​A week of rejoicing has begun with the Feast of Tabernacles or Sukkot. This celebration has more references throughout the Bible than any other one. The first mention of this feast in the Bible is in Leviticus 23:33-43. "The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the Feast of Tabernacles...You shall keep it as a feast to the Lord for seven days in the year. It shall be a statute forever in your generation. You shall celebrate it in the seventh month. You shall dwell in booths for seven days...that your generation 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." (NKJV)
 
This feast is not only a remembrance of history and a time of thanksgiving for the harvest, but a prophetic enactment of what is to come--the final Aliyah or going up of the Jewish people to their homeland. According to the Talmud (Central text of Rabbinic Judaism), Israel sits higher than all other lands. It is the most prominent place to connect with God. The Jewish people have been dispersed throughout the world, but God has promised to gather them and bring them back to their homeland. Zechariah 10:8-9 says, "I will whistle for them and gather them in, for I have redeemed them, and they shall be as many as they were before. Though I scattered them among the nations, yet in far countries they shall remember Me, and with their children they shall live and return." (ESV)
 
The ultimate fulfillment of Sukkot is Jesus. John 1:14 tells us, "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory..." (NKJV) "Dwelt" in the Greek is “eskenosen” which means "to tabernacle" or "to pitch a tent." Jesus chose the last day of Sukkot, the seventh day, when the priests circle the altar seven times, carrying the Scrolls and singing from Psalm 118 to make a declaration. (This is recorded in Mishnah Sukkah 4:5 and practiced heavily during the Second Temple period.) He also chose during the water libation ceremony, when everyone is quiet, to declare, "...If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water." (John 7:37-38 - NKJV)
 
In saying what He did at the Feast of Tabernacles, Jesus was identifying Himself as the source of living water and the fulfillment of the feast's hope. He is the One who would pour out the Holy Spirit. (Luke 24:49) Those who believe in Jesus are the ones who have the Holy Spirit living within them. As the Jewish people ask God to provide the physical rains for the next growing season, we ask Him for the rain of the Holy Spirit.
 
After the seven days of Sukkot there is the eighth day, considered to be holy and dedicated to the Lord. It is called "Shemini Atzeret" which means "The Eighth Day." It is part of the Sukkot celebration and yet it is a festival in and of itself. Eight is the number of new beginnings. It transcends time and points us to new life. Rabbi Jonathan Cahn says, "It breaks the barriers of time. There are not enough days in a week to continue my love for the Lord."
 
Let us join in the celebration of Sukkot just as Jesus did. The Jewish people say to one another during this season, "Z'man Simchatenu" or "The season of our rejoicing." This prophetic marker in time should remind us of the greater things that will come as the Jews return from exile to their homeland and spiritual revival comes to the Church. We will see our Messiah manifest Himself as the true source of living water when revival comes. All of these are truly reasons to rejoice.

Retelling the story of the binding of Isaac (the Akedah in Hebrew) is a yearly tradition for the Jewish people during the High Holy Days. According to Jewish tradition, Rosh Hashanah is the day God judges all creation. The Jews depend upon "accumulated spiritual credit" of their patriarchs. They remind God of Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son and of Isaac's submission to the will of his father. In addition, blowing the shofar on the new year reminds God of how He provided a ram caught in its horns in a thicket. That ram would become a substitute sacrifice.
 
As the Jews retell this story, they are reminded of the need for their own repentance (teshuvah) before God. The story is meant to invoke the fear of God as they live through the next ten days, called the "Days of Awe," that end on the Day of Atonement or Yom Kippur. Considered the holiest day of the year, it is dedicated to repentance, fasting, and seeking God for forgiveness of sin.
 
Abraham's obedience to carry out God's command to sacrifice his son is hard for all of us to understand. Was this not the same man who just pleaded for the lives of the people of Sodom and Gomorrah? He asked God: "Would You also destroy the righteous with the wicked?" (Genesis 18:23) He continued: "Suppose ten should be found there?" God responded: "I will not destroy it for the sake of ten."  (Genesis 18:32 - NKJV) Yet, when asked to destroy his own son, Abraham did not question God. When told, "Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you," he did not make a sound. (Genesis 22:2) Scripture tells us he "rose early in the morning" to begin the three-day journey to the mountain of sacrifice.
 
The testing of Abraham's faith also took place immediately after he had planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba (well of oath or well of seven) while he called on the name of the Lord, the Everlasting God. (Genesis 21:33) The tamarisk tree is a very slow growing, deep-rooted tree that takes centuries to reach full maturity. Abraham would never experience the full shade of this tree. His act of planting a tamarisk tree demonstrated his faith that his descendants would inhabit the land. The tree would become a legal marker of this land and well ownership.
 
Before traveling to Moriah with Isaac, Abraham split wood for the burnt offering. The wood was laid on Isaac while Abraham carried the fire. When questioned by Isaac about the whereabouts of the sacrificial lamb, Abraham answered him in faith: "My son, God will provide Himself a   lamb for a burnt offering..." (Genesis 22:8 - KJV) When they arrived at the place of sacrifice Abraham had to build an altar, place the wood upon it, and then bind his son on top of it. As he was about to plunge a knife into Isaac, the Lord called to him twice. "Abraham! Abraham!" Note that repeating a person's name twice in Biblical Hebrew shows the urgency of the call. It also shows intimacy from the one who is speaking the name. Abraham's response was, "Here I am."
 
