Jesus in the Old Testament 015: Jesus and The Feast of Tabernacles

Jesus in the Old Testament 015:

Jesus and The Feast of Tabernacles

Thesis: Sukkot celebrates many Christological themes.  Among those themes is the sheltering mercy of God over His people. God desires to shelter his people and invites them to see His goodness in this way.  In response, we are to shelter others in His name.

1. Nutshell w/kids
1. When you go camping, what is different then versus living in your homes?
2. Have you ever gone camping and slept outside without a tent?  What do you think that would be like?
3. Why is it important to have shelter?
4. Feast of Tabernacles celebrates lots of things, but we are going to be talking about God as our shelter.  What do you think that means?
5. God wants to be our only source of peace, comfort, and confidence.  He is our ultimate shelter.
6. God also wants us to be a shelter for those around us who need physical help or haven’t heard about the love of God for them.

2. Deeper w/ Adults
1. Overview of Sukkot:
1. One of Six Biblically-Commanded Jewish Feasts, one of Three Pilgrimage Feasts.
2. OT Commands:
1. Lev 23:33-36
2. Num 29:12-28
3. Deut 16:13-17
3. Celebrates many things:
1. God’s presence with His people (last time)
2. Fulfillment of the harvest (precursor to Thanksgiving)
3. Fulfillment of God’s word (Simchat Torah)
4. Fulfillment of God’s plan (first and last)
5. Joy after judgment (Wiping the tear)
6. Universal love of God for the nations (70 nations in Gen 10-11, 70 bulls sacrificed; “Peace to you and Joy to the nations”)
2. Shelters
1. Hebrew word: Sukkah, סֻכָּה çukkâh, sook-kaw'; feminine of H5520; a hut or lair:—booth, cottage, covert, pavilion, tabernacle, tent.
2. Commanded to build as a part of the holiday
1. Lev 23:42
2. Neh 8:13-17 from the branches of “goodly trees” that were mentioned in scripture.
3. Temporary shelter, a dwelling “on your way”
1. They were originally on their way to the promised land.
2. God also dwelt in a tabernacle, a tent (Ex 33:7)
3. When Israel was permanently settled, it was a time to look back to the God who was with them on their way and also a reminder that not even this life, settled though it may be, is a permanent dwelling for their soul (Lev 23:43).
4. Paul picks up on this idea in 2Cor 5:1-10.
5. Greek word: σκῆνος skēnos, skay'-nos; from G4633; a hut or temporary residence, i.e. (figuratively) the human body (as the abode of the spirit):—tabernacle
3. Verbal use: “to shelter”
1. The same root that is used as a noun in “tabernacle” or “booth” can be used verbally: סָכַךְ çâkak, saw-kak'; or שָׂכַךְ sâkak; (Exodus 33:22), a primitive root; properly, to entwine as a screen; by implication, to fence in, cover over, (figuratively) protect:—cover, defense, defend, hedge in, join together, set, shut up.
2. This word has a similar word, nearly a synonym contextually, in: צָלַל tsâlal, tsaw-lal'; a primitive root (identical with through the idea of hovering over (compare H6754)); to shade, as twilight or an opaque object:—begin to be dark, shadowing.
3. These two words together are what underlie the usage of “shelter” in a verbal sense in the OT.
4. Gen 19:8 first use.  Terrible story.  The visitors are more worthy of protection than Lot’s daughters because they have come under his shelter. 
5. Num 14:8-9.  Here “protection.”
4. God as our shelter.
1. God sheltered the children of Israel during the exodus so that their tents, clothing, and shoes were miraculously sustained during 40 years in the wilderness.
2. He used that picture to represent what he does for his people in numerous other ways.
3. The shadow of his blessing:
1. Psa 17:8
2. Psa 36:7
3. Psa 57:1
4. Psa 63:7
5. Psa 91:1-4
4. God desires to be our only source of shelter and protection. Isa 30:1-3.
5. When God protects us, we need not fear the wrath of man. Isa 51:12-16
6. Sukkot in Heaven Rev 7:9-17
1. Dressed in white
2. Palm branches
3. Wipe away every tear
4. God shelters them.
7. The Millennial kingdom
1. Isa 4:2-6
2. Isa 16:1-5, specifically mentioning gentiles grafted into the Messianic Kingdom.
3. Ezek 17:22-24, also specifically mentioning gentiles.
5. What does this mean for the church today?
1. We are to rest in the sheltering protection of God and not seek it from outside sources: Government, etc.
2. We are to shelter others with the sheltering we have received from God.
1. Luke 6:32-36
2. Jas 2:14-17
3. Jas 1:27

Discussion Questions:

1. Do you think of God as a shelter?
2. How does God’s desire to be a shelter for you help you see Him differently?
3. How have you enjoyed the shelter of God recently?
4. How have you been a shelter for others in His name recently?
5. If you haven’t, how can you make concrete plans to be a shelter for someone soon?

