Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Every September, Christian fathers hit the same wall and they ask, do we keep the Feast of Tabernacles Sukkot, or do we treat it like somebody else's holiday?
[00:00:14] We stopped arguing about that and we started doing it.
[00:00:18] And it changed the culture of my home.
[00:00:21] Here's welcome back to Abraham's Wallet, everybody. I'm Steve Manuel, and if you're a father trying to lead a household that actually remembers God, not just talks about him, stay with me. Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles, begins this year at sundown, Friday, September 25th.
[00:00:45] The first full day is Saturday the 26th. That is coming up very quickly. Now, this is not a history lecture that you're tuning into this. This is a leadership decision that is happening to you.
[00:00:58] Very soon now, the Internet will give you two camps on this subject. One side says these feasts were for Israel.
[00:01:07] You're free in Christ, you can just move on. The other side says, if you love Jesus, you will keep all of the appointed feast as written in Torah. Now, both of these miss the argument that I actually want to bring you today.
[00:01:24] I'm not trying to turn my house into a Sinai courtroom. I'm trying to raise children who can feel that we are sojourners, that provision is from God, and that this house is our temporary shelter.
[00:01:39] Sukkot is the best physical sermon I have found for that message. And children really do learn that lesson.
[00:01:49] Abraham, our namesake around here, already lived in tents. He was waiting for a city with foundations, we are told in Hebrews.
[00:01:59] Sinai later told a nation to remember that activity of tabernacling and tenting for seven days a year.
[00:02:08] John says that the Word of God became flesh and tabernacled among us. And Revelation says that the end of the story is God dwelling with his people permanently. So here's the claim of this episode. You do not have to become Hebrew Roots Guy to use Sukkot for your family in your home. You do have to decide whether your calendar will decide. Your children, that is Target and the school district are going to disciple your children and and create their worldview. In the next 20 minutes, I want to show you the Scriptures, the line that I will not cross, and what actually changed in my home when we decided to let God's Word disciple us. More into his story and how my leadership changed when I decided to build a booth on the back deck.
[00:03:06] American Christian homes catechized by accident many times. And I don't know if even that word catechize is scary to you.
[00:03:15] In my Protestant world, whenever we heard that world. We thought Catholics immediately. All it really means is training and discipling. We are all catechizing our children all the time, in all kinds of ways. But many Christian homes, as I said, we catechize by accident.
[00:03:33] The sports calendar will train your children. It will form something unlimited. Amazon boxes appearing on the front porch. It. It communicates something to the kids. An H Vac that never fails, that communicates something to the kids.
[00:03:49] Kids learn things like, we're safe because dad is competent at his job and dad doesn't lose his job. So we know that we're safe. Everything's all well.
[00:04:00] They don't lose, we're safe because God is present.
[00:04:05] You say that to a kid. They kind of understand the concept, but what they learn experientially overrides the idea, the ethereal idea. Now, okay, Abraham never kept Leviticus 23, which we're going to read a little bit of. He lived what Leviticus 23 later memorialized. As we said, he lived in tents. He was building altars as he went. There was a promise hanging out in front of him that he would never fully cash in on in his life.
[00:04:38] I'll read some of Hebrews 11 to you. By faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.
[00:04:53] By faith, he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. So we're hearing child, grandchild there because he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.
[00:05:17] Now we know the following verses tell us that they died in faith. They were strangers and exiles and they were seeking a homeland. It was this family on the move. I'll tell you again those things that stand out to me.
[00:05:31] He lived in tents. He was building altars as he went. And there was a promise that he wouldn't fully cash in on in his lifetime.
[00:05:39] Gang, that's what we want to do with our families.
[00:05:43] We are living in tents. That just means we're ready to go at a moment's notice.
[00:05:50] We don't love our home state more than anything else. We don't love our street more than anything else. Whatever God calls our family to, we're going, we're in. They built altars as they went. That means there wasn't one. Location was, oh, this is the holy wonderful place. As they went, everywhere they went, their feet touched. It became holy. They set up an altar to the Almighty God everywhere they went. And they, you know, we have, like, those little printout. Who does that? Shutterfly. Little printouts of. Oh, there's the family photos or memories of the last year. Abraham could have done that. He could have had a Shutterfly of all of the crazy places and experiences that his family went through. And there became. And there was a story of altars all along the way because God went with his family. And there was this promise in front of them that was hanging out there in the future. He didn't know where, but he had faith.
