There are moments in Scripture when God gives us more than a command. He gives us a picture. The Feast of Tabernacles, Sukkot, is one of those pictures. At first glance, it seems simple. Israel was told to live in temporary shelters for seven days and remember how God sustained Israel in the wilderness. But Sukkot is not only about remembering where Israel has been. It is about understanding what God has always been doing.

He provides. He protects. And above all, He has a plan. He fed Israel, gave them water, led them, and preserved them. Their survival was explained by the faithfulness of God. That is the first lesson of Sukkot: God provides.

Sukkot is about harvest, rejoicing, thankfulness and prayer for God’s continual provision, prayer for rain in the approaching winter. During the Second Temple period, the waterdrawing celebration became one of the great joys of Sukkot, centered around Isaiah 12:3: “With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.” Carrying golden vessels filled with drawn water, the priests, accompanied by cheering Jewish crowds, would sing the words
of this verse as they obey God’s command to rejoice and by bringing the required drink offering to be poured at the altar.

In Hebrew, salvation is Yeshua. Can you imagine the scene? Each year during Sukkot, multitudes in Jerusalem would sing the name of Yeshua, without even knowing that they call on the name of their own promised Jewish Messiah. Almost 2000 years later, little me sang this song as a child growing up in Jerusalem too! I wish I could sing it to you through these pages! Everyone knows this song, yet so few in Israel know Yeshua.

Then, in John 7, Yeshua stands on the last and greatest day of Sukkot and cries, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink!” Can you feel the weight of that moment? The people are thinking about water, rain, harvest, and salvation. Yeshua stands among them and points to Himself as the answer to the deepest thirst of the human soul. God’s greatest provision is Yeshua.

And what about protection? The sukkah is temporary and deliberately fragile. A strong wind could make you nervous! But Israel’s security was never the thickness of the wall. Israel’s security was the God who stood over the wall. Psalm 91 says, “He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.” You can live in a palace and be unsafe without God. You can live in a temporary shelter and be secure when God covers you. In the same Psalm, the Hebrew word translated to “cover you” in verse 4 is derived from the same Hebrew root of the word Sukkot! And the last verse of this famous Psalm literally ends with God’s promise to show/reveal “His salvation”, His Yeshua!! Yes, all Scripture points to our Jewish Savior.

Yet provision and protection are only the beginning. Because hidden inside Sukkot is an astonishing picture of God’s plan.

Numbers 29 describes the sacrifices offered during Sukkot: thirteen bulls on the first day, then twelve, eleven, ten, nine, eight, and seven. Add them together. Seventy. Jewish sages have long associated those seventy bulls with the nations of the world. This connection becomes especially fascinating when we return to Genesis. Genesis 10 describes the descendants of Noah through whom the earth was repopulated, counted as exactly seventy nations.

Then Genesis 11 gives us Babel. Humanity gathers together in pride, trying to make a name for itself. God confuses their language. And the nations are scattered. Seventy nations. Scattered across the earth. Then something extraordinary happens immediately afterward. God calls one man. Abraham. And God tells him in Genesis 12: “All the families of the earth will be blessed through you.” Do you see what God is doing? Humanity has been scattered among the nations, and now God begins His plan of restoration through one nation. Israel.

God later tells Israel in Exodus 19 that they are to become a kingdom of priests. A priest does not exist only for himself. A priest atones for others. Israel was chosen to carry the knowledge and blessing of God outward. This is why Isaiah speaks about being a light to the nations. This is why Psalm 117 can cry: “Praise Yahweh, all you nations!” And this is why Zechariah gives us the remarkable future picture of nations going up to Jerusalem to worship the King and celebrate Sukkot.

Then Yeshua comes. During His earthly ministry, He emphasizes His mission to the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matthew 10:5-6, 15:24). But then something intriguing happens in Luke 10. He appoints seventy messengers. And He tells them: “The harvest is indeed plentiful.”

From Israel came the Scriptures, the prophets, the apostles, and Yeshua, the Savior of the world. Then Romans 11 turns the message toward you. Paul says believers from the nations are like wild olive branches grafted into Israel’s good olive tree. Then he gives a warning every Gentile believer should remember: You do not support the root. The root supports you.

Your spiritual roots run through Israel. And now God gives the nations an astonishing privilege. Romans 11 says salvation has come to the Gentiles to provoke Israel to jealousy. God intends to use those who received Israel’s Messiah to help bring the message of Messiah back to Israel.

Please hear this with your heart. The gospel came from Israel to you. Now God is calling you to help carry it back.

This is why the Wow!BIBLE app matters. We are developing the Wow!BIBLE app to place the Scriptures before Jewish people and show, through carefully prepared Messianic pointers, where the Old Testament leads toward Yeshua and how those passages are fulfilled in the New Testament. This is not merely an app. This is a missionary tool. This is Scripture speaking to Jewish hearts. And you can help place that message into someone’s hands.

For $70, you can sponsor one chapter.

For $1,200, you can sponsor an entire book of the Bible.

Do not hear those numbers merely as costs. Hear them as opportunities. One chapter may be read by a Jewish man who has never considered Yeshua. One pointer may cause a young Israeli to ask a question no one in his family has ever asked. One book may travel through thousands of phones. And one gift may become part of someone’s salvation story. You may never meet that person. But heaven will know.

Perhaps one day someone will say, “I opened the Scriptures, I saw the connection, and I found Yeshua.” And somewhere behind that moment will be your prayer, your generosity, your decision to bless Israel.

God provided for Israel. God protected Israel. And God still has a plan for Israel. A plan that includes the nations. A plan that includes you. So let us not receive from the root and forget the root. Let us not celebrate the Jewish Messiah and ignore the Jewish people. Let us become people from the nations who bless Israel, love Israel, pray for Israel, and help carry the gospel back to Israel. From Israel to the nations. And now, from the nations back to Israel.

I pray for the day when Israel will call upon the name of Yeshua and be saved. And I pray that when that great harvest comes, we will be able to say: “Lord, thank You for allowing me to have a part in it.”

Yeshua Necklace in Hebrew - Gold or Silver

It is a critical time for us to proclaim the name of Yeshua to Israel and to the world. If you’re watching the news, antisemitism is on the rise! My people are under attack. And as you probably realize now, Israel is also divided, and a house divided against itself cannot stand (Mark 3:25). The only One who can save Israel is Yeshua. I have created a new piece of jewelry, silver and gold necklaces, to call supporters of Israel to declare the name YESHUA over Israel. They are available in both Hebrew and English (Yeshua).

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