Leviticus 23
BEFORE leaving this chapter it might be helpful to mention that it was during the feast of tabernacles that the Lord Jesus went up to Jerusalem and into the temple (John 7). It was no longer a “feast of the Lord,” or one which He could call “My feast,” but it had become merely “the Jews’ feast.” He who had given that feast for Israel’s joy and rejoicing was rejected: “He came unto His own, and His own received Him not.” John 1:1111He came unto his own, and his own received him not. (John 1:11). They rejected the King and the kingdom, and the Lord rejects their feast.
His own brethren had said to Him, “Go into Judea,... and show Thyself to the world.” But it was not the time for Him to show Himself to the world. The day will come when He will manifest Himself to the world, not in weakness, as the meek and humble One on earth, but in power and heavenly glory.
Yet the Lord did go up to the feast, not in greatness and splendor, but as a humble Teacher and faithful Witness. We read:
“In the last day, that great day of the feast (the eighth day), 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 [or innermost being] 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.)" John 7:37-3937In 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. 38He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. 39(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.) (John 7:37‑39).
Since Jerusalem refused her King, the kingdom of which the feast of tabernacles speaks, has been deferred already for nearly 2000 years. The peace and blessing she forfeited long ago awaits the future day when He shall return and they shall say, “Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord.” In the meantime the Lord gives the living water — the Spirit of God — to thirsty souls who come to Him and drink. He gives joy, and peace, and rest to those who believe on Him, and rivers of water, streams of refreshment flow out from them to others.
I heard the voice of Jesus say,
“Behold I freely give,
The living water—thirsty one,
Stoop down, and drink, and live.”
I came to Jesus, and I drank
Of that life-giving stream;
My thirst was quenched, my soul revived,
And now I live in Him.
May we know what it is to come to the Saviour and drink of those living streams of life, for our own refreshment and for the blessing of others.
ML-10/08/1972