Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles, is a remembrance of everything God did in the wilderness to prepare His people to live in Him and be an expression of Him to the earth. And we today are in a time of preparation to do the will of God that He might be glorified through us in the ages to come. During this Feast of Tabernacles let us remember all that God has done and continues to do to prepare us to walk with Him and to please Him.

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Show Notes:

The Lord brought Israel out of their bondage in the land of Egypt, but He brought them out with a purpose. He brought them out to bring them into the land of Canaan as their possession as He had promised. To see that promise fulfilled, however, the children of Israel had to be prepared. And Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles, is a remembrance of that time of preparation when they lived in the wilderness for forty years.

Why did they need that preparation? It was not so they could continue to live in the wilderness. They were in the wilderness for forty years so they would learn the commandments and statutes that would enable them to possess the land and continue to live in it. They had to live in a righteous way before God to be His people and remain in the land He had promised them. Tabernacles was a way to remind them year after year of what it took to become God’s people and to be the example to the nations that God intended.

So as Christians, what are we celebrating at this Feast of Tabernacles? I believe it is a time to celebrate what God has done for us in our wilderness. This life as we know it, in the earth and the flesh at this moment, is very much a training ground like the wilderness was for Israel. And this feast is a good time to recognize how God delivered us from our bondage to sin and gave us a purpose in this life, which is not to die and go to heaven but to be prepared to live with Him in His eternal Kingdom.

Key Verses:

• Exodus 6:6–9. “I will take you for My people, and I will be your God.”
• Deuteronomy 6:20–24. “He brought us out from there in order to bring us in.”
• Exodus 13:3–10. “With a powerful hand the LORD brought you out of Egypt.”
• Leviticus 23:39–43. “You shall live in booths … so that your generations may know.”
• Deuteronomy 4:1–14. “The things which your eyes have seen … make them known to your sons and your grandsons.”
• 2 John 1:4–6. “This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning.”
• 2 Peter 1:2–11. “He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so … you may become partakers of the divine nature.”
• Ephesians 1:2–12. “He chose us … that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love.”
• Ephesians 2:1–10. “We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works.”

Quotes:

• “God gives us promises, but God has to prepare us to continually live in those promises. Otherwise, we will lose the blessing which He has prepared for us.”
• “Life does not end with death. This life is a portion of our eternal life that we live on with God.”
• “This age of the Holy Spirit that we now live in, following the resurrection and ascension of Christ, is about our preparation for the ages to come.”

Takeaways:

1. The wilderness was a time of preparation for the Israelites to possess the promises that God had made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The Lord taught them the commandments, the teachings, the precepts, and the wisdom that would enable them to take the land of Canaan and continue living in the land.
2. The Feast of Tabernacles is a time of remembrance of those forty years in the wilderness so that they would never forget, throughout their generations for eternity, what they had to go through to become the people who could possess all that God had promised them.
3. The days we are living in now are our days of preparation for the possession of all that God has promised us. This is a moment in our eternity to prepare for all that God has prepared for us to walk in. Let this Feast of Tabernacles be a time to reflect on our eternal life and eternal purpose in God.