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Matney: A lesson from Sukkot

A “tabernacle” is a temporary dwelling place. Sunday evening, Oct. 9, on the biblical calendar, is the beginning of Sukkot, otherwise known as “The Lord’s Festival of Tabernacles,” in Leviticus 23:34. This festival commemorates Israel’s deliverance from bondage and them dwelling in tents, tabernacles and temporary shelters as they journeyed from slavery and into the promised land.

So, as a yearly celebration, God told Israel to take leafy tree branches and make shelters and live in them for seven days — kind of like a national campout! God told the Israelites, in Leviticus 23:40-43, “All native-born Israelites are to live in such shelters so your descendants will know that I had the Israelites live in temporary shelters when I brought them out of Egypt.” This festival is rich in symbolism.

Among the many lessons taught by the leafy tree branches of Sukkot, and the symbolism in the Feast of Tabernacles is that life is a journey in a temporary and fading dwelling. Both experience and the Bible teach us this is a reality.



The apostles, Paul and Peter, refer to our human body as a tabernacle or tent. Paul wrote, if our earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. He wrote that our mortal, perishable body will put on immortality. And Peter wrote that his days on Earth were numbered and he would soon put aside the tabernacle or tent of his body. See 1 Corinthians, Chapter 15; 2 Corinthians Chapter 5; and 2 Peter, Chapter 1.

So, life is a journey in a frail and fading tent, but like Israel of old, God is trying to lead us out of slavery to sin, selfishness and Satan and into a promised land of life, love and liberty, here and now, and immortality in the world to come.   

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And, Hebrews 11:9-10 says, “By faith, Abraham, sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.”

So, we journey through a short-lived life in a temporal and fading body, but we can receive an imperishable, immortal body and live in a permanent dwelling place with God forever. Our eternal dwelling place is not made of weak and fading tree branches. Our eternal home is the strong city called the New Jerusalem. Here are passages from Revelation 21 that give us glimpses of what it is like. Please take a moment to read all of Chapter 21 and embrace the vision of eternal life.

I, John, saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven. It was a glorious sight, beautiful as a bride at her wedding. I heard a loud shout from the throne saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God, God’s dwelling place, is now among men, and he will live with them and they will be his people; God himself will be among them. He will wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying, nor pain. All of that, gone forever.” And the one sitting on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new!”

In a vision, he took me to a towering mountain peak, and from there I watched that wondrous city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of the skies from God. It was filled with the glory of God and flashed and glowed like a precious gem. The city itself was pure, transparent gold like glass!

And the city has no need of sun or moon to light it, for the glory of God and of the Lamb illuminate it. Its light will light the nations of the earth, and the rulers of the world will come and bring their glory to it. Its gates never close; they stay open all day long — and there is no night! Nothing evil will be permitted in it — no one immoral or dishonest — but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

On the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, John 7:2, Jesus said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who thirsts come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” He said, “I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice, I will come and eat with them and my father and I will make our home with them.” See John 7:37-38; Revelation 3:20; John 14:23.

Friend, if you have even a little thirst for truth, faith, hope and love, and even a faint desire for immortality beyond the grave of this temporal life, God is knocking on your door. With whatever amount of faith or desire you may have, in a simple and sincere act of faith, open the door of your heart to him and invite him in. Ask for more faith, turn away from anything that would keep you from entering the New Jerusalem, ask for God’s forgiveness and invite Jesus to be Lord of your life. He will gently enter your life and guide your steps from here to the eternal city.


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