Tabernacles: God Dwelling with His People
Week 3 of 3 in The Autumn Feasts
At the end of the harvest Israel moved out of its houses for a week. "You shall dwell in booths for
seven days ... that your generations may know that I made the people of Israel dwell in booths when
I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God" (Leviticus 23:42-43, ESV). It was
the most joyful week of the year, and it is the one feast Zechariah sees the nations keeping in the
age to come.
In one sentence: The Feast of Booths gathered Israel after the harvest to live in shelters and rejoice, remembering that God sheltered them in the wilderness; Jesus, the Word who "dwelt among us", stood up at this feast and offered the living water of the Holy Spirit; and Zechariah sees every nation keeping it when the LORD is king over all the earth, so you may rejoice in His presence now and wait for the day God dwells with His people for ever.
✝️ Leviticus 23:39-43 (ESV)
39 "On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the produce of the land, you shall celebrate the feast of the LORD seven days. On the first day shall be a solemn rest, and on the eighth day shall be a solemn rest. 40 And you shall take on the first day the fruit of splendid trees, branches of palm trees and boughs of leafy trees and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God seven days. 41 You shall celebrate it as a feast to the LORD for seven days in the year. It is a statute forever throughout your generations; you shall celebrate it in the seventh month. 42 You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All native Israelites shall dwell in booths, 43 that your generations may know that I made the people of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God."
Key Takeaways
(This section follows the Key Takeaways format — see that page for what each part is for.)
Types & Prophecy
- Prophecy. "Everyone who survives of all the nations that have come against Jerusalem shall go up year after year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Booths" (Zechariah 14:16, ESV).
- Fulfilment, by shared vocabulary. John writes that the Word "became flesh and dwelt among us" (John 1:14, ESV), with σκηνόω (skēnoō, G4637), "to pitch a tent", the verb behind the feast's Greek name; he does not name the feast there. Revelation uses the same verb: "He will dwell with them" (Revelation 21:3, ESV).
Lessons about Jesus
- He offered what the feast pictured. "On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, 'If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink'" (John 7:37, ESV).
- He is the light of the world. "Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life" (John 8:12, ESV).
- He came to live among us. The eternal Word pitched His tent with us, "and we have seen his glory" (John 1:14, ESV).
Memory verses
✝️ John 7:37-38 (ESV)
37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'"
✝️ Revelation 21:3 (ESV)
3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.
Be Transformed
- Think. This life is a booth, and God shelters you in it as He sheltered Israel in the wilderness. Your home is where He dwells.
- Attitude. Booths was commanded joy: "you shall rejoice before the LORD your God seven days" (Leviticus 23:40, ESV). Make room for gladness in what God has given.
- Do. If you are thirsty for God this week, take Jesus at His word: come to Him in prayer and drink, and read John 7:37-39 aloud as you do.
Prayer
Father, you sheltered your people in the wilderness and gathered them to rejoice at the end of the harvest. Thank you that your Son Jesus pitched His tent among us, that He offers the living water of the Holy Spirit to all who thirst, and that He is the light of the world. Make us glad in your presence now. Hasten the day when the LORD is king over all the earth, when the nations come up to worship, and when you dwell with your people for ever.
In Jesus' name. Amen.
Study outline
- The feast. The booths, the branches, the offerings and the joy.
- Remembered and restored. The wilderness it recalled, and the times Israel kept it again.
- Jesus at the feast. Living water and the light of the world, against the feast's own ceremonies.
- The feast still to come. Zechariah 14, Revelation 7 and 21, and how sure each link is.
- Discussion questions. Six, for a group or on your own.
The feast
Names and words
The feast has two names. It is "the Feast of Booths" (Leviticus 23:34, ESV), from סֻכּוֹת (sukkot, H5521), shelters of branches, a word used thirty-one times in the Hebrew Bible. It is also "the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year" (Exodus 23:16, ESV), because it closed the harvest. John calls it ἡ σκηνοπηγία (skēnopēgia, G4634), "tent-pitching", a word used only at John 7:2 in the New Testament.
What it commanded
Booths began on the fifteenth of the seventh month, five days after the Day of Atonement, and ran for seven days with an eighth day of "solemn assembly" (Leviticus 23:34-36, ESV). Israel took branches of palm and leafy trees and willows (Leviticus 23:40), built booths and lived in them.
The offerings were the largest of the year. Numbers sets thirteen bulls on the first day, then one fewer each day down to seven on the seventh (Numbers 29:13, 32): seventy bulls in all, and one on the eighth day (Numbers 29:36). The Talmud records a later reading of the number: Rabbi Elazar taught that the seventy bulls correspond to "the seventy nations of the world", and the single bull of the eighth day to Israel (Sukkah 55b, William Davidson translation, via Sefaria). That is rabbinic tradition. Zechariah 14 has the nations keeping this feast.
