Finding Joy in the Temporary: A Christian Reflection on Sukkot

Jewish families around the world celebrated Sukkot this week —also known as the Festival of Booths or Tabernacles. It is a time of remembering the children of Israelites' 40 years wandering in the desert, after leaving Egypt, and celebrating God's miraculous protection and His provision, whilst celebrating the harvest.

By dwelling in temporary 'sukkahs' or tent-like structures for a week, Jews acknowledge the fragility of life and express joy and gratitude for both past miracles and God's continued care through His provision and protection.

For seven days, they feast on four special species of vegetation, pray, and sometimes even sleep in these small, fragile, makeshift, foilage covered structured huts, that are open to the natural elements of rain and wind, but also to the magnificence of the stars. They remember when God provided their ancestors daily with manna, water and shelter.  

At first glance, Sukkot might seem like a quaint, meaningful, ancient ritual. But for Christians, it holds a profound message: that life itself is temporary. Just as the Sukkah is a fleeting shelter, our bodies, possessions, and even our struggles are not meant to last forever. We, too, are pilgrims—passing through this world toward an eternal home.

In our modern lives, we build “booths” of another kind—houses, careers, relationships and routines—that feel solid and secure. Yet Sukkot reminds us how quickly everything can shift. It invites us to loosen our grip on the material and trust in God’s daily provision, just as the Israelites did in the wilderness.

There is also joy in this festival—joy in simplicity, community, and gratitude. The book of Leviticus calls it a “time of rejoicing,” because when we remember that all we have comes from God and all we are is held by Him, fear gives way to peace.

As followers of Christ, we can look at the Sukkah and see a reflection of Jesus Himself—God dwelling among us, the Eternal stepping into the temporary. This week, let us pause to thank God for His faithful presence in our fragile shelters. May Sukkot remind us that though our earthly tents may fall, our true eternal home is everlasting.

“For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God…” —2 Corinthians 5:1

The Spiritual Symbolism of Sukkot

The recent week-long Jewish celebration of Sukkot, also known as the Feast of Tabernacles, is one of the Bible's most joyful holidays. Besides building temporary huts or booths and feasting together, Sukkot is also an agricultural celebration of God's provision during the harvest season. It's a time to rejoice in His abundance and give thanks for all that He has done. As my Jewish boss aptly shared, sitting inside the sukkah shelter feels like God wrapping His arms around you in a hug after the sombre season of repentance ending with Yom Kippur.

As families gather together to build and live in a temporary, handmade shelter, they remember the 40 years their ancestors spent wandering in the wilderness of the desert on their way to the Promised Land, after escaping slavery in Egypt. The first two days are considered the holiest where work, other than that related to Sukkot, is forbidden.

The word Sukkot or Sukkah means shelter, which is a significant part of the observance of this joyous holiday. You could say it is a visible symbol of God’s presence, protection, and His gracious provision. As they leave the comfort and security of their homes, they place themselves, symbolically, in God's hands.

The building of the Sukkah is a fun family affair where the children will have fun decorating it and where they will gather for the eating of the feast. Some even choose to sleep there under the elements, looking up at the heavens through the gaps in their shelter’s roof. The Feast of Tabernacles was an annual reminder that God chose to ‘tabernacle among them,’ to protect and bless them wherever they wander.

There are specific rules about how this shelter is to be built, and what materials are allowed to be used, but what I find fascinating are the rituals that accompany this holiday, and how they all foreshadow Yeshua (Jesus) in their symbolism.

The first ritual is the drawing and pouring of the water, which can be referenced back to the origins of this practice found in Isaiah 12:3 which says “With joy shall you draw water out of the wells of salvation”. We know from many verses in the Bible, like John 7:37, that say that Jesus offers us living water, which we can interpret to mean the Holy Spirit.

The second ritual is to illuminate the shelter with the lighting of candles. This glorious blaze of fire is to remember the pillar of fire by day and smoke by night that accompanied their ancestors throughout their wanderings in the wilderness.  Again, we know that in John 8:12, Jesus refers to Himself as the Light of the world.

The third ritual is to eat an olive-sized piece of bread or mezonot (grain-based food) inside the Sukkah on the first two nights.  In John 6:35 Jesus says He is the ‘Bread of Life’; therefore, eating it is just like taking communion. (1 Corinthians 11:24)

The fourth ritual is the waving of branches, typically 4 different species of trees, although, in Israel, many choose 7 to represent all the species of the harvest, with each having a special meaning. Each tree type symbolizes the different personalities of everyone, and how we are all joined together to complement each other’s weaknesses and strengths. A blessing is recited over them and waved in 6 directions, north, south, east, west, up, and down, to emphasize the omnipresence of God.  On the last day of Sukkot, they make a procession around their Synagogue or room seven times whilst waving the branches of Palm leaves, known as the lulav, where they cry out with shouts of praise and beat the bundle on the ground.  This reminds me of how Jesus was welcomed on Palm Sunday with the waving of Palm leaves. Circling around for seven times, also reminds us of the story in Joshua 6, where the Lord gave the people victory over the city of Jericho.  

