You talked about the gentiles coming to celebrate the feast and you mentioned the stranger coming to celebrate the feast, who are they?
Yes, they are the foreigner, the stranger to the land of Israel. The sojourners were those who dwelled in the land of Israel, which is different. In Hebrew the word ger is for stranger, goyim for nations. Sojourner is different than those who came on a journey to the land of Israel with the sole purpose of celebrating this feast.
How long have you been celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles?
Our organization was birthed out of the first public celebration of Sukkot in September 1980. This will be our 35th feast.
What prompted the celebration in 1980?
There were local Christians involved in Bible colleges and the tourism industry in Israel. While studying and praying they realized the inclusiveness of Sukkot.
They grasped that the Gentiles were welcomed into the sukkahs (the tabernacles) with the Jewish families. So they started putting together the first celebration based on the Hebrew calendar.
During that summer there was a large diplomatic showdown over the status of Jerusalem. The last 13 national embassies in Jerusalem left over the threat of an Arab oil embargo. So these Christians were gathering to celebrate Sukkot as the diplomats were preparing to leave Jerusalem, and all of a sudden not one nation was represented in Jerusalem.
Then you had about 1,000 Christians from 40 nations gathering together to celebrate Sukkot. These people knew the significance of Jerusalem to Israel and stood in an act of solidarity with the Jewish people, agreeing with them that the reunited city belongs to the Jews.
How many nations are represented each year in Jerusalem?
We get between 80 and 100 nations for the feast.
Are there other feast celebrations that the ICEJ holds during the year?
Passover and Shavuot got attached to the Christian holidays of Easter and Pentecost thanks to the development of the early church. So yes, Christians observe these two feasts. Some Christians are going back to their Hebraic roots and discovering the wholeness of Passover and other Jewish traditions built around them and also with Pentecost or Shavuot.
PROFILE: ICEJ
DAVIDS STAR MAGAZINE
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