What is the Feast of Tabernacles/Sukkot?

Some of you may be unfamiliar with Tabernacles or Booths (Hebrew: Sukkot). And if you have heard of it you may have the conception that it is a Jewish Holiday, as in only for the Jews. Therefore the first place to look in the Bible to find out about Tabernacles is Zechariah 14 where it dispels this notion and tells us about our future keeping it:

Zechariah 14:16-19 — 16 Then all the survivors from the nations that came against Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the King, the Lord of Hosts, and to celebrate the Festival of Booths. 17 Should any of the families of the earth not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of Hosts, rain will not fall on them. 18 And if the people of Egypt will not go up and enter, then rain will not fall on them; this will be the plague the Lord inflicts on the nations who do not go up to celebrate the Festival of Booths. 19 This will be the punishment of Egypt and all the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Festival of Booths.

This passage above answers the common question on who the people in the Millennium that the saints rule are? We are told plainly that there will be those who survive Wormwood, the Great Tribulation, the mark of the beast and God’s wrath living in the Millennium. To be sure, it will be a fraction of the multiple billions today. We’re also told something else shocking: They will be keeping the festival of Sukkot under God’s government, the kingdom of God. This news is shocking to most Christians because they have been taught that the Torah is a curse or burdensome and “done away forever.” On the contrary, this Torah festival is coming back and is so important to God that he will enforce its observance. Why?

The purpose for this feast is the same purpose Hebrews describes for the sacrifices and by extension all the rituals of the Torah: to give us forgetful humans reminders of all aspects of God’s plan for us, including sin (Heb 10:1-4). Since we are not in the Millennium and able to keep the Feast properly in Jerusalem, we are therefore not required to do so just yet.

Did you know that Tabernacles itself as Ancient Israel kept it for centuries is a prophecy of the Millennium? (See my book for more on that). The feasting, joy and peace we are meant to experience during Sukkot pictures the 1000 year peaceful, prosperous and joyous reign of Christ and the saints. This at last will be the idea of utopia made reality.