Deuteronomy gives the feast its mood:
✝️ Deuteronomy 16:14-15 (ESV)
14 You shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow who are within your towns. 15 For seven days you shall keep the feast to the LORD your God at the place that the LORD will choose, because the LORD your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you will be altogether joyful.
Every seventh year the law was read aloud at this feast to "men, women, and little ones, and the sojourner" (Deuteronomy 31:10-12, ESV).
This shows that God wanted His people's year to end in joy shared with everyone, and in hearing His word.
Remembered and restored
Booths remembered the wilderness: God "made the people of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt" (Leviticus 23:43, ESV). For forty years they had no houses and no harvest, and God sheltered and fed them. Hosea turned the memory into a promise and a warning: "I will again make you dwell in tents, as in the days of the appointed feast" (Hosea 12:9, ESV).
The feast marks Israel's new beginnings:
- The temple. Solomon dedicated the temple when "all the men of Israel assembled ... at the feast in the month Ethanim, which is the seventh month" (1 Kings 8:2, ESV).
- The return. The returned exiles "kept the Feast of Booths, as it is written" (Ezra 3:4, ESV).
- The law. Under Nehemiah the people found the command in the law, built booths on their roofs and in the squares, and "from the days of Jeshua the son of Nun to that day the people of Israel had not done so. And there was very great rejoicing" (Nehemiah 8:17, ESV). Ezra read from the law every day of the feast (Nehemiah 8:18).
Jesus at the feast
Living water
John 7 is set at Booths: "Now the Jews' Feast of Booths was at hand" (John 7:2, ESV). Jesus went up privately and taught in the temple in the middle of the feast (John 7:10, 14). Then:
✝️ John 7:37-39 (ESV)
37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'" 39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
The feast had a water ceremony. The Mishnah describes a golden flask filled at the Pool of Shiloah, carried to the altar with trumpet blasts and poured out there (Mishnah Sukkah 4:9), and says of the celebration: "he who has not seen the Simchat Bet Hashoevah [the rejoicing at the place of the water-drawing] has never seen rejoicing in his life" (Mishnah Sukkah 5:1, Mishnah Yomit translation by Joshua Kulp, CC-BY). The NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible reads Jesus' words against that rite. The Mishnah was written down around AD 200, more than a century after the temple fell, so it records the practice as the rabbis remembered it, and John does not mention the ceremony. John does say what the living water means: the Holy Spirit, given once Jesus was glorified (John 7:39). He does not say which Scripture Jesus meant. Candidates include "living waters shall flow out from Jerusalem" (Zechariah 14:8, ESV) and "With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation" (Isaiah 12:3, ESV).
The light of the world
"Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, 'I am the light of the world'" (John 8:12, ESV), and John places these words "in the treasury, as he taught in the temple" (John 8:20, ESV). The Mishnah describes great golden lamps lit in the Women's Court during the feast, so that "there was not a courtyard in Jerusalem that was not illuminated" (Mishnah Sukkah 5:2-3, Kulp). The NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible reads Jesus' words against that light. John does not say whether the lamps were burning. The claim itself needs no backdrop: Jesus is the light God promised (Isaiah 9:2), as Matthew says (Matthew 4:14-16).
This shows that God sent His Son to be what the feast celebrated: the water that satisfies, the light that guides, and the presence that shelters.
The feast still to come
Zechariah 14
Zechariah's last chapter is set on the day the LORD returns to Jerusalem: "the LORD will be king over all the earth" (Zechariah 14:9, ESV), and "living waters shall flow out from Jerusalem" (Zechariah 14:8, ESV). Then the nations come:
✝️ Zechariah 14:16-17 (ESV)
16 Then everyone who survives of all the nations that have come against Jerusalem shall go up year after year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Booths. 17 And if any of the families of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, there will be no rain on them.
The ESV Study Bible notes that Zechariah broadens Israel's festival worship to those beyond Israel's borders. How to read the chapter is contested. Many readers take its feast as a picture: the NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible finds the reality the feast points to "in Christ" and cites Paul, who calls the feasts "a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ" (Colossians 2:17, ESV). This site reads the passage of the millennial kingdom, Christ's thousand-year reign on earth (Revelation 20:1-6; see the statement of faith), because Zechariah gives the feast a place, Jerusalem, a calendar, "year after year", and a penalty, no rain, that a picture does not need, and he sets it on the day "the LORD will be king over all the earth" (Zechariah 14:9, ESV). Tabernacles is the one feast Scripture names the nations keeping in that age. Ezekiel's temple vision, which this site also reads of the kingdom, keeps Passover and the seventh-month feast there too (Ezekiel 45:21-25). What their offerings will mean then is a question this study leaves open.
