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John 7, today’s reading, which you can read for yourselves in the weekly readings, is on The Feast of Tabernacles which is a Jewish Feast that celebrates the harvest.
Today, so happens to be Harvest Sunday and we will celebrate Harvest Supper on Wednesday.
We remember the many ways God has supplied our need in different ways over the course of our lives.
This Jewish Feast lasted a week.
It was a time to remember all the ways God supplied all their needs whilst in the desert for 40 years.
The command to have this festival in:
This is a huge festival, one of the three compulsory ones where all the males had to go up to Jerusalem.
So the City was buzzing during this week.
Now I used to, in my early 20s, go to Christian Festivals where over 5000 people were camping in a field, a number of times to something called Faith camp in Peterborough, another to Spring Harvest in Minehead.
It was quite something.
Well, Jerusalem was like this.
It is called the Feast of Booths; today they call it ‘Sukkot’ and it happens every year in September.
This year it starts at sundown today.
Every year they would put up tent-like structures that had to be thin enough for sunlight to come through and could open to the stars above.
Why?
It reminds them of their time under the stars in the desert.
The rooftops are filled with these structures.
When they were out and about you would see the people wearing their Sabbath’s best.
They called this the season of gladness.
Sukkot also teaches us that salvation is a journey with God: we are led out by God towards the Promised Land and he travels with us.
After the Exodus, God himself 'tabernacled' or camped with his people in the desert and provided for their needs with manna.
So, this festival reminds us of God's provision and his presence.
He was a pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night, and he was worshipped in the Tent of Meeting, itself a temporary structure.
He dwelled with his people.
Centuries later, God dwelled among us uniquely by tabernacling in another temporary structure, a human body: "...the Word became flesh and dwelt [or tabernacled] among us" (John 1:1).
The Feast of Tabernacles was a time of spiritual revival for the people of Israel, taking place at key moments in their history.
Solomon dedicated the first Temple and brought in the ark during the seventh month, the time of the Feast of Tabernacles.
This Festival takes place straight after Yom Kippur which is a time of mourning and reflection and confession of ones sins.
It is hardly surprising that revival would be the result.
At this dedication of the Temple but God Himself arrived:
Fire also came down and consumed his offering and cloud filled the Temple, symbolising God's presence with his people in the desert as pillars of cloud and fire.
Repentance always precedes revival.
Without it there will not be one:
One tradition of the Feast of Tabernacles was a water-drawing ceremony (described in the Mishnah).
Each morning at dawn during the Feast a procession of priests, musicians and other worshippers would leave the Temple and process about half a mile to the Pool of Siloam.
They would come with a citrus fruit in their left hands (an ethrog).
The ethrog was a reminder of the land to which God had brought them and of their bountiful blessings.
In their right hands the people would carry a lulab, which was a combination of three trees—a palm tree, a willow, and a myrtle, emblematic of the stages of their ancestors’ journey through the wilderness.
Each morning the people gathered together, and the priest made sure everything was in order.
The High Priest, dressed in full robes and carrying a golden pitcher, led the throng.
At the pool, he would fill the pitcher and then process back to the Temple through the Water Gate of the City.
Remember that there are eight gates in Jerusalem.
This was one to the South.
At the Water Gate, they paused while trumpeters blew three blasts on silver trumpets and the priests would sing or shout, "With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation" (Isa 12:3).
Then the High Priest ascended to the altar, which was elevated, and upon which stood two silver basins.
He poured water into one and wine was poured at the same time into the other as the trumpet players blew three more blasts.
Then the whole congregation and choir of Levites sang from
There they would pour both the water and wine into special funnels, which created droplets which would come out at the bottom of the altar.
It was a sign of the outpouring of God's Spirit and, as it would turn out, of his own lifeblood.
John's gospel tells us that water and blood came from Jesus' side as his life was poured out on the altar that was the Cross.
The worshippers would be waving their lulavs and singing psalms 113-118 beseeching God for salvation.
This joyful cacophony would fill the air, culminating in a fever pitch on the seventh day of the feast.
This last day was known as Hoshanah Rabbah meaning 'Great Salvation' and it was the most intense day of all, with seven circuits of the altar by the priests and seven trumpet blasts and the people crying, "God save us now".
It was to this Festival that Jesus arrived and what timing!
Let us turn to the reading for today:
It was at the very moment that the High Priest with his golden pitcher held high that Jesus stood up and cried out, as water flowed from the altar:
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."
It was at Sukkot, in fulfilment of its daily water-drawing ceremony and its Messianic expectation, that Jesus stood and declared himself the source of Living Water.
The main fulfilment of this Festival is found in a number of areas.
At Pentecost when we were given the Holy Spirit who tabernacles in us, in our temporary bodily structures.
But the main fulfilment will be that time in the future when God will say:
When we read John 7 we find that it is all about this Festival.
One which Jesus went to.
The people were in expectation and they had one main question: Who is He? Was He good or was he a deceiver?
Was He the Prophet or the Messiah?
There was confusion.
But they were all set to reject Him and of such Jesus said these words which were strange to their ears:
The point for their salvation has almost passed.
Their hearts are solid, they are against Him and will not receive the eternal life He offers.
They are rejecting The Water of Life.
In just six short months Jesus would be back in Jerusalem and there rejected by these same people.
There is now no chance of redemption.
Just as Pharaoh hardened his heart God came and established his heart.
There is a point of no return.
There was no room for repentance for Pharaoh even after he saw the great works of God and his own son die he still rebelled and suffered the consequence.
This was how it was for the Jews there on that day in the crowd, along with the Pharisees and the Chief Priests.
Their rejection of Jesus led to God’s rejection of them and 40 years later Jerusalem was conquered by the Romans.
It was the beginning of the end of the State of Israel.
But even among them there was hope.
We read in the closing words of John 7:
Nicodemus spoke up for Jesus about whether it is right to judge without there being due process, of being innocent until proven guilty.
Nicodemus was coming to the water to be satisfied.
Do we yet hunger and thirst?
Do we look to other things to be satisfied or do we look to the only One who has the ability to quench our thirst?
Why do we wait until we are so completely parched before coming to Jesus?
C.S. Lewis, in the fourth book in the Chronicles of Narnia called, ‘The Silver Chair’ wrote of this.
Now, by way of introduction.
Jill saw the lion and was scared out of her wits and runs into the forest.
She runs so hard that she is about to die of thirst when she hears water.
She goes towards the sound, sees the brook but right there before her is the same lion on the grass:
“Are you not thirsty?” said the Lion.
“I’m dying of thirst,” said Jill.
“Then drink, “ said the Lion.
“May I—could I—would you mind going away while I do?” said Jill.
The Lion answered this only by a look and a very low growl.
And as Jill gazed at its motionless bulk, she realized that she might as well have asked the whole mountain to move aside for her convenience.
The delicious rippling noise of the stream was driving her nearly frantic.
“Will you promise not to—do anything to me, if I do come?” said Jill.
“I make no promise,” said the Lion.
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