Sukkot

Happy Sukkot! Since there is a lot of misunderstanding about the importance of this incredibly rich and important Feast, I thought that instead of trying to jam everything into one post, six or seven would be more appropriate.

In previous posts, we looked at the significance of Yom Teruah (more commonly called Rosh Hashanah), the Feast of Trumpets, and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. After the call of Yom Teruah, and the repentance and atonement of Yom Kippur, the way is opened to the most joyous Feast of all:

So on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruits of the land, you shall keep the feast of the LORD seven days: on the first day shall be a solemn rest, and on the eighth day shall be a solemn rest. You shall take on the first day the fruit of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God seven days. You shall keep it a feast to the LORD seven days in the year: it is a statute forever throughout your generations; you shall keep it in the seventh month. You shall dwell in booths seven days. All who are native-born in Israel 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. (Lev. 23:39-43)

The Holy One considered this feast so important that he actually repeats and expands the command in the space of a single chapter (ibid., vv. 33-36). Sukkot was so important that it was often simply called the Feast (Num. 28:17, 1Ki. 8:2, 2Ch. 7:8f & 30:22, Neh. 8:18, John 7:10) and God actually commanded us to rejoice on this day (Deu. 16:14). Edersheim describes it as, “The most joyous of all festive seasons in Israel . . . It fell on a time of year when the hearts of the people would naturally be full of thankfulness, gladness and expectancy. All the crops had been long stored; and now all fruits were also gathered . . ." (Temple, p. 212). In discussing its purpose, he goes on to write:

We will not pursue the tempting subject of this symbolism of numbers further than to point out that, whereas the sacred number 7 appeared at the Feast of Unleavened Bread only in the number of its days, and at Pentecost in the period of its observance (7 x 7 days after Passover), the Feast of Tabernacles lasted seven days, took place when the seventh month was at its full height, and had the number 7 impressed on its characteristic sacrifices (ibid., p. 219).

The number 7 in Scripture denotes completeness; therefore, the continued repetition of the number in the Feast suggests that it will see the completion of some mighty plan of God.

As with most of the Feasts of the Lord, Sukkot is connected to the regular harvest, and is called the Ingathering in Exo. 23:16 and 34:22. The custom of the Four Species, in which a palm branch, a myrtle branch, a willow, and a citron are waved together, harkens back to when the Ingathering celebrated the fall harvest.

Like the Feast of Matzah (Unleavened Bread) and Shavuot (Pentecost), Sukkot is a pilgrimage Feast, when all the men of Israel were to appear before the King of Eternity in the place which He chose, Jerusalem (Exo. 34:23). It was commanded that during the seven days of this Feast that all Israel would live in sukkot (סכות, pl. of סכה), temporary structures. The warm and dry Judean autumns made this an optimal time to live outdoors, and the entire countryside around Jerusalem would be alight with campfires and alive with the sounds of music and rejoicing. The Temple too would be lit by the flames of four gigantic seven-stemmed menorahs and the innumerable torches with which the priests would dance. The celebration of the Feast—specifically, the seventh day—became known as the House of the Water Drawing for a reason that we will come to in a moment, and it is recorded in the Talmud, “He that has not beheld the joy of the House of the Water-Drawing has never seen joy in his life" (b. Sukkah 5:1).

After the first day, on which God commanded a Sabbath-rest, each morning began with a peculiar ceremony: The Cohen HaGadol, or High Priest, would carry a golden pitcher down to the Pool of Siloam, accompanied by a joyous procession, where he would gather about a quart of water. Meanwhile, a second procession would go down to gather willows from the banks of a nearby brook, which they brought back to hang over the altar in the Temple. The High Priest would re-enter the Temple through the Water Gate, greeted by the blasts of the silver trumpets and all the priests quoting Isa. 12:3 with one voice: “Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation!” Then the High Priest would ascend the altar and pour out the water into a silver basin made especially for this purpose.