1st Saturday of the Omer

1st Saturday of the Omer

The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him [Moses] there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands [of generations], forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped.  (Ex 34:5-8)

This passage has been one of my favorites for a long time.  In it, Moses is blessed with the clearest picture of God that anyone will have until the Mount of Transfiguration.  Moses has talked with God before in the tent of meeting (Ex 33:7ff), and he had a powerful encounter with Him even earlier on the first Shavuot, when the Law was given.  Until this point, though, there has been distance between the presence of God and His people.  Moses asks to be brought nearer than ever before when he asks to see God's glory in the last part of chapter 33.  He's heard God's voice.  He's received God's law.  He's been within the cloud on the mountain and in the tent, but he wants to go deeper.  God allows it, to a point.  He allows Moses a greater access to his presence than ever before and lets the lawgiver see the "backside" of God--better understood to be the afterglow-- as He passes by.  As awesome as that would have been, Moses doesn't record the moment of seeing the afterglow at all.  We don't have any record of what it looked like.  What struck Moses more than whatever it is that he saw was what he heard.  God declared His goodness, proclaimed his name and His attributes as He passed by.   This is what stuck with Moses and what he recorded for us.

Have you ever been to a social function where you were given one of those, "Hi, my name is..." stickers?  If God had shown up, this paragraph is what would have to be written (in very small letters) in that space.  This is God.  He brings Moses closer than anyone has ever been (or ever will be again for another 2,500 years) and declares His goodness to Moses.  It's interesting, isn't it, that everything recorded in this paragraph is described by God at the end of chapter 33 as His "goodness"?  I think that we'd all agree that a God merciful, slow to anger, gracious, and forgiving sin is a good thing, but would you put the rest under that category?  God declares that he will not clear the guilty and that the sins of one man will impact the lives of his great-grandchildren. Really?  That's good too?

The first time I taught this passage, I did all kinds of gymnastics trying to not really have it mean what the language clearly states.  It bothered me that the same God who forgives transgression, iniquity, and sin would visit the sins of a man to his progeny.  Five years after the first time I taught this, I understand more of what that means.  First of all, it doesn't mean that I will go to hell because my great-grandfather rejected Christ.  Read Ezek 18 to put that fear to rest.  What it does mean is that God is Holy, and while He does forgive sin, He does not dismiss it.

I'll say that again.  While God does forgive sin, He does not dismiss it.

You see, sin is real, and it's a serious problem.  I think those of us in the Christian faith frequently run the risk of receiving grace as a "free gift" and think that it means "cheap."  Sin is a massive problem.  It is the insurmountable barrier between a fallen world and our creator.  It is inside each of us at birth, dominates our lives' activities, is the natural inclination of every heart, and cannot be put away on our own strength.  Sin is that bad.  It's so bad, in fact, that the only way for it to be dealt with, for it to be conquered once and for all, was for Jesus to take on flesh (a MASSIVE condescension and miracle in itself), live a perfect life (another AMAZING thing), and then die in our place. There was no other way.  Jesus asked His Father for plan B in the garden before He was arrested, and He resolved that there wasn't one.  That's how massive a problem sin is.  Jesus had to die to get it out of the way. God died.  Don't read that too quickly.

So God is willing to forgive sin, but it has to be on His terms--His methodology is all that there is.  He won't wink at your failings.  He won't turn a blind eye to your depravity.  You won't get into heaven on your charm, your looks, or your salesmanship.  God "will not clear the guilty."  It doesn't matter how much money you give your church, the homeless shelter, or the Republican presidential fund.  You can adopt orphans and kittens all day long.  You can pay your taxes on time, be elected to the city council, and run the boyscout troop in your home town and still go the hell when you die if you haven't dealt with your sin according to God's plan.

Passover and Easter are both beautiful portraits of both sides of God's nature as revealed in Exodus 34.  At Passover, God shed his grace and mercy broadly upon the children of Israel and freed them from bondage and oppression.  They left the land of slavery and set out for the land of promise.  God showered them with his enduring steadfast love, and they celebrate that moment every year in remembrance.   At the same time, though, hundreds of thousands of Egyptians died.  Most of them children.  How does that make you feel?  God showered one group of people with love and mercy, and on another He rained down death.  The same God did both.  How did people escape the one reality and flee into the other?  Through the sacrifice of a Lamb and the sprinkling of blood.  That was God's way.  If you followed it, you were spared.  If not, people died.

Easter is this same formula broadcast on a larger screen, with higher stakes.  Instead of merely dying physically, what we're talking about here is eternal spiritual existence in torment.  Instead of a promised physical land that someone may or may not enjoy for 60 to 80 years, God is offering an eternity in His presence and His paradise.  Instead of the death of thousands of lambs, God's way is more focused.  He will sacrifice One.  That Lamb will be His Son, Jesus, the Eternal Living Word, the Perfect Lamb of God, whose slaughter was declared from before the foundation of the world.  This is His way.  There is no other.

God is too Holy, to "good" to dismiss your sin, but He is willing to forgive it.  You just have to play by His rules and do it His way.  Are you willing?