RIVERS OF LIVING WATER A SPRING OF LIFE-GIVING WATER.

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN

INTRODUCTION

III. THE WITNESS OF JESUS’ CONFLICT WITH THE JEWISH LEADERS.

Jesus at the Feast of Tabernacles.
This feast was celebrated in October. Six entire months had elapsed between this and the preceding chapter.

  32. What is implied in Jesus promise about springs of living water?

The rites of the feast recalled the miraculous interpositions of the Exodus. Water was poured forth each morning in the Temple to recall the smiting of the rock. Two candelabra, lighted each evening, represented the luminous cloud which lighted the Israelites by night.
This feast was celebrated in October each year.


John 7:32-39



Officers Sent to Arrest Jesus

The Pharisees heard that the people murmured such things concerning him; and the Pharisees and the chief priests sent officers to take him. 
Then said Jesus unto them,

Yet a little while am I with you, and then I go unto him that sent me. 
Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me: and where I am, thither ye cannot come. 

Then said the Jews among themselves, Whither will he go, that we shall not find him? will he go unto the dispersed among the Gentiles, and teach the Gentiles? 
What manner of saying is this that he said, Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me: and where I am, thither ye cannot come? 

Rivers of Living Water

In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying,

If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. 
He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. 

(But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.) 

32. What is implied in Jesus promise about springs of living water?

A SPRING OF LIFE-GIVING WATER

“The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God.” The truth of that saying clearly appears in the earlier part of this section. When the Lord spoke of returning to the Father His hearers supposed that He was proposing to visit the Jews of the Dispersion. But how profound are these words of promise to those who come to Him! He is not content with speaking of a river. He uses the plural-rivers shall flow from Him. Add stream to stream, torrent to torrent, river to river, and these will barely suffice to set forth the freshness and abundance of life that shall proceed from the soul that previously had been thirsty for its own personal supply.
When our Lord ascended he received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, and then a new era broke on the world. The life of the believer was no longer only an imitation of obedience. It was the uprising and outpouring of the Holy Spirit from within. We become strengthened with might in the inner man and Christ dwells in our hearts by faith. Thereupon we not only are infilled of the Spirit, but it is His gracious ministry to mankind through us that makes the desert rejoice and blossom.

By Philippus Schutte

New Covenant Israelite! "And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree;  Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee."  Rom 11:17 -18