What It Means to be Filled with the Holy Spirit # 18

"Upon that Great Day of the Feast ... Out of His Belly Shall Flow Rivers of Living Water"

Now, we begin looking into these feasts of the Lord in order that we may comprehend more fully what the Day of Pentecost really means, and that we might further understand its purpose in the Full Purpose of God in Christ. We saw that the "Day of Pentecost" was so called because it took place on the fiftieth day, a day which was counted from the second day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Therefore, the "Day of Pentecost" was counted from the day of the offering of the sheaf of the firstfruits, which in God's Eternal timing is the Third Day - the Day that Christ Arose from the dead. And Jesus said, "I AM the Resurrection, and the Life" (John 11:25).

We also found that the number fifty, as it is used in connection with the Day of Pentecost, means the perfect consummation of time; thus, the "Day of Pentecost" is the Divine Result of the Cross, the Resurrection, and the Ascension of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. And on the Day of Pentecost, an Eternal Day in the Lord's Purpose, the Lord God completed one of the most important portions of His Plan: the Church was baptized in the Spirit: the Church was empowered to become the Fullness of Christ.

In John 7:37 and 38 we find the Lord Jesus Christ Himself describing that which took place "when the Day of Pentecost was fully come." We find Him describing the Promise of the Father, the Promise given to Him before the Foundation of the World, the Promise that the Church His Body would be empowered to become the Fullness of Him. Hence, in the last day, that great day of the Feast [of Tabernacles], 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 shall flow rivers of living waters." Then John goes on to tell us: "But this spoke He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive: for the Holy Spirit was not ye given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified."

Jesus spoke these Words about the Holy Spirit on the last day of the feast of the Tabernacles. The Feast of Tabernacles was celebrated about six months after the Day of Pentecost, and it was also called the Feast of Ingathering, because it spoke of, or came at the time of, the final ingathering of the harvest.This feast was the most joyful and jubilant of all the feasts; and this last "great day" of the feast climaxed all their celebrations.

We are told by scholars of the Old Testament, and of Jewish customs, that for seven days as a part of this great feast, the people led by a priest had made their way to the Fountain of Siloam, where the priest filled a  golden pitcher, and brought it back to the temple amid music and joyful shouts. Then the priest, advancing to the altar of burnt-offering, at the cry of the people, "Life up thy hand," emptied the pitcher of water toward the west, and he also emptied a cup of wine toward the east. while the people chanted, "With joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation."

Now, it is not certain whether the Jews repeated this same ceremonial procedure on the last day, the eighth day of this great feast, but we do know that it was a day of great joy, of loud jubilation, and of sounding of trumpets. And there can be no doubt that the Words of the Lord had reference to this ceremony of the pouring out of the water and wine, a ceremony that had taken place each year for centuries.

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 19)