09/24/2026
Sukkot 5787:
Make Room for His Presence
Yom Kippur has come to a close, and now the Hebraic calendar makes a beautiful and intentional turn.
Sukkot, also known as The Feast of Tabernacles begins at sundown tomorrow, September 25th and ends at nightfall on Friday, October 2nd.
We now move from affliction to rejoicing. From repentance to celebration. From atonement to habitation.
Leviticus 23:33-43 tells us that Israel was commanded to keep this feast for seven days, dwelling in temporary shelters called sukkot, so that every generation would remember how God caused the children of Israel to dwell in booths when He brought them out of Egypt.
But the sukkah was more than a temporary shelter.
It was a prophetic testimony that their security was never in the structure. Their security was in the Presence.
Israel had no permanent address in the wilderness.
No fortified cities.
No walls surrounding them.
No storehouses filled with tomorrow’s provision.
And yet, they were covered.
A cloud sheltered them by day.
Fire illuminated them by night.
Manna met them every morning.
Water came from the rock.
Their surroundings were temporary, but the Presence among them was constant.
And that is one of the great revelations of Sukkot for us today:
What surrounds you may change without changing the One who sustains you.
We spend so much of our lives building things that make us feel secure: homes, plans, schedules, ministries, careers, finances, relationships.
Yet the fragile walls of the sukkah remind us that ultimately our confidence cannot rest in what we have built.
Our confidence rests in WHO dwells with us. And this is where we find Christ in Sukkot.
John 1:14
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…”
That word dwelt is the word tabernacled. The God who dwelt among Israel in the wilderness came even closer in Jesus Christ.
The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us.
He came into our wilderness.
He stepped into our human frailty.
He made His dwelling among us.
And through His Spirit, He now makes His dwelling within us.
So Sukkot asks the deeper question: “Have you made room for His Presence?”
Because God has never simply desired visitation….He desires habitation.
And - there is yet another dimension to Sukkot. Because Sukkot doesn’t only cause us to look backward. It causes us to look forward.
The biblical feasts aren’t just historical commemorations. They reveal God’s eternal redemptive pattern:
Passover points us to the Lamb who was slain.
Firstfruits points us to the risen Christ.
Shavuot, or Pentecost, points us to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
And then the fall feasts turn our attention toward the consummation of the story…The King, The Gathering, The Bride, and ultimately…God dwelling with His people forever.
Sukkot remembers something that happened in the wilderness, but it also reaches toward something still ahead.
Because Sukkot is not only the Feast of Tabernacles. It’s also called the ‘Feast of Ingathering’.
It came at the completion of the agricultural harvest, when the produce of the land had been gathered in.
After the labor came the gathering. And after the gathering came rejoicing.
God commanded His people to celebrate before Him for seven days.
The invitation was for sons and daughters, servants, Levites, foreigners, orphans and widows. Everyone was invited into the joy. Everyone was invited beneath the covering.
Everyone was invited to the feast.
Harvest. Ingathering. Rejoicing. Dwelling. Feasting.
Zechariah 14 portrays Sukkot as a future scene where the nations come up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of Hosts, and to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles.
Zechariah 14:16
“And it shall come to pass that every one who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem, shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.”
Suddenly Sukkot is no longer just looking back at Israel coming out of Egypt. Sukkot is looking forward to The King.
It’s looking toward the nations.
It’s looking toward ingathering.
It’s looking toward worship.
And ultimately, it’s looking toward eternal habitation.
Revelation 19:
“The marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.”
And then comes The Invitation:
“Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb.”
Scripture ends with the imagery of a Bride, a Bridegroom, a feast, a gathered people, and God dwelling with humanity.
This is why Sukkot carries such extraordinary future prophetic weight.
A feast. An ingathering. A season of rejoicing. The presence of the King.
And a people gathered to dwell with Him.
What Israel rehearsed and rehearses annually in temporary booths causes us all to lift our eyes toward something eternal.
A gathered people. A prepared Bride.
A wedding feast. And God dwelling forever with His people.
The sukkah is temporary.
The dwelling that is coming is eternal.
“Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them…”
From Exodus to John to Revelation, God has been revealing His desire:
I want to dwell with My people.
In the wilderness, He dwelt among them. In Christ, He tabernacled among us. Through the Holy Spirit, He dwells within us.
And Revelation points toward the day when the dwelling of God with humanity reaches its glorious consummation.
The sukkah in the wilderness.
Christ tabernacling among us.
The Spirit dwelling within us.
The Bride making herself ready.
The Marriage Supper of the Lamb.
The nations gathered before the King.
And finally…the tabernacle of God with humanity forever.
This is the prophetic weight of Sukkot.
Sukkot remembers a dwelling that was, celebrates the Presence that is, and prophetically anticipates the dwelling that is still to come.
And this gives even greater meaning to the command:
“You shall rejoice in your feast.”
Because this joy is bigger than remembering Israel’s wilderness journey.
There is a joy set before us.
There is an ingathering ahead.
There is a wedding still to come.
There is a Bride being made ready.
And there is a King who will dwell with His people.
So as we prepare for Sukkot, heed the invitation resonating in the Spirit:
Make room for My Presence.
Make room beyond the conference.
Beyond the church service.
Beyond the prayer meeting.
Beyond the moment of encounter.
Make room in your home.
Make room in your schedule.
Make room in your relationships.
Make room in your decisions.
Make room in the ordinary rhythms of your life.
Because the Presence of God was never intended to be somewhere we merely visit.
He is forming us into a dwelling place.
And Church, if there is a Bridegroom coming, then there must also be a Bride making herself ready.
Sukkot isn’t just asking us whether we are celebrating His Presence.
It’s asking: “Are we becoming a people prepared for His dwelling?”
Are we making room for Him now?
Are we learning to live beneath His covering now?
Are we allowing Him to order our lives now?
Are we becoming the habitation He desires now?
Because ultimately, Sukkot is pointing beyond a temporary booth.
It is pointing toward the culmination of the biblical story.
The sukkah is temporary.
The wilderness is temporary.
The present age is temporary.
But His dwelling with His people will be forever.
So as we enter this season, may our prayer become:
Lord, make us Your dwelling place.
Tabernacle among us. Tabernacle within us.
Strip away every false place of security until Your Presence becomes our habitation. Gather Your people beneath Your covering.
Prepare Your Bride.
Teach us to rejoice before You and awaken within us the longing for the day when faith becomes sight, the Bridegroom receives His Bride, and the dwelling place of God is with humanity forever.
Because Sukkot carries more than the memory of a wilderness behind us.
Sukkot carries the sound of a wedding still to come.
And until that day…
Make room for His Presence.
