04. The Spirit, rivers of living water (Joh_7:37-39)

(4) The Spirit, rivers of living water (John 7:37-39) The following revelation about the Spirit is when the Lord was in Jerusalem at the last day of the feast of tabernacles. That feast was the last one (the seventh one) in the succession of the Lord’s feasts in Israel. It was celebrated in the fall of each year during the second half month of Ethanim (1 Kings 8:2) (), and took place after the harvest and the vintage, two emblems of God’s judgment and wrath (Leviticus 23:34-36; Deuteronomy 16:13). It lasted seven days (emblem of a complete period in itself) but included an eighth day, a special day of rejoicing (emblem of the Lord’s resurrection). While the sabbath spoke of God’s rest in the first creation (Exodus 20:11), the feast of tabernacles announced God’s rest in redemption in the new creation. But this rest implied the Lord’s death, and this is why He speaks about His departure (John 7:32-33).

Now, in the temple, Jesus cries (John 7:28; John 7:37). His declaration is twofold:

(1) An earnest call to come to Him to all men: "If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink". Christ is the source of the water of life, and man must come to him to have eternal life. God reveals Himself through man’s needs, and His light enters his heart through the conscience, as the example of the woman at Sychar had proven: "Come unto me, ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28). And all men are in the same need of a Saviour, in spite of all apparent differences. The Lord’s call to come to Him is repeated again in the last page of the Scriptures: "Let him that is athirst come" (Revelation 22:17).

(2) He that believes on Christ will experience the Holy Spirit to become in him rivers of living water. Springing from its heavenly source, Christ, the well of living water within the believer (John 4:14), becomes now rivers flowing from him to others in the world. The believer now becomes an instrument, a channel of blessing to others. The expression: "the Spirit was not yet" (John 7:39) doest not refer to the eternal existence of the third Person of the Godhead, but to the fact that He will come to dwell on earth (in the Christians and in the assembly) only after Christ entering into heaven. The moral order of the Lord’s teaching is important:

(1) Firstly, there is a work of the Spirit in a person’s heart, individually, for new birth, and the gift of eternal life;

(2) Secondly, there is a moral exercise in the believer as to the operation of the Spirit to bring us in relation with the Son and the Father and setting us as worshippers: Such is the holy priesthood, in the likeness of Aaronic priesthood for worship (Deuteronomy 33:10; 1 Peter 2:5);

(3) Thirdly, the believers may become channels of blessings to others. This is the royal priesthood, a priesthood of blessing, in the likeness of Melchisedec’s (1 Peter 2:9). The royal priesthood (towards men) comes after (and is consequent upon) the holy priesthood (towards God). We should remember that God comes first; worship is the only Christian service accomplished now on earth by faith which will continue eternally in heaven. Nevertheless, the work of the evangelist during the period of grace, keeps all its value.