The Messiah and the Ritual of Israel (Continued)

The Feast of Tabernacles

The Pouring of the Waters

The ordinances in respect of the water libation and the use of palm branches and the fruit of the trees applied for each day of the feast, but it was at the end of the festival that they were both incorporated into a much larger ceremony.

The Pool of Siloam

On that day, the pilgrims left their booths with a Lulabh  in their right hand (to fulfill Leviticus 23.40) and an Ethrog, a citrus fruit, in their left hand. Dressed appropriately for the festival they divided into three separate groups. One group attended the morning sacrifice in the Temple. Another group traveled in procession to a place ‘below Jerusalem’ called Moza, where they cut down willow branches that they used later in the Temple to adorn the altar.  The third group formed a separate procession. They followed a priest carrying a golden pitcher. He led them down to the pool of Siloam where he filled the pitcher with water. This part of the ceremony was based on Isaiah 12.3. “Therefore with joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.” They sang the Psalms of Ascent (Psalms120-134) as they returned to arrive at the close of the morning service, where they were joined by the two other groups. A threefold blast on the trumpets welcomed the priest as he entered through the water gate, a gate so called because of this ceremony. Here, he was met by another priest bearing a pitcher of wine for the drink offering. The two priests ascended the rise of the altar, one going left and one right, to pour out the libations through funnels to the foot of the altar. Immediately after, the Levites led in the singing of the great ‘Hallel’ with responses from the people.

The Water Gate is the right hand gate

This ceremony had a certain symbolism. Originally commemorating the smitten rock when God, through Moses, provided water in the wilderness, the water came to represent the Holy Spirit, and the pouring out of the water was looking forward to the time, and perhaps a prayer for it to come quickly, when God would pour out His Spirit upon the nation.

The ceremony continued with blasts on the trumpets, during which those from the company that had processed up from Moza decorated the altar making a leafy canopy about it and hanging fruits on the branches.

Shemini Atzeret

“On the eighth day you shall have a sacred assembly. You shall do no customary work.” (Numb. 29:35) The Rabbis interpreted this to mean that those who attended the feast were asked to stay a day longer, as if the Lord was reluctant to see them return home.

The Messiah and the Drawing of the Water

There is a record in John, of Jesus attending the feast of Tabernacles. Traveling separately from His disciples, He attended the festival without advertising Himself.  However, towards the middle of festival, He entered the Court of Women, otherwise called the Court of Prayer or the Treasury, to teach, and there he met further opposition from the Jews of Jerusalem. On the last day of the feast, He attended the Temple once again, and witnessed the ceremony of the Drawing of the Water. During the singing of the designated Psalms, the people had joined in with responses, offering their Hallelujahs, their Hosannas, and the Messianic greeting, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” (Ps.118:26) At a pause in the ceremony, Jesus cried out in a clear voice, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” (John 7:37,38) The ceremonial water had been drawn from the pool of Siloam, a pool of living (or running) water, and the pouring out of the water in the ceremony was looking forward to the time when God would pour out the Holy Spirit upon the nation.  Jesus drawing on this very pertinent imagery, and responding to the Messianic greeting, promised that those who received Him as Messiah would receive the Spirit of God. John explained it so.  ‘This He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified’. (John 7:39) Jesus fulfilled this promise from His place of ascension, on the day of Pentecost.

 At this festival, Jesus claimed to be the promised prophet, the ‘weller-forth’, the expected One, and any who exercise faith in Him will be like the pool of Siloam –a reservoir of living water – out of which are drawn waters to be poured out as water libations before Jehovah. Not only will they bring joy to the heart of the Lord, and not only will their own thirst be quenched, but because of the living water within, they will be a blessing to others also, just as the pool of Siloam will be used by the Messiah to bring sight to a blind man.

Next Time: The Messiah and the Kindling of the Lamps

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