Resurrection Lutheran Church, St Catharines

The Feast of Tabernacles commemorated the salvation of God’s people in the wilderness from Egypt to the promised land. The people lived in tents or tabernacles along the way and the LORD was present with them in the Tabernacle which He instructed the people to erect at every stop. As they made their way out of Egypt into the wilderness, the people complained that they had no water. The LORD told Moses to strike the rock with Aaron’s staff. The LORD would be there standing before the rock. When Moses struck the rock where the LORD was present, water flowed out for 600,000 people (Exodus 17:1-7).

 

What does it mean to be thirsty?

For the LORD’s people beginning their journey through the wilderness, their thirst was the fear of death. They would have rather returned to slavery in Egypt than die of thirst in the desert. In the face of any form of death we thirst for life.

 

We crave healing from any physical infirmity because we recognize it as a prelude to death. The people gathered around the pool of Bethesda in Jesus time were not thirsty for a drink, but for healing. There was a man there who had been an invalid for 38 years. Jesus asked him if he wanted to be healed. When he replied that he was not able to enter into the waters of the pool, Jesus satisfied his thirst and healed Him (John 5:1-9).

 

The thirst for healing and life is really a thirst to escape God’s judgment against sin. It is mankind’s sin that has brought death and disease into our lives. Our own sins contribute to this fallen condition in our lives and in our world. The sins of all other people affect us as well. It is one inescapable desert of disease and death. And that makes us thirsty for forgiveness, healing, and life.

 

Jesus met a Samaritan woman at a well (John 4:1-26) who thought that her biggest problem was having to go to the well to get water. Jesus said to her “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.” When she expressed her desire for this water Jesus led her to realize that her true thirst was for forgiveness for the life of adulterous sin that she had been living. Not only did she realize her thirst for God’s forgiveness but she also told the people of the town that they too could find God’s forgiveness in this Man, Jesus.

 

Awareness of sin and God’s just judgment bring about a thirst for God’s anger to turn to comfort, for His judgment to be transformed from our condemnation to our salvation. This is exactly what the LORD promised to provide for His people. “With joy will you draw water from the wells of salvation. And you will say in that day: ‘Give thanks to the LORD, call upon His name, make known His deeds among the peoples, proclaim that His name is exalted... Shout and sing for joy, O inhabitants of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.’” (Isaiah 12:3-6).

 

The LORD Himself would be in the midst of His people, like He was during their journey in the wilderness to bring water from the rock. The water from the wells of salvation is what can quench the thirst for God’s anger against sin to turn to the comfort of forgiveness of sins and salvation from sin’s penalty. This is the water of salvation that Jesus offered to the Samaritan woman at the well.

 

The LORD God wants all people to thirst for this salvation. It is His desire to forgive and to save all mankind. So He has invited all who are thirsty for life, for forgiveness, for salvation, to come to Him and drink from the rivers of living water that flow from His presence. Through the prophet Isaiah, He calls out, “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters” (Isaiah 55:1).

 

At the Feast of Tabernacles when people had assembled in Jerusalem to commemorate the salvation the LORD provided for His people in the wilderness by giving them water from the rock, “On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, ‘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).

 

From the reactions this statement produced it is clear that the people understood that Jesus was identifying Himself as the LORD who was with His people to save them from thirst and death in the wilderness. He was proclaiming Himself to be the source of the waters from the wells of salvation. As the LORD proclaimed through the prophet Isaiah, “Come, everyone who thirsts,” so the Lord Jesus in the presence of His people said, “If anyone thirsts, let Him come to Me and drink, whoever believes in Me as the Scripture has said.”

 

What does it mean to believe in Jesus as the Scripture said?

Jesus was plainly identifying Himself as the LORD God who saves His thirsty people from sin, death, and this fallen world. He alone is the source of forgiveness and life. Through the prophet Jeremiah, the LORD warned His people that they could not quench their thirst for life and salvation apart from Him. “for My people have committed two evils; they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water” (Jeremiah 2:13).

 

My grandparents had a cistern. The collected rain water from the roof of the house ran down into an underground cement tank. But they could only use that water for washing, not for drinking, not as a source of life-sustaining water. For that they needed the well. The cistern was not clean enough to provide drinking water. Once in a year I was called to go down into the cistern when it was empty and clean it. The water rushing down from the roof had brought all kinds of stuff with it. And there were always a few dead rats in there as well.

