The Biblical Symbol of Temporary Booths

Good afternoon, everyone! Good to see everyone here, as always, on a beautiful, Sabbath day. It's nice to have the sun out and also have some cooler weather. I know we won't be enjoying the cool weather too much two months from now, but it's a nice change right now. I'd like to spend a little time today talking about the Feast of Tabernacles that's coming up, and specifically talk about one of the symbols that has to do with the Feast. Last week, Mr. Thomas, actually on the Holy Day, I think it was, noted that Rosh Hashanah is actually a name that was developed by the Jews for the Feast of Trumpets in post-biblical times.

Feast of Tabernacles is maybe a little unique among the Holy Days. I didn't count, but I think it has the most different names that are actually mentioned in the Bible for the Feast. Which names can you think of when you think of the Feast of Tabernacles within the Feast? The names in the Bible.

Feast of Booths, Feast of Tabernacles, Feast of In-Gathering, and yeah, Sukkot is what the Jews call it. Who knows what Sukkot means? Literally simply means Booths. So I'd like to spend a little time starting out here and just thinking about and understanding a little bit more what is a booth? We think of a telephone booth. Superman, if those of us who can think back. Actually, you know, we have to remember some of these things like a telephone booth aren't as common as they used to be. I would guess that people under the age of 10 or so probably aren't really even used to the idea of a telephone booth anymore. You do see them in a few places nowadays still. But what is a sukkah? Sukkah is singular.

Sukkot, with the O-T-H on the end, is a plural in Hebrew meaning booths versus booth. But what is a booth and why would God use a booth as a symbol for this feast? You look in the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia talking about the word sukkah. It says that it's rendered in the King James Version booth or booths 11 times when it's mentioned in the Bible. Tabernacle or tabernacles 10 times. Pavilion or pavilions 5 times. And one time it's translated to the word cottage. So different translations even for the word sukkah or sukkot. And literally it means a hut that's made of wattle twigs or branches.

So in many parts of the world where you have twigs and branches available, you can set them up, sort of weave them together, perhaps throw a little bit of mud in there to give it a little bit of substance, but a relatively temporary dwelling and something that can be used for a shelter. The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia goes on to say that in countries where trees are abundant, such waddled structures are commonly used as temporary buildings as they can be constructed in a very short time.

Cattle were probably housed in them, among other things. So when we think about the Feast of Tabernacles or the Feast of Booths, the place I'd like to start is the idea that these were buildings that were relatively common to people who lived in that part of the world at that point in time. There was nothing magical or special or incredibly unique about the idea of building a booth. And in fact, if we take a quick walk through the Bible to see different places that they're mentioned, we can see that.

I'm not going to turn to all these scriptures, but if you're interested, please go ahead and write them down to look at them later. First one is Genesis 33 verse 17. In Genesis 33 verse 17, Jacob is returning to Canaan after he's made peace with his brother, and he actually makes booths for his cattle. So we probably think of booths as a dwelling for people, but in this passage in Genesis 33 verse 17, it says that he built booths for his cattle.

So essentially, as he was coming back, he had cattle that were on the land. Something that was easy to do was gather sticks and brush and other things that were around and build essentially a temporary place for his cattle to have some shelter, probably from the sun during the day, even more so than than worrying about torrential rainstorms. Booths also were used as a dwelling for the military. I don't know if we ever thought about that at all, but actually in two different scriptures we see references made to armies dwelling in booths. Second Samuel 11 verse 11 is one of those spots.

Second Samuel 11 is a passage where Uriah has come back on leave essentially from the battle, and David has just been having the affair with Bathsheba. He's trying to convince Uriah to go home to sleep at home, and he says, no, I'm not going to do that. One of the reasons he gives is that the army of Israel is out on the battlefield sleeping in booths, and he says, when the army's out there sleeping in booths, I'm not going to go back to my home. So actually the army, and it wasn't only the army of Israel.

We look in 1 Kings 20, we'll see in verses 12 and verse 16, it talks about Ben-Haidad, the king of Syria, and he was coming and he was besieging the northern tribes of Israel at the time that Ahab was king. And we'll see in both of those verses, if you turn to them, that Ben-Haidad was living with his army in booths. In fact, I think it's verse 16 that says he got drunk in his booth as he was out there with his army. And then finally, in Job 27 and verse 18, it refers again to booths.

