Learning To Follow the Spirit | Lessons From the Feast of Tabernacles

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: If Israel would have moved before the fire and the cloud moved, they would have been out there in the flesh and the resources would have dried up. That's why Jesus said, "Abide in me and you'll bear much fruit, for apart from me," he said, "you can do nothing."
Dustin Roberts: Sometimes following God means moving forward. Other times, though, it means having the discipline to stay right where you are. Welcome to Discovering the Jewish Jesus. I'm your host, Dustin Roberts, and Rabbi Schneider and I are outdoors together today under the Sukkah for the Feast of Tabernacles. We're going to be talking about learning to recognize God's leading, making time to be still in His presence, and discovering the joy that comes when we follow where He leads, even if it leads into the wilderness. Now, join Rabbi and I under the Sukkah.
Rabbi K.A. Schneider: Another real prominent focus of Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles, is the feast of rejoicing. It's a feast of Simcha, of joy in Hebrew. We read in the book of Leviticus where the Lord is giving instructions for Sukkot. He says, "Now on the first day"—I'm in verse number 40 of Leviticus 23, and the Lord is speaking through Moses here—"now on the first day you shall take for yourselves the foliage of beautiful trees, palm branches and boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook, and you shall"—get this now—"rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days." So one of the primary aspects of the Feast of Tabernacles is it's the feast of rejoicing. There were actually three times of year that Israel was commanded to come to Jerusalem and to rejoice before the Lord. These were the three Pilgrim Feasts where Israelites from all over would come to Jerusalem: Passover and Unleavened Bread, that season; and then Shavuot or Pentecost, that was the second Pilgrim Feast; and then Tabernacles was the third. God commanded them to come to Jerusalem and to rejoice. Now notice that the Lord called Israel to come and rejoice before Him three times a year. So what does that say to me?
Dustin Roberts: You have to do all three. You have to complete something.
Rabbi K.A. Schneider: It completes something. You know what else it says to me? That God's idea for us, for His people that He created in His own image, is to rejoice continually, to do it as a way of life. The three means that God wants us to be people that rejoice in Him and that are happy. When I say happy, I know that tough times happen. We can't always be laughing, but I'm saying God wants us to rejoice in Him because He's happy as a principle.
Dustin Roberts: This is just how He wants us to live. I'm thinking of Zechariah chapter 14. At the end of Zechariah 14, the Bible says that in the Millennial Age, after Armageddon, God will require the peoples of the earth to come to Jerusalem every Tabernacles. If they don't, there will be a curse on them. We talk about celebrating these feasts right now. You may not be celebrating it right now, but in the Millennial Age, they are going to be required to celebrate it. They are going to be required to rejoice with Him and celebrate with Him.
Rabbi K.A. Schneider: Exactly. Zechariah tells us that any nation that does not come to Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles will be cut off. What that tells me is that one of the principles of the Feast of Tabernacles, of Sukkot, to remember as Christians is the coming of the end of the age. It is culminating, and Tabernacles will be a part of that divine culmination. After Armageddon, all the nations that are left will worship the Lord, Jew and Gentile alike. Tabernacles reminds us to have what's called an eschatological point of view, that we're not just looking at the here and now. We're looking at where things are going. I love Zechariah 14. I encourage you, if you haven't read Zechariah 14, it's amazing. It talks about the Messiah's return back to the Mount of Olives and it ends with Tabernacles. It's an amazing chapter of the Bible and I love that it connects to one of God's appointed days. So many things here. You know, it's interesting, Dustin, that when the children of Israel lived in these temporary Sukkot for 40 years, there was a main Tabernacle in the center. All the tribes camped around the main Tabernacle, the main Mishkan, that was in the center. That was the Mishkan that God told Moses to build where He would meet with His people. The Lord said, "I want you to have the outer area, then I want you to have the holy place which contained the altar of incense, the table of showbread, and the golden menorah." Then inside was the holy place which contained the Ark of the Covenant. Over that Mishkan, over that Tabernacle, was a divine pillar of fire that shone every single night for 40 years, and a glory cloud that hovered over it. As long as the fire and the cloud stayed over the Mishkan, Israel stayed camped right where they were. But every so often, the fire would lift and the cloud would lift. When the fire lifted and the cloud lifted and moved, all of Israel had to pick up camp and follow the fire and the cloud. They never knew when it was going to move. It was completely unpredictable. They might be there for weeks, months, or days. They never knew. But think what would have happened if they wouldn't have moved. If they said, "I don't feel like moving."
Dustin Roberts: They would have died. That wouldn't have been good. The manna wouldn't have been there where they were.
Rabbi K.A. Schneider: There would have been no supernatural provision left for them. Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. So if God says move, you better move. If He moved and you didn't move, like you said, there'd be no manna. And if He didn't move, but you decided that you wanted to move and you moved, you're going to die in the wilderness.
Dustin Roberts: That is the lesson God was teaching them. They did not have the option to do things on their own. They had to rely on God. What a lesson to realize that even when things are okay. Sometimes we feel like we're in a trial, sometimes we feel like everything is okay. What a lesson to realize that even when things are okay, we need to still every day get up and be relying on God. "God, I don't want to move unless You move. Lord, I can do things on my own, but I don't want to do things on my own."