[00:06:44] We're trying to do the same thing in our families. We're trying to produce faith that far outstrips their lifetimes and into eternity. We're trying to do the same thing. Now, quick confession for you.
[00:06:56] My home here in Cincinnati can start feeling a little bit too permanent. I don't know if you face this.
[00:07:04] We kind of like where our mortgage is. We've put some nice equity into our house. Our businesses are profitable year to year.
[00:07:12] We have a deep freeze in the basement. I happen to know there's some really good stuff in there right now, and we already have a couple of good trips lined up for next year. Feels kind of cushy, doesn't it? Feels kind of comfortable.
[00:07:28] My children start assuming because they're being discipled by their experience, that this must be the real world. If you're like most parents, whether you feel like your life is cushy or not, you probably shield your children from the conversations about the mortgage and should we be cutting back on our clothing budget, et cetera, et cetera, so they can have an experience that, yeah, this is the real world. It's easy, it's predictable, it's comfortable.
[00:07:56] That's a conditioning problem that Sukkot interrupts.
[00:08:00] So do I want my children to learn that lesson, that comfort is not our goal and that our provision doesn't come from four walls and a roof?
[00:08:09] Of course I want them to learn that lesson.
[00:08:13] So when God gives the command of Sukkot to Moses, it was not the invention of sojourning. It was when God scheduled the memory of it so that a nation wouldn't forget.
[00:08:26] I'm here to tell you that my family forgets.
[00:08:30] Even in the course of a year, we forget and we need to be reminded.
[00:08:35] So I think Sukkot is a great way to teach my family. Now, let's look quickly at what the text actually commands. I'm not going to read this passage to you, but Leviticus 23 starting in verse 33 and onward describes Sukkot.
[00:08:53] It says, it's the fifteenth day of the seventh month.
[00:08:57] Seven days, the first and the eighth day are holy gatherings.
[00:09:04] It says, you shall dwell in booths for seven days. That your generations may know that I made the people of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt.
[00:09:17] So that purpose clause is where this whole episode comes from. That your generations may know.
[00:09:24] That's what we're trying to do. We're trying to build a story that goes generations deep.
[00:09:31] God has already outlined how we can do that. He said, let me just hand you a calendar. You think if you follow this calendar, you could teach children? Would you think you can do that?
[00:09:41] Maybe. Maybe we can give it a shot so that your generations may know. Okay, so God gives us seven days. He says, do this for seven days. Trust me, it'll be good for your family. Let's shoot to Deuteronomy 16. It says an interesting word. Rejoice.
[00:09:59] That's the flavor of Sukkot right there. Rejoice.
[00:10:02] You, your son, your daughter, your servant, your sojourner, the fatherless among you and the widows among you. That is your whole household. Anybody that comes within the regular orbit of your family, you say, get on in here. Let's rejoice together with Sukkot.
[00:10:20] One of the reasons I. I had friends tell me this year ago, years ago, that Sukkot is the best place to start if you even want. You're like, even interested in like Passover or the Day of Atonement or all those things that kind of sound like, I don't know my way around those.
[00:10:37] Everyone told me, start with Sukkot.
[00:10:40] Why start with Sukkot? Well, one reason is it's seven days long. It is now the favorite holiday of my children. And many of our friends like it is a high point of the year. Seven days when we're all going to get together. There's going to be a lot of people around. It's the. It. It is the seven days of the most like, let's go food culture possible. I always try to make sure that my weight is fairly low going into Sukkot, because it's about to be full on party.
[00:11:11] Because we're told to rejoice. Rejoice. And it says, the Lord your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, and so that you will be altogether joyful.
[00:11:22] So God promises. This is crazy.
[00:11:26] Keep this festival, guys. Use it to train your children. And I'm Going to bless you.
[00:11:31] So the first year that we built anything that could be called a suka, it was ugly. Okay. We took a few two by fours, screwed them together.
[00:11:43] It was wobbly. A little wobbly. We had some tarps kind of flapping around to try to do something about, you know, sun coming in and wind. We wanted to try to be. It's supposed to be comfortable in these sukkahs. And I don't know that we did a great job.
[00:11:59] It has an open top so that you can see the stars as a family when you're inside the sukkah.
