John 7:37-39 I am a trickle, we are a river
Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.'” But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
John 7:37-39 NASB
What an incredible promise delivered in an unusual and dramatic way. Jesus was not attention-seeking or purposefully dramatic, but this interaction is different. He stands in a very public and traditionally religious setting and shouts at a climactic moment during the Feast of Booths. He compels people to acknowledge their thirst and believe in him. It was not subtle. In exchange for believing, you will receive thirst quenching living water — which John clarifies as the Holy Spirit’s inhabitation in the near future. This moment is so poignant when contrasted to his brothers’ disparaging comments earlier:
For no one does anything in secret when he himself seeks to be known publicly. If You do these things, show Yourself to the world.
John 7:4 NASB1995
He rebuffed them with:
So Jesus *said to them, “My time is not yet here, but your time is always opportune.
John 7:6 NASB1995
He was reluctant to attend, knowing the Jews were seeking to kill him. When he did, he traveled discreetly.
But when His brothers had gone up to the feast, then He Himself also went up, not publicly, but as if, in secret.
John 7:10 NASB1995
Then, dramatically, as though he dismisses his own concern, he marches into the hornet’s nest and makes one of the most profound promises of his ministry. As I meditate on this I ask, why? And why now?
The Feast
When Israel was established as a nation after leaving Egypt, Moses established ritual feasts during the year to both look back at their history and look forward to what is to come — in Christ. For example, the Passover reminds Israel of their time in Egypt and the need to put blood on their doorposts which allowed them to escape the last plague when the spirit of death killed all of the first-born children. At the same time, the blood of lamb did not release them from sin; it looked forward to the time of Christ who would give his blood. He was the real lamb to whom the feast pointed. Similarly, Pentecost was celebrated as a time of thanksgiving for the first-fruits of the wheat harvest but was prophetically looking forward to the baptism of the Holy Spirit. There are other feasts as well, including the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits and finally Booths which was celebrated at the end of the agricultural season and is a celebration of the crops being brought in and the plentiful bounty of the year.
During this feast, the Jews set up booths, or temporary shelters, reminding them of their journey from Egypt to Canaan and their sojourning in the wilderness.
They could come [Jews from other nations] at this season of the year—not during the winter for the passover, nor yet quite so readily in summer’s heat for Pentecost. But now in the delicious cool of early autumn, when all harvest operations, the gathering in of luscious fruit and vintage were past, and the first streaks of gold were tinting the foliage, strangers from afar off, and countrymen from Judaea, Peraea, and Galilee, would mingle in the streets of Jerusalem… Booths must be erected everywhere—in court and on housetop, in street and square, for the lodgement and entertainment of that vast multitude; leafy dwellings everywhere, to remind of the wilderness-journey, and now of the goodly land.
—Alfred Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah
The Celebration
The feast lasted for seven days, and on the last day there was a priestly ritual of pouring out water in the temple. It was a solemn and culminating moment reflecting great blessing. In John’s gospel, it was immediately after this when Jesus stood up and made this proclamation, “Come to me and drink, from your bellies will flow rivers…”
The ceremony of the outpouring of water, which was considered of such vital importance as to give to the whole festival the name of “House of Outpouring” was symbolic of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
—Alfred Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah
We have here the only Old Testament type yet unfulfilled; the only Jewish festival which has no counterpart in the cycle of the Christian year, just because it points forward to that great, yet unfulfilled hope of the Church: the ingathering of earth’s nations to the Christ.
We can have little difficulty in determining at what part, of the services of ‘the last, the Great Day of the Feast; Jesus stood and cried, ‘If any one thirst, let Him come unto Me and drink!’ It must have been with special reference to the ceremony of the out-pouring of the water, which, as we have seen, was considered the central part of the service. Moreover, all would understand that His words must refer to the Holy Spirit, since the rite was universally regarded as symbolical of His outpouring. The forthpouring of the water was immediately followed by the chanting of the Hallel. But after that there must have been a short pause to prepare for the festive sacrifices (the Musaph). It was then, immediately after the symbolic rite of water-pouring, immediately after the people had responded by repeating those lines from Psalm 118-given thanks, and prayed that Jehovah would send salvation and prosperity, and had shaken their Lulabh towards the altar, thus praising with heart, and mouth, and hands; and then silence had fallen upon them-that there rose, so loud as to be heard throughout the Temple, the Voice of Jesus. He interrupted not the services, for they had for the moment ceased. He interpreted, and He fulfilled them. —Alfred Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah
The feast of Tabernacles. The ingathering of the nations.
I can easily understand the significance that the Feast commemorates in Israel’s history, but the future fulfillment is still unclear. Then Jesus connects this feast with his promise of water flowing from within each believer — the Holy Spirit. When he claims “As the scripture says,” he identifies his scriptural source in Ezekiel. Although there is no word-for-word match for that saying, Ezekiel prophesies about increasing levels of water coming from the temple (Ezekiel 47). The symbolism of water flowing from the temple are very similar to those used in the ceremony at the moment Jesus interrupted the Feast.
