John 7:1-2,37-52, Let’s Go Camping (Succoth, 3)

Do we have a record of Jesus celebrating Succoth?  Yes!  It’s in John 7.  Jesus did not go at first because of what we would call “security” issues.  He was there secretly at first but then, “about the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and taught” (7:10-14).

Some important truths were announced by Jesus in 7:37-39 on what John calls “the last day, that great day of the feast.”  This was not “Simchat Torah” which was the day after the last day but was the day referred to as “Simchat (the rejoicing) beit (at the place of) Hashoavah (the water drawing).”  Each morning the priest would go to the pool of Siloam, and bring water back up to the temple to be poured out as part of a drink offering.  In just the last few years the path that connected the temple with the pool has been discovered and excavated.  In 2014 the Temple Institute people did a reenactment of this ceremony.  It was always accompanied with great and joyful celebration.  The ceremony was not commanded in the Torah but was part of Jewish oral tradition and was tied to Isaiah 12:3: “Therefore with joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.”

It was in the context of this ceremony, on the last day of the Feast, that Jesus said, “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.”  John 7:39 tied Jesus' words to the Holy Spirit who would be given to all who believe after Jesus was glorified (i.e. after His resurrection).  The question is, why did Jesus use the Feast of Tabernacles?

·       What Jesus said deals with the New Covenant promised in the Old Testament.  Succoth is about the old (wilderness days) versus the new (being in the land).  So that can make sense.

·       It seems likely Jesus did this as the joyful procession returned from Siloam.  What Jesus announced is news of great joy.

·       And of course, there is the “living water” theme connected to the Holy Spirit.

Let’s review the connection of the New Covenant with the Holy Spirit.  Remember that Moses acknowledged that the people of Israel were not equipped to keep the law that they were committed to keep (Deut. 29:4).  Even before they entered the land Moses acknowledged the truth that would become the New Covenant: “The LORD your God will circumcise your heart” (Deut. 30:6). 

God revealed through the prophets various details of this NC.  It would be an arrangement whereby Israel would be able to walk faithfully with God, something they had never been able to do (Jer. 31-34).  How would this be possible?  Isa. 59:21 says that God’s Spirit and God’s words would never depart from His people.  That, of course, is what Jesus is referring to in John 7.  Ezekiel spoke of what the Holy Spirit and the word of God would bring about:

·       There will be a newness of heart and spirit in the believer (Ezek. 36:27-28).

·       The believer will have a deep and true relationship with God (Ezek. 37:27-28).

·       God’s face will shine on the believer (Ezek. 39:29).

All of that is the experience of believers today, living in the time after the glorification of Christ.  All of that was not the experience of the people of Israel in the pre-Christ time.  Those kinds of blessings could not belong to God’s people until their sins were atoned for at Calvary.  “Oh the power, of the cross!”