The purpose of this ceremony was to pray for God to send the winter rains. It is a little-known fact that Jerusalem gets as much rain per year as London—but nearly all of it falls between the months of November and March. Without these winter rains, the wells would run dry and the ground would not yield its fruit. Therefore, it became a tradition to offer the “firstfruits” of the water that God would send, just as it was commanded in the Torah to offer the firstfruits of each harvest in anticipation of the rest of the bounty.

It was during this water-drawing ceremony, on the seventh day of the Feast (The Hoshana Rabba, or Great Deliverance) that a young Galilean carpenter interrupted to call out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink! He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, from within Him will flow rivers of living water.” Yochanan went on to explain to his predominantly Greek audience, “But He said this about the Spirit, which those believing in him were to receive. For the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Yeshua wasn’t yet glorified" (John 7:37, 39). The Jews in his audience would have already understood the reference:

Ancient Jewish theology connected the water-drawing ceremony with the Holy Spirit. “Why do they call it ‘the house of drawing’? Because there they draw the Holy Spirit” (Gen. Rab. 70:1). And again, “Why is the name of it called, the drawing out of water? Because of the pouring out of the Holy Spirit according to what is said: ‘With joy ye draw water out of the wells of salvation’” (Ruth Rab. 4:7). They believed that the Holy Spirit came upon them and manifested Himself through great joy. (Howard and Rosenthal, Feasts, p. 147)

Early the next morning, with the light of the menorahs and the myriad of campfires and torches fresh on everyone’s mind, He went on to claim, “I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (8:12). That same day, a Sabbath (being the eighth day of the Feast), He proved His claim by healing a man born blind (ch. 9). It may truly be said that just as Yeshua endorsed the bread and the cup of the Passover table, investing them with a fullness of meaning in Himself, He did the same with the lights and water-drawing ceremony of the Feast of Tabernacles.

The Holy One Dwells Among His People

As we saw in the previous article, when the people of Israel committed the sin of the golden calf, Moses removed the Tent of Meeting to outside the camp, to show that the sin of the people was so great that God had removed His Presence from them. And we saw that Moses fasted and interceded before God for forty days and returned on Yom Kippur with a new set of tablets to demonstrate that the Eternal One had restored His covenant with His people.

The story does not end there. Shortly after returning from Mt. Sinai, Moses commanded that Israel begin building the Tabernacle, the instructions for which he had already received (Exo. 35). This associates the building of the Tabernacle with the Feast. Scripture also tells us that the Glory of God descended on Solomon’s newly-completed Temple on Sukkot (2 Ch. 5:3), and that the foundation of the Second Temple, the altar, was completed for this Feast (Ezra 3:4). Therefore, this Feast is intimately connected with God dwelling among His people, since the Tabernacle and the Temple were where He came to meet with them and dwell among them (Exo. 29:42-46). This links the Feast with the birth of Immanuel, God With Us.

It is generally well understood that Yeshua was not, in fact, born on December 25 of 1 A.D despite long tradition and the date on calendars all over the world. Not only is this an absurdly late time of the year for shepherds to be tending their flocks in the field (Luke 2:8), when the weather would be cold and the mountains of Judea impassible, but it is well-known that the date was selected to co-opt a popular pagan festival, Saturnalia, into Christianity. Though the Bible does not specifically record Messiah’s birth-date, it does give us a number of clues.

Since the days of Solomon, the Aaronic priesthood was divided into 24 "courses," or groups (1Ch. 24). Luke’s Gospel account begins not with the birth of Yeshua, as we might expect, but with the conception of Yochanan HaTivlei (John the Baptist). We learn that Yochanan’s father, Zechariah, was of the course of Aviyah (Luke 1:5), which was the eighth course (1Ch. 24:10). Josephus (Antiquities VII.14.7) tells us that each course served in the Temple for a period "one course should minister to God eight days, from sabbath to sabbath." This would start with the first week of Nisan (the month of Passover), which the Holy One decreed to be the beginning of the year (Exo,. 12:2). On weeks with a Feastday, all the priests would serve together in order to handle the pilgrimage crowds.

