What is Sukkot? The True Significance of the Feast of Tabernacles
Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose; in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles: and they shall not appear before the LORD empty:
This article explores the third of three annual High Sabbaths of Biblical Israel specified in the Old Testament, called the Feast of Tabernacles or “Sukkot” in Hebrew, also referred to alternatively as the Feast of Ingathering.
As we explore the annual High Sabbath feasts detailed in Scripture, we will see the explicit Christological and prophetic significance of the Feast of Tabernacles and its impacting power regarding eschatological revelation.
Introduction
Three Annual High Sabbaths
Three annual High Sabbath feasts were established in the Old Testament and were to be observed perpetually. The first is the Passover or “Pesach” in Hebrew, which includes the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The second was held seven Sabbaths later, called the Feast of Weeks or “Shavuot,” commonly known as Pentecost. These two feasts hold significant meaning, with the Passover signifying Israel’s exodus from Egypt, and Pentecost marking the beginning of the wheat harvest in Israel. The third is the Feast of Tabernacles or “Sukkot.”
The first group reference to the three annual feasts is found in Exodus 34:18–23 (KJV) as a perpetual commandment. They are further unpacked in Leviticus 23:2–44 (KJV) and again in Deuteronomy 16:1–17 (KJV). We also find detailed instructions for the three solemn assemblies under the Feast of Tabernacles in Numbers 29:1–39 (KJV).
These feasts were to be held annually as a permanent ordinance where special sacrifices were offered to the LORD, as well as the continuance of the daily temple sacrifices. They are also named “holy convocations” (Leviticus 23:37 KJV), “solemn days” (Numbers 10:10 KJV), “solemn feasts” (Numbers 15:3 KJV), a “solemn assembly” (Numbers 29:35 KJV), and “the feasts of the LORD” (Leviticus 23:44 KJV).
Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the feast of tabernacles for seven days unto the LORD. On the first day shall be an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein.
What is the Feast of Tabernacles?
The Feast of Tabernacles is the third annual High Sabbath feast instituted under the law of Moses that was to be held in the seventh month of Tishrei in the Hebrew calendar. It is an umbrella festival covering two other significant High Sabbaths in the same month, called the Feast of Trumpets and the Day of Atonement.
The word “Sukkot” or “tabernacles” comes from the Hebrew word “suka” meaning “a hut or lair, booth, cottage, tabernacle or tent.” The concept is found in the wilderness wanderings recorded in the Book of Exodus and Numbers, where the Israelites were made to live in tents during the forty-year probationary period before entering the promised land.
Once entering the promised land of Canaan, they were to memorialize their time in the wilderness through observing the Feast of Tabernacles. During the feast they were to construct small “booths” or “tabernacles” to dwell in for seven days as a symbolic and physical acknowledgment of how they were made to live during their time in the wilderness.
Ye shall dwell in booths seven days; all that are Israelites born shall dwell in booths: That your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.
The Feast of Tabernacles was also a celebration of the completed grain harvest under the Feast of Ingathering theme of Exodus 23:16 (KJV). As the entire feast time came at the end of the calendar year, it doubled as a time of praise and thanksgiving to God for a successful harvest season and ingathering of the grain planted that year.
Tabernacles in Perspective
In today’s world, the Feast of Tabernacles is little acknowledged outside of Jewish religious thought and practice. Due to the absence of the Hebrew Temple, the season cannot be observed in its full application.
Christian observance of the Old Testament feasts were made officially obsolete during the Nicene period based on theological and council positions that rendered the Law of God and Jewish ceremonial observance superseded by the Gospel.
It is important to note here that even though the Law and Gospel are separate and distinct systems, with the Gospel taking preeminence, being the culmination and fulfillment of the Law, they have a symbiotic relationship and complement one another as taught by the Apostle Paul in the Book of Romans:
Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.
Future Observance
The Millennial Kingdom
Understanding the spiritual continuity between the Old and New Testaments, the Scriptures indicate that the annual Feasts of the LORD will be observed once again when Jesus Christ returns to rule the world from Jerusalem during the 1,000-year Millennial Kingdom.
And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain. And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, that have no rain; there shall be the plague, wherewith the LORD will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles. This shall be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.
