same language is used inthe story of Hanukkah. We also get a third clue here. It says from year to year annually every single year wherethey say to do this to keep the dedication keep this remembrance. What’s something else that’s remembered everysingle year? sukkot. Yes. Along with other things too, but sukkot is remembered from year to year. It’s kept for eight daysand is commanded during sukkot to be glad. So there’s a couple of clues here from this one passage. But it gets even moreexplicit when we look at the book of second Mcabes. This comes from 2 Mcabes 10:es 5-7.Now upon the same day that the strangers profaneed the temple, on the very same day it was cleansed again, even the fiveand 20th day of the same month, which is Kislev. And they kept eight days with gladness as in the feast of tabernacles,remembering that not long before they had held the feast of tabernacles, when as they wandered in the mountains anddens like beast, therefore they bear branches and fair bows and palms also,and sang psalms unto him that had given them good success in cleansing hisplace. So if it wasn’t direct and obvious before here in second Makabes it doesmake it direct and obvious that the celebration and remembrance of Hanukkahis based on the feast of tabernacles is based on SEO. So there’s anotherconnection with a historical event with the moedim of soup.Even now into modern times, there are still people celebratingSukkot. And there are people who are getting the word out about celebrating sukkot. More more people are coming tothe whole word of Yahweh, not just the New Testament, but the whole word. Andthey’re learning about these feast days, these moedim including sukkot, and they’re keeping sukkot. One of thoseorganizations that’s helping people keep SKO is an organization called the International Christian EmbassyJerusalem. Here is the links you can see here on your screen or if you’re listening on audio podcasting platform.We have those links in the notes on our website at godonesttruth.com. But according to this, it says here,”Scripture foresees a time when all nations will come to Jerusalem to celebrate sukkot under a futurehistorical fulfillment still awaited. Since the 20th century, Christians from around the world have made pilgrimagesto Jerusalem during sukkot, echoing Zechariah 14:16’s prophecy that allnations will one day keep the feast. The International Christian Embassy Jerusalem which was founded in 1980holds annual SEO gatherings attended by thousands.And this is amazing. is not only is it’s it’s wonderful that people are coming back to the whole word of Yahweh, notjust a certain portion of it, but they’re coming back to the whole word of Yahweh and they’re keeping things likesukkot, which is fulfilling part of that prophecy that we read earlier from the book of Zechariah about the end timesand all nations coming to celebrate sukkot. Now we can see here in our ownday and age that thousands and thousands of people and I would assume this justmy assumption but I would assume that more and more people are beginning to celebrate these feast days these moedimbut thousands of people are celebrating Sukkot every year and these organizations like the internationalChristian embassy Jerusalem is helping them do just that. Yeah, it’s it’samazing to see scripture actually come alive when you celebrate it. Then when you see others celebrate it, especiallypeople who are coming from a anti-law, anti-nomian background, it’sjust absolutely amazing. It warms your heart. It’s wonderful that more and more people are being obedient to Yahweh andcoming to serve him the way he commanded us to serve him. 

