Three questions to ask yourself when entering a sukkah

The holiday of Sukkot, which follows Yom Kippur, is a holiday of enjoying the Lord, a holiday of hope, renewal of one’s hope and closeness with one’s Savior. It is very important that we come to the sukkah not just with the first physical fruits, but also with some decisions, with new understandings and with renewed faith. I really want Sukkot to be for us not just a set of traditions, but a real and living experience with the Lord.

Reflecting on this holiday, I remembered one passage of Scripture that our rebbe discussed at one of his prayer retreats. This is a story from the book of Ezra about this fall festival period. Our people have been in Babylonian captivity for a long time, and the time has come for their return:

“Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia: All the kingdoms of the earth have been given to me by the Lord, the God of heaven, and He commanded me to build Him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judea. Whoever is of you, of all His people, let his God be with him, and let him go to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the Lord God of Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem” (Ezra 1:2 -3).

And then some time passes, the autumn holidays begin, and it is said:

“When the seventh month had come, and the children of Israel were already in the cities, then the people were gathered together as one man in Jerusalem” (Ezra 3:1).

Who am I and what am I called to?

Commenting on these verses, our rebbe noticed that there is a difference in the description of the Jewish people. When they were in Babylon, King Cyrus, speaking to them under the influence of the Holy Spirit, said: “Whoever is of you is of all His people.” But when these people came to their land, Israel, they became the sons of Israel.

I think God is showing us an important principle here: not all those who were then Jews became children of Israel, but only those who obeyed their Lord and returned to their land according to the Word of God. In the same way, not all those believers who say that they are believers, but those who do the will of the Father who sent them. Not all those who say they are ministers are ministers, but those who serve their Lord and bear fruit.

During the fall holidays, it is important for each of us to renew our understanding of what we are called to. Because in realizing your calling, the sonship of God is revealed. If you simply believe that God exists, then as it is written, the devil believes in it. This does not make you a son of God and a disciple of Yeshua. Therefore, when entering the sukkah, each of us needs to ask the question: Who am I in the Lord, who am I before the Lord, and what am I called to?

Am I disturbing the unity of God’s family?

“When the seventh month had come, and the children of Israel were already in the cities, then the people were gathered together as one man in Jerusalem” (Ezra 3:1).

When the Jews came to their homes after tens of years, they saw great destruction, I think that they worried, cried, cleaned, built. But the time for the holidays came, and, as it is said, they “all as one person” came to the holiday. Therefore, the second point that is important for us during the holidays is unity. All of God’s festivals are focused on unity.

Unity is a very important principle that God has fostered in His people and that He is fostering in the Body of the Messiah. Unity creates a certain atmosphere in which the power of the Holy Spirit is manifested and revealed. We see in the Acts of the Apostles that the apostles became one man, and then the manifested power of God was revealed.

Therefore, at this special time, I invite you to look at your heart, at your relationships with your brothers and sisters, at your relationships with your husbands and wives, with your loved ones and family, at your relationships with the people around you. And even relationships with those people who once hurt you, who owe you money, or to whom you owe money.

It is very important for us as God’s community to create and maintain an atmosphere of unity. Remember, Scripture calls the devil a accuser of the brethren (Revelation 12:10). This means that he can take some small truth and inflate it to such proportions that it will put an insurmountable wall between you and your brothers and sisters. It is very important for us to remove from our hearts any bitter root that poisons our relationships.

Notice the serious warnings the Lord gives regarding Yom Kippur:

“And every soul that does not humble itself on that day will be cut off from among its people; and if any soul do any work on this day, I will cut off that soul from among his people” (Leviticus 23:29-30).

If any Jewish soul does not humble himself before the Lord, curses will come into his life, which will bring destruction. But if some soul decides not only not to humble himself, but also ignores the principle of family life, going out, for example, into the field to harvest when the Lord said not to work, He warns: “I will destroy this soul.” Think about how important it was to God that His people spend this time in unity in obedience to Him.

