Sukkot (Tabernacles) is the Festival of Wholeness. It is the Marriage Feast of the Lamb where Bridegroom and Bride, incomplete without each other, melt together and become echad or one. Certainly this is true of the Bride since her allegorical Bridegroom, Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ), is already perfect. To find that harmony in union with another, but also within the soul which all too typically is divided and at war with itself, is the ultimate fruit of the Seventh Festival.

Today is the sixth day of Sukkot and like every day of this divine moed (appointment) I have sought for a clear word from Yahweh for my daily message. The one I got for today initially baffled me. Let me read it to you - it's from the Book of Ecclesiastes, chapter 7 and verses 16 to 18:

"Be not overly righteous, and do not make yourself too wise. Why should you destroy yourself? Be not overly wicked, nor a fool. Why should you die before your time? It is good that you should take hold of this, and from that withhold not your hand, for the one who fears Elohim (God) shall come out of both of them" (Eccl.7:16-18, ESV).

It was late last night when I received this and my head spun. What was Solomon saying? In the verse immediately before, he writes:

"In my vain (senseless) life I have seen everything. There is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his evildoing" (Eccl.7:15, ESV).

"So don't destroy yourself by being too good or acting too smart! Don't die before your time by being too evil and acting like a fool. Keep to the middle of the road. You can do this if you truly respect Elohim (God)" (Eccl.7:16-18, CEV).

Read too hastily, this passage can look as though a very cynical Solomon is advocating moral laxity so as not to be destroyed for being too good or prospering by being evil. Apart from such an idea being totally contrary to everything Solomon ever taught about Yahweh, and his conclusion to the book which is "fear Elohim (God) and keep His mitzvot (commandments), for this is the whole duty of man" (Eccl.12:13b, ESV), he says a few verses on, in the next chapter:

"Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his life, yet know that it will be well with those who fear Elohim (God), because they fear before Him. But it will not be well for the wicked, neither will he prolong his days like a shadow because he does not fear before Elohim (God)" (Eccl.8:12-13, ESV).

So what did he mean when he said, "do not be overly righteous" (Eccl.7:16, ESV) or "too righteous" (NRSV)? Can a man or a women ever be "too good or too wise" (CEV)? Here it becomes important to know how the Tanakh (Old Testament) uses terms like "righteous" and "righteousness" otherwise we're going to get really confused. You see, these two words do not refer exclusively to ethical or moral behaviour but can also refer to being 'right' or 'just' in one's case, as in a legal case (e.g. Dt.25:1). This is the sense in which Solomon is using the word - he has observed instances where people who were technically in the right still lost their court case, whilst someone who was actually in the wrong won the dispute, as he goes on to explain in the next chapter:

"There is a vanity (senselessness) that takes place on earth, that there are righteous people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked, and there are wicked people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous. I said this also is vanity (senseless)" (Eccl.8:14, ESV)

"There is something else that doesn't make sense to me. Good citizens are treated as criminals, while criminals are honoured as though they were good citizens" (Eccl.8:14, CEV).

And I am sure that you, like me, share his frustration at all the injustice down here on earth, justice, by the way, we're never going to get until Yah'shua (Jesus) returns at Yom Teruah, deals out real justice at Yom haKippurim, and then unites with His Bride - us - in shalom (peace) at Sukkot.

So, far from advising us to steer some sort of less troublesome moral 'middle' path to avoid the excess at both ends - a lack of justice for the righteous or choosing sin in order to prosper, his counsel is in fact to do something that we tend to regard as...how shall I put it?...unfair. He's saying, don't be obsessed about being proved right in an argument or dispute. It's not the most important thing. He's saying, to insist on 'being right', winning an argument or getting justice is ultimately self-destructive in an unkind, unjust, and evil world: to live this way, to insist on 'winning' will only alienate everyone around you, the very same counsel that Paul gave the Corinthians:

"To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? But you yourselves wrong and defraud - even your own brothers!" (1 Cor.6:7-8, ESV)

Solomon advises us to pick our battles wisely, and that's where wisdom comes into the picture. A willingness to suffer wrong, if not tempered with the wisdom to know when to insist on the justice of one's cause, can lead to self-destruction (vv.17-18). He says:

"Don't die before your time by being too evil or acting like a fool. Keep to the middle of the road. You can do this if you truly respect Elohim (God). Wisdom will make you stronger than the ten most powerful leaders in your city" (Eccl.7:17-19, CEV).