Something to think about

Now, here’s something to think about. Maybe you haven’t thought about it before. this very very interesting, very verycompelling, but by all means not definitive. It’s all circumstantial, butit’s very very very heavy on circumstantial evidence here. You’ll seewhat I mean. Now when you read through the bradesha the messianic writings thenew testament whatever you want to call it you read about a certain priest especially at the very beginning in thegospels you read about a certain priest named Zechariah and he was a priest ofAia or Aia whatever you want to call it Luke 1 5-8 11 and 13there was in the days of Herodes or Herod the sovereign of Yehuda a certain priest named Zechariah of the divisionof Abia. And his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisha. And they were both righteousbefore Elohim, blamelessly walking in all the commands and righteousnesses of Yahweh. And they had no child becauseElisha was barren. And both were advanced in years. And it came to be that while he was serving as a priestbefore Elohim in the order of his division, a messenger of Yahweh appeared to him standing on the right side of theslaughter place of incense. The messenger said to him,”Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer is heard, andyour wife Elisha shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Yohanan orJohn.” And this John is John the Baptist.Yes, Zechariah the priest, that’s mentioned here, is the father of John the Baptist. And it’s couple things totake note of. It says that he was a priest. He was serving in the temple andhe was serving as part of his order which is the order or division of Abia. Now if you look back in the book ofchronicles you’ll see that David divided the priest into 12 different divisionsand Zechariah was of the eighth division called Aia and this was his time to serve in the temple. Now you can startdeveloping a time frame just from that and there’s be more information about this coming up in our Christmas anddetail series. So if you this interest you definitely tune in for thoseparticular episodes. But anyways, the division of Aia usually served both allthe divisions served twice a year. And one of the divisions or one of the times that the division of Aia served was inthe May or June time frame. That’s about when they would have had their firstservice of the year would have been about May or June. It was served for eight days. During this time,we don’t know if this is the first or second. So, I’ll give you that. We don’t know if it’s the first or second time they served during the year, but we’reassume for the sake of conversation, we’re assuming it’s the first. So given that he’s told that he will have a sonis the name his son’s name John. Now we can therefore at that point start datingJohn’s birth if assuming there’s no indication that there was a lapse between that message and his wifegetting pregnant. So since there is no evidence that there was a lapse, we can assume that as soon as he got done withhis service and he returned home that his wife got pregnant. So if his wife got pregnant somewhere about May, June,then that means that John the Baptist would have been born somewhere aroundthe time of Passover, which is very very interesting because if you’ve evercelebrated Passover before or you know anything about Passover and those who celebrate it, generally at the seder atPassover, we set an extra place setting and that place setting is for theprophet Elijah for for the return of the prophet Elijah. However,if you know anything from scripture and you’ve read your Bible, especially the British or the New Testament, you knowthat John the Baptist came in the spirit of Elijah.So way back when John the Baptist was born around Passover in the spirit of Elijah, eventhough his tradition within Judaism, we set an extra place for Elijah. We cansee that John the Baptist in the spirit of Elijah has already come and made way for the Messiah. Now, logicallyconsidering this fact, these facts, let’s also take into account some of the facts that we see logically speaking inlight of the life of Yeshua. We see, excuse me, we see from scripture in Luke1:es 24-56 that Yeshua was conceived 6months after John the Baptist was conceived. If you want that information,go look in the book of Luke chapter 1. So it follows that Yeshua was born 6months after Pesak or Passover, which was what we’ve concluded so far to beJohn the Baptist birth. So what is 6 months afterPassover? Passover happens in the first month. 6 + 1 is seven. What’s something that happens in the seventh month? Fulldisclosure, it’s yum, yum, kiparim, and sakot. All three of those happen in theseventh month. Keep that in mind. So six months after Passover, after John the Baptist birth,Yeshua was born. So that put us in the seventh month around the time of Sako. Now rememberthe Passover feast is on the 15th, right? 6 months from the 15th on thefirst month would we’re doing an exact dating. It’ll be the 15th on the seventh month. 