Dwelling in Huts After 1,000 Years

The word of God contains power to release God’s presence into our lives. The power of God’s word operates when we believe it and do what it says.

The word of God is more valuable than gold (Psalm 19:10). Throughout history, people have risked their lives to find gold. They dive to the depths of the ocean, cross continents, and wage warfare to get gold. Gold is valuable because it can be used to buy things. But gold is limited because it cannot buy the most valuable thing – God’s presence and blessing. God is the most valuable person in the universe. The word of God is what causes the presence of God to be manifested in our lives, and that is why the word of God is more valuable than gold. 

Sometimes people throughout history have risked their lives to obey God. This is better than risking one’s life to get gold, because God is better than everything else. God is looking for people today who will risk their lives to obey him.

In Nehemiah 8, Ezra and other priests read the Old Testament Law to the people and explained what it meant. As they read the Law, the people began weeping because they knew they had disobeyed God’s word.

As Ezra read God’s word, they found out that they needed to dwell in huts made out of tree branches during the Feast of Tabernacles (Leviticus 23:39-42). They were supposed to cut down branches from trees, make huts, and live in those huts for 7 days.

Since that time they had gathered together to read the Law actually was the time of the Feast of Tabernacles, they decided they needed to make huts at that very moment and start dwelling in them. 

Obeying God’s word is a healthy and normal response. When we see something in the word of God that we are not doing, we should just do it.

Dwelling in huts was a new thing for them. For 1,000 years, Israel had not dwelled in huts during the Feast of Tabernacles (Nehemiah 8:17). For 1,000 years, they had ignored this important instruction. 

That is shocking. People often ignore the word of God and do their own religious thing. They think they can worship God however they want to, rather than how God wants them to. This problem is still happening today in the church.

Why did Israel not obey this instruction about dwelling in huts for so long? There are probably many reasons. 

1. They didn’t read the word of God or take it seriously. They didn’t know the Bible told them to dwell in huts, so they didn’t.

2. Their religious leaders didn’t tell them to dwell in huts. They just blindly followed what their religious leaders told them to do, and they didn’t really think for themselves. They probably thought, “the rabbis know more about the Bible than I do, and if they don’t think we need to dwell in huts, then we don’t need to.” 

The religious leaders probably gave the people many excuses as to why people shouldn’t dwell in huts:

“That’s just a minor detail in the Law that doesn’t really matter.”

“It doesn’t matter where you dwell, as long as your heart is right with God.”

“That was just for Joshua’s time. It’s not for us today. Things were more simple back then, so they needed to dwell in huts in those days.”

“They were poor, so they needed huts because they didn’t have permanent homes.”

“They were often traveling, so being able to put up a temporary hut made of branches was an important skill for them to have.”

3. No one else was doing it and dwelling in huts. It’s hard to do something that no one else is doing. In addition, if no one else is doing something, it’s easy to convince yourself that it doesn’t really matter. 

4. It’s too hard to make huts. To go out into the forest, cut down branches, and make huts is difficult. It takes a lot of sawing and cutting. It’s a lot of work to make a hut just to live in for one week.

5. It’s too uncomfortable to live in a hut. There’s not much privacy in a hut, for there are holes to see through. There’s not much protection from rain. The wind might blow, and it will get cold. Bugs may crawl into the hut. 

6. It’s fearful to live in a hut. It’s not safe. It’s risky and dangerous. Snakes and scorpions may come into the hut and bite a person. Thieves may break through the hut and steal your stuff. A kidnapper may come in and steal a child. A murderer may break in and kill someone. Wild animals may break through the hut and devour someone.

7. It’s irrational to live in a hut. It doesn’t make any sense to live in a hut when you have a comfortable house to live in. 

8. It’s too weird to live in a hut. Imagine making a hut in front of your house and living in it. People would have thought you were a little crazy. Society would have scoffed at those who tried to live in huts. 

While the congregation of Israel as a whole did not dwell in huts for 1,000 years, a few people probably did anyway. Maybe some of the prophets or holy people lived in huts. Others probably thought these people were a bit silly, and possibly even crazy. They probably thought they were misinterpreting the Bible and taking it too literally. Society probably thought these extremists needed to go to the Pharisees and get a proper understanding so they know what the Bible actually means.

Even though people came up with many excuses to disobey the word of God, God wanted them to dwell in huts anyway.

When they finally recovered this instruction and dwelled in huts in the time of Ezra, they were full of great joy. They were blessed with God’s presence. The blessing of obeying God outweighed all their fears. God kept them all safe.

Today, we don’t need to dwell in huts during the Feast of Tabernacles because we are living in the New Covenant, not the Old Covenant.

However, there are other, even more radical instructions in the New Covenant, given by Jesus and his apostles. The church does not obey some of these instructions today. Some of these instructions have not been kept since the first century.

People have come up with many excuses for not doing these things.

They say it’s too hard, too risky, was only for that time, is not for today, is too weird, etc. 

As George Whitefield said, “Various are the pleas and arguments which men of corrupt minds frequently urge against yielding obedience to the just and holy commands of God.”

Let’s be willing to be radical for God. We only have one life, and then we’ll stand before his throne. Let’s embrace his words, which are more valuable than gold. In the coming years, as the world is transformed by AI and robotics, the word of God will become essential for God’s people in order for them to survive. God’s word may seem hard, but so what? It’s the only way forward.

Message by Peter (Not by A.I.)