Feast of Tabernacles

To understand the underlying symbolism of Jesus in the Feast of Tabernacles we must understand what the Feast of Tabernacles is. It is an eight-day celebration to remind the Jews of when the Israelites were wandering in the wilderness, not yet entered the Promised Land, and were still in tents. "In Leviticus 23, Moses instructed the people that the first and eighth day of the festival were to be special days of rest, set apart from the others. But the seventh day became known as Hoshana Rabba, "the Great Day." My people developed special observances and traditions to mark this special day in Israel" (Brickner, 1998). In addition to the festivities, it was a ritual for them to live in tents or huts for seven days and then put away at the end of the seventh day. The word Tabernacle or cukkah in Hebrew means a tent or a dwelling.

Each day was to be celebrated with certain festival rituals. One was the water ceremony and the other was the lighting of the candles at the Temple.

During water ceremony, water was fetched from the pool of Siloam and brought into the city and poured into a basin near the alter in the Temple. The actual ritual had meant to remind them of the water from the rock during the wilderness wandering (Dallas Seminary Faculty, 1983). This was also a symbol of the Living Waters, which Jesus spoke about in John 7:37-38 "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. 38 He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water". Jesus saying, "let them come to Me" was an offer for salvation. The water from the rock sustained the Israelites in the wilderness, but it was for only so long. Jesus though could sustain one for life and He was telling the people that they would have source of satisfaction for life. Not only was this a symbol for Jesus but it was also a symbol of what was to come. The Holy Spirit had not yet come and that the water was symbolizing the coming of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will not come until the Day of Pentecost and it is then that the Holy Spirit will dwell with the believers and satisfy his need of God.

A major event during the Feast of Tabernacles is the lighting of the giant lamps in the women's court in the Temple. The light was bright enough for everyone to see. The light was to remind them how God was with them in the wanderings in the wilderness (Dallas Seminary Faculty, 1983) In John 8:12 Jesus speaks of being the light of the world and those who follow Him will not be in darkness. Elmer Towns suggests that Jesus could have been using number messianic prophecies that portray the Messiah as the shining light: Isaiah 9:1; 42:6; 49:6; 50:1-3, and Malachi 4:2 (Towns, 2004). The Bible symbolizes darkness as sin and holiness as light. Jesus was not speaking of being another light among the others but telling those He is the spiritual light that