Tabernacles and the Water of Life

Church & Israel Forum

TABERNACLES AND THE WATER OF LIFE

     During the Feast of Tabernacles in Israel, there are many prayers offered for rain. By this time of year, the country has usually gone through five or six hot months with no rainfall and things have become pretty dry. At some point during this festival, the very first shower of rain often falls. This shower of precious heavenly water brings much rejoicing and hope for more rain during the approaching winter months.
    Along this same line, one important part of the celebration of Tabernacles in biblical times was the "Water-drawing Festival." In this celebration, a young cohen (priest) took a golden pitcher to the Pool of Siloam and filled it with water. He then led a large procession of people as they carried lighted torches and made their way up to the Temple. Upon arriving at the Temple, the water was poured upon the altar, and the people broke out into jubilant song and dance. The ceremony was an entreaty for abundant rain.
     The rabbis have connected this celebration with Isaiah 12:3, where it is said, "With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation." The rabbis also have said, "He that never has seen the joy of the Beth ha-She’ubah (The Water-drawing Festival) has never in his life seen joy" (Mishnah-Sukkah 5:1). It was almost certainly in connection with this Water-drawing Festival that Jesus made an astounding declaration. On the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles he cried in a loud voice, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him" (Jn. 7:37-38). The writer John tells us that Jesus was speaking about the Holy Spirit whom his followers would receive.
     The natural need for water is basic to human life, but so is the corresponding spiritual need. Let us consider some aspects of this truth.

THE THIRST FOR GOD

There are several places in scripture where the natural thirst and need for water is compared with the thirst for God. In one of his journeys through Samaria, Jesus encountered a lone woman who had come to draw water at the well of Sychar. She came to the well during the hot, shimmering noon hour. No doubt, she came alone at such a time to avoid the ridicule of the other women. They had probably all drawn their water in cool of the early morning hours. She needed natural water, but she also desperately needed spiritual water. Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life" (Jn. 4:13-14).
This woman probably knew her spiritual life was barren. Jesus quickly confirmed this fact. As he looked into her life he told her about her wretched past - how she had had five husbands, and that the man with whom she was living was not her husband. At that point the woman seemed to lose all interest in natural water and began to seek the spiritual water which could quench her thirsty soul. She was so overjoyed at this prospect that she left her water pot and ran to her village, inviting everyone there to come and hear Jesus.
Truly, the human soul is parched without God. The Psalmist cried out, "As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God" (Psa. 42:1-2). It is clear in scripture that the Lord has made abundant provision for this deep need of man. The Lord promises in Isaiah 44:3, "For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants." The experience of God's salvation in Jesus is truly water for a thirsty, dying soul. Still, there is more. God desires that we not just drink, but that we become a bubbling source of supply for the needs of dying humanity.

HAVING YOUR OWN SPRING

It seems that many people today, even after they have come to know the Lord’s salvation, are often living from cup to cup, or from water pot to water pot. We sing, "Here's my cup Lord - I lift it up Lord, come and fill this thirsting of my soul..."
     Now a cup or a water pot is great if one is dying of thirst, but this kind of supply will pose grave dangers in the end-day. The prophet Amos warns, "The days are coming, ‘declares the Sovereign LORD,’ when I will send a famine through the land—not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD. Men will stagger from sea to sea and wander from north to east, searching for the word of the LORD, but they will not find it." (Amos 8:11-12). Yes, the time is coming when the spiritual water pots will be empty, and when thirsty, dying men and women will seek God’s Word, but strangely, they will not be able to find it.
     There is another common approach to spiritual water-collecting in Christianity. We might call it the "cistern approach." There are numerous cisterns in Jerusalem that have survived intact from ancient times. Some of these public cisterns can hold vast amounts of water. Certainly, the cistern has more capacity than a water pot or cup. Yet, it too, has some real limitations. It has no natural inflow or renewal. In the hot summer it will certainly become stale and can also run dry after months without rain. The cistern only has an outflow if it happens to leak. In ancient times the people of Israel deserted God and ran to the idols of the land. The Lord said to them, "My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water" (Jer.2:13).
     The whole idea of storing or hoarding water is somewhat selfish and futile anyway. This approach may describe the person who has received revelation in the knowledge of God, but has somehow failed to use it and to dispense it to others. We know that such old cisterns often fill up with filth. Also, croaking frogs and creepy things tend to hang around such places.
     Then there is what we may call the "well approach." It is certainly an improvement over the cistern. We learn in scripture that our father Abraham dug wells (Gen. 21:30-32). Isaac also dug wells (Gen. 26:32). One thing about digging wells is that one has to move a lot of earth to get a well. This may give us insight concerning what it may take to get our own well in operation. Often a lot of earth (flesh) must be removed. Once Isaac had to unstop the wells his father had dug. We need to unstop some of our wells today.
     The Bible compares the righteous to wells: "The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life" (Pro. 10:11). The righteous, even when they pass through the Valley of Baca (weeping), they make it a well (Psa. 84:6). God’s people should be able to bring the cool refreshing water of life to thirsty men and women in this day.
     The well is a big improvement over the cistern since it has a water supply, however the well is somewhat limited, and may produce only enough for one family or small village. Sometimes in the hot summer, even a well can go dry. I remember many years ago when my wife’s family depended upon a well. They often had to bring water in from other sources in the heat of the summer. Sometimes it was impossible to do the washing because the well was almost dry. Also, even a well can become polluted.
     What God desires is that we become a spring. In Numbers 21:17, we see a miraculous springing well dug by Moses and the elders; "Then Israel sang this song: 'Spring up, O well! Sing about it...'" (Num. 21:17). All Israel was watered at that springing well. This is the answer to empty water pots, cracked cisterns and polluted wells.
     In the Bible the land of Israel is described as a land of springs (Deut. 8:7). This is still true today, and when we see place names like Ein Gedi, or Ein Kerem, etc., we can know that a spring is there, since the Hebrew "ein" means spring. The spring is not stale, polluted, limited, but it is cool and refreshing, even in drought. The Bible says, "The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail." (Isa. 58:11). The spring is unlimited. It can serve not one or two, but thousands. People must come to the well, but the spring goes out to the people.
     We need to ask ourselves: Do I have my own well, or even better, do I have my own spring? Does my life flow out to others, or am I always taking my water pot out to others for filling? Even some of us who have been Christians for many years need to periodically make an assessment of our spiritual condition. I have a little test which I give to people as I teach on this subject. Perhaps it would do us all good to take it. Check the answer which best applies to your life: My general spiritual condition is: 1. Dry as a bone; 2. Dry most of the time; 3. There’s some water, but not much, and its pretty stale; 4. Through Jesus I have my own well to sustain me spiritually; 5. I’ve got a river of life flowing out of me. If our answer is yes to any one of the first three statements, we need to make some changes.
     As we read the Bible carefully we become aware that there is a joyous and even glorious dimension of Christianity that few seem to find. It is a dimension over and above the dimension of our salvation. It is found in the Holy Spirit which Jesus promised on several occasions to his followers. We tend to overlook those passages where the Bible actually commands Christians to "be filled with the Spirit" (Eph. 5:18). Those early disciples were "filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy" (1 Pet. 1:8). That joy flowed out to others and it changed the world.
     How do we get that joy? How do we get a spring? It comes by fully accepting Jesus as our Lord and being filled with his Holy Spirit. Jesus told the Samaritan woman, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water" (Jn.4:10). Now that we know of this gift, all we have to do is ask God and he will give it to us.

-Jim Gerrish

This updated article is presented courtesy of Bridges For Peace (original publication date, 1994).