The essence of Sukkoth is an eternal union with Adonai. Bearing in mind that the climax of Yom T'ruah [Day of (working)Trumpets], which is Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement/Covering), binds us to Adonai and effects our reclamation of lost Eden, then Sukkoth is that continuum of our union with our Adon/Lord as 1 Thessalonians 4:16,17 explains "....For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord." It is this eternal union, encapsulated in the Truth of Sukkoth, ushered in by the long blast that marks the end of Jubilee Yom Kippur, that I wish to address and comfort you with as Yahshua advises us in verse 18 as follows, "...Wherefore comfort one another with these words."

Sukkoth is a hebrew word for booths or huts. They are called so because the structure, sukkah (singular), is made by intertwining/sakkak/suk twigs. When Adonai led Israel to The Promised Land, he caused them to dwell in these temporary structures that could be set up easily in the wilderness. Adonai explains the same in Leviticus 23:39-43 "....Also in the fifteenth day of the seventh month....Ye shall dwell in booths seven days; all that are Israelites born 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.."

A crucial question arises: what is the significance of Sukkoth to us, B'nei Elohim (Children of Elohim)? 

To address this question, allow me to explore the following as captured in Sukkoth:

1. The aspect of eternity or permanence
2. The aspect of Love

Before I address the aspect of eternity, I humbly ask you to consider how humans perceive time; essentially, time is the infinitesimal instance that constitutes a revolution; by a revolution I mean an instance where beginning and end merge. In hebrew, that revolution where beginning and end meet is Yom or day. That infinitesimal instance, which is NOW, is referred to as a day in 11 Corinthians 6:2, "...behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation." As such, beyond humans, when perceived from the viewpoint of HE who blessed man with the perception of time, blessed be HaShem, an instance is a Yom/day, a day is a Yom/day, a week is a Yom/day, a moon is a Yom/day, a year is a Yom/day, a thousand years is a Yom/day, an eternity wherein the beginning becomes the end is a Yom/day. That's why the Psalmist exclaimed as follows in Psalms 90:4 "...For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night." 

All in all, the hallmark of our perception of time is a sequence of instances of mergers between the end and the beginning. This is the aspect captured within the feasts of Adonai with Sukkoth merging with Pesach as end and beginning. 

How?

From the scriptural viewpoint, a year is a day that begins at Passover and ends with Sukkoth as indicated below:

Let us try to go through this table. At the beginning of the year, on the first day of the first Month, Adonai revealed to Mosheh that Judgement had been determined on the enemy in Exodus 12:1 onwards. Therefore, the Children of Light, Israel, should get ready and redeem themselves with the blood of the lamb or a goat. This day corresponds with the first day of the seventh Month where a Trumpet blast awakens the Children of Light and reminds them of pending Judgement on the world; both days are similar in that it is the day when pending judgement is revealed to the children of Light, while the enemy is left in darkness. But what is the difference between the revelation in First Month (Exodus 12) and the awakening in the seventh month (Numbers 29:1)? The first-month awakening/revelation was given to the Children totally by Grace, for the enemy had been torturing the Child of Adonai. In this instance, the enemy provoked the judge with his insolent answer, "...And Pharaoh said unto him, Get thee from me, take heed to thyself, see my face no more; for in that day thou seest my face thou shalt die." Exodus 10:28. However the corresponding awakening on the first day of the seventh month awakens the Children, who after redemption were given responsibilities on sixth of the third month and now Abba is coming to check on their accountability as it is explained in Isaiah 62:11 as follows, "..Behold, the LORD hath proclaimed unto the end of the world, Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh; behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him." And Isaiah 3:12 "..Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him: for the reward of his hands shall be given him.."

On 10th of the First Month, one seals that the judgement due him or her shall fall on a given goat or lamb; this essentially designates the Pesach lamb as slain on 10th of the first month just as Revelation 13:8 explains. However it is good to note that the actual slaughtering did not happen as revelation 13:8 states, in the beginning, but after four days or four thousand years. Please understand that between 10th to 15th of the first month  are four days that according to Psalms 90 are actually four thousand years. Likewise, as much as revelation 13:8 states that the lamb was slain in the beginning when man fell, it was not until the fourth day that corresponds to four thousand years between when man fell and when the True Lamb was revealed to the world, at about the 21st hour of the day that the actual death of the lamb occurred as the sunset; just as Torah had instructed in Deuteronomy 16:6, "...But at the place which the LORD thy God shall choose to place his name in, there thou shalt sacrifice the Passover at even, at the going down of the sun, at the season that thou camest forth out of Egypt."