It talks about moths building dwellings, and then it talks about it being like a watchman who builds a structure or a booth, which is the word that's used there. And as you read through the commentaries, you can see that back in those times, if people had perhaps a vineyard or a field or something like that, that they were looking to protect, they had to be out there maybe during the day to keep wild animals away.

It wasn't unusual for them to take sticks and other things that were available, fronds over the top, so they would have some shelter from the Sun. And as somebody watching the field, they could make sure that there weren't intruders coming to take things that weren't theirs, or if there were wild animals that were coming in, that were going to be dangerous. And then lastly, this same symbol is used in Isaiah 18. And in Isaiah 18, Israel is referred to, in terms of its geographical setting, as being like a booth in a vineyard.

So again, referring to this common practice that people would have had during the summertime of setting up these structures in their vineyards in order to keep animals and intruders away. And it was mentioned that way because Israel was set up as a nation with all kinds of hostile nations around it. And it was only through God's supernatural protection that Israel was able to survive, basically being in the middle of all the highways with armies going back and forth, which was part of the lesson.

And then, of course, we have sukkah, or booths talked about in the context of the feast. Leviticus 23 is one of those chapters where it talks about all of the different feast days. In the end of the chapter, it talks about the Feast of Tabernacles or the Feast of Booths. And then the other is in Nehemiah 8.

And that, you might remember, is when the Jews came back from captivity with Nehemiah, they discovered the book of law and they were incredibly excited to find the laws of God. And they realized at that point in time that it was a Feast of Tabernacles and they should build booths. And so they went out and they found all the different materials that were talked about in the Scriptures and they built booths for them. So one last footnote before we move on, which is interesting as well. So we think about the Feast of Tabernacles. We often, we most commonly use the word tabernacle rather than booths because telling friends you're gonna dwell in a booth doesn't really sound very interesting. And it's not really something that's very accessible to people. But even tabernacles, we can sometimes get mixed up. The tabernacle that was used in the Old Testament, which was the predecessor of the temple, actually is not the same word as booths here where we see Sukkah. When we go back in the Scripture, the tabernacle that was set up where God lived in the middle of the children of Israel is actually a completely different Hebrew word, Ohel, which is used for tents. And so, and even interestingly enough, the tents that the children of Israel were set to have dwelled in, as well as other of the patriarchs, were referred to with that other Hebrew word, Ohel, rather than being referred to as Sukkahs. And so when we talk about the Feast of Tabernacles, the tabernacles, it means booth. It doesn't mean actually the tabernacle or that temporary temple that God lived in in the middle of the children of Israel while they were going through Egypt. All of these things, though, refer to temporary structures, whether we take the word for tent, which we'll see a little bit more when we talk about Abraham, or the idea of booths, and certainly Leviticus 23 ties those together as the temporary dwellings that Israel lived in as they were on the move. So let's look first as we go a little deeper on this at a couple of examples in the Old Testament.

And the key that we want to focus on here is the idea of temporariness. Booths were something that could be put up very quickly. They were also something that could be blown down or destroyed or burned or simply knocked down when you were done with them fairly quickly. Let's look first at Abraham, because before the children of Israel came along, Abraham was actually someone who dwelt extensively in temporary dwellings. In fact, we might not think about it, but Abraham never really settled down. In fact, the next couple of generations that came after him, when we look in the stories in the Bible, continued to live in tents. Let's turn to Hebrews 11. We'll read verses 8 through 10. Here, the account of Abraham as the father of the faithful. And of course, we know Hebrews 11 as the faith chapter, as it goes through the different accounts of people who lived by faith after being called by God. Hebrews 11 will start in verse 8.

Here we read, By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.

By faith he dwelt in the land of promise, as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise.

For he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

So we see what's being set up here is a contrast, isn't it, of what Abraham did, how he and the next couple generations after him lived in temporary dwellings, in tents as they're called here, waiting for a building that had a foundation, referring to that future promise from God as the foundation, the permanence that he was waiting for. And so he was living temporarily as he was going through that time. If we were to go back, and we're not going to turn there today, but if you want to read further, you can look in Genesis 12 and 13. And it goes through some of the progressions of Abraham's travels. Abram, as he was called at first, as he was moving through that area. And he started out in a city called Ur of the Chaldees before he was called out.