The test was passed, and God did provide a ram caught in a thicket for the sacrifice. Abraham names the place, "The Lord Will Provide." Here is what the Lord says to Abraham: "By Myself I have sworn." God continues in this way by making three promises to Abraham--To bless his seed, to enable the Hebrews to possess the land, and to bless his people that they should bless all nations. It is no wonder that the Jews retell this story as a reminder of God's faithfulness. We should do likewise.  

​The blessing of the shofar is an integral part of the celebration of the New Year that has a couple of names. "Rosh Hashanah" means The Head of the Year. It is also called "Yom Teruah" or The Day of Blowing. God makes it clear that we are to celebrate the New Year in Leviticus 23, Verses 24 and 25. "On the first day of the seventh month you are to have a day of rest, a sacred assembly commemorated with trumpet (shofar) blasts. Do no regular work, but present an offering made to the Lord by fire." Beginning on sunset this past Friday, 9/11/26, the year 5787 began.
 
There is such significance to blowing the shofar when we consider where this instrument was used. The first time the shofar, or ram's horn, appears in the Bible is in Exodus 19:16. "Then it came to pass on the third day, in the morning, that there were thunderings and lightnings, and a thick cloud on the mountain; and the sound of the trumpet was very loud, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled." (NKJV) The setting was Mount Sinai after the children of Israel had traveled from Egypt and God descended on the mountain to give Moses the Ten Commandments.
 
Not only is the shofar blowing a call to intimacy with God, but it is also a reminder of God's mercy and compassion to us. The very same horn that we blow today came from the head of a ram—like the one caught in a thicket when Abraham was about to sacrifice his son, Isaac. God promised Abraham abundant blessings because of his obedience. Those blessings are passed down through the generations to us.
 
Psalm 81:3 makes it clear that the shofar is to be used during God's appointed festivals. "Blow the trumpet at the time of the New Moon, at the full moon, on our solemn feast day." (NKJV) Joel 2:1 contains a prophetic warning about the day of the Lord's return. "Blow the trumpet in Zion and sound an alarm in My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; for the day of the Lord is incoming." (NKJV)
 
If we continue to the New Testament there are several Scriptures that remind us that the Lord will return to us with the sound of the shofar. May I suggest that our horn is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our ram in the thicket—our atonement. The shofar, blown on the new year is meant to be a spiritual wake up call for repentance and a rehearsal for the return of Jesus. The shofar blast is a sign for God's people to gather and a proclamation of the coronation of King Jesus.
 
The message of the shofar is clear. As it says in 1 Thessalonians 4:16, "For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first." Let the shofar blast be a reminder of our need to be ready for God's final return.

​In the spring a farmer prepares the ground to receive the seed he will plant. After the seed is planted, he does what he can to ensure that the seed will grow and produce a harvest. As we know, corn seeds will produce a harvest of corn or wheat seeds will produce a harvest of wheat. I would like to connect this picture of seeds coming to life and bringing a harvest to the verse found in Romans 4:17. The apostle Paul, writer of Romans, reminds us here of a conversation that God had with Abraham. "As it is written, 'I have made you a father of many nations.' He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed--the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not." (NIV)
 
This verse in Romans tells us that God has the power to create something out of nothing. While this is true, I would like to broaden the picture and suggest that our Father in heaven is doing more. I am drawn to Psalm 139:13-16. "For You created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful; I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me are written in Your book before one of them came to be." (NKJV)
 
Could it be that God placed within us seeds of promise that are to produce certain characteristics at the time He ordained for harvest? Perhaps this is why God calls us by certain names when there is no evidence that this name is true. Abraham is a perfect example. God changed his name from Abram (exalted father) to Abraham (father of a multitude). However, God called him the "father of many nations" when he was the father of none. (Genesis 17:4-5) At the right time and season, when Abraham was one hundred years old, the promises of God were realized. My belief is that God had planted a seed in Abraham when he was formed, and like a good farmer, called forth the harvest after the seed sprouted. It grew and produced fruit at the appropriate time and through the call of "The Farmer."
 
Gideon is another example of one who was called something that he was not. "When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, 'The Lord is with you, mighty warrior." (Judges 6:12) When Gideon was being called a mighty warrior, he was hiding in fear from the Midianites in a winepress. Yet God called him to his destiny at the right time and place knowing what was within him. He called forth what was not as though it was. It is interesting to note that Robert Hotchkin, recognized prophetic voice and speaker, recently gave some words for the Hebrew year 5787. He said we are in a Gideon season where God will be expanding the way we see ourselves. He will do this by showing us an increase in the supernatural.
 
May I suggest that God has planted seeds within each of us. He calls us, not according to the way we may be now, but according to our purpose. He calls us names that may seem foreign but are perfectly correct. For example, "You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light." (1 Peter 2:9)
 
Our responsibility is to listen for the voice of God as He calls us into our destinies. He has more for us than we may realize and the seeds that are in us are being called forth. God is calling into being that which is not apparent so that we fulfill His purposes for us and demonstrate the power and glory of the Kingdom of heaven on earth. Ephesians 2:10 wraps it up like this: "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." (NKJV)