Why God Leads Us Into the Wilderness | Lessons From the Feast of Tabernacles

experiences, recognizing that we need a bigger mindset. There's a bigger picture that's going on. Dustin's so good to be sitting under the Sukkah with you again. I love it. I love this time of year. I love the fall. I love what the Sukkah represents. It's just such a special time of year. It's a time to connect with God to Tabernacle with Him in a special way. It's such a joyous time of the year. I mean, it really, it's a time of great happiness. We're going to get into that as we talk, but I mean, it's just a real joyful time of year. Kind of like the way that Christians think about Christmas for Jews. This is the happy time of year. Now, for people who may not know, Rabbi, what is a Sukkah and what's needed to have one? Does it have to look like this? Ours is kind of decorated. Looks nice, but sometimes they're just very simple boxes. Yeah, I mean, this is really typical. I mean, most Sukkahs will be decorated with natural types of foliage like you see on our roof and different agricultural fruits and so on and so forth. But they're temporary shelters, and they remind us of how the children of Israel for 40 years when they were in the wilderness, when they came out of Egypt and were journeying towards the Promised Land. It took them 40 years from the time they left Egypt to the time they entered the Promised Land. At all those years, all those 40 years, Dustin, they were in the winters and they were living in these temporary shelters. So we build these to remind ourselves of how we lived in temporary shelters for 40 years in the wilderness wanderings. And this isn't just something Jewish people made up. This is actually something God commanded in the Torah, celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles to make a Sukkah and to dwell in it for seven days during the Feast of Tabernacles. Yes, very much so. And so when you think about that, you ask yourself, well, why would the Lord want the children of Israel to every year, you know, stop their everyday schedule to build these outdoor structures? And there's a number of principles and there's a number of concepts that we think about when we each year go and dwell in the Sukkah. What is, in your mind, the first concept that comes to mind that we should be thinking about at this time of year or, you know, period in our walk with God? Yeah, well, the first thing for me, and I actually have a real personal experience with this in my own life, is I think about the fact that when the children of Israel were in the wilderness those 40 years, they had nothing but God. I mean, can you imagine every day waking up, you didn't know where the meal was going to come from? Yeah, you didn't know where the water was going to come from. Yeah, you had no protection. They were absolutely 100% dependent on God. Yeah, so to me every year, it's a time to go back and revisit that and to consider the fact that at the

end of the day, we might tend to lean on things in the world. But at the end of the day, we have nothing but God and it's going to be most evident when we lay down and take our last breath before leaving this planet. You know, what will we have but God for the hope into the next world? You know, you think about being in the wilderness, that's exactly what you're saying. They complained about the water. Moses, where's the water coming from? And then they're like, where is the food coming from? God rains down manna. Why do you think God brought Israel through a wilderness season in the first place? Well, the scriptures are really specific. In fact, one of my favorite portions of scripture, in regards to these lessons that we learn from celebrating Sukkot or the Feast of Tabernacles every year and spending time inside a Sukkah like we're doing today. And by the way, for for you that are viewing today, you don't have to build a Sukkah to apply these principles to your life. But I hope you'll have joy in just kind of hearing this lesson from a Sukkah. But Deuteronomy, we call it in Hebrew Deuteronomy is called Devarim. Chapter 8, it gives us so much information about the principles that we can derive from Sukkot. All these holy days that the Lord gave us, whether it's Passover, whether it's a coat, whether it's Pentecost, all these holy days in the Torah have application for Christians today. And we need to dig deep and study them because Jesus sent salvations from the Jews. Jesus never anticipated that Christians would think, "Oh, we're done with the Old Testament because we have Jesus." Now, Jesus would say, "What are you talking about?" I said to you, I did not come to abolish the law of Bill. And he And he said, "And everyone that teaches the principles - Will they call great in the kingdom of heaven? - Yeah, will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. So these are really important truths that oftentimes Christians don't have an opportunity to hear because many pastors weren't blessed to have the education about the Jewish roots of their faith. - And it's not just hearing it, but when you start to like incorporate it, it becomes bigger. When you start to celebrate these holidays and things like being under a sukkah,

I mean, you can't be in this atmosphere and it not change what you're thinking about. - Yeah. - So when you incorporate these things, the principles of these holidays and the principles of the Old Testament today, it elevates your relationship with Christ to a whole nother level. - It totally does. So you were saying, well, why would the Lord have had them in a situation where they were dependent on nothing but him? - Yeah. - 'Cause the Lord actually led them in the wilderness. Well, before I answer from the Torah, I just wanna whet our appetite, think about Jesus. Yeshua, as soon as he was baptized at the Jordan River and the Lord spoke and said, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well-pleased, which is interesting, Dustin, because the people around heard, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well-pleased, but the scripture also says that Jesus heard the Father speak and Jesus heard the Father say, you are my beloved son and in you I'm well-pleased. But as soon as that happened, what happened next, the spirit of the living God led Yeshua into the wilderness. - Yeah, for a time of 40 days and 40 nights, picking up from Israel that was in the wilderness for 40 years. So there's a tie in there. So let's look, Deuteronomy eight,

there's so much information here. You wanna read that for us, Dustin? - Yeah. - Yeah. - Verse number two, you shall remember all the way which the Lord your God has led you in the wilderness, these 40 years, just like you said, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. He humbled you and let you be hungry and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord. - This is so critically important. It touches me so much because I'm so dependent on God. And it's not like a virtue that I have, it's like something that God made me 'cause He brought me into the wilderness. - Wow. - So there's a Hebrew word, it's called "dub hoot." And it means clinging, we cling to God. We, Israel had to cling to God. That's what the Lord was saying. He was humbling you that you would learn to live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Where else could they go?