And then he lived in tents. He migrated down to Egypt, moved back up towards Canaan, moved through the different lands that were around him, always living a temporary life. And what's interesting about that is it's not a matter of, well, these were all just deserts and everybody was living in tents. If you look up a little bit in the in commentaries and Bible dictionaries, you'll find that Ur of the Chaldees was actually a very advanced city, fairly advanced civilization for that time, probably a couple thousand years BC. Ur of the Chaldees was estimated to have already 24,000 residents. So for that time, a pretty decent-sized town. It was located right at the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. So in a place that was really fertile, they grew a lot of crops there. Books will describe the fact that they had lush gardens in their homes. They had a lot of modern conveniences, including marketplaces, schools, and libraries. And many of the inhabitants were also very wealthy. Egypt, likewise, if we look back, and even now people go to Egypt to see some of the things that are still standing from back in this time, the monuments that they built, the incredible structures that they were able to put up. There were a lot of options during Abraham's time where there were permanent cities with foundations, places that were fully set up where he could have been there with civilization. But he was called by God to do something different, to live a life that was temporary, to live in tents, and to stay away from being part of these established civilizations. And Hebrews, again, tells us that he was waiting for something that was more permanent. He was waiting for a different promise than the physical things that were around him and the things that the world around him had to offer. Let's shift over for a minute to the children of Israel, then. So Abraham, the temporary dwellings, were the contrast with the permanent promise that God had for them. Let's turn to Leviticus 23. I think most of us have probably read this passage before, but Leviticus 23 lays out the Sabbath as a day of observance and then goes through all of the different holy days that we observe and gives some instructions about each of those holy days. So Leviticus 23, and we'll start in verse 40. Leviticus 23 and verse 40, you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of beautiful trees, branches of palm trees, the boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days. You shall keep it as a feast to the Lord for seven days in the year. It shall be a statute forever in your generations. You shall celebrate it in the seventh month. You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All who are native Israelites shall dwell in booths, that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.

So there's a lot packed into this section. We see, first of all, in terms of how a booth was constructed. And in fact, for the Jews, they're very strict rabbinical ideas of what should and should not go into the construction of the booth. Here we see what's in Leviticus 23, the fruit of beautiful trees, branches of palm trees, boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook. And so you can see some of the different building materials, some of which would give shade as well as you take things like branches of palm trees and some of the leaves that might be on them that can provide shade and shelter. But where I want to key in is verse 43. And this is the statement that's really a loaded statement. That your generations may know that I made the children of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God. What is it that's inherent in that statement? What is it that they were supposed to remember? It's not really a situation of, okay, we're supposed to build a booth, so we built this temporary dwelling because other people lived in it.

Okay, done. Let's move on. There's so much more that's built into this because, as we know, the children of Israel wandered on their way to the promised land for 40 years. And what is it that happened during that time? All kinds of supernatural events took place, didn't they? They were fed manna, which came down like dew on the ground every morning except for on the Sabbath.

It tells us in the Bible that their clothes didn't wear out, their shoes didn't wear out.

They miraculously got water from rocks. So in all kinds of different ways, God fed them and cared for them and nourished them while they were on this journey. And that's before you even think about the military victories that they had. This huge group of people going across the land with cities like Jericho, and that's only one of many, falling miraculously. The walls just completely falling down in front of them. And so when we read this small sentence that says that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel dwell in brook booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, it has so much more that's built into it. The whole idea here is thinking about God's sustaining power. They're supposed to think back to the journey that their forefathers went on coming out of Egypt and how it was only by God's sustaining power that they got to the promised land that they had. Now how do we know that? Turn with me, if you will, to Deuteronomy 8.

Deuteronomy 8 points this out in a more specific way. And as we know, Deuteronomy was written as the children of Israel coming to the end of their journeys and entered the promised land.

It contains a summary of a lot of the different things that were done with the children of Israel over the previous couple of generations, as well as reiterating some of the instructions of God.

And here in Deuteronomy 8, we'll read verses 11 through 17. This is specifically tied together in the same way, I think, as what we see in the commandment to use temporary dwellings for the feast and the idea that there are some specific things that have to be remembered and grasped and hold of as part of this observance. Deuteronomy 8, verse 11. Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments, his judgments, and his statutes which I command you today. Lest when you have eaten and are full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them, and when your herds and your flocks multiply and your silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, when your heart is lifted up, and you forget that the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage, who led you through that great and terrible wilderness in which were fiery serpents, scorpions, and thirsty land, where there was no water, who brought water for you out of the flinty rock, who fed you in the wilderness with manna which your fathers did not know, that he might humble you, might test you, and do you good in the end. Then you say in your heart, my power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.