15th onthe seventh month is what? It’s sukkot. It’s starting to line up, right? Okay.Keep with us. This if we take six, if Yeshua was conceived six months afterJohn the Baptist was conceived, that means Yeshua was born 6 months after John the Baptist was born. So if Yeshuawas conceived 6 months after John the Baptist was conceived, that would have put Yeshua’s conception somewhere aroundthe time of Hanukkah, which is known as the festival of lights. And Yeshua isknown as the light of the world. Little bit of connection there, right?There’s more connections than that, though. Check this out. John 1:14. We’vealready read this, but it bears repeating. John chapter 1:14and the word became flesh and tabernacled or pitched his tent among usand we saw his esteem esteem as of an only brought forth of a father complete in favor and truth. So let’s get avisual timeline of this. We’ve got the dating of John’s conception and birth.We got the dating of Yeshua’s conception and probable birth. But let’s look atthis real quick. We can see here on your screen, you got Nissan, which is the first day or thefirst month. That’s Aviv. Six months later, since Yeshua was conceived, and then logically he was born also 6 monthsafter John, that would put him somewhere around the seventh month, which is ethanim,which is what scripture calls that month. or within Judaism or Babylonianreckoning it is Tishri or Tish Tashitu.So that’s the a visual timing or visual timeline of the birth and conception.But let’s look at some other logical things about the life of Yeshua and Johnthe Baptist as well. Yeshua was 30 years old when he started his ministry. We seethis from Luke 3:23. And we see this kind of pattern repeated all throughoutscripture. We see John the Baptist was about 30 when he began his ministry. Joseph was 30 when Pharaoh put him inservice over all of Egypt. So there’s a significance about this whole being 30years old before really teaching or being in power or having authority oranything like that. tangential point there but remember that anywaysYeshua was 30 years old when he started his ministry we get that from scripture generally most scholars or academics youtalk to who have looked into this they generally conclude and accept that Yeshua had a ministry service of aboutthree and a half years give or take but generally it’s accepted to be aboutthree and a half years we know that Yeshua was crucified on Pass Passover as our Passover lamb.Remember that wording and that dating as well. So if Yeshua was crucified on Passover in the first month, first monthof the year and we think that Yeshua had a ministry of about three and a half years. Wecount back three and a half years. That would have put it at a birthday of Yeshua during that year that he started.And that would have put him 3 years and 6 months back. So 3years would have been 3 years from Passover 3 years from the day he diedplus another 6 months 6 months from Passover is what? Sako. So he’ had a birthday during sukkot.That means like I said that Yeshua had a birthday or 6 months before Passoverthat would have been SEO. So, just something to think about. Again, it’s all circumstantial, butthere is more to add to it. Stay with me. We’re still going there. If you lookthroughout various scriptures and the various feast days, we see our wonderful and belovedMessiah being referenced bylanguage that’s commonly associated with the Moadin, the feast days. For instance, we look at Peso and we seethat Messiah is our Passover lamb. Just like the lamb waseaten and killed every Passover, Messiah is our Passover lamb. That language andother language associated with Passover is put forth towards our Messiah. Youcan read multiple verses on that. Number two, we also have the feast of unleaven bread. Messiah is the bread of life. Andthere’s multiple verses on that as well. So you’ve got the language of Passover being used for Messiah. You got thelanguage of unleaven bread being used for Messiah. We also have the languagefor the moedim of first fruits and Messiah being the first fruit from thedead. You can read multiple passages on that as well. So all of thesereferences, these language, these phrases that are used commonly of the moedim, especially the spring moedim,they’re commonly used of these moeem. They’re also commonly applied to Messiah.Take that into account. Now check this out. We get a common reference to sukkotespecially within Judaism, is that it’s the season of our joy. Zan sim simuor time of our joy. That is a traditional description of thecelebration or the moedim of sukkot. You’ve probably heard something veryvery similar to this in scripture itself. For instance, we look at Leviticus 23:4and this is a commandment within the commandment for sukkot and it says, “Youshall rejoice before Yahweh your Elohim.” This whole rejoicing, thiswhole joyful thing kind of connecting to the time of our joy. That whole phrase there. But let’s look at the connectionwith Yeshua in D. Oh, we’ll get to that in just a minute. Anyways, another one another reference Deuteronomy 16:14. rejoice inyour festival. And this is speaking of sukkot as well. But look in the British,we see in Luke 2:10, and this is the angels speaking to the shepherds out inthe field, and they say, “I bring you good news of great joy.”Heard that before? This is during this is the birth ofYeshua. And it’s talking about great joy with the birth of Yeshua. And what elseis referred to as a time of our joy? We’re commanded to be joyful. It wouldbe the festival or the moedim of sukkot. So if he’s born during sukkot where hetabernacled among us, we’re commanded to be joyful and Yeshua comes and it’s agreat and