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for the Greater Exodus

When is the best time to plan for Sukkot?

Immediately after Sukkot!

There’s not much chance of a smooth eight days next year if you’re not already working on your calendar and negotiating the days off. One thing’s for sure…if you bumble and stumble through a feast, the kids and grandkids are watching. What must they think? Their friends’ parents put up the December holiday lights and decorations weeks ahead of time, but mom had no idea that there was a significant rip in the tent roof or grandpa tried to hold a sukkah together with zip-ties and fishing line as the sun set on the first day of Sukkot?

I know. I’m not helping your anxiety level. It happens to most folks, though, until they learn to plan. Let’s see if I can help. Would it help if you understood the prophetic value of the seemingly minor activities during Sukkot? Like waving and shaking the lulav for seven days?

The lulav, or four species, is comprised of seven components. The palm branch is the lulav, but the entire bundle is also called the lulav [1?7]. To some, each of the species (minim) represent a type of believer, from extremely pious to minimally active spiritually. Even though there is a range of observance, they are all one bundle. The good traits of others can offset the lazier ones, who nevertheless might have some redeeming quality to contribute to the group.

There are other traditions as well. The feasts are filled with symbolic objects, foods, and actions. In one tradition, the symbolism of the lulav is:

•      One palm branch, representing the one Elohim.

•      One citron, representing the one nation (Israel).

•      Three myrtle branches, representing the three forefathers buried at Hebron

•      Two willow branches, representing the two Tablets of the Word

The palm branch, or lulav, must come from the crown of the dekel, or palm tree. It is the new growth that is still tightly compact, unopened, very straight like a spine that supports the body. 

The citron is the etrog, the pleasant-smelling “heart” of the lulav because of its shape. The etrog is invalidated if the pitom is broken off or missing. The pitom is the prominent tip. We must serve Adonai carefully and with a whole heart.

The myrtle is hadas, and its leaves look like eyes. If crushed or even brushed against, it releases a fragrant oil. We should always be on the lookout for opportunities to release the fragrance of Messiah Yeshua in our interactions with others. The Living Word leaves a tangible fragrance others appreciate. It is a sign of spiritual life, a prophecy of the resurrection. There must be three myrtle branches, a symbol of resurrection. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and their wives are buried in Hebron because it was thought to the an entrance back to the Garden of Eden; thus, the resurrection number of three still speaks to us that we should walk in the faith of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

The aravot are the two willow branches. Willows are very flexible, but they send down deep roots and dwell in well-watered places and along rivers of living water. Their long branches make a stunning whooshing noise if waved back and forth, which they were in the Temple water-pouring ceremony. These branches remind us that the Word must be inspired of the Ruach HaKodesh to inspire others. The commandments are embraced both with the spirit and letter, or practical doing of them.

The lulav is waved in seven directions. The Elyah Rabbah (Orach Chaim 651:1) writes: “All together, seven, corresponding to the seven heavens.” The bundled lulav is waved, or shaken, specifically in the direction of the four winds in a linear method as well as toward Heaven and earth, south-north-east-upward-downward-west. These directions are mentioned in Isaiah:

·     Do not fear, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and gather you from the west. I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’ And to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’ Bring My sons from afar and My daughters from the ends of the earth, everyone who is called by My name, and whom I have created for My glory, whom I have formed, even whom I have made.” (Is 43:5-7)

There are sheep out in the sheepfolds of the nations, sons and daughters. They were exiled to the “wilderness of the peoples,” but they will come home to the Land of Promise in the Greater Exodus. They were emplaced in the nations just like Israel was emplaced in Egypt for a purpose:

·     “Now not with you alone am I making this covenant and this oath, but both with those who stand here with us today in the presence of the LORD our God and with those who are not with us here today (for you know how we lived in the land of Egypt, and how we came through the midst of the nations through which you passed; moreover, you have seen their abominations and their idols of wood, stone, silver, and gold, which they had with them)…” (Dt 29:14–17)

It is important for us to SEE the abominations and idols of the nation in which we live. That means we should recognize those as contrary to every precept of life in the Scripture. We are not to see in order to absorb the abominations or to be absorbed into them, but to become the Light of the Word that stands against them in that nation.

Out there among the nations is a Bride-to-be. She may not even know she is a Bride yet. She has not yet heard or responded to the Good News of Messiah. “How lovely on the mountains are the feet of him that brings good news, announcing peace. Keep your feasts, O Judah!” (Na 1:15) This is why observing the feasts is important. Just as the Bride was called out of their chains in Egypt, so there are others in that wilderness of the nations who must shrug off the Egyptian chains and hang them in a sukkah at Sukkot. 

SHAKING AND WAVING

•      With the lulav, we call home the exiles from all directions of the earth to the sukkah. They are called to Kingdom assignments, their reward, and to perfecting repentance.

•      First fruits offerings and those consecrated for service are typically waved

•      Is 13:13; Mt 24:29; Mk 13:25; Lk 21:26; Re 6:13 describe how powers and principalities will be shaken to prepare the way for Messiah’s return. 

•      When Messiah sets up his kingdom, the tribes will take the places of the removed “stars.” Just as they encamped in the wilderness to prepare to reign from the twelve gates of Jerusalem in place of those principalities and powers, so we are in the wilderness of the nations preparing ourselves and preparing the nations for the reign of the one and only Elohim of the universe.

If you’ve ever noticed Jews shaking the lulav, they don’t just wave it in the directions of the four winds, heaven, and earth, they SHAKE it hard. As the Bride-to-be is called home from the four directions of the nations, she is called forth from the earth where she is buried and from the heavens where her soul awaits the blowing of the shofar for the resurrection. 

The tribes come home, but they also awake from the dust at the resurrection so that they may ascend to New Jerusalem. There they will form one Bride, one Body of Messiah, an adornment for the Bridegroom. From the height of that cloud, they will descend, perfected, to rule and reign on earth. 

She must shake off the dust of death to arise even as the principalities and powers are shaken out of their places to make room for the new administration of the King of Kings.

Sukkot are often decorated with paper chains. One legend says that two descendants of Ephraim ran away from the slavery in Egypt, attempting to return to the Promised Land of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Pharaoh’s soldiers captured them, put them in chains, and paraded them through the cities of Egypt to warn people what happened to any attempting to flee slavery to Pharaoh. When Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt and they first encamped in Sukkot, the two boys, who had kept the chains of their captivity so as not to forget the day of their freedom, hung the chains from their sukkot. Therefore, today children make paper chains to hang from the sukkah. 

Israel should never go back to the chains of slavery, but travel forward to the Covenant, the Land of Promise, and after the resurrection from the earth which they were formed, to take their places in the administration of Messiah during the millennium:

Shake yourself from the dust, rise up,

O captive Jerusalem;

Loose yourself from the chains around your neck,

O captive daughter of Zion. (Is 52:2)

Does that help any anxiety about preparing for Sukkot? When you shook the lulav, this is what you did. You were part of prophecy! 

Sukkot and the lulav each year teach us the responsibilities of being a Light of the Torah in the Greater Exodus of Israel as she returns to her Land of Promise. It’s a promise to Avraham, Isaac, and Jacob kept; it’s broken chains of sons and daughters in every sukkah on the journey home.

It’s the opportunity to be a part of that great cloud of witnesses to which we will awake at the resurrection. It’s a rehearsal to party with the righteous from centuries past at the resurrection. It’s a rehearsal to become acquainted with the Bride-to-be with whom we will be serving in the millennium. 

Wake it and shake it already!

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