Sukkot 2023 - The Winter is Past...

 The voice of my lover.  Behold, He is coming

Leaping over the mountains, springing over the hills

My lover is like a gazelle or a young buck among the stags

Look!  He is standing behind our wall, gazing through the windows

Peering through the lattice.

In response my lover said to me, "Get yourself up, my darling

my pretty one, and come.  Come!

For behold, the winter is past, the rain is over, it's gone.

Blossoms appear in the land and the time of singing has come... 

Song of Songs 2

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What a blessed time we had over Sukkot here at Hebron.  A few weeks before the start of the festival I was impacted by the understanding that our Creator and Father anticipates meeting with His children more than we anticipate meeting with Him.  His love, His desire to meet with us individually and as a fellowship far surpasses ours, to a degree that it is impossible for us to comprehend.  And meet with Him we did.

The moed are His.  His appointments with people who call on His Name, obey His torah and love Him in return.  These appointed times are not mysteries but they are exclusive.  Exclusively His and kadosh.

 We were blessed with a visit from a brother from the US in the weeks prior to Sukkot and his time with us set the tone for Sukkot.  Thanks for your obedience to the voice of YHVH, Jonathan!  

 Over the week we had daily scripture study and prayer in the sukkah, we laughed, we sang and praised and we dealt with the giants in the land.

 18 years ago when we were scouting out the land to find the property that YHVH had earmarked for us we knew from His admonitions that we would name it Hebron and have to deal with the Anakim.  On the first visit to check out this property we discovered the owner had named it Anunakah - dead set give away there were giants we would have to deal with.

Over the years we have had battles - some we won and some we lost - but we felt a clear direction that this week we needed to make a stand and see YHVH's victory.  So we burned the two old Anunakah sign posts that we still had, and symbolically stoned Goliath.  Everyone entered into the spirit of it and made sling shots (some were epic creations!) to piff stones.  It was a lot of fun but we were sending a very real message to the enemy.  It's not by might but by the Ruach of YHVH that we stand in victory.

 Next year Sukkot may look different here at Hebron - different faces, different activities, different emphasis - but there will be the same spirit of fellowship and the same overshadowing love and care of our Father.

We are so blessed to join with Israel as adopted children to share in the joy of Sukkot and the anticipation of that great day when the Messiah returns on the clouds with a great shofar blast.