Sukkot   (continued)

Isaiah adds insight into the imagery of childbirth: "Hear that uproar from the city [Jerusalem], hear that noise from the [rebuilt] Temple!  It is the sound of the Lord [who has come down] repaying His enemies all they deserve [for allowing Antichrist and his abomination to be set up in the Temple]. Before she [Jerusalem] goes into labor [of great tribulation], she gives birth [to a Son]; before the pains come upon her [time of Jacob's trouble], she delivers a Son [Messiah]. Who has ever heard of such a thing? Who has ever seen such things? Can a country [nation of twelve tribes] be brought forth in a moment? Yet no sooner is Zion [Jerusalem] in labor than she gives [watery] birth to her children [at the Feast of Tabernacles]. Do I bring to the moment of birth and not [break the water and] give delivery [to the 144,000]? says the Lord.  Do I close up the womb when I bring to deliver? says your God. Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad for her, all you who love her; rejoice greatly with her [delivery of a nation], all you who mourn over her [Jerusalem's destruction]," Isaiah 66:6-10.

The Feast of Tabernacles marked the birth of the Christ child when He was delivered from Mary's water-filled womb.  The Feast of Tabernacles also featured the moment of His watery baptism.  Likewise, Sukkot will mark the moment at the end of the age when the righteous nation of Israel will be brought forth from Jerusalem's womb. Paul noted this moment in time when he wrote, "Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel [of all twelve tribes] will be saved, as it is written: The Deliverer [One who delivers the children at birth] will come from Zion [after He has cleansed His Temple of the abomination]; He will turn godlessness away from Jacob [the 144,000 during the 40 days that follow--the time of Jacob's trouble]. And this is the covenant with them when I take away their sins," Romans 11:25-27.  

Revelation 12:1-6 identifies a pregnant woman [Israel/Jerusalem] which gives birth to the Messiah.  Afterwards, she "fled into the desert [a safe haven] to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of [protected by the two witnesses] for 1,260 days."  Unable to reach the woman, "the Dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to make war against the rest of her offspring--those who obey God's [Ten] Commandments and hold to [grasp tightly, never giving up] the testimony of Jesus [as revealed in the Apocalypse]," (12:17). 

The holy days, instituted by the design of Almighty God over 3,000 years ago, would connect Israel's conception, her maturing, and her ultimate birth as a righteous nation. Israel/Jerusalem, the pregnant woman of Revelation 12 clothed with the "sun, with the moon under her feet"--the solar and lunar cycles of time by which the Maker established His feast days--will be brought full term at Sukkot in the imagery of watery childbirth.  Out of the excruciating pains of the great tribulation, the children (144,000, sealed for protection--Revelation 6:3-8) will be pushed through the channel of trouble to be delivered healthy, pure and white into the arms of the Living God.

See the Feast From the Jewish Perspective

See the Appointed Times & Seasons Calendar for the Sukkot connection to the Time of Jacob's Trouble and the end-times.

See the God's Festivals for future dates for Sukkot celebrations.