So we can see here, again, as we hold up this contrast, Abraham living in tents and not living in the permanent cities, the children of Israel, they received the promise that was coming to them, the physical promise, by entering the promised land. And one of the reasons this passage was written, and it ties back and says, don't forget. Remember, just like Leviticus 23 says, you live in booths for temporary dwellings in order to remember, this gives the reason why. Because as human beings, once we're settled in a place, once we have physical permanence around us, once we sort of knock down the forest and built the fields and we've got the animals that are out there and things are going well, we tend to forget about the hardship. We tend to forget about how we were delivered and how we received things that we had. And that's why Deuteronomy 8 was written to the Israelites. And I think it's the same idea that's meant at the feast as we're looking at temporary dwellings and we're looking at booths. And that is to remember, as we draw away from all of the permanent established things that we have around us, that we remember that there's something else that's much more important. There's something else that sustains us and that we ultimately rely on, rather than just the physical things that we have around us. As human beings, we need those physical reminders because, exactly like we read here in Deuteronomy, we can get complacent. We can think that everything that we have around us that we rely on is actually the sum total of what life is about. And actually, we're pretty self-sufficient and perhaps we don't need God. And when we look around in our Western world, I think it's a pretty easy phenomenon to see, isn't it? We look around the parts of the world today which tend to move on into what we now call post-Christian mindsets are typically the developed Western world. Because we've had now generations and generations of things established around us and we are essentially self-reliant, or we believe we are, because of everything that we've built up around us. And often it's a more needy society, societies that are still further in poverty that see the reliance that they have on something outside of what they've built up around themselves, who are quicker to turn to faith and to see a need for God or even see the existence of God. So I'd like to move on from here to talk a little bit about the contradiction of booths.

Of course, we know that as part of the physical celebration of a feast of booths, this was something that was given in the Old Covenant. We see a lot more meaning and broader application of that as we've talked about today. And so we do still live in temporary dwellings, but we don't physically build houses out of sticks to live in during the feast. But the lesson is still there. And a lot of it is what I call the contradiction of booths. So what do I mean by that? We've talked about some of this already, but a good example might be a camping trip that our family went on back in Colorado several years back. And remember waking up in the middle of the night sleeping on this air mattress and Karen said, we hear some rustling and grunting noises outside, and Karen wakes me up and says, I think there's a bear out there. And typical male fashion, I said, no, there's no way, there's no bear out there. Go back to sleep. You're hearing things. Of course, at the same time, I was not going to open the tent and look outside. But if you think about that for a minute, how silly is that?

Here you are inside this thin tent made of whatever, nylon and canvas. But in your mind, you somehow convince yourself if you don't look outside of it, whatever's out there is not going to be able to hurt you. Somehow the barrier that's between you and what's out there is stronger if you don't know what's out there. And we do these things to ourselves, don't we? In so many different ways. I mean, literally, in this case, for me with a tent, but figuratively, we do it in so many other ways. We rely on silly little physical things that we have around us that actually have no ability to do anything of any eternal use for us. So in this case, it actually was a bear. We didn't find out, because I didn't look out the tent until the next morning. What I did is I just took my hand and slapped the air mattress really hard, hoping all these stories that you always hear, that they're more afraid of you than you are of them, were true. And in this case, it was true. I hit the air mattress hard, slapped it. We hear some rustling off in the woods. And the next morning, we had an empty, like large, rubber-made tub that was out there. It had claw marks on the top of it. We had the presence of mind to put all our food away, but the bears are smart enough to recognize the kinds of containers that food is usually in. And so there was a nice-sized claw mark on the top of the container. But it's a small example, though, of the contradiction of how we come to rely on things that don't really give us any real protection. But the contradiction of booths goes in the other direction. Because, you know, while whoever it was that sets up a booth, whether it's somebody out in the vineyard, whether it was a children of Israel, whether it was someone else, what it was meant to signify was the fact that, as we talked about, it was supposed to make them think back of coming out of Egypt. And what was it that Israel had with them when they were coming out of Egypt? They were in flimsy, temporary dwellings, whether it was tents, whether it was a physical sukkah that they were actually in. But they were in flimsy, temporary dwellings.

