Message summary: For Christians, Jesus represents the ultimate embodiment of God coming to tabernacle among us.

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"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14).

Yesterday I was over at the Old Windmill Farm helping our friends, Jesse and Anna Ruth, as they had hundreds of Hasidic Jews mostly from New York City converge upon the farm during their religious festival of Sukkah. Anna Ruth and the girls were tabulating the count when I was leaving after 5pm and estimate they had the best attendance in the farm's history with nearly 1000 guests! It was quite a scene and experience.  I'll be going back over again today and they're expecting another large attendance with an even a greater number of reserved tours. If you are in our area this afternoon come over and check it out and say "Hi" to me!

My duty was to pull a train of barrels with a garden tractor. The joy of watching and hearing the children as they boarded and rode the barrels was a delightful experience. I made many trips in a loop through the alfalfa field, one after another from about 12:30-5:00PM.

Sukkah is one of the Jewish feasts established by Moses in Leviticus but, at least in any Christian group that I have been a part of, it is rarely mentioned. It is also known as the feast of booths or feast of tabernacles. Although the vast majority of farm guests yesterday were Hasidic Jews I conversed with a young Christian from North Carolina who urged me to consider the value of Sukkah to Christian believers. So I did.

During Sukkot, temporary shelters (sukkah) are built to commemorate God dwelling among the Israelites and protecting them during their 40-year wilderness journey. The photo above shows a group of Hasidic men praying in front of the sukkah Jesse built on the farm using straw bales with a covering of corn stalks. A sign on the window in Hebrew even shows it was officially approved by a Rabbi!

Throughout His earthly ministry, Jesus faithfully observed the biblical feasts, and Sukkot held special significance.  The Gospel of John draws a direct parallel to this theme when describing the Incarnation of Jesus: "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us" (John 1:14). The Greek word used for "dwelt" (eskenosen) literally translates to "tabernacled" or "pitched His tent" among us.

Some translations, following the Greek more exactly, render it "tabernacled among us". The idea is that Christ's earthly sojourn was not a fleeting, or illusory appearance, but a sustained and continued existence as a Man among human beings, giving his contemporaries every opportunity to observe and evaluate his life and mission. For Christians, Jesus represents the ultimate embodiment of God coming to tabernacle among us.

God in the incarnation indeed left the splendor of heaven. The apostle Paul, in his magnificent incarnation passage, states, “Christ Jesus: who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness” (Philippians 2:5-7).

Be encouraged today, Hebrews 3:13.

Stephen & Brooksyne Weber