River of Life

Wednesday, March 15, 2023

On the last day, the climax of the festival, Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, “Anyone who is thirsty may come to me!  Anyone who believes in me may come and drink!  For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.’”  John 7:37-38

The festival apostle John said was coming to an end was the Feast of Booths (or Tabernacles).  For seven days all observant Jews would leave their permanent homes and camp out.  They would build small, lean-to shelters, booths that suggest a family on the move.  

Image via Wikimedia Commons

It was much like our Thanksgiving celebration of harvest, God providing for our needs.  For the Jews it not only celebrated a current harvest, but commemorated the miracle of provision for their ancestors in the wilderness wanderings for 40 years.  It was a joyful and thankful time for reflecting on Yahweh’s lovingkindness.  The booths were not comfortably furnished, nor would they pass any construction standards of modern times.  They were for subsistence shelter, and kept alive memory of the rigors of wilderness life.  All memorials point to bigger things than a party…they help us to not forget someone else’s struggle.  They help us keep fresh in our minds the cost of life.

Our Scripture this morning says it was at the end of this week of “roughing-it” that Jesus stood and offered living water.  That was a great opening-line; Jesus knew how to get the attention of tired people who were probably in need of a bath!

It is not much of a secret how often Jesus used the simple things of life to speak of more complex issues.  His sermons were peppered with common ground metaphors:  seed-sowing for growing His Father’s kingdom, harvest-time for helping those lost in a field of sin to come to the storehouse, healing crippled limbs for making-whole crippled spirits.  In this simple offer of thirst-quenching water Jesus opens the wellspring, the fountainhead of eternal life.  He says it is living water…a river of never-ending life.  And the metaphor is truly the quality of human relationship with the divine…Jesus is offering the keys of Heaven’s door to all who will embrace Him.  He is saying:  Come close, sit-down, learn, love, enjoy, and share with others this fellowship Adam once knew…daily walking with your Creator.  Now THAT’S one living river!

For You Today 

As all the other metaphors Jesus used to describe how much God loves us, and wants us close to him, we are left to make the leap from physical to spiritual.  We are left to open the door to our hearts.  Not a wooden or steel door, the door of our souls, where God’s Holy Spirit is standing…bid Him come in.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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There are about 2,500 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper explore some of these:  Rivers of Living Water  or  Fountain Joy       

Title Image: via Pixabay.com    Images without citation are in public domain.

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©