But what they had, even though those temporary dwellings could give very little shelter and protection from what was going on around them, they had the divine protection of God. And that was the thing that they relied on. And that's that contradictory element where we have to get used to the fact that not being invested in the world that we've built up around us, but rather seeing God's hand and how He sustains us and leads us forward is the most important thing. Turn with me, if you will, to Psalm 27. Psalm 27. Some of you might recognize this from a song that was made popular probably a century or more ago, The Lord is My Light and My Salvation. And this is David, using the same symbolism in talking about his reliance on God. Psalm 27, verses 1 and 5.

It starts out, The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? And in verse 5 it says, For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion. The word there for pavilion is a closely connected word to the word suko. In the secret place of his tabernacle he shall hide me, he shall set me high upon a rock.

So a tabernacle, this temporary dwelling when connected with God, is meant to stand for the fact that God's protection, his shelter that he puts over his people. When you think of the children of Israel, while they had these temporary dwellings, these tents that they were living in, the other thing they had with them was the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire. Every day, every night they saw God's presence there. They saw the manna on the ground in the morning. They saw God's tender care for them happening in everything that went on in their lives day to day.

And supernaturally, when that cloud or that pillar would lift up and move on, they would follow it, and they would continue on. And that's what this is meant to talk about, is the fact that even though the dwellings that they were in were flimsy and the physical things that they had around them were insufficient, what they had was more than sufficient because it was the strength of God, his power, and his protection that was with them. Turn with me, if you will, to Isaiah 4.

We'll read a similar passage in Isaiah 4, and we'll read verses 2 through 6.

Isaiah 4 verses 2 through 6. This is talking about Zion, and as we heard on the Feast of Trumpets, Zion talks about God's everlasting city and the plan that he has for his kingdom to come. Isaiah 4, starting in verse 2, "...in that day the branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and appealing for those of Israel who have escaped." It's talking about all the wonderful things that will happen when God's kingdom is set up.

And it'll come to pass in verse 3 that, "...he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy, everyone who is recorded among the living in Jerusalem. When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and purged the blood of Jerusalem from her midst by the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning, then the Lord will create above every dwelling place of Mount Zion and above her assemblies a cloud and smoke by day and the shining of a flame of fire by night. For over all the glory there will be a covering, and there will be a tabernacle for shade in the daytime from the heat, for a place of refuge, and for a shelter from storm and rain." So you can see the symbolism that's being used here when it's talking about this future city, talking about the cloud and the fire, talking about God's shelter being over people and using this analogy of the tabernacle as part of God's care and what he's going to put in place in his kingdom. So wrapping up this section talking about booths, the temporary nature of the booth is meant to help us think on what the true shelter or true permanence really is and the fact that it doesn't come from the physical things that we have around us. So we see what Abraham was called to do, which was to leave the permanence of a large city and to move out and live the rest of his life, as well as those who came a couple generations after him living temporarily.

We saw the children of Israel and what they were to learn, especially in Deuteronomy, as they got to the Promised Land and making sure that they kept their trust in God and God's shelter protection, what he provided, and not in the things that they had built up around us. And then lastly, as we saw in Psalms and Isaiah, the fact that a booth, a tabernacle, is used as an analogy for God's comfort and his protection that he gives to his people throughout all time. So what does all this have to do with us in the upcoming feast? I'd like to spend a little time on that, the balance of the time that we have today. We don't build booths physically when we keep the feast. We live in temporary dwellings because we understand that that keeps the spirit of what God intended when he gave the Old Covenant law to the children of Israel. But this mindset, these things that we think about, is something that should be present with us and we should be thinking about during the feast. What I'd like to do is reflect for a few minutes about how it is that God works with humans that he called. Because I don't know if we necessarily put our fingers on it, but there is a very predictable way that God works with humans and has worked with them throughout the ages.

So if you look at, for example, Abraham and the children of Israel, what commonalities would you draw out between their experiences? There are three things that I see there and that I think hold true in all these other accounts that we see in the Bible. First one is removal.