The Prophet Zechariah revealed that the Feast of Tabernacles will be kept by saved Israel and the Gentile nations in the Millennial Kingdom and Regeneration as a perpetual observance. In this prophecy, even divine judgment in the form of drought will be executed against all nations who attempt to exempt themselves from its future observance.
Prophetic Significance
The spiritual significance of the Feast of Tabernacles in its relation to Christocentric biblical theology is great in extent.
With all three feast days in the same month climaxing under the Feast of Tabernacles, we also see obvious eschatological implications for the prophetic end times. We will now break these three events down into historical descriptions and types and shadows.
The Feast of Trumpets
Yom Teruah Explained
The Feast of Trumpets, or “Yom Teruah” in Hebrew, is more commonly known in modern Judaism as “Rosh Hashanah,” which marks the beginning of the Jewish New Year and is held on the first day of the seventh month, Tishrei. Biblically, it was the first feast in a series of three in the seventh month and was designated a “memorial of blowing of trumpets.”
Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation.
Prophetic Symbolism of Trumpets
Trumpets are used in Scripture as a tool of announcement, either for the calling of regular assemblies, for use during public and religious ceremonies, as a public call organizing the people for mass movement, for announcing the presence of royalty, for musical celebration and thanksgiving, or in military operations as a battle cry.
Allusions to the significance of the Feast of Trumpets can be found in the Numbers 10, pointing to the day as being a memorial of victory in warfare and a memorial of celebration of the solemn days, signified by the blowing of trumpets in fanfare.
And if ye go to war in your land against the enemy that oppresseth you, then ye shall blow an alarm with the trumpets; and ye shall be remembered before the LORD your God, and ye shall be saved from your enemies. Also in the day of your gladness, and in your solemn days, and in the beginnings of your months, ye shall blow with the trumpets over your burnt offerings, and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings; that they may be to you for a memorial before your God: I am the LORD your God.
Types and Shadows
The prophetic types and shadows in this feast are clear and powerful as we see the prophetic landscape being prepared for the soon return of Jesus Christ.
Trumpets signify the eschatological period when the return of Christ is announced. This is seen in supernatural actions in fulfillment of the end-times judgments and also through the literal trumpet blast initiating the first resurrection and the rapture of the Church.
And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake. And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.
And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
We can also see a clear allusion to warfare in the symbol of the trumpet blast. Scripture declares that Jesus Christ will return to deliver His people and also to wage war upon the unrepentant sinners and the satanic forces amassed under the direction of the Antichrist.
And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.
The Day of Atonement
Yom Kippur Explained
The Day of Atonement, or “Yom Kippur,” is the second of the three feast days, held on the tenth day of the seventh month, Tishrei. It was a day in which the people of Israel were to “afflict their souls” in nationwide repentance and cleansing from sin. The Hebrew word atonement is “kippur,” essentially meaning reconciliation or to return to a status of being “at one” with God, hence atonement or “at-one-ment.”
Also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of atonement: it shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD.
Yom Kippur was the day for national atonement instituted in ancient Israel, when the sins of the nation were forgiven by the High Priest. Key to the sacrificial ceremony was the selection of two goats, with one being a sacrifice for sin with its blood to be sprinkled on the mercy seat, and the other designated a scapegoat to be released into the wilderness after having the sins of the nation transferred upon it by confession of the High Priest (Leviticus 16:10 KJV).
The New Testament Atonement
The New Testament doctrine of the atonement speaks specifically of Gospel reconciliation purchased by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, our High Priest, particularly through the shedding of His blood for the remission of sins. It is this atonement that reconciles the sinner to God, and in which the forgiveness of sins is found and applied. This immediately causes us to view the Day of Atonement through the lens of the atonement of Christ.
But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.
The prophetic significance of the Day of Atonement in relation to the Feast of Tabernacles is clear. At the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, redemption will be complete. The full benefits of the atonement of Christ will be applied in the resurrection to eternal life and the glorification of the body in its full redemption from the corruption of sin.
And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
The Day of the Lord
The Day of Atonement also symbolizes the coming eschatological event biblically known as “the day of the Lord” (Acts 2:20; 2 Peter 3:10; 1 Thessalonians 5:2–3 KJV), the “day of the LORD” (Joel 2:31 KJV), or the “day of Christ” (Philippians 1:10; 2 Thessalonians 2:2 KJV).
