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| The festival of Sukkot (pronounced “Soo-coat”, meaning Tabernacles, or Booths) is an 8-day harvest festival (Ex. 23:16, Lev. 23:34-43, Deut. 16:13-15). Sukkot is the culmination of all the feasts on God's redemptive calendar. Seven days of joyous celebration are followed by a solemn assembly on the 8th day. Because of its place in the biblical calendar, by the time of Solomon this festival had become the most important feast, called “The Feast” in 1 Kings 8:2, 65. |
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| The Water Pouring Ceremony There are many festive celebrations in the contemporary Sukkot service, but when the Temple stood there were unusual ceremonies that today are no longer conducted. One was the ‘water pouring ceremony’, where each day a priest proceeded from the Temple down to the pool of Siloam carrying a golden pitcher. He was followed by ‘lulav-waving’ pilgrims who had come to Jerusalem to celebrate Sukkot according to Deuteronomy 16:16. (A lulav is a combination of palm, myrtle, willow branches, and an ‘etrog’, which is like a large lemon). The priest would fill the golden pitcher with water from the pool and return to the Temple, followed by crowds chanting, “we will gather water from the wells of salvation” and “Hoshianu” (Hosanna-“save us now”, from Is. 12:3, and Ps. 118: 22-24). The priest would then circle the altar in the Temple once pouring out the water, praying for the water of life, even the Spirit of God, to be poured out upon the people. He would do this each of the first six days of the feast, but on the 7th day Hoshanna Rabbah, (The Great Hosanna), the last day of the celebrations, the priest would circle the altar seven times. |
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With each circuit the crowds would grow louder and louder in their cry for the provision and salvation of God (see Talmud in Sukkah 34a, 54b, 48b, 51a; Rosh Hashana 16a). One reason for this ceremony might be seen in the need for God to provide water for the next growing season. But the issue is much more profound. Regarding this harvest festival, Zechariah provides vital information on how the first century worshipper would look at Sukkot: | ||
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“Then it will come about that any who are left of all the nations that went against Jerusalem will go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to celebrate the Feast of Booths. And it will be that whichever of the families of the earth does not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, there will be no rain on them. If the family of Egypt does not go up or enter, then no rain will fall on them; it will be the plague with which the LORD smites the nations who do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Booths. This will be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all the nations who do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Booths.” (Zech. 14:16-19) I'm not sure of all that we'll be doing when we receive the answer to the prayer “Thy kingdom come”, but I know one thing that everyone will be doing: celebrating Sukkot! When the King reigns in His millennial kingdom upon His glorious throne in Jerusalem, we will all be celebrating the Feast of Booths! Therefore to the first century Jewish worshiper, Sukkot became identified with the King and the Kingdom. Along with this idea came one of the most longed for aspects of the Kingdom as found in the Hebrew Prophets: “For I will pour out water on the thirsty land and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out My Spirit on your offspring and My blessing on your descendants.” (Is. 43: 3), “I will not hide My face from them any longer, for I will have poured out My Spirit on the house of Israel, declares the Lord GOD” (Ezek. 39:29). “I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only Son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn” (Zech.12:10). This is the very truth that the New Covenant declares has happened in Messiah (see Acts 2:17,18,33, 10:45, Romans 5:5). Yeshua: The Hope of Sukkot When the King reigns the Holy Spirit will be given! Therefore each year at Sukkot, the Temple water pouring ceremony symbolized the Spirit being poured out even as the prophets predicted. At the height of the celebration, the last day of the feast Yeshua Himself was at the Temple in Jerusalem. At this crucial point, He declared the fulfillment of the promise of God, the true hope for Sukkot.“Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, 'If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, “From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.”' But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified,” (John 7:37-39).
Perhaps you can picture it: the priest has finished his 7th circuit around the Temple altar, as he is pouring out the water, praying for God's provision, thousands of people are crying for the salvation of God. Suddenly Yeshua proclaims loudly above the din of the people, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink…!” Are you feeling spiritually dry? Come to Yeshua the Messiah, and be satisfied by His grace and love. Maybe you came to Him many years ago, but today you feel dried out. In the text the word “come” is in the present tense, thus we are to come to Him, and to keep coming to Him. The circumstances we go through, whether they be relationship, health or financial problems, are more than enough to dry us out spiritually and leave us feeling like a desert. We are to come to Him, trusting and relying upon Him for the grace that He alone can provide, sufficient for all our ‘wilderness experiences’. |
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