Even Jesus instructed His disciples that there are times when it was good to “rest a while.”
Esau, with his men and addition of livestock, heads south along the Eastern Plateau towards Mount Seir. Jacob and his expansive household move due west, coming down from the Gilead Dome into the Jordan Valley by way of the passage cut by the Jabbok River. But just as they seem poised to cross into Canaan on their way to Bethel, Jacob stops. Why here when so close to their destination? Succoth sits at the foot of the plateau, overlooking the Jordan, but still outside the Promised Land. Alright, we get it. Everyone needs a little time to relax and recover from the stressful days just past—sneaking out of Padan Aram, arrested by Laban’s posse, wrestling with the Man from heaven, facing down the threat of annihilation at Esau’s hands. It has been quite the high-intensity trip! So, yes, the grasslands of Succoth by the Jordan seem just the right place to recuperate. The name Succoth meaning “booths,” temporary lean-tos, will later in Israel’s history be given to a special festival ordained by God. Even now, observant Jews each year build little tents outside their homes to commemorate the temporary housing they lived in during the forty-year journey from Egypt to Canaan. But more, they were to remember that God Himself went camping with them. Imagine, the God of heaven living in a tent on earth! But that’s not the end of the story. God, in the person of His Son, “dwelt (lit., tabernacled) among us, and we beheld His glory” (Jn 1:14). And still to come, the ultimate Succoth occurs when, in Millennium glory, it will be declared with joy, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God” (Rev 21:3).