John 7: 37-53
Tuesday, 16 January 2024
On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” -John 7:37-38
It was on the last day of the Festival of the Tabernacles that Jesus made this statement we read in the key verses. This weeklong Festival was one of thanksgiving and joy that the Jews celebrated year after year to commemorate the goodness of the Lord as their Provider and Protector during their wilderness journey from Egypt. From the time the Lord gave them instructions how to celebrate this festival, there was added the ceremony of pouring of water from the pool of Siloam on the altar by the chief priests which signified God’s provision of rain and the blessing that came along with it.
Having this at the backdrop, we see Jesus stand in the Temple at the last day of the feast when this ceremony was taking place and cry out in a loud voice: “Let anyone who is thirsty, come to me and drink.” The thirst Jesus talks about here is not a physical one but a spiritual one. Just as desperate thirst can only be quenched by some refreshing water, the emptiness in one’s soul- that thirst can only be satisfied by God.
We can look into that thirst in two ways:
a. Thirst for Salvation
There is a God-shaped vacuum in every person that can only be filled by Him. People try to fill the thirst in their soul with so many empty things of the world such as pleasure, power, position, prosperity- but that can never satisfy. Alexander the Great who had all the power he longed for, said at his death: “Bury my body, do not build any monument, keep my hands outside so that the world knows the person who won the world had nothing in his hands when dying.“[1] How a life without God is empty!! Isiah 55:1-2 gives an invitation to abundant life in the Messiah to all who are thirsty— to come to the waters and drink freely, exhorting them not to spend their money on things that do not satisfy.
Jesus thus spoke to thirsty souls as he did to the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well of the living water that He would give: “…but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:14). He promises to fill every empty life who comes to Him with living water that will well up into eternal life. In V.39, John connects the Holy Spirit who will bring forth new life in a person who receives Christ Jesus into his life, who causes him to be “born-again” (cf. John 3:5-8). The new life in Christ brings a satisfaction within a person that expresses itself in a life of joy that flows from within to without to other lives.
b. Thirst for Souls (the unsaved)
The next thirst in a believer’s life is the thirst for unsaved souls. A person who has found Christ and experienced His joy, feels the urge to tell others about Christ the Giver of living water. The thirst for lost and wandering souls who need the life-giving water fills a real believer that is quenched when he leads others to Christ. The Samaritan woman who tasted the refreshing living water in Jesus, ran to the villagers to tell the Good News and brought them to the Saviour who experienced for themselves Salvation in Jesus (John 4:28,39).
Finally, Jesus’ invitation to be born of the Holy Spirit and filled with the Spirit, is just as relevant today as He said it then: “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.” (John 7:37). May the river of the Holy Spirit satisfy our need and make us whole and may it be poured into the lives of others that they too may thirst for this living water!
Promise: Therefore with joy you will draw water
From the wells of salvation. (Isaiah 12:3)
Listen: 'Let Your Living Water'