It seems a fitting end to Sukkot to celebrate with drinking of wine, the fruit of the vine, for in John 15, we are told that Jesus is the true vine, who we are to abide in.

Just like the Sukkah is a temporary dwelling, it should remind us that the Holy Spirit now dwells in us permanently. The Tabernacle where the Holy Priest visited on our behalf, is no longer necessary.  The curtain separating us from God’s Holy presence was torn when Jesus died on the Cross, where we now can enjoy direct and permanent access to dwell with Him.

Below are some Bible verses that refer to this joyous, week-long holiday. As you consider this festival, may it remind you of Jesus and the significance of His message through the traditions of Sukkot.

Genesis 33:17 - And Jacob journeyed to Succoth, built himself a house, and made booths for his livestock. Therefore, the name of the place is called Succoth.

Leviticus 23:39-40 - On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you are gathering in your produce of the earth, you shall celebrate a celebration of God for seven days... And you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of a beautiful tree (etrog), palm branches, the branch of a thick tree (myrtle, hadas), and brook-willows, and you shall rejoice before God for seven days.

Deuteronomy 16:13-16 - Celebrate the Festival of Sukkot for seven days, when you gather in from the grain and the vine. And you shall rejoice on your festival, you, your son, your daughter, your manservant, and your maidservant, and the Levite, the stranger, the orphan, and widow who live in your gates... and you shall be only joyful.

An Easter Passover Reflection

Every year, as I’ve tried to prepare my heart for Easter, God has always blessed me with a new revelation of His truth and this year He has focused me on the Jewish celebration of the Passover. This was celebrated the week before Easter and will finish on Easter Sunday.

Passover celebrates the deliverance of the Jewish people from their slavery in Egypt.  In Exodus 12:14,18 and 24 we are instructed to observe and commemorate this festival, which although is predominately a Jewish holiday, many Churches and Christians are now choosing to celebrate it, in addition to Easter.  

The Exodus story of the delivery from bondage to slavery, can be seen as a foreshadow of Jesus who broke the bondage of our slavery to sin, as referred to in Romans 6:17. Both Passover and Easter are therefore the perfect occasion to reflect and consider what enslaves us, and to celebrate the freedom that God offers us.

During the Passover week, also referred to as the Feast of the Unleavened Bread, which means bread with no yeast in, Jewish people will eat Matzoh, that dried square cracker.  When you consider that bread is a symbol of Jesus’s body, and leaven or yeast is often referred to as sin in the Bible, it is symbolic that this ‘bread’ is broken at the Passover meal, also known as the Seder.  In actual fact, what Christians refer to as the Last Supper, was actually the celebration of the Passover meal, and where taking the communion elements of bread (body) and wine (blood) first began. 

Just like the story of Moses and the last plague of killing the first-born son, God’s first and only Son also had to be killed, but it was His blood that saves us. It was the blood of an unblemished lamb that was required to cover the doorposts to spare the first-born sons from the Angel of death in the last plague.  It is symbolic that Jesus is called the door or gate to the Kingdom of God, as referred to in John 10:9, and it was His blood that covers us and spares us from eternal death.

Although we celebrate Palm Sunday as the triumphant entry of Jesus on a donkey into Jerusalem, I was interested to learn that this celebration was done every year prior to Jesus’s arrival, to celebrate the procession of carrying the unblemished lamb that had been chosen for the Passover meal.  How fitting that Jesus became our sacrificial Lamb on the altar of the Cross, who although was externally blemished by bloody cuts and piercings, internally He was unblemished, pure and innocent! In John 1:29 we read how Jesus is referred to as the Lamb of God.

It’s also fascinating to remember that Jesus’s first entry into Jerusalem was also ridden on a donkey inside Mary’s womb, and again, a donkey was chosen to enter Jerusalem for the last time.  If you look at the back of a donkey, its hairs across its shoulders and along its back actually make the shape of a cross. 

Whilst the Jewish people undergo a thorough spring-cleaning, purification process in order to remove all leaven from their homes and offices and prepare their hearts for Passover, Christians are also called to purify themselves from within during the last week of Lent, called Holy Week, in order to prepare their hearts to receive the Easter message afresh.

Another insightful comparison is the fact that no work is to be done at the start and end of Passover because it is considered a Holy time, which highlights the contrast that Christians don’t need to work in order to receive Christ’s Holiness, which is a gift of grace, based on our faith and in who and what we believe.

And here’s a thought, if Jesus was born at Christmas time, in December, then He would have been immaculately conceived and placed in Mary’s womb around the Passover or Easter period.

There are numerous comparisons in the Old Testament which mirrors Jesus in the New Testament, which I believe reveals God’s sovereign message and prophesy of Jesus. So, as we celebrate Easter this year, let us also reflect on the Passover festival and how it connects to our deliverance, and what its symbolism can teach us. 

Wishing you all a Blessed Easter! As you celebrate your redemption from sin and death and show your gratitude for what Christ did for you, may God bless you with a refreshed spirit of a renewed hope, a sustaining joy, a calming peace, a firmer faith and an overflowing of His abundant, unconditional love…