On the final day of the Feast of Booths in Jerusalem, the high priest would fill a golden vessel with water from the Pool of Siloam and bring it back to the temple to pour out as an offering to the Lord. This water-pouring ceremony not only expressed gratitude to the Lord for His provision of water that year, but it also looked forward to the day when He would finally pour out His Holy Spirit through the Messiah. It was on this very day that Jesus called out to the crowded city, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water’” (John 7:37-38). What was Jesus saying here? He was declaring that the messianic age had finally arrived, and those who followed Him would be filled with the promised Holy Spirit! As He mentioned in verse 38, He was recalling what the Scripture had earlier said, most likely calling to mind the words of Ezekiel 47, where the prophet was shown a new temple with a spring gushing from within it and flowing out the temple door to the east, watering the wilderness and providing life and healing wherever it flowed. We learn from reading the next verse (John 7:39) that this prophecy Jesus referenced looked forward to when He would send the Holy Spirit. The image Jesus painted for us is of a spring of mineral-rich water with healing properties flowing from within the Christian’s heart and into the lives of those he or she meets. If you have turned from your sin and are trusting Jesus to save you, if you are clinging to Jesus, the life-giving Vine, then this wonderful promise is true of you! You are God’s temple, and the Holy Spirit resides within you and is supplying and renewing you with spiritual life. As you draw from these “rivers of living water” this week, let the fruit they produce bring spiritual nourishment to those around you. Make sure to share the crop of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control with the people the Lord providentially places across your path, and so experience the wonderful promise the Lord Jesus declared on that day: “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water!’”
Pastor Mike