To Believe in Jesus – Part 81
ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 7:37-39
37དེ་ཡང་སྤྱིལ་བུའི་དུས་ཆེན་གྱི་ཉིན་རྗེས་མ་སྟེ་གཟབ་རྒྱས་ཆེ་བའི་དུས་སྟོན་གྱི་ཉིན་མོ༌དེར། སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུ་ཡར་བཞེངས་ཏེ་གསུང་སྐད་ཆེན་པོས་འདི་སྐད་དུ། གལ་ཏེ་སུ་ཞིག་སྐོམ་ན་བདག་གི་གམ་དུ་འཐུང་བར་ཤོག 38སུ་ཞིག་གིས་བདག་ལ་དད་པ་བྱེད་ན། གསུང་རབ་ལས་གསུངས་པ་ལྟར་མི་དེའི་ཁོག་ནས་ཚེ་སྲོག་དང་ལྡན་པའི་ཆུ་ནི་གཙང་པོ་བཞིན་དུ་འབབ་པར་འགྱུར་ཞེས་གསུངས་སོ།། 39སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་དེ་ལྟར་གསུངས་དོན་ནི་ཁོང་ལ་དད་པ་བྱེད་མཁན་རྣམས་ལ་དམ་པའི་ཐུགས་ཉིད་འཐོབ་ངེས་པ་བསྟན་ཏོ།། འོན་ཀྱང་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུ་ད་དུང་གཟི་བརྗིད་དང་ལྡན་པར་མ་གྱུར་པས་
John 7:37-39
37 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. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” 39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
The author noted another important event that happened on the “last day of the feast, the great day“. This was referring to the last day event of the Jews’ Feast of Booths known as Sukkot.
Traditions have it that there was some sort of religious ritual going on at the Temple which involves public prayer for forgiveness and salvation for the nation of Israel, and a water pouring ceremony. Apparently the Jews’ Feast of Booths marks the ending of dry season and the starts of raining season in that part of Middle East, and that could be a reason for the water pouring ceremony.
At this very moment Jesus literally interrupted whatever service and ceremony that was going on at the Temple!
We are already informed by the gospel writer that the Sanhedrin wanted to arrest Jesus, and we can expect what Jesus did here added to the agitation of the Sadducees who were in charge of the Temple!
However there were very important reasons why Jesus interrupted the Temple service at that moment and can be proven what He did was right and pleasing to the Father.
First, I want to point out a known deception going on at the Temple service which most if not all of those religious leaders already knew about it and most likely still trying to keep secret or play ignorance with the general public.
The Ark of the Covenant was not present inside the Temple!
It is a known fact, a historical fact till today, that from the time of Jeremiah when the Babylonian conquered Jerusalem and burned that Temple built by Solomon, the Ark of the Covenant had gone missing and never to be found even till today!
This Temple at the time of John 7 was known as the Second Temple that was first rebuilt by returning Jews during the time of Nehemiah and Ezra when they laid the foundation and progress had been slow and minimal due to social-political turmoil. When Herod took control of Jerusalem with support of the Romans, he wanting to seek favor from the Jews to secure his political power spent a lot of money and resources to reconstruct and beautify the Temple.
The fact remain that the Ark of the Covenant was not present inside the Temple and why is this piece of information important?
The Jews’ Feast of Booths – Sukkot – starts five days after Yom Kippur. Yom Kippur known as Day of Atonement is when only the anointed High Priest will enter the most holy place of the Temple once a year to seek forgiveness for the nation by offering blood for atonement and applying it over the mercy seat covering the Ark of the Covenant and following every precise step as instructed by God through Moses (ལེ་ཝིའི་ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས། 16 / Leviticus 16).
The Ark of the Covenant is the most important piece of furniture for the Temple and since it was not there, then whatever services and rituals those ministers were doing was meaningless! To put it straight – what the Sadducees had been doing with the Temple service was religious scam!
Herod reconstructed the Temple and made it a tourist attraction by adding a Gentile Court to it, and together with the Sadducees they were doing their religious entertainment for monetary profits and making people feel happy with empty promises of God’s blessing and forgiveness.
Remember back in John 2 when Jesus turned over tables of money changers at the same Temple? And accused them of being thieves and robbers? The same incident recorded in all four gospels, Matthew 21, Mark 11, and Luke 19.
Jesus was speaking the truth! Jesus was exposing all those religious scam going on at the Temple!
Back to John 7, here Jesus made specific reference to “living water” and what was that about?