Revelation
Revelation's pictures of the end carry the feast's colours:
| In the feast | In Revelation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Palm branches (Leviticus 23:40) | A multitude "with palm branches in their hands" (Revelation 7:9) | Echo |
| Booths, God's shelter | "He who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence" (Revelation 7:15), σκηνόω | Echo, in the same verb family |
| Water poured out | "He will guide them to springs of living water" (Revelation 7:17) | Echo |
| God dwelling with Israel | "The dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them" (Revelation 21:3) | The hope stated, in the same verb |
Revelation never names the feast, so all four are echoes. The last states outright what the feast pictured: God means to live with His people. So you may live now as one sheltered by God, and wait for the day when His dwelling is with man, and "God himself will be with them as their God" (Revelation 21:3, ESV).
For where Booths sits among the feasts, see The Appointed Times. The fall season opens with Trumpets and the Day of Atonement.
Discussion questions
- The language. John calls the feast skēnopēgia, "tent-pitching" (John 7:2), and says the Word "dwelt" among us with the verb for pitching a tent (John 1:14). What does that link say about why Jesus came?
- The text in its context. Booths remembered the wilderness (Leviticus 23:43) and celebrated the harvest (Deuteronomy 16:13-15). Why join hardship remembered with plenty enjoyed?
- Christ. Jesus cried out on "the great day" of the feast (John 7:37). What did He claim to give, and to whom?
- The hard part. The Mishnah's water and light ceremonies are recorded later than John, and John does not mention them. How much should they shape your reading of John 7-8?
- The kingdom. Zechariah 14:16 has the nations keeping Booths. What does that say about God's purposes for Israel and for the nations?
- Be transformed. Booths was commanded joy. What would it look like for you to rejoice before the LORD this week, and with whom?
Group study sheet for a 40-minute group: two A4 sheets, or one with the guided path
The point, the passage, the questions and the response, from this study. Print on both sides of two A4 sheets, flipping on the long edge. While this block is open, printing the page prints the sheet; close it to print the study.
Tabernacles: God Dwelling with His People
Leviticus 23:33-43; John 7:37-39; Zechariah 14:16-19The point The Feast of Booths gathered Israel after the harvest to live in shelters and rejoice, remembering that God sheltered them in the wilderness; Jesus, the Word who "dwelt among us", stood up at this feast and offered the living water of the Holy Spirit; and Zechariah sees every nation keeping it when the LORD is king over all the earth, so you may rejoice in His presence now and wait for the day God dwells with His people for ever.
Ask: what comes to mind when you hear Tabernacles
? Hear a few answers before anyone reads.
Leviticus 23:33-43 33And the LORD said to Moses, 34“Speak to the Israelites and say, ‘On the fifteenth day of the seventh month the Feast of Tabernacles to the LORD begins, and it continues for seven days. 35On the first day there shall be a sacred assembly. You must not do any regular work. 36For seven days you are to present a food offering to the LORD. On the eighth day you are to hold a sacred assembly and present a food offering to the LORD. It is a solemn assembly; you must not do any regular work. 37These are the LORD’s appointed feasts, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies for presenting food offerings to the LORD—burnt offerings and grain offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings, each on its designated day. 38These offerings are in addition to the offerings for the LORD’s Sabbaths, and in addition to your gifts, to all your vow offerings, and to all the freewill offerings you give to the LORD. 39On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, after you have gathered the produce of the land, you are to celebrate a feast to the LORD for seven days. There shall be complete rest on the first day and also on the eighth day. 40On the first day you are to gather the fruit of majestic trees, the branches of palm trees, and the boughs of leafy trees and of willows of the brook. And you are to rejoice before the LORD your God for seven days. 41You are to celebrate this as a feast to the LORD for seven days each year. This is a permanent statute for the generations to come; you are to celebrate it in the seventh month. 42You are to dwell in booths for seven days. All the native-born of Israel must dwell in booths, 43so that your descendants may know that I made the Israelites dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.’”
John 7:37-39 37On the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood up and called out in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. 38Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said: ‘Streams of living water will flow from within him.’” 39He was speaking about the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive. For the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.
Zechariah 14:16-19 16Then 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 Feast of Tabernacles. 17And should any of the families of the earth not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of Hosts, then the rain will not fall on them.
Also read: Zechariah 14:16-19 from 14:18
Tabernacles: God Dwelling with His People
- The feast. The booths, the branches, the offerings and the joy.
- Remembered and restored. The wilderness it recalled, and the times Israel kept it again.
- Jesus at the feast. Living water and the light of the world, against the feast's own ceremonies.
- The feast still to come. Zechariah 14, Revelation 7 and 21, and how sure each link is.