joyous time. Again, I admit it’s circumstantial, but it’s all comingtogether and it’s just absolutely amazing. Once again, we’ll get into thewhole dating issue with the our series, our Christmas in detailseries, so make sure to stay tuned for that. But that’s a just a general overview, which is just absolutelyamazing when you take all this and put it together. Again, circumstantial, butvery, very heavy. very very heavy weighty evidence for the timing andbirth of our Messiah. There’s also other evidence that negates a common datingfor the birth of our Messiah. For instance, shepherds would not have their herds out in the cold of winter. What isthe one of the months that is during the winter in Israel? One ofthose months is December. and the shepherds would not have their herds out in the cold of winter. However, if we gowith the Sukkot time frame as the birth or the timing of the birth of Yeshua,they would still have shepherds out keeping their flocks, keeping their livestock out in the field. The averagetemperatures for October during the time frame of SAO ranged anywhere from between 57 and 79. So from very hotaccording relative to where I live to 57 which is little cool but it’s bearabledefinitely bearable no problem so a sukkot temperature range would have beendefinitely doable for the shepherds and the livestock however you get into December and the cold months and theaverage temperature in Israel ranges from 43° for the low to a high of 59° on average.That’s not something you want to stay out day after day in and trying to keepwatch over livestock. So, no, the shepherds will not have their herds out during the cold of winter duringDecember. Also, December in Israel is a part of the rainy season. So, not onlyyou going to be cold, but you’re going to be wet and cold if you try to take and keep your livestock out in the openfields. Just something to think about. But to recap this section on something to thinkabout and thinking logically between the dating of Yeshua’s birth and sukkot,Zechariah John the Baptist’s father was a priest of the division of Aia. John the Baptist came in the spirit of EliYahu or Elijah. John the Baptist was likely born around the time of Passover.Yeshua was born 6 months after John because he was conceived 6 months afterJohn and that places his birth date likely during the time of sukkot.Language that’s commonly associated with sukkot is applied also to Yeshua justlike the language used for other moedim that Yeshua is deeply associated with especially the spring moedim. And it’sextremely unlikely, in fact, close to impossible, that the date of Yeshua’s birth was in December.It’s hard for some people to swallow and it’s difficult when you hear it for the first time, but it’s absolutely amazingwhen you start putting all this together. So we again the dating for when he was actually born is allcircumstantial but we know for a fact and this is commonly admitted tonowadays. So we know for a fact he was not born on December 25th.That’s a fact. So you’ve learned all this information what Sukkot is, where it comes from in

Celebration

So you’ve learned all this information what Sukkot is, where it comes from in scripture, the connection between Yeshua and Sukkot, the connection between end times and Sukkot. We’ve heard someinteresting historical events connected with SEO. So now you’re thinking, “Okay, I’m one of those people who wants tocelebrate SEO. How do I do this? What are some tips that you can give me for celebrating SEO with my family thisyear?” I’m glad you asked. We’re going to get right into that. It’s all been laid out in scripture before, but if youwant a boiled down version of just the bare basics, here you go. If you want todo a scriptural celebration of the moedim of sukkot, number one, dwell in a sukkah, atemporary dwelling or a tent. A lot of times we do usually a tent, but we likebuilding a sukkah as well. One of the neighbors down the road has bamboo, which just about anybody with bamboo iswelcome to get rid of it. So, we go down there and we get all the bamboo that we want and we build a sukkah out of thisbamboo, which is wonderful. It’s a great time with the children and we justabsolutely love it. During the week of Sukkote, dwell in a temporary dwelling, a sukkah or a tent. On the first day andthe eighth day, you do no servile work. You take the first day off, take theeighth day off. You do no servile work. You are allowed to prepare your food, cook a meal. No more work. Understood?We are commanded. This is a commandment within Sukkot. We are commanded to rejoice. So while you’re celebratingSukkot, make sure that you are rejoicing and being joyful.You also take the four species which I’ll reiterate is the fruit of good trees non-specificbranches of palm trees specific. Twigs of leafy trees non-specificwillows of the stream specific. So take those four different species and you cando like the Jews do and wave them in six directionsor you can just have them there with you and take them on a day-by-day basis asthe scriptures tell us to do. There’s nothing wrong with doing it the way that Jews do it, but you don’t have to. Justunderstand that much. You can get these four species from places like Amazon.That’s where usually get ours. Make sure you order plenty ahead of time because they havelimited supplies and it takes time to