Abraham was taken away from Ur of the Chaldees, where he had grown up and where generations of his family were. Likewise, the children of Israel were removed from Egypt to go to the Promised Land. The second element that is in common is a journey. So in the case of Abraham, as we read in Hebrews, that journey went on for the rest of his lifetime. He was being led to a spiritual destination, and he lived in temporary dwellings and tents all through the journey that he had.

Now, slightly differently, the children of Israel, they were given a physical promise of a physical land to go through. They still had a journey which lasted 40 years, but they did inherit that promised land. And that's really the third element, is the promise. So three elements, removal, journey, and promise. Let's look at a few other passages in the Bible just to see how these three elements come in common with other examples that we see as well. We could go to one of the next close relatives of Abraham two generations later, which is Jacob. What was Jacob's life like?

If we recall, Jacob went away to a far land and connected up with his wily uncle Laban.

And he was, in the end, removed from where he was because of the difficulties that he and Esau had had, and felt like he couldn't come back. And he spent 14 years with Laban, kind of getting the bait and switch the first time around when he was going to get married, worked another seven years after that. And he had a journey during that time, didn't he? Not only physically being away from home, but he learned. He went through all kinds of hard knocks through those 14 years as he was waiting, as he was learning that if you could be sly, there's probably somebody else out there that could be twice as sly and deceitful as you could be, and learning his way through all the lessons that that time had. And what happened at the end of that time period? He returned to Canaan. He had a homecoming. If we remember, in fact, one of the early passages we talked about, building booths, he came back with all of his cattle, and he made peace with his brother Esau, and he returned, in that sense returned back to that land of promise that was given to him.

Who else can we think about? What about Joseph? What about Joseph's life? And how did these three elements fit into Joseph's life? Joseph was removed pretty forcefully, wasn't he? Thrown down his cistern by his brothers? Some wanted to kill him. The nice one said, well, why don't we just sell him to these traders going by on the trade route? And he was taken off into Egypt, and he spent years in Egypt in the time in Potiphar's household, and then time in prison. A long journey that he went on before he finally received a certain level of promise, as he had his brothers come back to him, had his family come back to him and moved to Egypt eventually, and even got to see his father and his brother Benjamin again in the latter part of his life. He got to see his sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, receive a blessing and become part of the tribes of Israel. And it's easy to read some of these accounts and think about, well, you know, because you know the answer, I know it's going to work out for Joseph. But do we ever reflect on what it was like in those years that he was rotting in prison? The time after the servants of Pharaoh forgot about him. Remember, he interpreted the dreams. He said, hey, you're going to be freed, but don't forget about me. I'm back here. Remember me.

And years went by where he wasn't remembered before he was finally brought out of prison by God, that journey that he went on. You can even see it with the Apostle Paul. Apostle Paul was removed, wasn't he? He was somebody who had studied at the feet of Gamaliel. He was part of the learned establishment of the Jewish people in that point in time. And when God struck him down on the road to Damascus and blinded him, he was removing him. He took him completely away from the life that he was a part of, and he set him on a new journey. He was out in the wilderness for three years, as far as we understand it, actually learning directly from Jesus Christ, the only person that we know of who's communed that way with Jesus Christ after his crucifixion. But he was taught out in the desert by God, and then returned, even when he returned, it took some years before he began his ministry. And of course, he is waiting for his ultimate promise, just as all other Christians are looking ahead to the kingdom of God. So these three things we have very much in common for anyone who's called by God. Removal, journey, and a promise. So how does that relate to us now, finally, as we get to the feast that we're going to be keeping? First of all, we've already talked about booths and how that's symbolic of God's protection as the Israelites were on their journey after they'd been removed from where they were. And that's what I'd like us to think about during the feast. So really, in three concrete things I'd like to leave you with is to spend some time during the feast thinking about these three elements of our journey spiritually.

Our removal, our journey, and the promise that we put hope in. Now, the removal and the journey are going to be very different for each and every one of us, because we've all lived different experiences. Some of us came to the church, came to knowledge of God in His way within just the last few years. Others of us might have grown up in the church and known about it, heard about things like this from the time that we were little children long before we could really understand. But all of us have still gone through that process of removal. And that's the first thing I'd like us to think about for a few minutes. We were all removed from our old lives, from physical lives in this world.

