Camping Out

Labor Day Weekend represents the symbolic close of the summer vacation season. Many families travel to the lake for the last campout of the year. It was fun for me to discover that the ancient Jews also had a camping out holiday. It was called the Feast of Tabernacles.

The Feast of Tabernacles generally took place the first part of October after the harvest season. It was a joyful holiday. This was the third pilgrimage festival in the Jewish year. Families traveled to Jerusalem. They built shelters from tree branches and lived in them for seven days. Living in the shelters was to remind the Jews of their time living in tents on the desert. Solemn assemblies were part of the first day and eighth day activities.

“The Lord said to Moses, ‘Say to the Israelites: On the fifteenth day of the seventh month the Lord's Feast of Tabernacles begins, and it lasts for seven days. The first day is a sacred assembly; do no regular work. For seven days present offerings made to the Lord by fire, and on the eighth day hold a sacred assembly and present an offering made to the Lord by fire. It is the closing assembly; do no regular work.’” Leviticus 23:33-36 NIV

The festival was to celebrate the bounty of the harvest, but it also was to thank God for the rains which made the crop grow. An ancient water-pouring ceremony was part of the religious activities. Each morning for the first seven mornings, a priest would fill a golden pitcher from the pool of Siloam. The water was poured into a funnel at the side of the altar as the morning sacrifice was made. Then the temple choir would then sing Psalms 113-118.

It was on the last day of this festival that Jesus told the crowd in the temple that he was the source of living water. Of course we know he was talking about the Holy Spirit who he would send to live in us. But this proclamation was confusing to the crowd and created controversy.

“On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, ‘If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.’ By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.” John 7:37-39 NIV

I find it profoundly interesting that Jesus would publically proclaim he is the source of living water on a festival day for which a water ceremony was a part.

So search the Scriptures with an inquiring mind. They are full of fascinating bits of information that when you start to understand the connections God has created will intensify your faith and belief in him.

Lord, you are an amazing God. Thank you for providing the Holy Spirit as nourishing--spiritually life-sustaining-- living water. Only you are worthy of my worship.