As a reminder, Jesus initially stayed behind and let His family go on to the Feast of Booths in Jerusalem. This pilgrimage feast was established to remind Jews of their time in the wilderness (Leviticus 23:33-43) and each family would camp outside in makeshift booths for seven days. Jesus, Himself, we would later read camped on the Mount of Olives (John 8:1-2).
Jesus had arrived mid-week and declared Himself "true": a true prophet validated by signs. John here records the first of two more declarations that occurred on the last day of the feast.
By the time of the Second Temple, the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) (Leviticus 23:33–43; Numbers 29) had grown to include the Water Drawing Ceremony or Simchat Beit HaShoavah.
Each morning of the seven-day feast, a priest would go to the Pool of Siloam, draw a golden pitcher of water, return through the Water Gate, to the temple and pour water and wine over the altar (Mishnah Sukkah 4:9–10).
This was a time of great rejoicing and the acknowledgement of God’s provision through rain with music, dance, torches, and celebration that lasted through the nights of the festivals.
Prayers for the next year’s rain would begin with the Amidah prayer on Shemini Atzeret (the day after Sukkot). For it would we inconvenient for it to rain while dwelling in booths!
It was during this final Water Drawing Ceremony that Jesus declares:
On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”
Like what was said to the Woman at the Well (John 4:10-11) Jesus declares that those that believe will not have to draw water. Out of themselves, as scripture said, would come “rivers of living water”. This comes from the Zechariah’s prophecy concerning the coming Day of the Lord (Zechariah 14:1-9).
Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
John explains for us that the water is the Holy Spirit, the source of eternal life. It is to this fountain that we are invited (Revelation 22:1,17).
Until Jesus was glorified, the effect of the Fall was still in place. Once man’s sin was atoned for and we receive Christ’s righteousness in exchange, then and only then can we receive eternal life and re-enter the Garden. For the combination of eternal life and unrighteousness are not permitted (Genesis 3:22-24).
Recall please the Woman at the Well (John 4:1-42) who had to draw the water from such a great depth. This echoes the effort of the priest drawing the water from the distant Pool of Siloam, which was a 20-minute procession with about a 400-foot elevation change.
Jesus, in this way, continues to press the Gospel. Faith, rather than misguided effort, would unleash God’s blessing of Spirit-filled and eternal life.
Read slowly the following. It has three sections:
- The works of the flesh: things we should never do as part of the temple of God.
- The fruit of the Spirit: things that flow out of us over the thresholds of that temple.
- The footprints of the Spirt: cautions that keep the mortar tight between each brick that makes up the temple.
Galatians 5:16-26
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.
I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
No comments:
Post a Comment