As a result of this arrangement, Aviya served in the week leading up to Shavuot. It was during this service that Zechariah was visited by Gabriel and told that he would have a son. Yochanan, unlike Yeshua, was not virgin-born, which means that his conception could not take place until after Zechariah finished the week of his course’s service, the week of service for Shavuot, and returned home, putting his conception sometime in Sivan, the fourth month (again, counting from Nisan, not Tishri). Assuming a normal 280 or so day gestation, this would put Yochanan’s birth sometime in Nisan, perhaps on Passover itself. This not only makes the title by which he first greeted Yeshua, “The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world,” even more poignant and apropos, it is also completely in-synch with his coming in the spirit and power of Elijah: Every year at Passover, observant Jewish families set out a cup for Elijah, in the hopes that he will return bearing word of the Messiah's coming.

Since Luke makes it clear that Yeshua was conceived six months after Yochanan (1:26, 36), this puts Yeshua’s birthday at the time of the Fall High Holy Days. Some have supposed the Messiah to have been born on Rosh Hashanah, when Jewish tradition says that Adam, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Samuel were all born. Missler, noting this rabbinical tradition, supports the theory that Yeshua, the “last Adam" (1Co. 15:45), was born on that same feast (Feasts). Other commentators take the same position, but Rabbi Moreno-Bryars takes the position that the start of Sukkot was the correct birth date:

The only reason that Beit-Lechem would possibly be crowded in mid-Tishrei would be for Sukkot. The first and last days of Sukkot were “high Shabbats” and travel on those days was forbidden. Therefore Yoseph would have planned their trip to arrive not later than a few hours before sunset preceding the first day of Sukkot. According to Luke’s account, Yeshua was born that night, on 15 Tishrei. . .

The “birth” of a Jewish baby boy was not considered complete until he had been circumcised on the eighth day. On the eighth day, Yeshua’s “presentation” in the Temple included His circumcision according to Torah. Thus we see that the birth of Yeshua HaMashiach spanned the entire eight days of Sukkot, including His birth on the holy Shabbat which was the first day of Sukkot and His circumcision on the holy Shabbat which was the eighth and final day of Sukkot. . . God’s preparation of the Feast of Sukkot centuries before His birth gives extra significance to Yochanan’s comment “The Word became flesh, and lived(literally, “tabernacled”)among us. We saw his glory, such glory as of the one and only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). (“When Was Yeshua Born?”)

The word translated “dwelt” in the KJV is eskenusen, which is a form of the word skenoo. Skenoo is actually a Greek derivation of the same root from which we get sukkah, and literally means “tabernacle, to pitch a tent.” John's word choice was not idle; is this his hint to us that the Word was made flesh and eskenusen among us on the day of Sukkot?

The second is in the nature of the Feast itself: The Lord commands that it last for seven days, but also commands that a special Sabbath be observed on the eight day as well. What special event in a newborn Israelite boy occurs on the eighth day? His circumcision (Lev. 12:3). Therefore, the Feast began with the birth of the Messiah, and concluded with His circumcision, when He received the sign of the Abrahamic covenant, the mark that identified Him fully with Israel.

A few weeks ago, I wrote on Psalm 27 and it's significance to Rosh Hashannah, and noted,

The phrase “secret of His tent He will hide me,” yistireini b’seiter ahla’u, arranges the sentence to place two forms of the Hebrew word seiter together, which in most cases means emphasis; e.g., qadosh haqadoshim means, literally, “the holy of holies,” but is more of the sense of, “the most holy.” Here, since seiter means a secret, we could understand the sentence to mean, “He will surely secret me away in the most secret part of His tent.”

I suggested a prophetic remez in the interpretation of that passage, a hint of the day when we would be lifted up into the hidden, true Holy of Holies. But now, let me suggest another prophetic meaning: That the "secret of secrets" and "tent" of the Holy One refers to our Messiah.

In what way is Yeshua like a sukkah? A sukkah is a temporary dwelling, ideally made of natural materials rather than manufactured ones, deliberately frail and built in such a way that those within are exposed to the elements. It has no form or comeliness that we should desire it. Nevertheless, dwelling in a sukkah is an occassion of great joy and fellowship, one which we will see in a later post anticipates the Resurrection.