They didn't have another option, they were in the wilderness. - Yeah. - They couldn't pick berries off of a vine or fruit from a tree. There was no land to cultivate. They didn't have any other option, but to rely on God for survival. - Yeah, so that could be a lesson for some of you right now, beloved ones. You might be going through a really difficult time right now, and it's really hard. But consider this, that it may be the Lord Himself that's in this difficult time with you. Maybe He even led you into this difficult time to break you of all self-reliance so that you would learn to trust in Him alone. That's why it's important when we go into the wilderness in our life and we go into these, what we call wilderness experiences. It's important to thank God in the midst of those experiences, recognizing that we need a bigger mindset. We can't just judge what we're going through because of the temporary thing that we're experiencing. There's a bigger picture that's going on. I might be doing something that's extremely valuable in your life and an eternity that is being birthed in you and through you by bringing you through this difficult experience. - Yeah, I don't think any of us really enjoy testing periods.

It's really nice to know that, hey, the next thing I'm gonna eat, this is where it's coming from. But there is something about connecting with God on a deeper level when you literally only can rely on Him. And these testing periods in our lives, like you said, they bring us through, James talks about refining us and bringing us through trials, completing a perfect work, making us really what we're supposed to be in the kingdom and that we couldn't be without it, preparing us for the kingdom to come. - Yeah, yeah. I'm gonna get back to the text in just a second, but I can't resist sharing what I've shared a few times before, but something that the Lord recently revealed to me just a few two and a half weeks or so ago, and it was an experience it was, I used the term vision of the night, but it was even more than that, because it wasn't just something that I saw, it was something that I was in and experienced. uh... aggressively attacked by the powers of darkness in my sleep and people might think all he's just talking like that the guys probably got mental problems the guy's probably got emotional problems but that's not what this was this was literally an attack by the power of darkness i understood that night that i was being attacked by the power of darkness it was just it was just harassment of spirits just just antagonistic uh... uh... uh... spirits that we're bringing to i don't even remember specifically

the dreams were but i knew that i was under demonic attack so i was going through of this night it was one after another i realized again i was under attack but that same night i also had an incredible heavenly experience wow what happened isn't it interesting though that the heavenly encounter came in the midst of all the attack that was going on yeah so what happened that ties into this verse where the lord led them in the wilderness to do something in them to humble them that he could elevate them what happened to me in this experience this encounter dustin was i found myself in this mountain of clouds and i could see it was a mountain from the outside but i was inside the mountain i was inside this mountain of clouds i started off close to the bottom of the mountain you know towards the base of the mountain and the clouds they were not like glory clouds they weren't like oh you think of clouds the clouds of glory it wasn't glory cloud okay they were the clouds that you would experience at a dismal rainy day oh no where there's no sun coming through so i'm in this mountain covered in clouds i'm covered over with clouds no light in there no sun in there just like a greyish thick you know presence and i'm sitting in this chair a lot like the chair that you and i are sitting in right now but it was even there was no cushion in it which is a straight hard chair these tears are not the most comfortable either

but it was more comfortable than that chair in this experience and i'm sitting in this chair again i started at the base of the mountain and i'm sitting in this chair in the mountain and the chair keeps going and every time it went this way it also went up it was like hard metal like being inside jerking you yeah jerking me and it was like a hard hard metal hard movement but every time it it brought me up a notch so finally this is going on and i had no idea what was going on i get about two thirds the way up inside the mountain of clouds and all the sun the clouds cleared above me and i looked up and i could see up through the top of the mountain it was like you know mountain shape like this it was like the very cone in the mountain had been cut off so i could see up through the center of the mountain and when i looked up dusting it was beautiful blue kind of like light there's light at the end of the tunnel yes it was just beautiful blue but then all of a sudden the clouds came again i'm covered with clouds i'm still in the chair the chair is going next thing i go from two thirds up the mountain to 85 percent of the way up approximately inside the mountain towards the top higher and then the clouds cleared again and when the clouds cleared again this time the blue