[00:12:06] My children were very intrigued and very interested to know what the plan was. What are we doing, dad? Are you making something? What are we going to do out there? This is so neat. I said we're going to spend time out here. We are as a family. Oh, my. What are we going to do? I said, we're going to eat the best stuff all week long. Oh, wow. And we let people pick. What's going to be the special meals? Oh, boy. What's a special snack? We always let our kids pick. What's a snack that we can have, like have it in a jar and it's just going to be there all week and it's just going to be a green light.
[00:12:38] It's usually like gummy worms for my children. Okay, well, then we're going to keep a stocked jar of gummy worms. It's gonna be go time.
[00:12:47] So they were very excited. And of course the wheels got shot off of our plan because of course it rained as it does around here. September, October time, it rained. And the little kitty decorations that we had put up were ruined a little bit. Cushions were soaked. And you know what? At the end of the day, I have to say, so what?
[00:13:10] Because my kids learned. They learned the message. They got it. They were getting it.
[00:13:16] The command is not pretend that you're Jewish for a week. The command in Israel was make the wilderness visible to your children so that they don't worship the house.
[00:13:28] Pretty simple and pretty profound. And I probably need to learn that lesson myself. Probably about once a year. That's when God says to do it. So let me describe the line that I won't cross. As we're kind of doing these things. Don't know how you're feeling about hearing that we do them, but John 1:14 says the word became flesh and dwelt among us. It says that he pitched his tent or he tabernacled among us. I think it's the King James that says he pitched his tent. I have to tell this anecdote quickly. My dearly departed uncle was, was a country preacher in Texas and he was teaching this passage when he told the people that Abraham pinched a tit.
[00:14:13] And that got a different response from the crowd that he wanted. He was red faced and had trouble going on. Sorry, Uncle Gerald, I had to tell that tale that I thought was hilarious as a kid. But it says that he pitched his tent with us. So the point that I'm trying to make is that the feast is a shadow and the person of Jesus Christ is the substance. So there's, you know, if you're spending seven days in a Sukkah as the Father, you're kind of going, well, what will we talk about today? Well, here's another layer to just add on the whole thing, that the substance of the shadow is found in Christ. I'll Read more.
[00:14:57] John 7 says that Jesus goes up to the feast of Tabernacles. It was during Sukkah, and on the last day, the great day, he stands and he cries out and he says, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.
[00:15:11] And out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.
[00:15:16] So he doesn't cancel the feast, he fills it with new meaning, which is himself.
[00:15:22] There was a water pouring ceremony that was happening in the background in real time as he's teaching this lesson. And he says, I'm actually the source of all of this water.
[00:15:32] One more passage. Colossians 2:16.
[00:15:35] Therefore, let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.
[00:15:48] These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. I got to say something about the first part. Let no one pass judgment on you in questions of festivals.
[00:16:02] Now, when I was raised in my Protestant world, it was always like, yeah, nobody can tell us that we have to do any of these feasts or festivals because they can't pass judgment on us. Okay, that's true. That is true. But the opposite is also true. You can go the other way, which is you can't pass judgment on anyone for observing these festivals as long as they understand the second half, which is the shadow is the festival and the reality is found in Christ.
[00:16:35] That means he is the water who gets poured out into water pouring ceremony. You can research that if you want.
[00:16:43] He is the cloud that moved and told the Israelites where you would be pitching your tent. And he is the tabernacle in which we live and move and have Our being. He is our confidence and our surrounding and our provision. Hallelujah. I love that Sukkot reinforces these things for me and for my children.
[00:17:05] So the line that I won't cross is underlined in Galatians 4. I can get ahead of myself. I'm so excited.
[00:17:15] In Galatians 4, Paul says, you observe days and months and seasons and years.
[00:17:20] And he is afraid that he has labored in vain. Now hear what he's afraid of. Paul is afraid that a household will remember the wilderness. He's afraid that a household will crawl back under the system of the law and start measuring its standing with God by the calendar. Do we do it or do we not do it? Are we doing all the right things? If Sukkot becomes the thing that makes us feel like we're the serious varsity Christians, we have left the path of Abrahamic Christ dependent faith and we've gone back into slavery. That's the line that I won't cross with my family.
[00:17:58] We love to use Sukkot because it's such a wonderful teaching aid and it creates a culture in our home.
[00:18:06] But we use that pattern. We don't serve it. I'm into training my children into belief, not performance. I hope that makes sense. It's very important. So I have to draw that line regularly. And I would never cross it. If anybody thought, well, dad won't love us if we don't do Sukkot, or God won't love us if we don't Sukkot, then we're missing it. It's supposed to be a teaching gift that, that God's given us. So really quick, five things that actually changed in my family culture. One provision became visible.
