Chag sameach Sukkot kol beit Yisra'el and Mishpachah and Shabbat Shalom! I would like to welcome in Yah'shua's (Jesus') Name to the first day of the week-long Feast of Sukkot, also known as 'Tabernacles' or 'Booths', which we are gathered to honour according to the mitzvah (commandment).

There are seven (some argue, eight) annual festivals which Yahweh gave to Israel in perpetuity. This is the final and greatest feast of the Israelite agricultural year and one of the three annual pilgrimage festivals [1]. Anciently it specifically celebrated the harvest of grapes and olives and the end of the harvest season in general. Its is also called the Festival of Ingathering (Ex.23:16; 34:22), the Feast of Yahweh (Lev.23:39,41), the "appointed feast" (Lam.2:6-7; Hos.12:9) or even simply "the feast" (1 Ki.8:2,65; 12:32).

You may wonder at why it was known by so many names and the reason is, quite simply, because it is the 'feast of feasts', the culmination of all the others. In a way it includes all the others, recapitulates them, and then launches into something totally new, entirely different, on the Last Great Day. Like the other two autumn (fall) feasts (Yom Teruah and Yom haKippurim) which we celebrated very recently, the fullness of the prophetic significance of Sukkot has neither been realised nor fulfilled yet. The fact that it occupies an entire week and we are commanded to enter it with a spirit of simcha (joy) and thanksgiving, no matter what trials and tribulations may be happening in the world, should give you an idea as to what it points to and why we are commanded to still celebrate it.

I don't know what you are all experiencing today, I can only speak for myself. This year's festivals have somehow seemed very different. Now I am speaking personally and subjectively. We know we are marking time in the same tavnith or pattern, and will continue to do so "until all be fulfilled". I did not think I would be speaking today, to be perfectly honest with you, and I was seriously contemplating asking one of the brethren to take over today's address for me. I know what you're thinking, 'Oh, this always happens, something always crops up at the last minute,' but it's not the same. Last night something happened to me. I was in incredible pain most of the night and was even contemplating going to the hospital but finally I got to sleep. I dreamed I was having a kind of review of my entire career life and I woke up with the words of Solomon on my lips: "All is vanity, grasping after the wind" (Eccl.2:17).

The dream itself is not important. What's important to me, and I hope to you, is the realisation that when Yahweh calls you, you cannot build upon the old fleshy, earthy foundations. The entire cycle of the festivals is about that - going to Christ, repenting daily of sin and getting daily cleansed, committing yourself with a public declaration marked by baptism, learning to grow in communal fellowship, and so on, until you reach Sukkot and the closing Shemini Atseret. The festivals give us a spiritual rhythm, a track down which to walk, a grove in which to make heavenly music, guiderails to keep us from wondering off into murky carnal realms. We need to repeat this cycle of spiritual training, of which the festivals are symbolic instruction tools and reminders lest we wander. They keep us, if we submit to them, to the Derech (Way) that leads to Eternal Life. Theoretically we could do without them; in practice we absolutely need them because of our imperfections. And, of course, Yahweh commands we assemble at these times, so if you want to keep it really simple, it's a question of plain obedience. It's all of these things, and more. And let's not forget that Yahweh sends spiritual equipping at these times if only we will receive it.

We have just observed Yom Teruah, also known as Trumpets and Shouting, which is the future hope of the return of Messiah and just a few days ago we fasted at Yom haKippurim, commonly abbreviated as Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonements, anticipating the final Day of Judgment. Only this year it was rather special as it marks an actual Day of Judgment, a kind of dress rehearsal of the final one-to-come. Since that is now so obviously underway, you may think this perhaps a difficult, if not innappropriate, time to feast and celebrate and yet every year for the last 3,000 years or so Yahweh has expected Israel to celebrate. And we most certainly do have things to celebrate. Always.

In the grand narrative or picture, Sukkot came to be tied to Yehudi (Judahite, 'Jewish') hopes of a Davidic Messiah and national independence, and it is still viewed in the same way by Jews worldwide. Indeed by the first century AD the original festival had become so embellished with larger-than-life symbols that it literally became a kind of public High Drama that I think would even have impressed Stephen Spielberg, the movie-maker, famous for so many spectacular films with special effects. In the Mishna we have a graphic description of what it was like when Yah'shua (Jesus) was ministering:

"There were four golden menorahs with four golden bowls at the top of each, and four ladders each leading to a bowl. Four strong cohenim (priests) would climb up with pitchers each holing 9 liters of oil which they would pour into the bowls. From the worn-out drawers and girdles of the cohenim (priests) they made wicks, and with them lit the menorahs; and there was not a courtyard in Jerusalem that was not lit up by the light of the Beit-haSho'evah (festivities). Pious men and men of good deeds would dance around [the menorahs] with lit torches in their hands, singing songs and praises, while the Levites played harps, lyres, cymbals, trumpets and innumerable other musical instruments..." (Sukkah 5:2-4).

These menorahs were 75 feet high (Sukkah 52b), over ten times taller than I am. Most buildings were not very high in those days which is why every courtyard would have been lit up by these massive lights. This was the 'Light Festival' of Israel for there was nothing like it. So when Yah'shua (Jesus) taught the people, saying, "I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life" (John 8:12, NKJV), inevitable associations would have been made by the Yehudim (Judahites) with Sukkot. And He was a far brighter Light than the rays of light that shone on the people and illuminated the whole city of Jerusalem at night for these days of Tabernacles. Not only that, His Light shines every day of the year, for ever and ever, worlds without end. I want you to especially remember this in these mounting days of darkness on this benighted world. His Light shines brightly within the souls of all those trusting in the Messiah.

May His grace of our Master Yah'shua the Messiah be with you henceforth and may you find simcha (joy) in the knowledge that He has prepared a place for us, that He is coming back to the earth and that we shall return with Him. Amen.

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