Tabernacles: God Dwelling with His People
1The language. John calls the feast skēnopēgia, "tent-pitching" (John 7:2), and says the Word "dwelt" among us with the verb for pitching a tent (John 1:14). What does that link say about why Jesus came?
2The text in its context. Booths remembered the wilderness (Leviticus 23:43) and celebrated the harvest (Deuteronomy 16:13-15). Why join hardship remembered with plenty enjoyed?
3The hard part. The Mishnah's water and light ceremonies are recorded later than John, and John does not mention them. How much should they shape your reading of John 7-8?
4The kingdom. Zechariah 14:16 has the nations keeping Booths. What does that say about God's purposes for Israel and for the nations?
5Christ. Jesus cried out on "the great day" of the feast (John 7:37). What did He claim to give, and to whom?
Tabernacles: God Dwelling with His People
6Be transformed. Booths was commanded joy. What would it look like for you to rejoice before the LORD this week, and with whom?
- Think. This life is a booth, and God shelters you in it as He sheltered Israel in the wilderness. Your home is where He dwells.
- Attitude. Booths was commanded joy: "you shall rejoice before the LORD your God seven days" (Leviticus 23:40, ESV). Make room for gladness in what God has given.
- Do. If you are thirsty for God this week, take Jesus at His word: come to Him in prayer and drink, and read John 7:37-39 aloud as you do.
On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'"
John 7:37-38 (ESV)Father, you sheltered your people in the wilderness and gathered them to rejoice at the end of the harvest. Thank you that your Son Jesus pitched His tent among us, that He offers the living water of the Holy Spirit to all who thirst, and that He is the light of the world. Make us glad in your presence now. Hasten the day when the LORD is king over all the earth, when the nations come up to worship, and when you dwell with your people for ever.
In Jesus' name. Amen.
Tabernacles: God Dwelling with His People
Leviticus 23:33-43; John 7:37-39; Zechariah 14:16-19Open Ask: what comes to mind when you hear Tabernacles
? Hear a few answers before anyone reads.
Read it aloud Leviticus 23:33-43; John 7:37-39; Zechariah 14:16-19
1The language. John calls the feast skēnopēgia, "tent-pitching" (John 7:2), and says the Word "dwelt" among us with the verb for pitching a tent (John 1:14). What does that link say about why Jesus came?
2The text in its context. Booths remembered the wilderness (Leviticus 23:43) and celebrated the harvest (Deuteronomy 16:13-15). Why join hardship remembered with plenty enjoyed?
3The hard part. The Mishnah's water and light ceremonies are recorded later than John, and John does not mention them. How much should they shape your reading of John 7-8?
4The kingdom. Zechariah 14:16 has the nations keeping Booths. What does that say about God's purposes for Israel and for the nations?
5Christ. Jesus cried out on "the great day" of the feast (John 7:37). What did He claim to give, and to whom?
6Be transformed. Booths was commanded joy. What would it look like for you to rejoice before the LORD this week, and with whom?
- Think. This life is a booth, and God shelters you in it as He sheltered Israel in the wilderness. Your home is where He dwells.
- Attitude. Booths was commanded joy: "you shall rejoice before the LORD your God seven days" (Leviticus 23:40, ESV). Make room for gladness in what God has given.
- Do. If you are thirsty for God this week, take Jesus at His word: come to Him in prayer and drink, and read John 7:37-39 aloud as you do.
Tabernacles: God Dwelling with His People
The point The Feast of Booths gathered Israel after the harvest to live in shelters and rejoice, remembering that God sheltered them in the wilderness; Jesus, the Word who "dwelt among us", stood up at this feast and offered the living water of the Holy Spirit; and Zechariah sees every nation keeping it when the LORD is king over all the earth, so you may rejoice in His presence now and wait for the day God dwells with His people for ever.
References & Recommended Reading
- ESV Study Bible (Crossway) — verse text throughout; notes on John 7:37, John 8:12 and Zechariah 14:16.
- NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible (Zondervan) — notes on John 7:37 (the water rite) and Zechariah 14:16.
- NKJV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible (Zondervan) — note on John 7:37-39, the water-drawing ceremony.
- Mishnah Sukkah 4:9; 5:1-3, Mishnah Yomit translation by Joshua Kulp (CC-BY), via
references/build/sefaria.py. - Babylonian Talmud, Sukkah 55b, William Davidson Edition (CC-BY-NC), via Sefaria — the seventy bulls and the seventy nations.
- Macula Hebrew (WLC) and Macula Greek (SBLGNT) — occurrence data for סֻכּוֹת, σκηνοπηγία, σκηνή and σκηνόω.
On this site
- The Appointed Times — the seven feasts of Leviticus 23.
- Feast of Trumpets and The Day of Atonement — the other fall feasts.
- New Jerusalem — God's dwelling with man.