Sukkot 2020 by CMJ Israel

[Music] leviticus 23 42-43 live in temporary shelters for seven days 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 i am the lord your god the feast of tabernacles comes a short five days after yom kippur the themes of repentance and forgiveness of rosh hashanah and yom kippur now give way to rejoicing and thankfulness and the timing is not accidental during the days of the temple sukkot was the last of the three pilgrimage festivals again the timing is not accidental according to the torah this biblical feast is given two names the feast of ingathering and the feast of tabernacles both names express a part of the reason for this festival and today this festival is rich in tradition and meaning the feasts of the lord serve to remind us of god's character of his love and his purposes for his people during sukkot we are commanded to build booths like this one temporary dwellings on the outside of our houses and to dwell in them for seven days and seven nights they're not meant to be permanent structures rather they're flimsy constructions of three sides and a roof of thatch or palms providing shade during the day the opportunity to see the stars at night sukkot is a special family time the children are all involved in decorating the sukkah meals are taken inside the sukkah you invite your friends for fellowship in the sukkah and depending on the weather you even sleep in them [Music] the book of exodus calls this festival the feast of ingathering and here is referring to its agrarian origins as a harvest festival of thanksgiving the book of leviticus calls this festival the festival of tabernacles and it says that the sukkot serve as a reminder of the people of the shelters that they temporarily dwelt in for 40 years while wandering in the wilderness leviticus also calls on the people to gather four species of the produce from the land and they gather what we call today a lulav which is a collection of palm willow and myrtle branches tied together and alongside this carry a citrus fruit called an etrog from the order of these festivals we see that first we were redeemed at passover and then we received the torah at pentecost or chavawatt and now here in sukkot we rejoice with thanksgiving we note especially that obedience does not lead to salvation obedience flows from redemption god didn't say to israel while they were in egypt here's the torah if you obey this then i'll come back and i'll save you we were redeemed and then we were given the torah we also see that repentance and forgiveness are for all peoples and that thankfulness is the appropriate response to redemption and that redemption invites us in the call to obey the lord gratitude is not an emotion it is not a state of being that we willingly enter ourselves into and it is not an abstract philosophy just like we saw in yom kippur and in the book of jonah repentance is an action so too with gratitude there is a change in our behavior not just in rejoicing and thankfulness but in the decision to follow the call of the lord and to obey him what better way to express gratitude to the lord than to obey obedience is not a burden actually it's a blessing and the blessing is the presence of the lord amongst his people just as the israelites built a tabernacle in the wilderness for the lord to dwell with them so too the lord seeks to dwell with his people today and jesus says this clearly in john 14 he who has my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me and the father will love him and i will love him and we will come to them and we will show ourselves to them what greater blessing could there be in this troubled world that we live in than to have the presence of the lord in our communities his spirit giving providing caring and protecting his people what began with our redemption ends with our heartfelt thankfulness rejoicing in our salvation and living out a gratitude that should lead us into obeying the risen messiah

Channel: CMJ UK

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Id: jjF04C5J5ws

Length: 5min 38sec (338 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 07 2020