This week every family in Israel is living in a sukkah, a small hut roofed with branches. I carried the word up to the black basalt above the Kinneret and followed it through the Bible, from the booth, to the hiding place, to a table set for the nations.
“Ye shall dwell in booths seven days; all that are Israelites born shall dwell in booths.”
Leviticus 23:42 · בַּסֻּכֹּת
“For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock.”
Psalm 27:5 · בְּסֻכֹּה
“In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old.”
Amos 9:11 · סֻכַּת דָּוִיד
“And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles.”
Zechariah 14:16 · חַג הַסֻּכּוֹת
Four verses, one word: סֻכָּה
Read these four verses in English and you meet four different words: booths, pavilion, tabernacle, tabernacles. Read them in Hebrew and you meet one. Sukkah.
It is the booth Israel lives in for seven days. It is the place where God hides David on the day of trouble. It is the fallen house of David that He promises to raise, the verse James stood up and quoted in Jerusalem (Acts 15:16). And it is the feast that every nation will one day come up to keep.
One more thing, from the law of how a sukkah is built. By the old rule, its roof of branches should be thin enough to let you see the stars through it. The shelter God gives is never a roof that shuts out heaven.
If this stirred something in you, pass it on to one person who is praying for Israel this Feast.