Craft

After the wall was completed, what did Nehemiah ask Ezra to do? To read the Book of the Law to all of the people.

How did the people respond? They wept when the law was read because they realized that they had sinned.

Nehemiah stood up and told the people to stop mourning and weeping because it was now a time to celebrate; for the joy of the Lord is your strength! (See Nehemiah 8:10b.)

The next day, they celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles—a special festival that Jewish people still celebrate to this day! Sometimes it is called the Festival of Shelters, or Feast of Booths, or Sukkoth (Suh-COAT) from the Hebrew word for tabernacle. A tabernacle simply means a temporary dwelling place, like a tent. The Feast of Tabernacles lasts for 8 days, beginning and ending on a Sabbath day of rest, where no work was to be done. This festival is a time of joy and thanksgiving to the Lord!

The Feast of Tabernacles begins after the fall harvest is completed, to celebrate how God provided food for the people. It is also a time of remembrance and thanksgiving to God for rescuing the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, and for providing everything they needed while living in the wilderness for 40 years. During the festival, the people live in temporary booths or shelters made from tree branches. These shelters represent the Israelites’ temporary homes as they traveled through the wilderness to their permanent home in the Promised Land.

During the festival in Nehemiah’s time, the people also thanked God for rescuing them from their captivity in Babylon and returning them to their home in Jerusalem!

Optional: read Nehemiah 8:16–18:

So the people went out and cut branches and used them to build shelters on the roofs of their houses, in their courtyards, in the courtyards of God’s Temple, or in the squares just inside the Water Gate and the Ephraim Gate. So everyone who had returned from captivity lived in these shelters during the festival, and they were all filled with great joy! The Israelites had not celebrated like this since the days of Joshua son of Nun. Ezra read from the Book of the Law of God on each of the seven days of the festival. Then on the eighth day they held a solemn assembly, as was required by law.

The Feast of Booths reminds us that Jesus is our Redeemer and Savior. He rescued us and delivered us from the bondage of sin! Our bodies here on the earth are only our temporary home. God provides for us now, as we serve Him here in the world—until He takes us to our permanent home in heaven, where we will have new bodies that will never grow sick or old or die!

Read 2 Corinthians 5:1:

For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God Himself and not by human hands.

Give a Booth Pattern and Instructions to each child, along with children’s scissors and glue sticks or tape. Display the model craft while children assemble their own. Be prepared to assist any children with special needs.