X-Dreamers · Lab sheet

The Feast of Tabernacles

Sit inside a booth and look up through the branches, hold the four kinds, count the offerings day by day and watch Jerusalem keep the feast in Nehemiah 8.

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Looking up through the branches of the roof

Key facts

The feast began on the 15th day of the 7th month, after the harvest, and lasted seven days, with a solemn assembly on the eighth (Leviticus 23:33–36).
Israel lived in booths for the seven days to remember that God made them live in booths when he brought them out of Egypt (Leviticus 23:42–43).
The four kinds: fruit of goodly trees, palm branches, boughs of thick trees and willows of the brook (Leviticus 23:40).
Seventy bulls were offered over the seven days, from thirteen on the first day down to seven on the seventh (Numbers 29).
Every seventh year the Law was read aloud at the feast (Deuteronomy 31:10–13); Ezra read it when the returned exiles kept it (Nehemiah 8).
On the last, great day of the feast Jesus invited the thirsty to come to him and drink (John 7:37–39).

Key verses

42 Ye shall dwell in booths seven days; all that are Israelites born shall dwell in booths: 43 That your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.
Leviticus 23:42–43 · King James Version

And all the congregation of them that were come again out of the captivity made booths, and sat under the booths: for since the days of Jeshua the son of Nun unto that day had not the children of Israel done so. And there was very great gladness.
Nehemiah 8:17 · King James Version

37 In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. 38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
John 7:37–38 · King James Version

Talk about it

Why would God ask settled farmers to leave their houses and live in flimsy booths for a week?
The feast was commanded to be a time of rejoicing. What helps your church or family rejoice together before God?
Jesus spoke of living water at a feast about God's care in the desert. What was he saying about himself?

How sure can we be?

The Bible says

The dates, the booths, the four kinds and the offerings are commanded in Leviticus 23 and Numbers 29.
The branches for the booths in Nehemiah 8:15: olive, wild olive, myrtle, palm and thick trees.

Our reconstruction

How a booth looked is not described; ours follows the branches named in Nehemiah and is a plausible build.
The citron (etrog) and myrtle as two of the four kinds come from later Jewish tradition: plausible, not stated.

Still debated

The water-drawing and the great lamps in the Temple are later Jewish customs; linking them to John 7–8 is a reading, not the text.