And the fact that we aren't physically removed out of our surroundings the way that, for example, the children of Israel were when they left Egypt to go to Israel, again, makes it a little tougher, because as human beings, we're really physically geared. The day after you're baptized, your surroundings don't change. Your house is still set up the same. You're still living on the same block, probably driving the same car. But what's changing is spiritually inside of you, as that distance from the world around, after your commitment to God through baptism, begins to distance itself more and more. It spreads farther and farther apart. Turn with me, if you will, to Ephesians 2.

We'll read Ephesians 2 verses 11 through 13.

Here in Paul, writing to the Ephesians, admonishes them in Ephesians 2 verse 11, to remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision made in the flesh by hands, that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now, in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off had been brought near by the blood of Christ. So it talks about the fact, underscoring that fact, that as Christians, when we were called by God, we were taken away from something else, from a life that was not going to lead to anything different than all of humanity that's lived for years and years, except for the people who've known God's way. And through Jesus Christ, we were given a new life, a different way, a new path to walk. The first thing that we should think about is we're considering our calling as we sit back in the feast and we think about what's temporary and what's permanent is removal. To what extent are we still relying on things that we were removed from? To what extent are we relying on things that are physically permanent around us but have no actual lasting spiritual value? Again, those answers are going to be different for every one of us, because each one of us was removed from a different place and in a different way. And taking time to simply think about that during the feast, to talk with other people about it and share experiences, to come to a greater understanding and consciousness of the fact that, yes, we have been removed from an old life and we've been brought into a new life. Let's think for a few minutes, secondly, about the journey, then. The journey. Though we've been removed from different places, we're all going on essentially the same journey. And it's the journey of God working with us to bring us to perfection, to work with us to bring His qualities into our lives. Now, again, because we're all different people, He works with each and every one of us in different ways.

We go through different trials, we go through different struggles, we receive different blessings, all for the same goal of working towards that promise. So the journey is certain to include trials and adversity, but it's going to be different for every one of us in terms of what it is we experience and how. Turn with me, if you will, to James 1 verses 2 through 4.

James 1 verses 2 through 4. Here, James talks about those experiences that we go through on the journey and the fact that we have to remember the reason why we go through these experiences.

There's a greater purpose for all of this, and it can be easy if you're going on a long journey to get lost along the way. You start to veer off the map, you forget where it is you were going in the first place, and I think from what I've read in different magazines and books, the typical thing that humans will do is actually end up walking in a circle. And I think it's, I forget if it's clockwise or counterclockwise, but typically people who get lost will end up walking in a circle. There's just something about it psychologically and people make up, unless they're, you know, with a landmark, a peak of a mountain or something like that, that they can see the whole way. And that's the way we can be on our journey as well, but we don't think about it. If we don't understand where it is that God is trying to take us, what it is that he's trying to do in our lives.

James 1 verse 2, My brother, encounter all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. Now this word perfect can be a little dicey sometimes.

It means full, having a full measure or having all of the aspects. We shouldn't be torturing ourselves to become perfectionists and beating up on ourselves for all of the little ways that we don't match up. God, again, is taking us on a journey. It's a journey to be fully mature Christians. And just like we don't beat up on a five-year-old because they can't do quantum mechanics, they can't draw, you know, complex equations up on a blackboard, but if they're learning their math, they're learning how to count, that's a good thing when they're five.

When they're 10, they should be learning something more advanced. When they're 18, they should be learning something more advanced. That's the way it is for us as Christians as well.

We are moving towards perfection. We're moving towards maturity and fulfillment of being like Jesus Christ. And the goal is to be moving always forward in that journey, not going around in circles, getting stuck because we've lost track of what the goal is in the end, but always moving towards that goal. Jesus Christ is that milestone for us, isn't he? All of the way that he lived, the ideals that he had within him, that's our goal, to be like him. And so we take in God's Spirit, and we're moving in that direction. And the trials, along the way, we have to keep in perspective, as difficult as they are, and we've all been going through challenging trials of different sorts over the last number of years. And that's part of life, and we have to always remember that that's God working with us and taking us towards that goal. Turn with me, if you will, to 2 Corinthians 3.

2 Corinthians 3, verse 18.

Also talking about the journey and the goal of this journey that we're on that we have to keep in our minds as we're going along. 2 Corinthians 3 and verse 18.