We see the Prophet Joel reveal the coming day of the LORD in the Old Testament:
And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.
We then see the Apostle Peter declare the fulfillment in Christ in the Book of Acts:
And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke: The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come: And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
The day of the Lord is the literal day of the return of Christ when those who are saved through the atonement are redeemed and glorified. It is also the same day that the sinners who rejected the Gospel and the atonement are judged and destroyed by brightness of His coming and the glory of His power (2 Thessalonians 1:9; 2:8; Jude 1:14–15 KJV).
The Feast of Tabernacles
Dwelling in Booths
The Feast of Tabernacles, as explained earlier, is the central feast under which the previous two are also celebrated. It is a memorial feast that highlights the wilderness wanderings and how the Israelites dwelt in tents or “tabernacles” during their travels through the Sinai and Arabian deserts until they reached the land of Canaan.
Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the feast of tabernacles for seven days unto the LORD.
Scripture commands that this feast be kept on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, Tishrei, with a duration of eight days. The first day was a Sabbath day of rest, and for seven days the people would dwell in small constructed booths or abodes, which would bring remembrance to the historical events. The eighth day would mark the end of the festive week and also be a Sabbath with special sacrifices and offerings.
The Significance of the Tabernacle
The New Testament revelation sheds light on the concept of the tabernacle. According to the Apostles Paul and Peter, the Tabernacle spiritually refers to the human body in which the soul and spirit are contained.
The concept of wilderness wanderings is now seen in transferred significance to the Christian journey of faith through the world, which is now our wilderness, until we reach that promised land of full redemption in eternal life with God in the new heavens and new earth.
For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.
Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years.
The New Tabernacle
The Book of Revelation tells us that God will dwell physically with redeemed humanity in the new heavens and new earth. It speaks of the time in which all of creation is reconciled to God and sanctified, biblically referred to as the “Regeneration” (Matthew 19:28 KJV).
Scripture reveals that there is a heavenly tabernacle where God the Father dwells and where the Lord Jesus Christ is now seated at the right hand of His throne. In the Regeneration, the “tabernacle of God,” or “New Jerusalem,” will descend from heaven and be present on earth, where the full manifestation of the God will permanently dwell with man.
Therefore, it can be concluded that the future observance of the Feast of Tabernacles also acknowledges the Tabernacle of God in its presence on earth and where the faithful saints of the Most High will dwell with Him forevermore.
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
The End-Times Harvest
The ingathering aspect of the Feast of Tabernacles is also prophetically significant. The concept of ingathering anticipates the total harvest of souls for the Kingdom of God to be completed in the end times. It represents the fullness of the Gentiles coming to faith in Christ, with the reserved Jewish portion to repent and believe the Gospel at His return.
Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.
For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.
The concept of ingathering also has a strong prophetic correlation with the rapture, when the Lord Jesus Christ “shall gather together his elect” at His return (Matthew 24:31 KJV). The rapture marks the final ingathering of the saved Christians who remain alive after the Great Tribulation and the dead in Christ who are resurrected from their graves at His arrival.
And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe. And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped.
Conclusion
Tabernacles Revealed
In the Feast of Tabernacles and the surrounding feasts of the LORD, we see clear prophetic correlations to the eschatological realities both in play right now and still yet to manifest. We see the clear signposts pointing us to the Lord Jesus Christ, as these Old Testament statutes and ordinances are all types and shadows that reveal Him to us.
We also acknowledge the future observance of these solemn assemblies as prophesied in Scripture, where we will memorialize the fulfillment of the promises of God given to us in the Everlasting Gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord (Hebrews 8:5; 10:1 KJV).
The Coming of the Lord
Let us now wait for that trumpet sound announcing the return of our Lord Jesus Christ, the blessed hope in the resurrection to eternal life, and the final victory of the King of Kings over the enemies of righteousness.
We can also find grace in His glorious appearing, when the faithful Christians of all ages are gathered together to the Lord and when the full effects of the atonement will be realized in our final redemption and glorification.
And let us finally look forward to that blessed day when, in the twinkling of an eye, we who are saved by the grace of Christ will shed this earthly tabernacle and dwell with God forever in the New Jerusalem, the Tabernacle of God.
Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.