Rabbi K.A. Schneider: There's really deep insight here regarding this principle that you're sharing with us. This fire was a manifestation of the Ruach Hakodesh, the Holy Spirit. And the cloud was a manifestation of God's Ruach, His Holy Spirit. Whenever it moved, they had to move. If it stayed, they had to stay put. I am sure that there were times when Israel wanted to move, but they couldn't move unless the cloud and fire moved. And when the fire and the cloud did move, they had to move. If we don't move when the Holy Spirit's leading us to move, we're going to miss out on His fullness. It is really something to meditate on deeply. Here they were, being trained and disciplined by God. The fire is there by night, the cloud is there by day. They had to stay put unless that fire and cloud moved. And when it did move, they had to move. The fire and the cloud were manifestations of the Holy Spirit. What that teaches me is that I need to learn how to move when the Spirit of the Lord moves and cease and stop when the Spirit of the Lord is not moving. It takes real discipline and training to be able to abide in the Spirit. Think, for example, of the two opposite problems people have. Some people's problem is they're running ahead of God all the time. They're running in the flesh trying to accomplish all these things, but it's in the power of the flesh. If Israel would have moved before the fire and the cloud moved, they would have been out there in the flesh and the resources would have dried up. That's why Jesus said, "Abide in me and you'll bear much fruit, for apart from me," He said, "you can do nothing." A lot of us need help because we're busy all the time doing all these things, but so much of what we're doing is not Spirit-generated. We're not following the Spirit; we're running ahead of the Spirit in the flesh. How do you stop that? One of the ways you stop that is to do what God did to Israel. He had them stop and just be at a place. He trained them by making them stop. "You're not going anywhere. Unless I move, you sit right where you're at." For a lot of you right now, you're running ahead of God in your life. You haven't learned how to wait on the Lord. The Lord said, "Cease striving. Be still and know that I am God." This is a discipline and a choice that you and I have. We can spend time every day just sitting before the Lord, not on our phone. Just being still, maybe listening to beautiful instrumental worship music, maybe with the Word in front of us or other Christian literature. What God does in this practice is He teaches us how to abide in Him.
Dustin Roberts: I love it. My wife and I were just talking about this. She was asking me, "How do you feel the weight of sin?" because we were talking about Yom Kippur. We were talking about how you have to quiet your mind, and how hard it is. Our minds just wander from this to this to this so fast that it's very hard to discipline ourselves to just sit before the Lord and wait for Him, allow Him to speak, and to keep focused on one thing instead of letting our minds go everywhere.
Rabbi K.A. Schneider: We need God's supernatural help. If people will make the commitment—maybe some are just going to start with 15 minutes a day—let's say anybody can do that. If people will make the commitment and say, "Lord, I want to be able to be led by Your Spirit. I want to be able to abide in You. I want to have that revelation in your situation concerning Yom Kippur. How can we have the revelation of the value of the blood of Jesus and what it cost God to send His Son to shed His blood because of our sin?" We'll understand more fully the weight and the gravity of the destructiveness of sin. How can I grasp that more fully on Yom Kippur? It comes by revelation. We have such a difficult time stopping our mind, but God oftentimes will give revelation when our mind is stiller. Build the field and they will come. If people will make a commitment to say to the Lord, "Lord, I want to still myself so that You can give me more revelation." I'm going to begin right now without exception. Take 15 minutes at the beginning of each day and just listen to beautiful worship music. I wouldn't even put words; I would just put instrumental worship on so that nothing can distract you. Just let the Holy Spirit soothe you and bring you down into greater depth and peace. What I believe will happen is you'll begin to receive more revelation. It might seem like an impossible task because our mind is going so many directions. But you can be intentional and say, "Lord, help me to be in a position where I can greater perceive the leading of Your Spirit. I'm going to create this place in my life. I'm going to create a sanctuary in my soul by giving You this time to mold my soul and my thoughts so that I can better perceive You and follow Your Spirit, just like Israel did in the wilderness when they were living in the booths."
Dustin Roberts: We really can't afford not to do this. We've got to take time that's dedicated to God every day of our lives. Just like man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, we typically eat three times a day, sometimes with snacks in between. Daniel had set times. He actually got in trouble for breaking the law to pray so many times a day. And then even Jesus—if God in the flesh had to get away, climb a mountain, and spend time with God, how much more do we need to be having dedicated set times with God in our life?
Rabbi K.A. Schneider: The Bible says that we're a chosen race, a royal priesthood. Where does that term priesthood come from? It comes from the Hebrew Bible. The first thing the priest did every day is they burned sweet incense unto the Lord. This really is important. This is a choice. You're either going to choose to love God and put Him first and set aside time for Him every morning, like the priests did, to present yourself to Him. I know you're not perfect. I know that our mind will wander and our attitude won't always be right. But if you simply make a decision to start your day with God, listen to beautiful sacred instrumental worship music, and just sit before the Lord, He sees you doing it. Even if when you do it your mind is wandering or you feel like your heart's going astray, He still sees that you're sticking with the discipline. He's a rewarder to those that stick with the discipline. Beloved friends, if we love God, we'll make time for Him.
