Festival of Divine Romance
Painting by Leopold Pilichowski
“I remember you,
The kindness of your youth,
The love of your betrothal,
When you went after Me in the wilderness,
In a land not sown.” - Jer. 2:2
The festival of Sukkot is like none other on either the Jewish or Christian calendar. It is a joyful holiday, but a different kind of joy than either Easter or Christmas. While every feast, in one way or another, speaks to the mystery of salvation, Sukkot, I believe, is best viewed from God’s perspective rather than our own. It is a feast of His love, His choosing, His joy in His people. It is a celebration of the tenderness with which He led Israel when they tabernacled with Him in the wilderness - when His Presence lit their tents at night, and His cloud overshadowed them by day.
That fact that God reminisces over the days of Israel’s wanderings, as a husband reminisces over his honeymoon, should move us to awe. And the fact that our Father instituted such an awesome holiday should make us giddy with joy. Speaking as a child, what could possibly be better than a whole week of holidays where you build a booth with your dad and sleep out with all your friends? It is absolutley brilliant! So brilliant that I hope this feast is celebrated in the age to come. Knowing the romantic inclinations of our Lord, I rather suspect it will be. But whether or not that happens, I am certain our Father has more joy in store for us than we can possibly imagine!
God knows how important it is for His people to rejoice together. In fact, He commanded Israel to rejoice to gether! He knew that celebrating a week-long feast, after two two sober weeks of reflection and repentance, would bind faithful hearts to one another. He foresaw people greeting one another in the streets and helping one another construct their booths. He could see them laughing and feasting and recounting His tender mercies. Joy in one another is love, as Eberhard Arnold said. And this is the mystery of God’s love - that He rejoices in His people! Therefore, we must rejoice in one another.
Now on the first day you shall take for yourselves the foliage of beautiful trees, palm branches and branches of trees with thick branches and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days. So you shall celebrate it as a feast to the Lord for seven days in the year. It shall be a permanent statute throughout your generations; you shall celebrate it in the seventh month. You shall live in booths for seven days; all the native-born in Israel shall live in booths, so that your generations may know that I had the sons of Israel live in booths when I brought them out from the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God. - Lev. 26: 40-43