Likewise, the 10th of the seventh month is a day of sealing to eternity, with the four days to the start of Sukkoth corresponding to some four revolutions as I will try to explain now. The eight days of Sukkoth are actually eight revolutions or days. The first four days or four thousand years usher in the manifestation of The Lamb of Adonai and the start of the redemption of man. The seventh day or seven thousandth year is the reign of the Mashiach. After this seventh day reign, comes in the eighth day which is the reign of the Father; this eighth day is actually the end that merges with the beginning.

In addition, between the first day and last day of Sukkoth, which are two Shabbat days, are six non-Shabbat days that correspond to six revolutions of moons: these correspond to six Yomim/days/moons between Sukkoth and Pesach. These six revolutions of moons correspond to the six days or six thousand years that are between creation of Adam and the Messianic age. At the end of the six thousand years, Adams work or accountability will be tested through fire. If by the end of the six moons or revolutions or Yomim, one has become an enemy of Adonai, then they miss the warning given on the beginning of the year, due Children of Adonai and are judged together with the enemy for they are now one with the enemy. It is interesting to note that Sukkoth is a seven day period (week), which are taken as eight, with the eighth day being the start of a new revolution; where the end becomes the beginning. This eighth day is explained as follows in 1 Corinthians 15:24, "...Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power."

Therefore, it is clear that the full cycle is actually an instance of instances: it is a continuum whose end is the beginning. You cannot have Pesach (1 Corinthians 5:7), commonly misconstrued as the Lord's Supper and miss Sukkoth: they are intertwined/sakkak/suk; the end is the beginning. And that is one of the messages captured in Sukkoth: time is intertwined with the end being the beginning bringing in eternity. Therefore, Adonai rightly declares as follows in Isaiah 46:9,10, "...Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning..." This means that Adonai, is Adonai of the beginning, Pesach, and is also the Adonai of the end, Sukkoth. His Children cannot be with Him in Pesach and leave him in Sukkoth; it is a continuum with a glorious end as it was in the beginning. And this continuum is not at all a boring one; no, it is a most intimate one between Adonai and Us, his beloved. 

How so?

Among the things that Agur found too wonderful for him to understand were ways of two falling in love: Proverbs 30:19. It is Adonai who taught man how to fall in love as well as how to sow the feeling inside a prospective bride; Adonai is, therefore, the best lover. Ezekiel 16 shows how romantic and intimate Adonai is to all he loves. David describes a typical date of two falling in love; they will seek a place with least intrusions where time and the world cease to exist. Once there, the only song that rings in their heart is as the Psalmist describes in Psalms 23:1,2 "...I shall not want...He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters..."

The epic journey of Israel through the wilderness with Adonai is the typical journey of an individual who meets Adonai; it is amazing how Adonai is able to take each of us through the wilderness so as to woo us into love. Borrowing from that epic journey let us explore what usually happens to each of us. In the beginning, when sowing love in us, our Lover, Adonai took us to the same wilderness as Hoshea 13:4,5 describes those intimate moments, "...I am the LORD thy God from the land of Egypt, and thou shalt know no god but me: for there is no saviour beside me. I did know thee in the wilderness, in the land of great drought." Here, with only Adonai with us, we fell in love with him completely. It is here in the wilderness during sukkoth, that the intertwining of time taught in Sukkoth reminds us that eternity is captured within the frailty of an instance. 

Here, in Sukkoth, the frail sukkah reminds us that what our world has taught us as important is actually useless, what has been taught as strong is actually weak, and the weak is actually strong. Probably this paradox is best captured in the words of Yahshua in Mathew 16:25 when he said "..For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it..." The strength of an apparent weak, almost non-existent instance, is actually the substance of everything; here, as we instantaneously gaze from our Sukkah, into the deep space, that appears as nothingness, yet decked with those shiny stars, we learn the profound truth: Adonai has treasured everything in what appears as nothing to us. Leviticus 23: 42,43 literally commands us to settle in the booths for seven days. If only we could care to halt from our vain pursuit of wind, and settle and listen, we would find everything we seek right inside us for Adonai truly dwells in us and he is our everything as David correctly said: Adonai is my shepherd, I shall not want." And we do find this instance of eternity, NOW, right here in Sukkoth where the essence of Adonai which is Ehyeh (I AM) is revealed; with the past and the future fused into our NOW. Therefore the main message of Sukkoth which is; NOW is eternity, is as explained in Hebrews 3:13 "...But exhort one another daily, while it is called Today; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin."

by Bro Bonface Muthii.