Dustin Roberts: I believe that as we spend time with God, as we experience this wilderness journey, God's going to do supernatural things. It wasn't all bad that they experienced. We were reading in verse 15, it says that He brought water for you out of the rock. In the wilderness, He fed you manna which your fathers didn't know. God supernaturally responded to their needs. He supernaturally fed them and He supernaturally clothed them. As we talked about, their clothes didn't wear out. There's supernatural in the wilderness as well.
Rabbi K.A. Schneider: Participating in these appointed days of Yahweh gives us a spiritual attunement. It brings us into divine alignment. One of the things that we're reminded of as we participate in the Feast of Tabernacles is the supernatural activity of God in our life. The Lord was supernaturally involved in His people's life during good times and bad times, supernaturally giving them water out of a rock and providing manna six days a week for 40 years. The Lord is supernaturally involved in your life. We want to be aware of that because a lot of God's children don't have their antennas up enough to perceive the supernatural glory. When Yeshua was crucified, the Father spoke, but some people said it thundered. Some people perceived the supernatural and other people just attributed it to the natural.
Dustin Roberts: I love that. Thunder or God speaking—two really different things.
Rabbi K.A. Schneider: There's no question about it. The more we open ourselves up to the Godhead, recognizing that we have nothing but You, God—You're all there is at the end of the day. From You and through You and to You are all things. All these beautiful things that have come into our life have come from You. The more we open ourselves up to Him and get our portal of our soul open for the divine to come in, the more aware we're going to be on a very regular basis to see God's supernatural working in our life, both circumstantially and simply in the spirit. I love what Jesus said: "I didn't come to those who are whole, I came to those who are sick." Because when you're in a trial, when you're in something hard, you're the one that gets the miracle. If you're not blind, you don't need to be healed of blindness. But when you're going through something hard, it's an opportunity for God to do something supernatural in our lives. A wilderness season is exactly the time to be believing God to do something supernatural in your life. It is the perfect opportunity for God to move. Amen. Well said. God's going to get you through whatever trial you ever face in life, whether it's something you're going through now or something you'll go through in the future. Look back and think about this message. God's going to get you through it and He's got good for you that He's going to bring out of your life that He wouldn't have been able to do without bringing you through the supernatural challenge. God's purpose is to do good for us in the end. That's why we wave the Lulav here at Sukkot, to remind ourselves of all the good things that God has brought and will bring into our lives. I think it'd be fitting as we close the show today to talk about the Lulav, what it means, and to participate together—both you and I and our audience—just to take a moment to thank Father, to thank Yahweh, to thank Jesus, to thank Yeshua, and to thank the Holy Spirit for all the good things He's done in our life and all the good He's got planned for us.
Dustin Roberts: Amen. Rabbi, tell me here, what do we have in the Lulav? We have three different plants.
Rabbi K.A. Schneider: These are the four species, three different plants. We have the willow, the myrtle, and the palm. Then we've got this fruit that looks like a lemon called an etrog. It's a citrus fruit. All these four species are all from the land of Israel and they represent the beauty and the bounty of God's fullness in our life. It's so beautiful. Dustin, maybe you could wave this for us. We'll start waving towards Jerusalem. We always wave towards the east first. We're going to wave in all four directions, starting towards Jerusalem, all the way around, then up, then down. This symbolizes that every good thing that's come into our life has come to us from Hashem, from God Himself. Jew and Gentile, one in Messiah, Dustin is going to wave the Lulav on behalf of us all here.
Dustin Roberts: Heavenly Father, I just bless You for Your goodness and Your bounty. God, I thank You for the sky and the sun, the grass, Lord, Your trees, Your provision of fruit and vegetables and all the food that we have. God, thank You for providing for us during Your seasons and every day.
Rabbi K.A. Schneider: The Feast of Tabernacles climaxes the fall holy days. It's a feast of ingathering, celebration, and being thankful. It took place originally in a very agricultural society and it was the last of the fall harvests that Israel was celebrating before the Lord and thanking Him for. It was so important that the Lord commanded every Israelite to come to Jerusalem and to present Him a special offering of thanksgiving. I want to encourage us today as God's children, Jew and Gentile alike. Let's practice being thankful during this time of year. Let's practice an attitude of gratitude, and let's honor the Lord by giving Him something back because of all that He's given to us. He's looking for that divine exchange, beloved. He gives to us, we give to Him, He gives to us and it's a circle that just keeps on going. I want to say to you today, Chag Sameach to you, happy holy day, and I hope that you experience something very special in your relationship with Hashem.
Dustin Roberts: Amen. If you'd like to give a special Sukkot, Feast of Tabernacles offering, give today at discoveringthejewishjesus.com or call 800-777-7835. You can also send a gift in the mail. Our address is Discovering the Jewish Jesus, P.O. Box 777, Blissfield, Michigan, 49228. Your giving helps us to continue to teach God's Word.