 

So, the LORD identified two sins of His people in regard to their thirst for the life and salvation that only He could give. First they turned away from His call to come to Him for the water He freely provided, and second that they built for themselves cisterns in the false hope that they might not need to rely upon Him at all.

 

They were turning away from the forgiveness and salvation that could only come from the LORD God, a salvation which He freely offered to them without price. All that the LORD God asks of us is that we believe that He is the God who wishes to save us from our sins. The only payment He is looking for is our trust in His love and the salvation that He has provided at His own cost. He calls out “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.”

 

Instead we try to find a means to save ourselves so that we do not have to rely on a loving and compassionate God. Like building cisterns so that we don’t have to go to the well, we try to build a means to store up forgiveness from our own chosen sources. We do not trust this loving God who offers salvation freely through His Son.

 

But any means of salvation we try to store up for ourselves is tainted with sin. Like the water in my grandparents’ cistern it is full of dirt and disease. Our own efforts can only store up death like the dead rats found beneath the surface. And if we would rely on these self-accumulated means to remove the death and disease of sin, we poison ourselves and only hurry toward our death and eternal condemnation.

 

Our salvation from death and damnation can only be gained from what the LORD provides. And He provides for us freely and in abundance. The water from the rock in the wilderness relieved the thirst of 600,000 people. God has done something even more miraculous and merciful. That water from the rock pointed forward to an even greater salvation.

 

The LORD prophesied “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it. I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert” (Isaiah 43:18-19). We are not to look back to the water from the rock in the wilderness, but to look forward to something greater that will provide salvation for all who are thirsty for it. There is an ample, permanent supply that the Lord has given to all who will heed His call to come.

 

For those who are thirsty in life because of their sins and the world full of sin in which they live, the Lord has provided His salvation in abundance. “they shall neither hunger nor thirst, neither scorching wind nor sun shall strike them down, for He who has pity on them will lead them, and by springs of water will guide them” (Isaiah 49:10). And so He sent His Son, Jesus to guide them to waters of refreshment for this life. “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.”

 

To believe in Jesus as the Scripture has said, is to believe that He is the LORD in the midst of His people to give them salvation. He provides forgiveness for those who are thirsty to be rid of the guilt and shame of their sins. He is the source of eternal life for all who are faced with disease and death. He is the source of the mercy of God extended to people whom He wished to save from the consequences of sin in this fallen world.

 

How do we receive this living water from Jesus?

The evangelist John, who Himself stood at the foot of the cross when Jesus was crucified, tells us that Jesus was speaking of the outpouring of the Spirit, the very thing which we celebrate on this Day of Pentecost. When John was at the foot of the cross of Christ he saw water pour out of the body given into death for our sins. A soldier pierced Jesus’ side with a spear and blood and water flowed out (John 19:34). This fulfilled Jesus’ words which He spoke in the temple at the Feast of Tabernacles. “Out of His heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:38).

 

When we come to Jesus as the LORD who gave Himself into death for the sins of the world, He opens His heart and gives us His Spirit. This Holy Spirit is what quenches our thirst for forgiveness and life and salvation. For the Holy Spirit is the one at work in the inviting words of Jesus that convince us to leave our cisterns, poisoned with sins of self-justification, and to turn to the LORD who pours forth salvation to all who will come.

 

In the testimony that Jesus is God present with us, the Holy Spirit washes over us to turn us in faith to the call of God to come to Him for forgiveness and everlasting life. Are you thirsty? Jesus has come to assuage that thirst. The Holy Spirit quenches, relieves, and refreshes to live everlasting. Jesus who was crucified for your sins, rose victorious from the dead, and ascended to the right hand of the Father, continues to pour out His Spirit to quench your thirst for His compassion and grace.

 

In the concluding chapter of the Bible, Revelation chapter 22, we are told that the river of the water of life flows from the throne of God and of the Lamb (v.1). The Lamb is Jesus Christ who was slain for our sin and rose to life again. The gift of eternal life in the Holy Spirit continues to flow from the heart of Jesus, ascended to the throne of the Father. It flows for all who thirst for the forgiveness of their sins and rescue from this fallen world. It flows for all who thirst for eternal life in the Paradise of God.

 

And so the call of Jesus still rings out for you today. “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.” “The Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come.’” (Revelation 22:17). That is the Holy Spirit and the Bride of Christ, the Church, continue to proclaim the invitation of Jesus. “And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.” The free forgiveness of God for eternal life is here for you, flowing from the heart of Jesus, the LORD present with His people.