A Huge Camp-out

Good morning!

Our text today is John 7.

Have you ever been to a "campground meeting"?  In the South, this is an evangelistic meeting, usually lasting about a week, where believers come together outside under a big tent or pavilion to be revived themselves and to share the gospel with their neighbors.

The Jewish Feast of Tabernacles was similar to that.  Sukkot, as it is also called, takes place in the fall of the Roman calendar year, usually in late September/early October, after the harvest had been gathered.  Remember that the Jewish calendar is a lunar calendar, whereas the Roman calendar is a solar calendar.   Hence, the difference. At any rate, the feast was set by God as a time of thanksgiving and commemoration of God's deliverance of the people of Israel.  (See Leviticus 23:33-43.)

Sukkot was one of three Jewish feasts which required the presence of every Jewish male at the temple in Jerusalem.  This, of course, swelled the population of the city to enormous proportions.  God had commanded that, during this feast, the people were to live for the 8 days in temporary dwellings, tents, "booths".  It was a huge camp-out!  The symbolism was to remind the Israelites of the many years that they were a bedouin people, living in tents as their constant dwelling.

The Feast of Tabernacles or Booths, as it is often called is the backdrop for John 7.  Jesus' brothers, who are not convinced He is the Messiah, urge Him to go down to Jerusalem for the feast because, although it is a given He is being stalked by the Jewish religious leaders, they make the point that His recent pattern of doing His miraculous works in the Galilee area will not further His reputation (vs. 3-5).

Isn't it curious that Jesus' brothers did not at this time believe?

It is interesting to note that Jesus appears to change His mind about whether He would go to the feast or not.  Either that, or He is saying that "it was not time for Him to leave yet".  At any rate, after His brothers left for the feast, He too left, secretly.  We can be sure that He was going after seeking God the Father's guidance, regardless of His brothers' advice.  For so much of Jesus' ministry, He was a "marked man". He explained why in verse 7.  He was hated by many because He preached that the world's ways are evil.

Jesus began to teach in the Temple during the middle of the feast.  His teaching brought the usual amount of disagreement and misinterpretation of Scriptures, which continues even to the present day. On the last day of the feast, He foretold the coming of the Holy Spirit, in vs. 37-39:

37 On the last day of the feast, the greatest day, Jesus stood up and shouted out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me, and 38 let the one who believes in me drink. Just as the scripture says, ‘From within him will flow rivers of living water.’” 39 (Now he said this about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were going to receive, for the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.)

So, even though we see the coming of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2:1-4 - - -

Now when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like a violent wind blowing came from heaven and filled the entire house where they were sitting.3 And tongues spreading out like a fire appeared to them and came to rest on each one of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit, and they began to speak in other languages as the Spirit enabled them.

- - - Jesus spoke of the Holy Spirit's arrival months earlier, at the Feast of Tabernacles.  He was prophesying about how, after He had finished His work on earth, He would send His Spirit to dwell in all who claim Him as Savior.

We cannot be sustained in our physical bodies without water.  In the same way, our spirits cannot be nourished without the refreshing waters of the Holy Spirit, as we continue in our earthly pilgrimage.
This is the same living water that Jesus referred to when He talked with the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4.

One of the great themes of the Feast of Tabernacles is water - - - how God sustained the Israelites during their nomadic, desert wanderings by providing water for them to drink.  To commemorate this, the Jews would, during this feast, perform a series of water rituals each morning in the Temple.

Another major theme of this feast was light, and we will see in chapter 8 Jesus speak to that as well. In short, Jesus is proclaiming that the very God the people were worshipping and praising for their deliverance has come to dwell in a tent of flesh among them, to effect their ultimate deliverance from sin!

Yet, the confusion and clamor continued.  In this chapter, we see 7 references to either death threats or attempts to arrest Jesus.  See verses 1, 13, 19, 25, 30, 32 and 44.  We will see this escalate in chapter 8.

In the middle of all this mayhem, this spiritual warfare, people still believed in Jesus.  God was still drawing people to Himself.  A striking example of this was the Temple officers who were sent to apprehend Jesus and bring Him before the Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling religious council.  The members of the Sanhedrin were too chicken to go get Him themselves...But, the officers came back empty-handed, much to the anger of the leaders.

"46 The officers replied, “No one ever spoke like this man!”

Indeed.  Indeed.  YO!  Anyone who is thirsty:  come, believe ... and drink!

Lord, Lord.  As Peter said, "To whom shall we go?  You alone have the words of life!" (John 6:68)
I confess the same.  And, I thank you for making Your living water, Your words of life, available to me.  I am blessed beyond measure!  Thank you for another day, for another opportunity to be filled with Your Spirit and to walk....resplendent.  In Jesus' name, amen.