John 7
The feast of tabernacles was to take place after the fruits of the harvest had been gathered in, a time of joy and remembrance of deliverance. At the time when they were celebrating the feast of tabernacles, Jesus was about to go to the cross and die. Jesus, as a result of His work, will show Himself at the last feast of Tabernacles in the time to come, the millennium, when the fruit of the new economy has been gathered in.
At the time of the feast Jesus' brethren had not believed on Him. He told them that His time for the feast of tabernacles had not yet come. The Jews were linked to the world as they kept the feast, for the world does not hate its own. But it hated Jesus because He testified against it. He spoke with them while yet in Galilee.
Jesus' brethren having gone up to the feast, He went also in secret. The Jews sought Him. Jesus taught in the temple during the feast. The Jews wondered how He knew how to teach, having never been educated. Jesus explained that it was not His doctrine, but the Father's that sent Him. He said, "If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of Myself.... He that seeketh His glory that sent Him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in Him." Moses gave you circumcision, and you circumcise on the sabbath day. Why are you angry with Me because I heal on the sabbath day?
Some said, "Do the rulers know indeed that this is the very Christ? Howbeit we know this man whence He is." As Jesus taught in the temple, He cried, "Ye both know Me, and ye know whence I am: and I am not come of Myself, but He that sent Me is true, whom ye know not. But I know Him; for I am from Him, and He hath sent Me."
They would have taken Him, but His hour was not yet come. Having sent men and officers to take Jesus, He said, "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."
What an eternity awaits those who reject perfect love and grace! "Light rejected is moral incapacity. Love rejected is hatred." Such is natural man who refuses the light and hates the one who brings it.
The Gift of the Holly Sprit
On the last, the great day of the feast, Jesus cried, "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 [inward parts] shall flow rivers of living water." This was said in reference to the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Some believed and some did not, so a division arose among them.
Some were sent to take Jesus, but returned, saying, "Never man spake like this man." Nicodemus spoke, saying, "both our law judge any man, before it hear him, and know what he doeth?" They answer, "Out of Galilee ariseth no prophet." They were wrong. See Isa. 9:1-71Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation, when at the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, and afterward did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the nations. 2The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. 3Thou hast multiplied the nation, and not increased the joy: they joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. 4For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian. 5For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire. 6For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. 7Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. (Isaiah 9:1‑7).