Here Paul, writing in the Corinthians, says, We all with unveiled face, beholding in a mirror the glory of the Lord, we are being transformed into the same image, from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

So again, talking about the fact that we're being transformed by God as we're walking with Him, as we have His Spirit within us, as we're taking His Word in and we're turning to Him prayer daily, we are moving to be transformed to be in His image, to look and act and be like Him.

So that's the journey. And as we're at the feast, I would encourage everyone, just like we think about removal, where it is that we came from, take time. It's a great time when you're away from home, you're away from your routine, you're away from your familiar surroundings, you're with like-minded people who are on that very same journey. Take time to share those stories. It's okay to talk about the things that we've been suffering as well and to encourage one another. We see many places in the Bible where it talks about encouraging one another as we go on that journey. How much easier is it when you're going on a long hike to do it with a group of people who help each other along and can, you know, comment on things going on along the way, whether they're good or bad or funny? It's so much easier than being by yourself on that journey. And I think that's one of the great things at the feast is not only sitting back alone and thinking about that, but spending time talking with other people, encouraging them, hearing their stories, sharing your stories with them. And not only stories of things that are bad, but stories of deliverance. Because we all have those as well, don't we? Ways that God has come through for us, ways that as we've looked at things happening in our lives, a couple of years maybe after something that we think is the worst thing that could ever happen to us, we're able to look back and say, you know what? God meant that for a purpose, and I can see exactly what he was trying to do in my life and how that changed me through that experience. Those words can be incredibly encouraging for other people to hear as they're going through difficulties of their own. Lastly, then, is the promise. So this is an easy one at the feast because the feast is all about the promise, isn't it? It's all about the coming kingdom of God. You know, when we read in Hebrews 11 that Abraham was waiting for a future, a promise that had a firm foundation built of stone, that's this kingdom that we're celebrating at the feast, and it's absolutely something that we should spend some time thinking about.

Let's turn to 2 Corinthians 5. I like 2 Corinthians 5 in this context because it uses some of the same analogies that we've been talking about, buildings, permanence, temporariness, in talking about our lives and our promise.

2 Corinthians 5, starting in verse 1. For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

So here it takes that idea of a sukkah or a tabernacle or a booth, and it applies it to us as human beings. It says our life, our physical body, is like a tent. I think because every year goes by we probably feel a little more that way. It feels a little more flimsy, feels a little more thin, doesn't give us the same protection and strength maybe that it did when we were younger.

But God talks about the fact that we have a building from God, a spiritual body that will come. For in this, in verse 2, we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation, which is from heaven. If indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we, who are in this tent, groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. Now he who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has also given us the Spirit as a guarantee. What a great word that is, guarantee.

Been given the Spirit as a guarantee that we're going to receive a new home, a new body. The things that are temporary about us as physical beings will go away, and we'll have that new permanent body. And we're told all of the wonderful things that that will mean. No more pain, no more sorrow, and all of the incredible things that we can do to help solve the seemingly unsolvable problems that we see around us all the time. And then the ultimate part of the promise in Revelation 21, one of my favorite scriptures that we always hear at the feast, Revelation 21 verses 1 through 4, as we look at the ultimate promise for all of mankind that comes. Because again, it's not only us. All of mankind will be on this same journey if they're not on it today.

Removal, journey, and then receiving the promise. Revelation 21 will read verses 1 through 4.

Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. Again, we see a city, a permanent city this time, that very city that Abraham was waiting for. And I heard a loud voice from heaven, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people. God himself will be with them and be their God, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There will be no more pain, for the former things have passed away. So when we look at that, again, we see all these same symbols coming in, don't we? The tabernacle, the permanent city, God dwelling with men, just like you do in a home, and he's going to make his home here with us when he brings his kingdom. So in conclusion, as we look forward to the Feast of Tabernacles, I hope this gives us all a few things to think about, and maybe a few concrete things to do during the Feast as well. Booths have a lot of rich symbolism, as we think about that contradictory nature of them as both flimsy, easily destroyed physical dwellings that at the same time symbolize God's eternal, powerful care that he has for us and the deliverance that he gives us. We have a reminder of how God deals with all the people he calls. He did with Abraham, he did with Israel, he did with us. He removes us. He takes us on a journey, and he gives us a promise. As we go forward to the Feast, I encourage everyone to take some time, write those three words down, and think about them over the Feast. Talk with other people about them at the Feast, and encourage each other wherever you are. I hope that everyone will have a wonderful and spiritually enlightening Feast.