Day 36.

Prayer:

Heavenly Father, we claim the promise that Your word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path, and Your Word of Truth will set us free, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

John 7: 37-52, Feast of Tabernacles, Part 4.

VV 37-39, 37 On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” 39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.

Every day during the Feast of tabernacles, a priest walked down from the temple to the pool of Siloam and filled a golden pitcher with water. He walked back to the temple and poured the water onto the altar of sacrifice. A shofar blower blew the shofar three times and the people recited Isaiah 12:3, ‘’With joy, you will draw water from the wells of salvation.’’ On the last day of the feast, the priest repeated this 7 times before he poured the water onto the altar of sacrifice.

Just as the priest was pouring out the water, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”

The water ceremony re-enacted water coming out of the rock in the wilderness wandering. The rock was a foreshadow of Jesus.

Exodus 17:6, ” Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel”.

To claim this promise, you must thirst, come, and drink. Thirst is to acknowledge your need for Jesus, come is to respond to His call, and drink is to believe in Him. Matthew 11:28, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest”.

This promise is applicable to everyone. You will not only receive living water but living water will flow out from you. Living Water speaks of the Holy Spirit whom believers will receive after Jesus’ glorification.

VV 40-44, 40 On hearing his words, some of the people said, “Surely this man is the Prophet.”41 Others said, “He is the Messiah.” Still others asked, “How can the Messiah come from Galilee? 42 Does not Scripture say that the Messiah will come from David’s descendants and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived?” 43 Thus the people were divided because of Jesus.44 Some wanted to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him.

Some thought Jesus was the prophet of Deut. 18:15, others thought he was the Messiah. Deut. 18:15, ‘’The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites’’. Some thought the Messiah cannot come from Galilee. Others thought the Messiah will be David’s descendants and will come from Bethlehem. The Jewish leaders wanted to arrest Jesus but no one dared to laid a hand on Him.

VV45-49, 45 Finally the temple guards went back to the chief priests and the Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him in?” 46 “No one ever spoke the way this man does,” the guards replied. 47 “You mean he has deceived you also?” the Pharisees retorted. 48 “Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him? 49 No! But this mob that knows nothing of the law—there is a curse on them.”

The Jewish leaders sent temple gaurds to arrest Jesus, but they dared not arrest Him when He spoke with such authority.. The Jewish leaders pronounced a curse on the Israelites.

VV 50-52, 50 Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own numbers, asked, 51 “Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he has been doing?”52 They replied, “Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee.”

Nicodemus, a ruler of the Pharisees who came to Jesus at night in John 3, defended Jesus. The Jewish leaders told Nicodemus that no prophets ever came from Galilee. They did not do their research correctly. Prophets Jonah and Nahum did came from Galilee!

Prayer:

Heavenly Father, we acknowledged that Jesus of Nazareth is Messiah, Son of God, Son of Man, Holy one of Israel, Holy one of Jacob, Holy one of God, living water, living bread, living manna, and bread of life.in Jesus’ name, Amen.