In the same way, Yeshua's mortal body--what Christian theologians sometimes call His "human nature"--was a temporary residence and Temple/Tabernacle (John 2:21) for the Sh'khinah and Word of the Living God, deliberately made with all human frailty (Heb. 2:17), exposed to the elements. He had no form or comeliness that we should be attracted to Him, but nevertheless, those who dwell with Him experience the great joy and fellowship of His Spirit, anticipating the Resurrection.

The Ingathering

Image by delayed gratification via Flickr

As previously noted, one of the names for this Feast is the Ingathering: “And the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown in the field: and the feast of Ingathering, which is in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field" (Exo. 23:16, KJV). We saw that in the Feasts of HaBikkurim (Firstfruits) and Shavuot (Pentecost, or Weeks) that the harvest represented God’s people: In Firstfruits, Yeshua our Messiah rose as the Firstfruits of the dead, the rest of the harvest representing all of us who follow Him in Resurrection. In the Feast of Weeks, the firstfruits of the wheat harvest represent the firstfruits of God’s people who received His Torah and His Spirit within them, with the rest of the harvest representing all those who follow. Kasdan writes, “The lesson is clear: if God has been faithful to bless us with this early harvest, he will most certainly provide the harvest of later summer" (God's Appointed Times, p. 40).

The Ingathering changes this pattern: Where in the other two Feasts, the first ripe grains were presented before the rest of the field was ready for reaping, in the Ingathering, Israel waited until the harvest was completed to come before the Holy One’s Temple with the firstfruits of the harvest, which were set aside beforehand to fulfill the command, “The first of the first fruits of your ground you shall bring into the house of the LORD your God" (Exo. 23:19). Where the spring Feasts look to the beginning of God’s plan of redemption, Sukkot looks to the end.

Nevertheless, though presented at the end of the harvest rather than at the beginning, the offering of the firstfruits is still an integral part of the Feast of Tabernacles. Just as the fall feastdays of the Trumpets and Atonement speak of the events surrounding the Second Coming, the fall harvest does as well. Thus we see that Amos identifies Israel with “the latter growth after the king’s harvest" (Amos 7:1), the King’s harvest being the Ekklesia. Thus, the 144,000 are “not the first-fruit of all the saved . . . but a first fruit of another and particular harvest; the first-fruit of the Jewish field, in that new beginning with the Israelitish people" (Seiss, Apocalypse, p. 354).

One thing that struck me about this third firstfruits offering is that it is handled opposite of the Feasts of Firstfruits and Weeks. In those other firstfruits offerings, the offering was to be presented to the Holy One before the rest was reaped. In Sukkot, however, the offering is made after the general harvest. Why is this? Part of it is practical: Delaying in harvesting the fruit of the tree and the vine could result in damage to the crop.

But part of it was prophetic. Before the general Resurrection, Yeshua had to be Raised as the firstfruits of those who are asleep (1Co. 15:20). Before the full harvest of Israel and the Ekklesia could be brought in, the firstfruits had to be raised up and presented to the Holy One. But here, the Ingathering of the 144,000 occurs after the harvest of the Land--because the 144,000 would not be presented before Hashem until after Israel was restored to the Land in 1948. Thus, Ezekiel prophesies,

Therefore tell the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: I don’t do this for your sake, house of Israel, but for my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations, where you went. I will sanctify my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst; and the nations shall know that I am the LORD, says the Lord GOD, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes. For I will take you from among the nations, and gather you out of all the countries, and will bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. I will also give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you shall keep my ordinances, and do them. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. (Ezk. 36:22-28)

Therefore prophesy, and tell them, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, my people; and I will bring you into Eretz-Israel. You shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, and caused you to come up out of your graves, my people. I will put my Spirit in you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land: and you shall know that I, the LORD, have spoken it and performed it, says the LORD. (Ezk. 37:12-14)

First Israel will be brought back to the Land--and so she has--and only then will she be purified of sin, given a new heart and a renewed Spirit. And just as the giving of the Spirit began with a firstfruits of 120 in an upper room in Jerusalem, so this renewal of the whole nation will begin with the firstfruits of the 144,000--but the harvest, the whole nation, would be in the Land first.

