When I teach on Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles,  it would be easy to go straight to John’s Gospel – “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us,”[1] Jesus, the Eternal Word, tabernacling among us, pitching His tent in the midst of humanity. I will connect the theme of pitching a tent, but this year I want to show you a different approach, another less common window into this festival, where the Feast of Tabernacles picks up the biblical metaphor, which pictures God’s relationship with Israel in terms of a marriage. The rabbis were very astute when they saw a connection between marriage and Sukkot, and their insight is quite prophetic.

As Jewish people celebrate the feast of Tabernacles and follow the biblical instruction to build and dwell in Sukkahs (booths)[2], they are reminded that God married His people under the Chuppah (Wedding Canopy) when Sinai’s mountain was covered with cloud and smoke. (Ex19:16-18). The Rabbis connect the Sukkah to the Chuppah, a wedding canopy, creating a parallel between the two and linking the theme of God’s marriage relationship to Israel with Sukkot as well.

But why does Adonai ask his people to dwell in the Sukkah for 7 days?  In Leviticus 23, He told them it was to remind them that this is how they lived when God brought them out of Egypt. But on a deeper level, it is to remind them that their relationship with Adonai, their God, was forged in the desert. The command to build the Sukkah represents God’s desire to dwell with His people. The Lord repeatedly told Moses to build him a Tabernacle because He wanted to dwell in the midst of His people. It mirrors God placing His tent in the midst of the people, as now the people build sukkahs.

 The prophet Jeremiah reveals the heart of God and how He felt about the journey from Sinai to Canaan:

I remember the devotion of your youth,  your love as a bride, and the way you followed Me in the wilderness, in a land not sown.

Jer 2:2 (NASB)

The Jewish festivals have a rhythm that shapes Jewish spiritual life. The month preceding the autumn festivals is Elul. The name ELUL (אלול​) is an acronym “Ani le-dodi ve-dodi li”—“I am to my beloved and my beloved is mine”. [3]

The Rabbis say that this month is one of courtship, when God is pictured as the King in the field,  a king who can be approached without needing the formality of an appointment. They go on to say that Rosh Hashanah, the Feast of Trumpets, is the day God draws especially near, and Yom Kippur is remembered as the day when Moses brought the second set of tablets down from Mount Sinai, and as the day the covenant and marriage were resealed, and the Law of Moses is described by the Rabbis as a ketubah, a marriage contract.

Then  Sukkot comes five days later and, in this perspective, is considered the wedding feast, when the relationship is joyfully celebrated by successive generations through the experience of building and dwelling in the Sukkah. However, within Judaism there is a specific law about the sukkah roof: you must be able to see the stars through it. Jewish people are required to spend a week living in a sukkah under a covering that cannot fully shelter them, and to do it completely joyfully [4](Deut16:15), as an act of trust, both demonstrating and reminding them that God is their true shelter. Even though we live in houses, the God whose pillar of cloud both led and sheltered them in the Wilderness continues to be their Shelter and ours.

This is the reason behind the tradition of reading the book of Song of  Songs during the Feast of Tabernacles. Song of Songs is understood to be a love song between Israel and the Lord. As Jewish people dwell in the Sukkah, they are reminded that the Cloud which sheltered them was a symbol of God’s enduring love, which remained with them despite the sin of the Golden Calf.

Isaiah says that the LORD already rejoices over Zion as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride,[5] and has clothed her in garments for the wedding[6]. Centuries later, John has a revelation in which he sees the marriage of the Lamb.

“Let’s rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, because the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His bride has prepared herself.”

Rev 19:7  (NASB)

The sukkah reminds believers that we, too, are the Bride of Messiah, clothed in righteousness. Like the ancient custom of betrothal, Jesus has paid the bride price, and we now await the wedding ceremony. John 14 tells us that He has gone ahead to prepare a place for us in His Father’s house; the price was paid on the cross, and, like brides of old, we wait for the Bridegroom to come for us. As we await the glorious day of His return, we prepare ourselves for the marriage supper of the Lamb.

The Sukkah is a reminder that just as Jesus pitched His tent among us, we will dwell with Him for eternity.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among the people, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them.”

Rev 21:3