festival [before] feast

i know i promised you a "visual feast" & it's coming.

but we've been celebrating so many festivals here I must first fill you in.

Take Leviticus 23, a chapter in the Bible that I never cared much about. BEFORE Israel. Now, I'm in the land, celebrating every one of the feasts/festivals/fasts that are so clearly described in the Bible. God defines them as "HIS APPOINTED TIME".

Rosh Hashanah [Jewish New Year] [September 8]

Yom Kippur [Day of Atonement] [September 17-18]

SUKKOT [The Feast of Booths] [September 22-29]. Basically, the feast involves building a Sukkot (booth) outside of your home that you eat/live in for the week. For Jews, it is the equivalent of a Christmas celebration. Children take two weeks off of school to decorate/celebrate in the booth! There is a joyous buzz throughout the city as everyone prepares and buys the traditional lulav & etrog. One of my favorite parts about this festival is there are no restrictions on what you eat because it is the Feast of Harvest! Woo woo!

Now, why do I enjoy celebrating these strange, non-american holidays so much? Because every festival in the Bible was given by God with a greater purpose in mind than just tradition. The holiday isn't for Israel, it isn't for the land, it's to teach me something about the Messiah. In Deuteronomy 16:14, God invites everyone, including me, the Gentile, to the feast. So I will joyfully celebrate it, but with a different purpose than just traditionalism.

During this week, God is calling His people out of their permanent homes to live in the booth and telling us "this isn't it." That the building we live in is not our home, we have not arrived. & we are called to be thankful. Thankful for the Messiah, Jesus Christ. I never realized the details/regulations of Old Testament festivals were all pointing to Christ and celebrating what He accomplished. Pretty cool.

Some more shots of SUKKOT

[caption id="attachment_269" align="alignleft" width="161" caption="our "full-shield-armor" for entering the most Orthodox Jewish Community"]