Only in unity and in our obedience to God, blessings can be released, God’s abundance can come into our lives, and the enemy cannot come and steal. Unity is the basis of the Jewish holidays, and it is the basis of God’s family. Of course, the foundation is Yeshua. But it was not for nothing that Yeshua said: “May they be one, just as I am one with the Father.” This is the strength. Unity is what allows the Spirit of God to operate on a new qualitative level.

In what things do I need to humble myself before the Lord?

“For let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus: He, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God; but he made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a servant, becoming in the likeness of men, and becoming in appearance like a man; He humbled Himself, becoming obedient even to the point of death, even death on the cross. Therefore God also highly exalted Him and gave Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:5-11).

When God commanded His people to celebrate Yom Kippur, He said, “Humble your souls and offer sacrifices.” There is no Yom Kippur without humility and sacrifice. It is impossible to accept forgiveness and covering of sins without humility and sacrifice. Yeshua himself shows us an example of humility. He knew that He was the Son of God. Likewise, we must know that we are children of God and understand what we are called to. And in understanding this, we must follow the path of humility. The Lord shows us in Yeshua the path of humility that leads to upliftment.

Why was Yom Kippur so important to God’s people? Because this is the principle of elevation, the principle of entering into blessing, as it is written about Yeshua: “Therefore God has highly exalted Him and given Him the name that is above every name.” Therefore the Lord says to His people: “Humble your souls. Because after humility, after making sacrifices, when you confess your sins, when you lament before Me, I begin to lift you up.”

You can elevate yourself in your own eyes, you can seem like something to others. But if you want God to lift you up, this is impossible without your humility. Therefore, when going under the sukkah, we must check our motives, check whether we are humbled before the Lord. If you want God to lift you, your life, so that God’s blessings multiply in your life, you need to follow the path of humility and bearing your cross. Therefore, there is another question that you need to ask yourself when going under the sukkah: What do I need to humble myself before the Lord?

Humility before God is not a beautiful posture in prayer

What is real humility? Humility is manifested in obedience to the Lord. This is accepting His will into your life as your own. We often tell God what we want. And this is normal and correct. But it is very important that we are open to Him changing the emphasis of our prayers and showing us what He wants. When God reveals His desires during your prayer, the question arises: do you accept His desires that differ from yours? This is what is called the path of humility. Not the way you fold your hands in prayer or roll your eyes.

It is said that Yeshua was obedient even to the point of death and death on the cross. We know His prayer in Gethsemane, we know that He submitted His flesh to the will of the Father. It was a real spiritual struggle. This is why prayer is important. Some people ignore the importance of prayer. But just think about this pivotal moment that changed the course of history. This was Yeshua’s prayer in Gethsemane when He submitted His flesh to the will of His Father. His flesh did not want to go to the cross. But His prayer, “Thy will be done, not Mine,” is His inner battle, a struggle with His flesh, as a result of which the Spirit won.

Friends, thanks to this battle and this victory of Yeshua, we have the opportunity to overcome our flesh in spirit. The same power of the Holy Spirit that helped Him overcome the flesh burns within us. And we will no longer overcome such difficulties as Yeshua overcame, because He walked this path for us, and now God’s grace is at work. Therefore, we act from a completely different position – from the position of winners.

Leviticus 16 has a beautiful description of how God commanded the high priest on Yom Kippur to prepare to enter the Holy of Holies. He had to take off his majestic robes, which showed his status, influence, greatness, and put on priestly but simple linen robes. Remember what the Apostle Paul said: “If anyone could boast in the flesh, I could boast more than anyone else. But I count all things as nonsense for the sake of knowing Yeshua” (see Philippians 3:7-8). This is very similar to Yom Kippur.

Humility is not only the acceptance of God’s will in one’s life, but also the zeroing out of one’s strengths, the zeroing out of the conviction that we ourselves can achieve something, that we ourselves are so strong. The Lord wants us to lay everything at His feet at this time and say: “I am a worthless servant, I only do what I have to do” (see Luke 17:10).

Andrey Lugovsky, KEMO elder / t.me/messianicrabbi

Source: https://ieshua.org/tri-voprosa-kotorye-stoit-zadat-sebe-vhodya-v-sukku.htm