[00:18:42] So sitting under slats in the cold outside, bundled up in blankets in front of a fire that we often can't feel, but we can see it, it looks pretty. It's just not really warming us right now. You can't really pretend that the H Vac is your shepherd and it's going to be looking out for you because you feel like, well, I'm out here exposed. It's not doing anything for kids feel a lesson in their bodies and they learn it faster than in just a devotion reading words.
[00:19:12] So it puts you into the story. Provision becomes visible. Number two, the father has to lead the story.
[00:19:20] You cannot outsource Sukkot to a children's pastor because they just won't be at your house every night for dinner.
[00:19:27] Building that thing, eating outside, asking questions, the conversation. The man of the house becomes the priest of memory. There's no way around it. That's Abrahamic.
[00:19:39] There's a story in Nehemiah, chapter eight that says that they found it written.
[00:19:46] They recovered the scrolls. They found the story of Sukkot, the command of Sukkot, and the things we talked about. Sorry, what was it? Leviticus 23, Deuteronomy 16.
[00:19:56] They went out, they made booths, and there was very great rejoicing as there would be at Sukkot, because that's what you do, you rejoice. And there was very great rejoicing for Nehemiah's folks that recovered practice produced joy, not grim duty. It is so fun. The food, the friends, the fun. It's so great. I'll get to the friends in just a second. Number three, time slowed down on purpose in my home.
[00:20:25] Seven nights is long enough to break the pattern in your home of scrolling and snacks all the time and just pass by. Passerby comments because the one command that we can't argue about with Sukkot is that you're just supposed to spend time in that booth outside together, as much time as possible. I do my work out there. My wife does work out there. I take meetings with guys. But during Sukkot, instead of meeting at the coffee shop, we meet my sukkah. Everything happens in the sukkah. We just want to spend more time in the sukkah and everything slows down.
[00:21:02] You know, when. When guys ask, hey, where will you be about 4 o'? Clock? I go, 4 o'? Clock? I'll be in the suka.
[00:21:09] Where will you be at nine in the morning?
[00:21:11] Nine, I might have a cup of coffee and I'll be in the suka. Because things slow down.
[00:21:18] That's.
[00:21:19] It's described as Sabbath kind of Sabbath logic that's applied to a week.
[00:21:25] So we just slow down. It's an annual intensification of Sabbath leadership in your home and Sabbath practice. So time slows down. Number four, hospitality gets teeth.
[00:21:38] Deuteronomy 16, you heard it. It includes the sojourner, the fatherless and the widow.
[00:21:44] These are people that are supposed to be folded in. Maybe they're occasional people in your life. Maybe they're co workers that you have a fondness with. Ah, I wish we spent more time with them. If only we had a reason to invite people over sometime. What could that reason be? Oh, I know. Sukkah. We have a sukkah.
[00:22:02] We kind of double down on barbecuing during that time, as you would. It's all outside. We've got like a Griddle and. And a smoker. Guess what? I'm going to be doing a lot of that. Yes. Hallelujah. Come on. We do that and just have people over.
[00:22:18] We're going to have a lot more chicken thighs that are being smoked than my family can eat. So just get over here.
[00:22:26] So we are being hospitable.
[00:22:30] And a sukkah that only holds your nuclear family is a half Sukkot.
[00:22:36] So I encourage you to invite one other household. Maybe that's a really good way to do it, by the way, is to say we and one other family. We're going to try this together. And that's what we did. We had two other families and we said, you guys want to give this a go? One year. I don't know. We've never done it. Let's make our really bad sukhas and we'll kind of spend time and let the dads get a practice of leading and let's give it a shot.
[00:22:59] Being hospitable and dad leading. Hey, that's very on brand for Abe's wallet and it'll expand your connections too.
[00:23:06] The last thing. And number five, my children have a picture, a felt, lived in, experienced picture of we are not home yet.
[00:23:17] That is the 200 year vision in a backyard in the simplest way that they feel we're not home yet.
[00:23:25] The conversations that happen in Asuka when we're thinking about this story and living in this story are different than in the granite kitchen island with 71 degrees around us.
[00:23:37] They just seem to be more about destiny and purpose and vision.
[00:23:42] And yes, Abraham, there's just more kind of otherworldly talk about the direction of our lives and the direction of our home.
