In the last blog, I showed how YHWH divided Israel from among the nations and separated them into the wilderness on a journey with Him so that He might sanctify them. YHWH’s setting them apart from Egypt created space for them to become holy like He made space for life to flourish in creation days one through three. In the Pentateuch’s three core books, Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, YHWH connected His covenant with Abraham, confirmed by a flaming torch and smoking furnace, to His Presence leading Israel by the pillars of fire and cloud. On Mount Sinai, the hosts of heaven with His enthroned appearance billowed from Sinai in fire, smoke, and the reverberating voice of trumpet blasts. At the end of Exodus, the glory of YHWH moved from the mountain and dwelt in a tent’s holy space in the midst of Israel’s camp. The Leviticus story tells how YHWH gave Israel access to the Fountain of Life’s holy space through sacrifice to meet with Him at appointed times. As Israel’s journey to the Promised Land continued in the Book of Numbers, YHWH arranged His covenant nation’s camp to reflect the heavenly realm of YHWH’s holy Presence. Israel lived in tents or sukkot in the wilderness in these three books. This blog explores why YHWH commanded the hosts of Israel to remember that He made them dwell in sukkot on a wilderness journey with Him.

Before and after YHWH gave Israel His Feasts commandment in Leviticus 23, He called attention to why He brought them out of Egypt and extended the wilderness timeline into our present age.

Keep my commands and follow them. I am YHWH. Do not profane My holy name. I must be acknowledged as holy by the children of Israel. I am YHWH, who makes you holy and who brought you out of Egypt to be your God. I am YHWH (Lev. 22:31-33, NIV).

But for their sake [when they are in the land of their enemies], I will remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God: I am YHWH (Lev. 26:45, NKJV).

These verses underscore that YHWH divided Israel from the nations in the sight of the nations to keep His covenant with Abraham that he would be a father to many nations. YHWH chose the wilderness as the holy space where the camp of Israel could access Him and be transformed, filling that space with life or holiness. Why did God use a wilderness, a place lacking life’s essentials?

In the Wilderness of Shur, the Wilderness of Sin, and the Wilderness of Sinai, Israel heard YHWH’s voice as He shepherded them on. At Marah, in the Wilderness of Shur, God showed (torahed) Moses a tree which he threw into the bitter water, making it sweet. He explained:

There He made a statute and an ordinance for them, and there He tested them, and said, “If you diligently heed the voice of YHWH your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am YHWH who heals you.” (Exo. 15:26, NKJV).

In the Wilderness of Sin, YHWH gave Israel daily manna, reminding them to keep holy the Sabbath. A motif for the Word of God, manna metaphorically sustained Israel alive by dividing good (tov) from evil (ra). Camped in the wilderness of Sinai, Israel heard YHWH’s voice from Mount Sinai. Occurring twenty-seven times in Exodus and forty-eight times in Numbers, the wilderness, a place fit for feeding flocks, is called midbar, m-d-b-r. In the Ancient Hebrew Lexicon Definitions¹, the root d-b-r, dibar is “word,” meaning “an arrangement of words creating order.” It is also used for “plague,” the re-ordering of a population. The wilderness trek transformed Israel from chaos to order through the spoken word of YHWH. The innermost place of YHWH’s dwelling, the Holy of Holies, is a sanctuary, debir, a place of order from which God speaks. “Wilderness,” “word,” “plague,” and “sanctuary,” terms with the same d-b-r root, create wordplay, exposing how YHWH brought Israel into the wilderness to speak to them from His sanctuary to give order to their new lives that they formerly lived in the way of chaos and death. To become a priestly holy kingdom, Israel had to live by every Word of God, not by bread alone, choosing life over death. The wilderness was the covenantal training ground, preparing them to live in the light of YHWH’s face in the Land.

And you shall remember that YHWH your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of YHWH. Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. You should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so YHWH your God chastens you (Deu. 8:1-5 NKJV).

Morales² characterized the Numbers wilderness pilgrimage, “Within Numbers, the wilderness era is defined by the Nazirite vow, a period of deprivation unreservedly embraced with the ambition of drawing nearer to YHWH.” Israel’s wilderness experience compelled them through deprivation and challenges to trust YHWH’s shepherding, putting aside their fears that loomed larger than life and developing an intimacy with their Creator to the end that they could live in His Presence safely and without fear. The way of the wilderness was written, Paul states, as examples to us that we should not lust after evil things and become idolaters, nor tempt God by foolish complaining about our circumstances (1Co.10:11). YHWH always provided and always cared for His people. With the Nazarite’s eager heart, we are admonished to believe how He fashions us in holiness so that we might dwell as the hosts of heaven around His enthroned holy Presence, doing His will.

Takeaway:
To keep the Feast of Sukkot, YHWH tells His covenant community “to remember that I made you dwell in tents,” training us to live in an ordered way with Him, listening diligently to His voice. When YHWH commanded Israel to dwell in sukkot during the seven-day Feast of Tabernacles or Sukkot, He wanted them to remember the way in which He shepherded them to Himself to live in the Land as a reflection of His entourage surrounding His heavenly enthronement among the cherubim. They were to remember yearly in the seventh month the three core books of the Pentateuch, Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, to meditate on their messages to remain a holy, blessed people dwelling with Him in the Land. YHWH blessed them with nothing lacking and put His name upon them to be a light to the nations. Their light came from the light of His Presence, from their obedience to His laws of holiness, the laws that would never lead to death.

Fun Factors:
The value of d-b-r, root of wilderness, word, plague, and the sanctuary, is 216, 2³ × 3³, 5³ + 4³ + 3³, 543 = I AM WHO I AM; 216 is the moon’s diameter number 2160 miles; 2160° is the sum of a cube’s six squares interior angles; and the Precession of the Equinox month is 2160 years.

Midbar or wilderness occurs 105 times in the Pentateuch; 105 = 3 × 5 × 7, 3 + 5 + 7 = 15, 15 × 7 = 105, the 14^th triangular number. The three Patriarchs plus twelve tribes (3 + 12 =15) and the three major prophets plus twelve minor prophets (3 + 12 = 15) express YHWH’s restoration of Israel and, by extension, the nations.