The Spiritual Meaning of the Feast of Tabernacles, or Succoth

The Jewish holiday of Succoth is approaching, which is also widely called the Feast of Tabernacles.  There are three main religious festivals in the Jewish religion: Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles.  All of these Jewish rituals have a symbolic spiritual meaning.  It is well known in Christianity that the Passover ritual was fulfilled on Easter, as Jesus was crucified on the Passover.  As a deeper meaning, the deliverance of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt signifies deliverance from the bondage of hell.  What is not so well known is that between heaven and hell there is a middle region in the spiritual world where both the good and evil dwell for a time before being judged, and in this state those who are good may suffer for a time due to falsehoods they had adopted as true and are thus held back for a time.  These souls who were trapped were delivered and released and ascended to heaven, which took place at the time of Jesus' death and resurrection. This is the general spiritual meaning of the Exodus, passing through the Red Sea, the wandering in the wilderness, and entry into the Promised Land.

The next Jewish feast, which always takes place 50 days after Passover, is the feast of firstfruits where an offering of the firstfruits of the harvest was given to Jehovah. What is not so commonly known about the feast of firstfruits is this feast actually commemorates the day in which Moses revealed the 10 commandments. I accidentally discovered this when I investigated Biblical chronology many years ago, and it is also presented on the web site The Exodus Route: Travel times, distances, rates of travel, days of the week - 

The web site is actually a good reference on research that indicates that Mt. Sinai is actually in western Saudi Arabia, not in the Sinai peninsula.  But returning to the topic at hand, in Christianity the feast of firstfruits was fulfilled on the Day of Pentecost, where the gift of the Holy Spirit was given to the apostles and the first followers of Jesus Christ.  Before the 10 commandments were written on tablets of stone, and in Christianity the 10 commandments are written on our hearts.

We now reach the feast of Tabernacles, or Succoth, in which the Israelites were commanded to make temporary shelters to commemorate the time they dwelt in temporary shelters while traveling to the land of Canaan.  This feast happens in the fall in September-October, depending on the lunar calendar. It just so happens that it was some time in the fall that the Israelites reached the land of Canaan, but of instead of entering immediately they spied out the land for another 40 days, and could not enter. My guess is that it may have been intended for a historical event to take place on the feast of Tabernacles, but since the Israelites delayed and could not enter for another 40 years this did not happen. By careful study of the Gospels, it is now known that Jesus was most probably born on the feast of the Tabernacles in the fall, and not on December 25 as commonly celebrated now.  Thus John wrote:

The word for "dwelling" here means literally to tent or encamp. And later Jesus would refer to His body as a temple.  For this see Was the Birth of our Messiah on the Feast of Tabernacles?

SO WHAT IS THE SPIRITUAL MEANING OF ALL THIS?

So far, everything I have said is from a literal, historical and prophetic perspective.  But scripture has a deeper spiritual meaning: these three Jewish festivals represent three stages in our spiritual development, and understanding the spiritual meaning will allow us to immediately apply it to our lives. Hidden behind the literal stories of scripture there is a deeper spiritual meaning, and this is what in fact makes scripture Divinely inspired, for understanding it and applying it allows us to connect more directly with heaven.  To obtain a deeper understanding, I will now quote from Emanuel Swedenborg on the spiritual meaning of these three Jewish festivals in his commentary on Exodus 23:14-16:

"...by the feast of unleavened bread [Passover] is signified purification from falsities, by the feast of harvest [feast of firstfruits, or Pentecost] the implanting of truth in good, and by the feast of ingathering [Succoth, or Feast of Tabernacles] the implanting of good thence derived, and thus full deliverance from damnation; for, when a man has been purified from falsities and then introduced by truths into good, and at length when he is in good, he is then in heaven with the Lord, and consequently is then fully liberated. The successive steps of deliverance from damnation are as the successive steps of regeneration, inasmuch as regeneration is deliverance from hell and introduction into heaven by the Lord; for the man who is being regenerated is first purified from falsities, then the truths of faith are implanted with him in the good of charity, and lastly this good itself is implanted, and this being done the man is regenerated, and is then in heaven with the Lord. Wherefore by the three feasts in the year was also signified the worship of the Lord and thanksgiving on account of regeneration. Inasmuch as these feasts were instituted for the perpetual remembrance of those things, therefore it is said worship and rendering of thanks permanent, for the chief things of worship are to remain in continuance. The things which remain in continuance are those which are not only inscribed on the memory, but are also inscribed on the life itself, and they are then said to reign universally with the man" (Heavenly Arcana, n. 9286.1-2)

So to sum up, these three feasts describe three steps of spiritual regeneration that we should all follow:

1. Repentance, or purification from falsehoods and evils;
2. Living by the truth, by learning and then living by it;
3. Doing good out of love
   

So spiritual regeneration is not a one time conversion, it is in fact a life long process.  The first and second stages are represented in Christianity by baptism, and the final stage is represented by communion or the Eucharist. For it is in communion that we acknowledge that all good and truth are from the Lord, which is represented by us partaking in the bread as His body and the wine as His blood. And that is how true salvation takes place, it is a process that we can all immediately apply to our lives, at the end of which God dwells within us, we become a Tabernacle for the Holy Spirit in love and truth.