WORD STUDY – TABERNACLE/CLOUD SUKAH סכה
Isaiah 4:6: “And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain.”
The word tabernacle here is sukah. It is the root word for sukkoth as in the Feast of Sukkoth (tabernacles). However, the primary use sukah is for a covering. It is often used for a cloud that covers. This may actually be a reference for the cloud that covered Israel during the wilderness wanderings rather than the tabernacle used for worship. The desert is harsh, cruel with uncaring forces of nature – bitter cold by night and blistering heat by day. A strong young person barely survives but the nation of Israel had young children and elderly. They all survived by the miracle of the sukah, the protective cloud sukah that surrounded them.
God may not physically remove us from the harsh realities of life, our problems, difficulties and heartbreaks, but He does provide a sukah, a covering like a cloud to protect us from the harsh realities as He did with the children of Israel as they crossed a life threatening desert.
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