The Adulterous Woman From Coffee Hour @ Chicklit Power

Thanks so much for stopping by and joining me for a little break today at Chicklit Power. Grab your coffee and let’s get back to the history surrounding The Adulterous Woman!

This particular party that we’re going to is Israel’s Thanksgiving feast which acknowledges the fall harvest and God’s provision for them. It is a happy time, a time of unprecedented harmony and peace. This festival is also a reminder of Israel’s deliverance from Egypt where they wandered for forty years and lived in tents/booths – so this is where “sukkot” comes from! OMG, so now Leviticus 23:42 is vividly more clear: You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All who are native Israelites shall dwell in booths that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God!

This fact-gathering is sort of fun, but when I turn over one, I have to keep going so we can get the full spiritual significance to the Feast of Tabernacles, and thereafter meet our adulterous woman!

There were actually strict guidelines to building these booths/tents and today, when the Feast of Tabernacles is celebrated, the sukkot is still constructed and must be made with something that came from the ground, such as tree branches, corn stalks, bamboo reeds, sticks or two-by-fours and it must be made sturdy so it will not be blown away by the wind.

Wow, I so admire the adherence to these parts of this celebration. I mean, these tents/booths are constructed before this particular feast as a reminder of this time that the Israelites wandered, but they aren’t figuratively wandering anymore – sort of — and they still do everything down to the nth instruction, including living in the tents/booths during the first seven days of this celebration, the daily procession around the altar or tabernacle, and on the seventh day they march around it seven times!

Oh, here’s another interesting facet of this celebration: They recite Psalm 27 at the daily service at the Feast of Tabernacles. Ooh, that got my curiosity. I’ll be right back. I want to check out Psalm 27. Maybe you should too.

I’ve got to share! The “theme” pulled me right in to this Psalm of David. It says: “God offers help for today and hope for the future. Unwavering confidence in God is our antidote for fear and loneliness.” But listen to the first couple of verses: “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?”

Isn’t that beautiful and every bit as relevant for us as it was the Israelites who wandered in the desert for forty years looking for their promised land? What powerful words of confidence for us as Christians to remind ourselves when our circumstances seem to be just too much to bear, when our wandering seems to stretch out like the hottest, largest desert. What amazing words of truth which entwine the Jew and Christian on common ground with the most powerful thread, the Christ that we have found, the One they are looking for.

Join me tomorrow for more diamonds of facts about this party that we’re going to which will take us to The Adulterous Woman.

Blessings,

Evinda