[00:23:53] It feels otherworldly if I can say it. If I can say that and I want to keep it that way. That's one of my jobs as a father, is to encourage these. These moments.
[00:24:03] So I'm going to throw out before I close some steps that you can actually practically take. What can I do? Okay, I'm going to make this as simple as possible. Pick one dinner between September 26 and October 2 and eat that dinner outside.
[00:24:21] Backyard, porch, park, picnic table.
[00:24:26] If the weather's ugly, you could do a cheap pop up canopy. You could even.
[00:24:32] Don't tell the preachers I said this. You could just open your garage and have a meal in your garage with the garage door open and be exposed to the outside that it feels outside and it feels. The point is that it feels temporary.
[00:24:48] It doesn't have to be Pinterest. Worthy. It just needs to feel temporary.
[00:24:52] You could then. Number two, I'm going to give you a few things you could do. That's one, eat a meal outside. Number two, read Leviticus 23, 39, 43 and John 1:14 out loud. That takes two minutes.
[00:25:08] Just read them out loud.
[00:25:10] Tell the wilderness story in your own words.
[00:25:14] God housed a people who had no house and they traveled around the wilderness. Well, people can't live in the wilderness. You certainly can't live there for 40 years.
[00:25:22] They did, because God was their house and he moved them everywhere and he gave them food when there was no food, and he gave them water when there was no water. How's that possible? That's what God does. Just tell them the story in your own words. You could read it again if you want to refresh. Just tell it in your own words.
[00:25:41] Number four, ask the table three questions.
[00:25:44] You could write these down. They'll be in our show notes.
[00:25:48] Number one, what does God provide for this family that you can't see or touch for this family? Your family? What does God provide for this family you can't see or touch? Number two, what do we sometimes treat as permanent that really isn't.
[00:26:04] And number three, who should eat with us before this week is over?
[00:26:10] Great questions. If you want a next layer. Okay, I'll give you a couple of other things that's really all you'd have to do. Do one meal.
[00:26:20] Read those little passages. Ask those three questions. If you want. Hey, what's the next level? Okay, next level. You could get some string lights and you could get a few branches and build a very simple frame.
[00:26:32] We've had people at Abraham's wallet who have made lean tos against the side of the house and put a string of lights there and said, this is our sukkah. We think we could sit under the eave enough that if it rained we wouldn't get dripped on. Here it is. Okay, great. That's a good starting point. So you could do string lights and a few branches. You don't have to do that.
[00:26:54] And then the last thing I must suggest is on the seventh day of the last day, you could read Revelation 21:3.
[00:27:01] Let's see if I could get through it without getting emotional.
[00:27:06] In Zechariah 14:16, Revelation 21 says, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man, and he shall dwell with them, and they shall be his people. And almighty God will be with man.
[00:27:23] And I heard a voice saying, it is done.
[00:27:26] He is the Alpha and the Omega.
[00:27:33] The nations will one day go up to this feast. By the way, this is what Zechariah 14:16 says the nations.
[00:27:41] That means you will one day go up to this feast and keep this feast in Jerusalem. It's not going away.
[00:27:49] God said it when he laid it out in Leviticus 23. It's not going away. We know from Zechariah 14. It's not going away. At the very end of time, it's very cool to imagine that we are not just remembering the past when we do Sukkot. We are also rehearsing our future.
[00:28:10] There's so much great stuff to discuss. You'll not be at a shortage of stuff to discuss. If you just want to go, let's just talk about Sukkot for seven days.
[00:28:20] But if all you do is one outdoor meal and those three questions you've led, you did great. You have not failed the Torah because you were never under it as a Gentile Father, we just read these stories and we go, wow, that would be a great way to lead my family.
[00:28:35] You have catechized your house just by doing that one meal, reading those three verses, we're trying to disciple. We're trying to disciple our children. Well done. So, fathers, the question is not must Christians celebrate Sukkot? The question is, who is discipling your household sense of home? And if the answer is the mortgage, the school calendar, and the grocery app, then having a booth in your backyard is not legalism, it is resistance. It it is Abrahamic. It is a small, joyful way of saying to your children, we are provided for, we are not finished, and God still dwells with his people.
[00:29:15] So eat one meal outside, read two passages, ask three questions, then tell us what happened in your house. Please put in the comments the questions that your children asked at the table. We'd love to hear it. So until next week, run your home and your dough like a biblical boss. Baby, we'll see you next week.
