Spirit

This week we begin worship with:

John 7:37-38

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.’”

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!

Recall please the Woman at the Well (John 4:1-42) who had to draw the water from such a great depth, to whom Jesus offered Living Water.

John 4:10

Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”

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 -- "the gift of God" (John 4:10).

Fortunately for us, John explains who is the "Living Water".

John 7:39

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.

For those that have a moment, please read Galatians 5:16-26:

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 (Ezekiel 47:1-12)
• The footprints of the Spirt: cautions that keep the mortar tight be-tween each brick that makes up the temple.