Sukkot - Feast Of Tabernacles, The Ingathering

2021.09.19. Feast of Tabernacles – Sukkot, the Ingathering

William Akehurst, HSWC

Sukkot – The Feast of Tabernacles

Note: Monday night 9/20 is the Harvest Moon. A Full moon that will brighten the evening as if daylight.

(See Zechariah 14:7)

During the Feast of Tabernacles, families create an outdoor living space where they will eat their meals and rest, spending as much time as possible in this “booth” or open sky tent. As I look to the open sky, I am reminded to “Look up, for your redemption draws near.” But to understand the INGATHERING, this means so much more!

SUKKOT: The Feast of Tabernacles is also called ‘the season of our joy’ (a time of harvest) the ‘Feast of Ingathering’ (Exodus 23:16), the ‘Feast of THE LORD’ (Leviticus 23:39) or simply ‘the Feast’ (1 Kings 8:2). All these names add to its significance.

This feast is known as the season of our joy or the feast of ingathering. The “Joy” was from the abundance of the ingathering at the end of the harvest season: Sukkot or Tabernacles is the time when the produce or “Fruits” of the fields, orchards and vineyards are gathered in. The storehouse, the granaries, the threshing floors and presses are full to capacity. The time of labor has finally brought its reward. The farmer feels full of happiness, thus ‘the season of joy’.

This Feast really anticipates the time of GOD’s harvest. The time when the “remnant” of Israel is reconciled and gathered to Him – the harvest of souls – therefore, ‘the Feast of THE LORD’.

After having come through these Fall Feasts, I can understand why so many who are still seeking the first coming of the Messiah are expecting the MESSIAH to come during or shortly after these Fall Feasts.

Rosh Hashanah begins the Day of Repentance with 2 high priests looking up into the sky for the first instance of the sliver of the new moon to shine. Once the two witness that instance, the Trumpet Sounds to usher in the evening of Rosh Hashanah. The days that follow are called the Days of Awe and are a week-long time of repentance, or as stated by the Hebrew word Teshuva, to Return back to the LORD GOD. This all culminates on the Day of Atonement, or Yom Kippur, when the sacrifices were made in the Temple. Following Yom Kippur, at the Full Moon, the final celebration begins, Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles, or the Feast of the Ingathering, and with it, the “season of our joy” brings it all together.

As Believers in JESUS, we can understand, that we come to GOD realizing the Awesomeness of who HE is, and that we lack and fall short of HIS Glory and are in need of salvation, or atonement for our sins.

JESUS is that atonement, and the Savior to all who will receive this Free Gift of the GOD who so loved the world, that HE gave JESUS, HIS only begotten Son, that whosoever believes, will not perish for their sins, but rather, be granted everlasting life.

And this same JESUS commanded us to share the GOOD NEWS of Salvation to all people. And one day, in the twinkling of an eye, there will be a “massive Ingathering”, a Harvest of Souls, a Feast of THE LORD, a season of rejoicing, in which we who remain will “meet the LORD in the air.”

Each year, many Jews are expecting the coming of Messiah to happen in the FALL FEASTS.

This Feast of Tabernacles, or Feast of Ingathering, or season of joy makes sense as it would be a time of Harvest of the souls gathered together in an instance, and a twinkling of an eye.

When I was touring in Israel in 2018, we walked from the Mount of Olives, down the Hosanna Road, with the Jewish graves to our left, and another garden on the right side of the road. (Note: We stopped there and saw trees with massive thorns, of which were used to make a crown which was beaten on the head of our Savior.) As we stopped there, our guide told of a time coming, the Day of the LORD, as he quoted from Zechariah 14.

Point: While many Jewish people are waiting on the coming Messiah, they hold to this chapter, and fail to see that the earlier chapters are prophecy which was fulfilled in JESUS. Zechariah 9:9 “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, Lowly and riding on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey.

Final Thoughts. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if JESUS came back in the clouds and we who remained meet HIM in the air, at this time, and at this season?!!!