To make the connection even stronger, Ezekiel penned his words when Israel was again dwelling in real booths. They were being held captive by the river Chebar in Babylon*. In a vision, an angel said to him,
Son of man, this is the place of My throne and the place of the soles of My feet, where I will dwell among the sons of Israel forever…”
Ezekiel 43:7
Since Christ’s death, believers today know that the temple of God is within believer’s bodies — no longer an architectural structure in Israel, but a fleshly host. His presence inhabits temples of flesh. Then later Ezekiel saw:
Water was flowing from under the threshold of the house…
Ezekiel 47:1
And he continues, observing where the water flowed:
When the man went out toward the east with a line in his hand, he measured a thousand cubits, and he led me through the water, water reaching the ankles. Again he measured a thousand and led me through the water, water reaching the knees. Again he measured a thousand and led me through the water, water reaching the loins. Again he measured a thousand; and it was a river that I could not ford, for the water had risen, enough water to swim in, a river that could not be forded.
Ezekiel 47:3-12 NASB
Jewish temples, people temples, and rivers
Before Christ, the Jewish temple was place where God resided. The presence of God could truly be found in that building of stone. Since Ezekiel’s vision, there has been no Jewish temple that has either looked like or experienced what he wrote. The vision was a symbol. On the day of Pentecost when believers first experienced the infilling of the Holy Spirit, this is when the presence of God took up residence in new real estate — our bodies. Incredibly, people are the temple of God.
Jesus’ invitation had two purposes: the first is to satisfy my own thirst. “Let him come to me and drink.” Then, not only will I be satisfied personally, but I would become a source, “From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.” The Greek, Koilos, means hollow. The belly, bowels, interior or midst of a thing. Can mean, the innermost part of a man, the soul, heart, as the seat of thought, feeling, choice. The source of the water would be from the Holy Spirit deep within the heart and soul of man. In me.
In Ezekiel, it is curious that the Hebrew identifies the initial water flowing as “trickling” out. Later in the story the waters became uncrossable. How could a trickle become a flood? To me, this is another clue about the real fulfillment of the Feast of Booths and the nature of the new temple. From one person comes a trickle. From many comes a flood. The church, the people of God form the river.
In John 14 Jesus said, “in my Father’s house are many rooms,” or dwelling places. When he died, he went “to make preparations” so that the same Spirit that was in him, would now be in us. We are the many rooms. We are each a room. A booth. Together we are a temple. Likewise we are individually a source, but a trickle. When gathered together, we become the river, a torrent! Ezekiel goes on to describe the results of this flow: it is nothing short of transformative.
It is difficult for me to envision believers today coming together and experiencing the flow of the Holy Spirit, especially in our smart phone dominated, digitally connected but non-relational political culture. Yet, Jesus’ prayer in John 17:21 expressed what he believed was possible, “that they may all be one; even as Thou, Father, are in Me, and I in you, that they also may be in us; that the world may believe that you sent us.”
God is the God of the present. In the temple on that great day of the Feast, Jesus connected this grand desire of God with the baptism of the Holy Spirit today. Then the end of the age as his harvest of souls are brought in as together we gather in these earthly tents and release a flow that heals this world. As I live with his Spirit saturating my life, He flows from me. I’m mindful that it has been over 2,000 years since he said this, and even longer since Ezekiel penned his prophecy, yet we have not seen the torrent of God’s presence on this planet that both Ezekiel and Christ spoke of. In fact, the divisions, rudeness, and disrespect I see today is at a level I could never have imagined. But based on Jesus’ prayer for unity, Ezekiel’s vision of a river that is uncrossable, and the hope of fulfillment of the Feast of Booths in the church — the joyful ingathering of the nations (as crops) to celebrate the Feast of Booths — my heart tells me the time is very near.
Isaiah spoke of the future indwelling of the Holy Spirit:
And if you give yourself to the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then your light will rise in darkness and your gloom will become like midday. And the LORD will continually guide you, and satisfy your desire in scorched places, and give strength to your bones; And you will be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail. Those from among you will rebuild the ancient ruins; You will raise up the age-old foundations; And you will be called the repairer of the breach, The restorer of the streets in which to dwell.
Isaiah 58:10-12 NASB
To the Samaritan woman at the well:
Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water. Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”
John 4:10, 13-14
In the book of Revelation speaking of the timeline of events in the last days, John writes further about the stream and its affect on this earth and the new earth:
Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond-servants will serve Him; they will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads. And there will no longer be any night; and they will not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them; and they will reign forever and ever.
Revelation 22:1-5 NASB
In Over My Head (Jenn Johnson)
* I am amazed how God weaves meaning and connects themes to reveal the intentions in his heart. The captivity was a low point in Israel’s history, yet this is when Ezekiel began to describe an incredible vision of heaven (Ezekiel 1) which was rich with symbolism and promise. Many of these symbols are amended and expanded upon in the book of Revelation — which also is speaking of days to come. Starting in chapter 40 Ezekiel saw a vision of the temple.