was so full of pigment it was so beautiful it was so rich it was so lovely it was so i was drawn i was so drawn i just wanted to be out the top of that mountain into the blue but you know what the clouds came again and i was in that chair just praying that the clouds would would part again i was like focused towards out the mountain lord let me get through the top into the blue but then the dream ended and i woke up and i thought wow that was cool i wish i would have gone up through the blue and i really started thinking about it i am encouraged i thought that i went from the bottom and the mountain over the course of time yeah to all the way up to about 85 percent of the top and here's where i wanted to go with it and the reason i brought it up because when we look at this experience in the wilderness israel was in that wilderness for 40 years it's a long time but you know what they were being changed in the wilderness and lord was bringing them through those testings yeah those trials to elevate them so that they could be in a position to receive the promised land and be blessed and so for me as i think about that encounter in the night that i had i feel like the lord was saying to me you know i i brought you through so many hard times but every time i brought you through a testing every time i brought you through a trial every time i brought you through a difficult experience it was hard just like So that's why the Lord brought them through the wilderness. Yeah, it's kind of like you really can't You know what what you go through to get there if you don't learn that lesson when you get there you can't stay there You know you have to really be able to walk in what God's tested you in when you're in the promised land Because if they didn't walk in it Deuteronomy tells us they would lose it Yeah, so God was preparing them so they actually could walk in the promises that he had for them

Yeah, it kind of reminds me doesn't of people so nice that when the lottery, you know They've never developed really financial stability or sometimes maybe there's not a character Yeah, that gives them the ability to leave stably they get all that but what happens a lot times it's gone Yeah, you're right, but I want to take a look at let's take a look at the verses and take them apart a little bit You know, why are we in the Sukkah? What lessons well in Deuteronomy 8? We find out why the Lord had them in the wilderness for four years why they were living in these temporary structures Why the Lord told told Israel I want you to build the Sukkah every year and go back and live in it and remember and learn These lessons and keep growing so it begins in verse number two. He says to Israel You shall remember all the way which the Lord your God has led you in the wilderness these 40 years I think the first thing that comes to mind is a lot of people don't want to face reality about life Life is about trials You know most people you ask them how they're doing. They don't tell you about their trials No, they want to say what life is good. Yeah, they want to direct you to their Facebook page Blue skies sandy peaches. Yeah. Yeah great vacations with all these kids. It gets a good. It's a good reality I think check first remember life's not about you know, all these, you know, just vacations God God to add these his children in the wilderness for 40 years for a reason. Yeah, so let's get rid with each other Then the Lord continues on that he might humble you So what do you think about when you think about humbling? Well, I mean That's what I think about when you're in the wilderness and I think about that you're you're there It is humbling to know that you can't take care of yourself. It's almost childlike faith that has to exist I think about I have a son and I mean and he can't you can hardly sit up on his own and You know if I'm not there to watch him if he falls down you get hurt It's not like an adult and you know, we like to feel like we're in control in life Mm-hmm, and I think there's something about the wilderness and being humbled that lets us know we're really not in control Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Absolutely. You know even with even with my wife that sometimes the times I feel most connected It's when I'm going through a hard time because I so much just appreciate Cynthia during those times You know her comforting spirit her love or nurture who she is And yet some is when things are going well and are I'm busy or whatever I crave all I wish I was I wish I was more You know feeling more dependent on Cynthia because I love that feeling of connectedness

It's kind of like the Lord said to Paul, you know when the Paul received a thorn in the flesh You know some type of messenger of Satan in the book of Corinthians and Paul prayed and Lord take it away And God said no my power will be perfected in your weakness So then Paul went on to say when I'm weak his power, you know, he's strong in me So I'm sorry. Go ahead Dustin. No, I love it that he might humble you and testing you to know what's in your heart Isn't that really what happens when we're in a test and we're in a hard situation We find out really what's inside of us. Yeah, but it's a conundrum because the Lord knows what's in our hearts Yeah, he but but we don't know it's we don't know it's in our heart and the test reveals really it's kind of like proof Yeah, here's the fruits in the pudding. You really find out what's really going on. Yeah when you're tested. Yep A beautiful part about this too is that when we think of a test a lot of times we think about oh did I pass or fail? Oh, there's a you know back at school. Oh, there's a test coming up on Friday Will I pass? Will I fail? Will I get an a while? I get a D whatever I? Got a lot of D's until I went to Bible school then I started getting A's and you were interested in the subject. Yeah, but A test biblically is not just about passing or failing a test brings us to the next level a Test is a difficult thing that the Lord brings us through in order to promote us It's like you were quoting about James. Yeah, the trials that God brings us through the test things To refine our faith like gold. Yeah, amen amen. So you know some people pray for tests I'm not a fan of praying for tests. I'm not one that's like Lord test me Take me, you know, but I like to pray Lord take me to the next level in you. Yeah, but but tests test fill kind of scary but I guess it's really good when we can step back in moments like this, in a Sukkah, and really realize whether we think we're in control or not, we're not. And we really do need to rely on God. - In the book of Numbers chapter six, the Lord gave instructions to Moses and Aaron to speak this blessing over his people. And the Lord said, when you speak these words over my people, I will place my name on them and bless them.

Receive the impartation of the Lord's blessings. (singing in foreign language) (singing in foreign language) (singing in foreign language) (singing in foreign language) (singing in foreign language) (singing in foreign language) - The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift you up by his countenance and the Lord give you, beloved one, his peace. God bless you and shalom. [MUSIC PLAYING]