“On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” John 7:37-39.
This is the Feast of Tabernacles alluded to earlier in John 7:2. The feast was eight days long and on the first day 13 bullocks would be sacrificed, with the number decreasing daily until the eighth day when only one would be sacrificed.
If you are reading this between October 5th 2017 and October 11th 2017, you are reading it during the Feast of Tabernacles in Israel. The feast began on October 4th after sundown according to Jewish reckoning and ends on the 12th. So Jesus uttered these words about 1,988 years ago this week.
Along with a number of other things prescribed in the Law of Moses the Jews began a traditional rite of carrying water from the pool of Siloam, rendered Shiloah in the Hebrew.
The ritual began with water being carried from the pool in a golden pitcher to the temple altar where it was poured in one of two silver containers, and wine was poured into the other.
There is no fixed reason why this ceremony was done. Tabernacles is the only feast that had this ritual, and its meaning to the Jews varies.
Jesus clarified everything when He stood and said to them.
“If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.” John 7:37b.
The water is seen as symbolic of the Holy Spirit.
“But this He spoke concerning the Spirit” John 7:39a.
The container it is carried in is gold, symbolic of God. In the tabernacle, the Ark of the Covenant was gold, the Lampstand was gold, the golden altar was gold, all of these are representative of God; Jesus is God.
The water was poured out of a golden container into a silver one. Silver may symbolize God’s word.
“The words of the Lord are pure words, like silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.” Psalm 12:6.
Silver can also signify believers who have been purified by affliction. Of the two the latter seems more likely.
“For You O God, have proved us; You have refined us as silver is refined.” Psalm 66:10.
The reason this seems more probable is that Holy Spirit/water, is poured into one silver vessel while wine is poured into the other. Wine may either symbolize the blood of Christ or the gospel of Christ.
Again the blood seems the more likely since it is by the shedding of Christ’s blood that the Holy Spirit was made possible for the common man cleansed by that blood.
That this is probable is seen in that the water and wine were then poured out on the altar. The brazen altar represented the judgment of sin and ultimately the sacrifice of Christ on the cross.
No wonder then that the Lord could say of Himself.
“He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” John 7:38.
It is fascinating to think of this rite coming together through the quiet urging of the Holy Spirit, by men who were unaware of how God’s plan of salvation was to be carried out.
As for the view the Jews had of the Holy Spirit, He was one of the five things that were not in their present temple. The second temple, known as Herod’s temple; the first one built by King Solomon was destroyed by the Babylonians about 600 years earlier.
One, the Ark of the Covenant had disappeared after the Babylonians destroyed the first temple and was never recovered.
Two, the Urim and Thummim were gone.
“And you shall put in the breastplate of judgment the Urim and the Thummim, and they shall be over Aaron’s heart when he goes in before the Lord. So Aaron shall bear the judgment of the children of Israel over his heart before the Lord continually.” Exodus 28:30.
There is no certain explanation as to what these are other than the above verse. It is thought that they had something to do with conveying God’s will for the people through the priest.
Three, the fire from heaven was gone; this presumably has to do with the fire from heaven that lit the brazen altar, see Leviticus 6:9, 13 and 9: 24.
“A perpetual fire shall burn on the altar; it shall never go out.” Leviticus 6:13.
“And Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle of meeting, and came out and blessed the people. Then the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people, and fire came out from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the fat on the altar. When all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces.” Leviticus 9:23-24.
Four, the Shekinah Glory, the manifest presence of God was gone. The departure of the glory of the Lord is described in stages in Ezekiel 10:4, 18, 19 and 11:23.
Five, the Holy Spirit was gone, departed after the last of the Old Testament prophets, Zechariah and Malachi. This lack of the Spirit is their explanation for the 400 years of silence they had since the completion of the Old Testament.
For some, it was the hope of the return of the Spirit symbolized by the pouring out of the water at Tabernacles.
“…out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” John 7:38b.
Here is a wonderful promise to the Christian; not only do we have the Spirit dwelling within us, but we have an overflowing river, not just for ourselves but others too.
“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.” Revelation 3:20.
In this is the fellowship we have with Christ through the Spirit.
“…the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Colossians 1:26-27.
Herein we see that the Christian has something no other generation has had and as a mystery, they did not even conceive of such a possibility.
“For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.” 1 Corinthians 2:11-12.
“For ‘Who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?’ But we have the mind of Christ.” 1 Corinthians 2:16.
By the word of Scripture and the teaching of the Spirit, we can know the deep things of God, things that the world could never understand. This is a marvelous thing for those who have agonized over the meaning of life and God’s plans for them.
“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” John 14:26-27.
Herein is peace, the Spirit within the Christian teaches them and brings them to rest in the words of Christ and in His presence.
We have the peace of the presence of Christ within us, and we worship God by the Spirit within us.
“But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” John 4:23-24.
“For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh…” Philippians 3:3.
However, it does not end there, these rivers of living waters flow outward to those around us, to refresh other weary Christians with words of comfort, or a helping hand in need.
To the unsaved much of the same principle remains, there is the word of encouragement, the giving of the gospel to those who are in despair, and again physical aid through, giving, rescue missions, hospitals, orphanages, or food and clothing.
Christians by the working of the Spirit within them have done much to alleviate the misery around them caused by sin. There is tremendous power in those who are obedient to the urgings of the Holy Spirit within them.
It does not matter how small and insignificant you may feel you are; or for that matter, how unworthy you consider yourself to be, God is a great deal bigger than all of our excuses.
The last phrase in verse 39, “…Jesus was not yet glorified.” is worthy of our meditation. You would think that to be glorified it would be with great pomp and ceremony as they crowned Him king.
Crowds gathering around Him crying out joyously, “To the King eternal be power and glory!” ringing out over and over.
Scarcely would He be able to quiet them as He accepted His crown and authority. What fantastic glory! And this will happen, just as surely as the sun will rise tomorrow, but not this time.
Not this time, this time He will be despised and rejected of men; He will be spat upon and beaten, mocked and scourged, wear a crown of thorns and nailed to a cross and lifted up.
He will thirst for water and for the soothing flow of the Spirit and find ashes, enduring the wrath of God the very wrath that we deserve for our rebellion and sin.
Jesus would drink this cup of anger and wrath to the dregs that we might not taste of it.
“For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” 2 Corinthians 5:21.
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23.
“And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)…” Ephesians 2:1-5.
“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.” Romans 5:8-10.
It seems odd that someone could be glorified in such a gruesome, painful death, yet when you weigh the tremendous victory that comes from this death and the power of His resurrection, it staggers the imagination.
Rivers of Living Water, John 7:37-39 taken from godisrevealed.com posted on 11-15-12, updated 10-5-17
Scripture taken from the New King James Version, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission, all rights reserved.