We are truly living in prophetic times. And since we have been privileged to live in a time when we can see the Hand of God working His wonders, it is all the more incumbent on us to serve Him with our whole hearts, to work diligently in the fields until the time to rest and rejoice in the Kingdom has come.

The Holy One Provides For His Bride

Image by santheo via Flickr

The second theme of Sukkot is God’s provision for His people. The ceremony of the water-drawing was done in anticipation of God providing the winter rains, but this theme is exemplified in the command to live 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 people of Israel were to live in booths to partake of the time when God showed His love for their ancestors by taking them out into the wilderness, where He provided fresh water, manna, and quail for their sustenance.

In the Second Coming, both themes (as well as the third, as we will see) are brought together, as we see in the following passage:

In that day, the LORD’s Branch (the Messiah) will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land will be the beauty and glory of the survivors of Israel. It will happen, that he who is left in Zion, and he who remains in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even everyone who is written among the living in Jerusalem; when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from its midst, by the spirit of justice, and by the spirit of burning. The LORD will create over the whole habitation of Mount Zion, and over her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory will be a canopy. There will be a pavilion for a shade in the daytime from the heat, and for a refuge and for a shelter from storm and from rain. (Isa. 4:2-6)

In this passage, Isaiah is describing the visible Glory of God as both a chupah (חפה), a wedding canopy, and a sukkah. Jewish tradition, whether drawing from this verse or being referred to by this verse, regards the pillar of smoke by day and the pillar of fire by night which led the people of Israel through the wilderness (Exo. 13:21) as being the chupah beneath which the Holy One drew up His ketubah, the wedding covenant with Israel in the form of the Torah. When Israel agreed to keep the Torah, it was equivalent to accepting the marriage. This is why, in speaking of the New Covenant, the Eternal One calls the Old (Mosaic) “My covenant [which] they broke, although I was a husband to them” (Jer. 31:32).

Yet even though Israel consistently rejected God by our disobedience, “God didn’t reject his people, which He foreknew” (Rom. 11:2). Though all the curses described in the Torah, including exile from the Land, have come to pass, and though Israel has long existed “many days without king, and without prince, and without sacrifice, and without sacred stone, and without ephod or idols,” yet God has still preserved us so that, “Afterward the children of Israel shall return, and seek the LORD their God, and David their king, and shall come with trembling to the LORD and to His blessings in the last days” (Hos. 3:4-5). Deprived of a Land that would make the Jewish people a proper nation, still we have remained a nation united by language (through the Hebrew liturgy and Scriptures) and culture (through the Torah and traditions) and blood. But more than all those things, we have survived because of the hidden hand of the Eternal One, who does not lie or repent of His promises (Num. 23:19).

Just as God commanded Israel to dwell in booths, in temporary structures, in remembrance of the time when He guided and protected Israel through the wilderness (Lev. 23:42-43)—an exile which was extended by forty years because of Israel’s disobedience—so the eschatological Sukkot will be kept to remember the two thousand years in which God protected Israel in the Diaspora, in the Wilderness of the Nations as it were.

One custom that sheds insight into this final fulfillment of this feast is the singing of the Hallel (“praise”), which is comprised of Psalms 113-118. In the first Psalm of this group, the Father “raises up the poor out of the dust. Lifts up the needy from the ash heap; that He may set him with princes, even with the princes of His people.” This looks forward to a time when Israel will be seated with the Twelve Apostles, whom Messiah set apart as rulers over the twelve tribes (Mat. 19:28). Likewise, in Psalm 114, we find the shaking of the earth that will accompany the Lord Yeshua as He gathers His people from Jordan and marches on Jerusalem described.

In Psalm 115, we read that the idols, the images of the Beast that the False Prophet was able to give “breath” and the ability to kill are made silent, blind, deaf, and helpless. After that is a call for Israel to trust the Lord and a very special declaration: “The heavens are the heavens of the LORD; but the earth has He given to the children of men.” The earth that Satan usurped from Adam will be given to Adam’s children again, with the Son of Man ruling from His throne in Jerusalem.