There is an important difference between being seen by other people to be right and simply being right, which is wisdom. In fact, it might even save your life. But there are always those people who want to 'fight to be right' at any cost, even if it means dying for an unworthy cause. Be as wise as a serpent but as harmless as a dove (Mt.10:16).

Why am I saying all this today, at Sukkot? Because there is, as it were, a spiritual veil separating what is represented by the spirit of Shavu'ot (Weeks, 'Pentecost') and what is represented by the spirit of Sukkot - the spirit that finds its climax in that joyful Wedding Feast. And that is the difference between being right and being wise, the difference between being self-justified and having shalom (peace). That is the veil that must be crossed to receive the Sukkot anointing.

There are two big changes that have taken place in my life in recent years that have given me a greater measure of shalom (peace). The first is accepting that in the vast majority of cases we aren't going to get justice in this world until Christ returns, and to live with that, accepting that, having done all one reasonably could, having received permission from Yahweh to do it. The second, as in any successful marriage - which is what Sukkot (and indeed all the festivals are ultimately about...about being in right relationship with our allegorical Bridegroom, Yah'shua/Jesus) - is that you don't need to be proven right in the eyes of men, even your own spouse, to be vindicated - established as being right or righteous - in the eyes of Elohim (God).

Our shalom (peace) does not, at the most important level (which is spiritual), come from men, whether unbelievers, believers or even our own wife or husband! It truly doesn't! We are none of us going to see eye-to-eye in everything, and desirable though it is to be agreed, and though we should certainly strive for that as best we can, our main task is to be makers of shalom (peace):

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of Elohim (God)" (Matt.5:9, NKJV).

So what do we do, if we cannot get justice, or resolution, or unity, and we believe ourselves to be right? We shall forgive, and forgive again, and again, and again... (Mt.18:21-22) because this is the only way ahavah (love) and chesed (mercy) can freely flow while we are struggling to find that echad (unity) we are commanded to pursue above all else as Yah'shua (Jesus) taught in His High Priestly Prayer in the 17th chapter of the Gospel of John:

"Holy Father, keep through Your name those (talmidim/disciples) whom You have given Me, that they may be echad (one) as We are (echad/one)" (John 17:11, NKJV).

"And for their sakes I sanctify Myself (make Myself qadosh, holy, set-apart), that they also may be sanctified by the emet (truth)" (John 17:19, NKJV).

Yesterday we saw how important TRUTH and LOVE were to the aged apostle John and what I am saying tonight is really just a continuation of that. For Wisdom - Hochmah - is of Love (Ahavah) and Chesed (Mercy) which bespeak forgiveness. Those who have arrived at the Sukkot Anointing have found rest and inner peace. They know which battles to fight, and when, and which to leave off even if it means suffering injustice. They are content to leave the final Court to Yahweh when His Son comes back, as He will do one Sukkot in the future. This is not an easy easy thing to do because it means relinquishing self-will and being willing to sacrifice short-term justification for long-term peace. We can rest - have shalom (peace) - in the anointing which is the New Creation Life, that is, it's fullness which is made available to us in part in the present. The important thing is to simply remain in Messiah and keep on carrying out His daily instructions to us. That way we shall be, and remain, whole.

I was tempted to forget all about Ecclesiastes 7:16-18 and leave the hastily scribbled note in my diary, "What on earth does this mean??!" alone, but experience has taught me not to be so easily dismissive of what I cannot at first understand. He explained it to me this evening and I am not sharing that message with you now.

I look forward to seeing you for the seventh and last day of Sukkot (Tabernacles) tomorrow and then for the second main Sabbath Assembly the day after. Until then, have a blessed evening or whatever time of the day it is in your time zone, full of the grace, love and peace of our Saviour. Amen.