Aside from sunlight, rain or water is essential for life. An excess of water or brackish water can be deadly, whereas living water that flows is life-giving. The Bible often uses water and rain as metaphors for the Holy Spirit, which flows down from the temple, serving as the agent of transformation that leads to a new creation. Moses depicted rain and dew descending to breathe life into the earth as a reflection of God’s teachings through the Holy Spirit (Deu. 32:2). Yeshua, the new Moses, told His disciples at His last Passover that the Father would send down the Holy Spirit in Yeshua’s name to teach them all things and remind them of everything He had said (Jhn. 14:26). The Holy Spirit embodies life in the breath and will of God, the life-giving Word He spoke in the Genesis creation story, and it was done. By the same spirit, YHWH realizes His will in the new creation, bringing to life what was dead in exile. God’s goal is to dwell with Israel and all nations in a new creation abundant with life. This blog explores how all nations will come to worship YHWH on His holy mountain, remembering and celebrating the Sukkot re-creation experience.

The Scriptures associate plentiful rain or its lack with obedience to YHWH’s commandments, linking life in the Land with obedience and the death of exile to disobedience.

Deuteronomy 11:13-21, “So then, obey the commands that I have given you today; love YHWH your God and serve him with all your heart. 14 If you do, he will send rain on your land when it is needed, in the autumn and in the spring, so that there will be grain, wine, and olive oil for you, 15 and grass for your livestock. You will have all the food you want. 16 Do not let yourselves be led away from YHWH to worship and serve other gods. 17 If you do, YHWH will become angry with you. He will hold back the rain, and your ground will become too dry for crops to grow. Then you will soon die there, even though it is a good land that he is giving you.

18 “Remember these commands and cherish them. Tie them on your arms and wear them on your foreheads as a reminder. 19 Teach them to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you are resting and when you are walking. 20 Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates. 21 Then you and your children will live a long time in the land that YHWH your God promised to give to your ancestors, like the days of the heavens above the earth.

Israel did go into captivity, and after the Romans destroyed the second temple, the Israelites scattered among the nations. Solomon foresaw Israel’s future in exile from their inheritance. YHWH sought justice and righteousness in the land but heard only cries for help due to a lack of rain (Isa. 5:6-7). In Romans, Paul focuses on the inheritance and life-giving vocation of believers in Yeshua.

1 Kings 8:35-36, “When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against You, when they pray toward this place and confess Your name, and turn from their sin because You afflict them, 36 then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of Your servants, Your people Israel, that You may teach them the good way in which they should walk; and send rain on Your land which You have given to Your people as an inheritance. NKJV

2 Chronicles 7:12-15. Then YHWH appeared to Solomon by night, and said to him: “I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice. 13 When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, 14 if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. NKJV

Israel’s salvation from bondage to sin to worshiping YHWH eventually happens to the nations. Planned from the beginning, the compassion YHWH showed Israel, He will show the nations. In the time of His victory, YHWH will bring light to the world by giving His teaching of His laws to the nations, and He will rule over them, pouring out His Spirit (Isa. 51:4-5).

Zechariah 14:16-19. And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, YHWH of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. 17 And it shall be that whichever of the families of the earth do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the King, YHWH of hosts, on them there will be no rain. 18 If the family of Egypt will not come up and enter in, they shall have no rain; they shall receive the plague with which YHWH strikes the nations who do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. 19 This shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. NKJV

The human exodus from bondage to sin towards dwelling in the Land with YHWH represents a journey with YHWH from death to life. This journey involves being made right through justification in Him and being set apart for the perfection of holiness to receive the glory of YHWH’s indwelling. The transformation necessitates the death of the old man of sin and the birth of a new creation, made in the image of God in the Messiah, with the life-giving Torah inscribed on the heart. The Bible explains the re-creation process as a sukkah experience that is essential for inheritance. Being led by the Spirit to live the core three books of the Torah—Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers—one learns to discern the boundaries between death and life, maintaining one’s inheritance and image-bearing vocation so that God’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven.

In Zechariah 1:3, YHWH pleads with Israel to return to Him, and He will return to them. Not suffering the journey out of bondage to YHWH’s holy mountain to worship Him is depicted as “no rain.” Having “no rain” means choosing a life devoid of fruitfulness, lacking teaching from God, the absence of righteousness, and living in a barren wasteland inhospitable to life, trapped in violence, deprivation, and decay. “No rain” serves as the epitaph of “without God, without hope.” Sukkot is about the joy of tabernacling with God, being in His presence, and receiving the blessings of the covenant, YHWH’s abundant inheritance. The Feast of Sukkot emphasizes fellowship with God and with one another, walking in the light, and functioning as a community from which flow the waters of life, bringing healing to all people and creation, providing them with rain in due season.

Takeaway:
At Mount Sinai, the heavens shook and dropped down rain at the presence of the God of Israel. He gave them His Word, sent like a plentiful rain. When Yeshua returns to reign, He will come down like showers that water the earth, and in His days, the righteous shall flourish in abundance of peace. The nations who have waited for His deliverance will join the exodus journey to His holy mountain to learn of His ways of life, celebrating the Feast of Sukkot.

Fun Factors:
Zechariah 1:3’s return to YHWH has a letter sum of 3667, factored as 19(7² + 12²), implying a complete lunar time cycle of 12 common years plus 7 leap years of YHWH’s festivals.

Zechariah 14:16-19 has a letter sum of 19496, factored as 110² + 86² or 8(7² + 6²). Blog 141 described 110 as a representation of Joseph and Joshua’s lives, Israel’s descent into Egypt, and ascent to the Land of Inheritance. The number 86 is the sum of Elohim. Eight times the sum of two squares, 7² + 6², infers the new beginning through YHWH’s eight Feasts, the sojourn, 7², with the tabernacle of meeting, 6², led by the Spirit.