In Psalm 116, the people of Israel praise God for delivering their souls from death, after which they “will take the cup of salvation, and call on the name of the LORD” (cf. Joel 2:32), and swear themselves into His service willingly.

Psalm 117 is the shortest of all the Psalms, but it significant in that it calls not just the Jews, but the Gentiles to praise God for His mercy, kindness, and truth. As we will see, there will be Gentiles who were not in the Ekklesia, but who will survive the Day of the Lord and come to Israel to worship the King.

And finally, in Psa. 118:26, we find the very words that Yeshua declared must be said by Israel and Jerusalem before they saw His face again (Mat. 23:39, cf. Hos. 5:15), “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD.” In fact, Van Kampen suggests that the “new song” that the 144,000 sing at the fulfillment of Sukkot will be Psalm 118. While the fact that the song sung is a “new song” would seem to rule this out, there is no doubt that Psalm 118 will be sung by all Israel in that day.

Looking back, we see that the Divine decree to dwell in Sukkot for this week was in remembrance of both the exodus and the coming of God to “tabernacle” with us, but that’s not the whole reason. All of the feasts have both a historical and a prophetic meaning. Passover, for example, both celebrated the deliverance from Egypt and our deliverance from sin by the sacrifice of the Lamb of God. So the fact that this feast demands “camping out” suggests that in its fulfillment, Israel will once again go into the wilderness, if only for a short time. And indeed, we see just such a self-imposed and temporary exile prophesied by Zechariah:

His feet will stand in that day on the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be split in two, from east to west, making a very great valley. Half of the mountain will move toward the north, and half of it toward the south. You shall flee by the valley of My mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach to Azel; yes, you shall flee, just like you fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. The LORD my God will come, and all the holy ones with You. (Zec. 14:4-5)

It is interesting that just a few paragraphs later (v. 16), Zechariah announces that after the final battle, all the nations that survive will be compelled to come to Jerusalem to celebrate Sukkot. This proximity reinforces the idea that this event will occur in conjunction with the Feast, and that the Feast will celebrate that victory. Not only will the world come in celebration of the Messiah’s birthday, but to celebrate the fulfillment of God’s promises to Israel. It will be a perpetual reminder to those whose nations once persecuted the Jews and claimed that the children of Israel had forfeited their covenants with the Lord that God fulfills all of His promises despite us.

Micah suggests that the Man of Sin will attempt to besiege and destroy them in Jerusalem before they can escape, but he will of course not be successful:

I will surely assemble, Jacob, all of you;
I will surely gather the remnant of Israel;
I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah,
as a flock in the midst of their pasture;
they will swarm with people.

He who breaks open the way goes up before them.
They break through the gate, and go out.
And their king passes on before them,
with the LORD at their head.(Mic. 2:12-13)

Israel is taken to a place called Azal, which means “taken” or “reserved,” so as to be protected during the final judgments and battle. Rev. 14 seems to imply that this place will be in heaven, “before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders.” The wedding feast which begins under the chupah on the earthly Mount Zion, where Israel will re-enter her wedding contract, her ketubah, with the Eternal One in the Person of the Messiah Yeshua, will proceed in a royal procession into the true, heavenly Mount Zion of which Jerusalem on earth is but a type. Just as the bride and bridegroom vanished into their bedchamber after the wedding feast, so will Israel disappear into her King’s house.

One of the great controversies in Christianity is how to reconcile the prophecies that call Israel the Bride with those which call the Ekklesia the Bride. Some (Replacement Theology) suppose this to mean that the Church has replaced Israel as the Bride. Others (Dispensationalism) see two Brides and two Bridegrooms, with Israel marrying the Father and the Church marrying the Son. Both are incorrect. It is the intention of the Eternal One to make "one new man," one body, out of both Jew and Gentile, not replacing the Jewish people, but instead adding to them. When that End Time Sukkot arrives, that union will be made complete, with both Israel and the Ekklesia being the Bride, and our King being our Bridegroom.

Maranatha and Shalom!

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