ship it. So, make sure you leave plenty of time to order your four species andgive it plenty of time to get here. That is the four species. That’s something else you all also take if you want tocelebrate it. And this are these are the scriptural commandments for celebrating sukkot. You want to do it yourself. Dwellin a suku over tent. First and eighth day are shabbatons. Do no servile work. You rejoice during this celebration ofsukkot and you take the four species. Also, I didn’t list this up here, but this is also part of the scripturalcommandment. On the first day and the eighth day, you have a set aart gathering, a holy get together. So, ifyou can find someone else that is in your area that would like to celebrate with you on the first and eth days. Ifnot, try to find some kind of online gathering. If you are listening to thisright now and you want to get together online on the first and eighth days of Sikkote, let me know and we’ll try toset something up. Now, here are some ideas from Judaism. The way the thosewithin Judaism celebrate sukkot. Number one, build a sukkah or live in a tent. That comes from scripture, but thosewithin Judaism also do that. the commandments within Judaism which are inaddition to scripture. Those the Talmud is not scripture. But anyways, withinJudaism, they have a commandment that says the sukkahs are to have an open roof so that you can see the stars.You want to do that, that’s fine. I like having something over my head to keep the dew and the rain and all that off ofme, but you do you. Scripture does not command us to have an open roof. That’sonly Judaism. But you can if you want to. In Judaism, the first nth day are Sabbaths orShabbaton, which comes from scripture. They rejoice before Yahweh for seven days, which also comes from scripture.And the sukkahs within Judaism are traditionally decorated with the four species. So, not only do they take themand have them present for the celebration of sukkot, they also decorate their sukkahs with the four species. Theyread from the Torah or scriptures every single day during the course of sukkot.Now this is not something that’s commanded in scripture. This is something the Jews do on their ownrather those within Judaism do on their own but it is a good idea. So that’ssomething that you can do and probably something you should be doing anyways. Number seven, they read from the hell,which is Psalms 113-18. And they read this every single day.This is not hard to do. It’s not a very long process because it’s not a lot of scriptures to read at one time, but theyread the hell, which is Psalms 113 through 118 every single day during Sukkot.The candles, they use candles within Judaism. The candles are traditionally lit on the first two days at sunset. Whyis it the only first two days? Why do they do candles at all? I don’t know. That’s just something those withinJudaism do. It’s not a scriptural commandment, but you want to add it in, hey, go for it. Meals during suko aretraditionally eaten within the sukkah. Again, it’s not a scriptural commandment. It’s something those withinJudaism do, but if you want to do it, go for it. I think that’s rather fun thing to do and it kind of helpsmake the experience more alive. Number 10, they take the four species,which again is a scriptural commandment, but those within Judaism also do that. And they wave the lulav in six differentdirections. But finally, again, that’s not a scriptural commandment, but you can do it if you want to. As far as weknow, that’s not something that’s pagan or comes from paganism. If you have any evidence differently, then by all means,please let us know. And we mentioned the Christian Embassy of Jerusalem earlier that helps peoplecelebrate SEO. But here is another organization that helps people find sukkas and celebrate sukkot as well. And this is opensukkah.com.That’s Opensukkah.com. OpenSukkah.com.And here you can go and register for an account and find other people hopefully near you who are celebrating SEO andhopefully you can get in contact with them and celebrate with them so that you can fulfill that whole set apart gathering aspect of sukkot. 

Summary

So in summary, sukkot is one of the moedim or appointed times that is commanded in the Torah theTanakh and one of the three pilgrimage feasts. sukkot lasts for eight days andduring this time of sukkot you’re to take the four species as part of the celebration. sukkot is on the 15th day ofthe seventh new moon of the seventh month and it lasts for seven days. Thefirst day and eighth day are shabbatones where you do no servile work but you are allowed to prepare meals. It iscommanded to be only rejoicing before Yahweh during your celebration of sukkot.sukkote is commanded and told to us directly in scripture as a law forever.Yeshua himself were told in scripture tabernacled among us and celebratedsukkot. The four species represent the nations, the Gentiles, the Heaga, thepagans as being grafted into the one body of Messiah.sukkot has connections to the end times and prophetic events. sukkot is mostlikely time of Yeshua’s birth and we went over the circumstantial evidence for that. We’ll have a lot more comingup in our Christmas in detail series. And finally, sukkot is an appointed timeor moedim of Yahweh. And sukkot once again is a law for ever. And that’s just the God honest truth.