“Be joyful at your festival…”
Deuteronomy 16:14
There is something remarkable about the way God taught Israel to remember His provision. He did not tell His people simply to look back and remember the wilderness. He told them to step outside the security of their homes, sit beneath the branches of a sukkah—a tabernacle—and rejoice. For a few days, the solid roof was exchanged for one through which the sky could be seen. The walls were no longer what made a person feel secure. And there, surrounded by reminders of how fragile life can be, God told His people to celebrate His goodness.
Perhaps that is one of the deepest messages of Sukkot. Our security has never ultimately rested in how much we have, but in the faithfulness of the One who provides. Israel learned this in the wilderness, and generation after generation would return to the tabernacle to remember: God carried us. God sustained us. God provided. But there was something else in God’s command that we should not miss. The joy of this Feast was never meant to belong only to those whose tables were full.
God made room in the celebration for those who had less—and that ancient invitation speaks powerfully to us in Israel today.
In the coming days, sukkot will once again appear on balconies, in gardens, and beside homes throughout Israel. Families will gather inside these traditional tabernacles for meals, thanksgiving, and celebration. Yet some will enter the Feast carrying a burden that is painfully ordinary: they are worried about how they will pay for the food. We know some of these families—elderly people living on limited pensions, parents trying to make a stretched household budget reach a little farther, and families who have recently made aliyah and are rebuilding their lives in Israel.
This is where the message of Sukkot becomes something we can live out, not simply something we remember. Through Home of Jesus the King, we are preparing special Sukkot food packages for 500 families in need throughout Israel—lifting a practical burden and helping families enter this season with greater dignity and joy.
There is something especially meaningful to us about doing this as Arab Christians in Israel, blessing our Jewish neighbors during one of the biblical feasts. In a land where Jewish and Arab Israelis can live remarkably close to one another and yet remain separated by so much, practical kindness creates a different kind of encounter. We learn someone’s name. We hear something of their story. They begin to know something of ours. Sometimes a relationship begins with nothing more complicated than meeting a need with dignity and love.
This is how many of the bridges we treasure have been built—not through grand gestures, but through repeated moments in which people discover that someone from the “other” community sees them, values them, and cares about what they are carrying. Our humanitarian assistance is always given freely according to need, regardless of faith or background. As followers of Yeshua, we simply want the love of God to be visible in the way we treat the neighbor standing before us.
This Sukkot, you can make room in the celebration for one more family.
A gift of $50 provides a special food package for one household, and our goal is to reach 500 families before the Feast. Will you help us reach them?
Thank you for being part of our family across the miles. Your love for Israel and for the people we serve is felt here more than you know. God bless you!