FEAST OF TABERNACLES

Xians converge on Israel during the Feast of Tabernacles, as they call it.

(IsraelNN.com) 6,000 Christians "friends of Israel" are staying at the Kibbutz Ein Gedi guesthouse and in outdoor tents. Kibbutz members are preparing a huge barbecue for the convention,

More than 8,000 Christians have boosted the occupancy rate of the capital's hotels to nearly 95 percent for the seven-day Sukkot (Tabernacles) holiday that begins Monday night. The holiday period continues with the Shemini Atzeret-Simchat Torah celebration the day after the conclusion of Sukkot.

The "celebrations" are organized by two xian groups; the ICEJ, International Xian Embassy Jerusalem and the ICZC International Xian Zionist Center in Binyamina.

From the ICZC website

WEDNESDAY: OCTOBER 15, 2008
13:30: Picnic in the Gan Sachar Park
Participation in the grand Jerusalem March

FRIDAY: OCTOBER 17, 2008
11:00: Buses leave from the Regency Hotel for registered delegates.
Visit the Haas Promenade then proceed to the top of Mount of Olives to walk down preparing the way for the King in a worshipful procession.

SUNDAY: OCTOBER 19, 2008
08:15: Buses leave from the Regency Hotel for registered delegates
Visiting the Biblical City of Shilo, the place where the Ark of Covenant stood for about 369 years and where Samuel the Prophet was called by God.
Returning to the altar Beit El (Bethel) where Jacob saw the ladder reaching up to heaven in his dream.

MONDAY: OCTOBER 20, 2008
07:30: Buses leave from the Regency Hotel to Mount Moriah, the Western Wall Plaza and Ir David, the city of David.

Have you ever wondered why xians celebrate Sukkot? Most of the time they will just quote Zecharia 14:16 when asked. Although no one seems to point out that this verse is talking about those of our enemies who came to war against Yerushalayim and are allowed to survive to pay homage to Hashem.

And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. (Zechariah 14:16)

Here are a few excerpts from ICZC

Why we celebrate the Feast

We have now entered the 21st century. And what was on my heart when we began to celebrate the Feast 20 years ago remains - the belief and inner anticipation that one day, during a celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem, the double portion of the Holy Spirit will fall upon us all. This will be the former and latter rain, as the prophet Joel promised - also in relation to Israel - for these latter days...

First the physical, then the spiritual. God first formed Adam as a wholly physical man before breathing His Breath and Spirit into him to make him spirit. In this same way, Israel has been restored to the land of its fathers as a physical nation, as foretold in these, and many other, passages of Scripture. It is only after the flesh, sinews and bones have come together in a physical restoration of the nation that God instructs 'the son of man' to call on the breath to come from the four winds and breathe upon the dead body, that the nation may live. (See Ezekiel 37:9)

Paul too tells us that in God's economy, the physical often precedes the spiritual:
"However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural and afterwards the spiritual. The first man was of the earth, made of dust, the second Man is the Lord from heaven." (1 Corinthians 15:46,47)

It is this truth which is so wonderfully clarified in Ezekiel 37 concerning Israel's physical and spiritual rebirth: First the physical restoration - including the restoration to, and of, their land. Then the spiritual awakening, when the Breath of God's Spirit will blow upon these bones.

...In these days we hear of revivals in different parts of the world where God is pouring out His Holy Spirit in remarkable ways to get His Gentile body of believers ready both in quantity as well as quality. But this is only a foretaste and a foreshadowing of the mighty outpouring of His Holy Spirit over all the house of Israel as promised by His prophets. And this will happen one day during the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem.

As George Warnock explains in his booklet on the Feast of Tabernacles, this Feast is meant to be:

A feast of joy;
A feast of unity;
A feast of harvest;
A feast of restoration;
but also the Feast of the Messiah's (yashke) appearance.
All these are ample reasons for us to celebrate this Feast with great expectancy in our hearts.

So we see that the Feast of Tabernacles is meant to signify the restoration of the tabernacle of David - physical as well as spiritual-the unity of Gentile believers, the fullness of the Gentiles and the people of Israel, and the promised blessing of the former and latter rains coming down on one day during the Feast of Tabernacles. It is singularly the Feast of Messiah's appearance; His first and his second!

Jan Willem van der Hoeven
Director, International Christian Zionist Center

To clarify since I don't expect most of you to understand their "code words", they come to Jerusalem to celebrate Sukkot because they believe that some magical spiritual "rain" is going to fall from heaven and all the Jews will "see the light" and accept yshke as god and they also believe he will "return" to reign as King over Jerusalem during Sukkot.

Feast of Tabernacles 2007


The ICZC contains Joel Bell's Frontline Israel. You should remember his name from a previous post about the new World Likud Evangelical Department. These are the xians that believe they have an inheritance in the land of Israel and they want Israeli citizenship.

Here is a clip of their 2007 Feast

The beginning is a picture slideshow of participants mostly immodest women covered in mud. You can begin at the 1:27 mark for one of the feast night extravaganzas.