This “living water” has direct reference to two scriptures from Jeremiah and Isaiah
ཡེ་རེམ་ཡཱ། 2:12-13
12ཀྱེ་ནམ་མཁའི་དབྱིངས་རྣམས། འདིའི་ཕྱིར་ཧ་ལས་ཤིང་བླ་འདར་ནས་རབ་ཏུ་སྐྱོ་བར་གྱིས་ཤིག་ཅེས་དཀོན་མཆོག་ཡ་ཝཱེས་གསུངས་པའོ། ། 13ཅི་ལ་ཞེ་ན། བདག་གི་མི་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་སྤྱོད་ངན་གཉིས་སྤྱད་དེ། ཚེ་སྲོག་དང་ལྡན་པའི་ཆུ་མིག་ཡིན་པ་ང་རང་བསྐྱུར་ནས་རང་གི་དོན་དུ་ཆུ་དོང་བརྐོས་པ་དང་། ཆུ་དོང་དེ་ནི་ཞིག་རལ་དུ་སོང་ནས་ཆུ་མི་འཚོག་པའི་ཆུ་དོང་ཞིག་ཡིན་ནོ། །
Jeremiah 2:12-13
12 Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the Lord, 13 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.
ཡེ་ཤ་ཡཱ། 44:1-5
1ཀྱེ་བདག་གི་ཞབས་ཕྱི་ཡ་ཀོབ། བདག་གིས་བདམས་པའི་ཡེས་ར་ཨེལ། ད་ལྟ་འདི་ལ་ཉོན་ཅིག 2ཁྱོད་མཛད་ཅིང་མངལ་དུ་འགོད་མཁན་དང་ཁྱོད་རང་སྐྱོབ་མཁན་གྱི་དཀོན་མཆོག་ཡ་ཝཱེས་འདི་སྐད་དུ། ཀྱེ་བདག་གི་ཞབས་ཕྱི་ཡ་ཀོབ། བདག་གིས་བདམས་པའི་ཡེ་ཤུ་རུན་ཁྱོད་མ་འཇིགས་ཤིག 3ཅིའི་ཕྱིར་ཞེ་ན། སྐོམ་པས་མནར་བའི་ས་ལ་བདག་གིས་ཆུ་འདྲེན་ཞིང་། སྐམ་སར་གཙང་པོ་བཞུར་དུ་འཇུག བདག་གིས་རང་གི་སེམས་ཉིད་ཁྱོད་ཀྱི་བུ་རྒྱུད་སྟེང་འབབ་ཏུ་འཇུག་ཅིང་། བདག་གི་བྱིན་རླབས་ཁྱོད་ཀྱི་བུ་རྒྱུད་ལ་གནང་བར་བྱ། 4དེ་དག་རྩྭ་གསེང་ནས་སྐྱེས་པ་དང་ཆུ་ཕྲན་འགྲམ་གྱི་ལྕང་མ་ཇི་བཞིན་ནོ། ། 5དེ་ནས་མི་འདིས་ན་རེ། ང་ནི་དཀོན་མཆོག་ཡ་ཝཱེ་ལ་གཏོགས་པ་ཡིན་ཞེས་དང་། དེས་ཀྱང་རང་ལ་ཡ་ཀོབ་ཀྱི་མིང་ནས་འབོད་ཅིང་། ཡང་མི་གཞན་ཞིག་གིས་དངོས་སུ་ང་རང་དཀོན་མཆོག་ཡ་ཝཱེ་ལ་གཏོགས་པ་ཡིན་ཞེས་ཡི་གེར་འགོད་ལ། ཡེས་ར་ཨེལ་གྱི་མཚན་ནས་རང་ལ་མིང་འདོགས་པར་འགྱུར།
Isaiah 44:1-5
“But now hear, O Jacob my servant, Israel whom I have chosen!
2 Thus says the Lord who made you, who formed you from the womb and will help you: Fear not, O Jacob my servant, Jeshurun whom I have chosen.
3 For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants.
4 They shall spring up among the grass like willows by flowing streams.
5 This one will say, ‘I am the Lord’s,’ another will call on the name of Jacob, and another will write on his hand, ‘The Lord’s,’ and name himself by the name of Israel.”
Living water is a clear reference to God being the source of life! The writings of Jeremiah exposed the sins of the nation of Israel in forsaking Yahweh God who is the true source of life and going after man-made religion like pagan worship and even creating their own forms of idols.
In the writings of Isaiah, the phrase “I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring” speaks of God’s redemption for those who turned back to Him in truth and righteousness and that they will be restored to life, eternal life, with God.
The use of “living water” was mention before by Jesus in John 4, when He was having a conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well – and it speaks of the offer of true redemption and salvation in God with promise of eternal life!
So back to what happen in John 7 when Jesus interrupted the Temple service, it was at this moment that Jesus presented Himself as the chosen Son of God, The Redeemer of Mankind, the Messiah they were waiting for!
This is the very reason the gospel writer John – how he presented this gospel with the theme of “to believe in Jesus” and the promises of eternal life with God!
The words of Jesus exposed the deception and trickery of man-made religion shrouded in empty promises of blessings.
The words of Jesus at the same time show us true salvation in God.
To be continue …
David Z
The Life of Yeshu 