Drawing Physical Water to Picture Spiritual Water!
October 23, 2005
http://www.tribulationperiod.com/
Two portions from an article in the Jerusalem Post by Nitza Tanner, reminded me of a Prophecy Update we issued last year during the same annual Jewish Festival. The extract from the article “Drawing Deep” follows.
BEGIN EXTRACT FROM JERUSALEM POST
Drawing Deep
By Nitza Tanner, Jerusalem Post
October 21, 2005
“Perhaps the best known pool in our day is the Pool of Siloam in David’s City. Fed by the Gihon Spring, it was made by King Hezekiah who diverted the water source from outside the city to supply water in time of siege (2 Kings 20:20). This area is used now as a place for tashlich (the ritual ceremony of casting sins upon the water) on Rosh Hashana.
Appropriate to this week, during the Temple period on Succot, the water libation ceremony was performed every morning when a procession was led by the high priest down to the Pool of Siloam to collect water, which was then poured out on the altar in the Temple.”
END JERUSALEM POST EXTRACT
It is somewhat ironic that Messiah symbolically used the collected water to picture that he was the water who would flow out from the temple to all men, and those who received his word would have their sins cast away by the washing of water by that word.
SPECIAL PROPHECY UPDATE NUMBER 192A
October 3, 2004
Succot – The Jewish Feast of Tabernacles – Old & New Testaments
Leviticus 23:39-43 – Also in the fifteenth day of the seventh month,
when ye have gathered in the fruit of the land, ye shall keep a feast unto the Lord seven days: on the first day shall be a sabbath, and
on the eighth day shall be a sabbath. [40] And ye shall take you on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook; and ye shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days.
[41] And ye shall keep it a feast unto the Lord seven days in the year. It shall be a statute for ever in your generations: ye shall celebrate it in the seventh month. [42] Ye shall dwell in booths seven days; all that are Israelites born shall dwell in booths: [43] That your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.
The Jewish Feast of Tabernacles (Tents – Succa – temporary dwellings) began last week and continues into this
week. Although tourism is down drastically, there will be a few thousand Christians that will have processions during the feast. During the time of the earthly ministry of Christ, on the last day of the feast, a special priest would leave the temple mount and proceed southward to the old city of David, under which a spring flowed through the old tunnel of Hezekiah into the Pool of Siloam. Fresh, flowing spring water that flowed throughout the year was looked upon as providing a source of water that provided life year round, as opposed to springs that dried up during the non-rainy season.
So it came to symbolize something that provided eternal life.
The special priest would collect two pints of water in a golden vessel, and then carry it back upon the temple mount. It would then be carried to the top of the very high altar that stood in the court of the men in front of the steps that led up to the door of the temple’s Holy Place.
In the southwestern corner of
the altar a small hole had been made that led down under the altar into the subterranean cavern under the temple. This particular feast is a very joyous one, and as the people waved palm leaves they would cry out to the priest on the southwestern corner, “raise your hand, raise your hand,” to show he had poured t
he water, finally cheering and shouting for joy when he did. The water would proceed under the temple southeastward in a conduit that emptied into the Kidron Valley for drainage of the blood from the sacrifices. It was a picture of living water, which symbolized the living Spirit of
the God of Israel going out from the belly of the temple into the world.
It is very interesting to note the words of Jesus on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, probably uttered immediately after the priest poured the water.
John 7:2,37-39 – Now the Jews’ feast of tabernacles was at hand. [37] In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. [38] He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. [39] (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)
During the time of Christ, the presence of the Spirit of God in the temple’s Holy of Holies was to be proclaimed by Israel throughout the world. It was a single, local, visible temple. Today there are many local temples that God recognizes individually as His local, visible, temples. And it is from these individual bodies that the power of the Spirit is to go forth throughout the world. The first such church was formed and organized by its head
and foundation, Jesus Christ, during His earthly ministry.
This church, which already existed as a local
church of about 120, was empowered by the Spirit at Pentecost after Jesus was glorified. And, just as the water flowing out of the belly of the temple into the world was a symbol of the Holy Spirit, so does the same Spirit flow out of churches of the same like faith and order as the one the Holy Spirit empowered at Pentecost.
All believers are indwelt by the living Spirit of God and make up the family of God, and truly their witness of the Spirit is to flow out from within them into the world, but a local church that teaches, preaches, and practices the faith once delivered to the saints is also indwelt by the same Spirit in a special way, and its testimony that goes out into the world is to proclaim the truths of all the Word written by the Spirit.
Ephesians 2:22 – In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.
John 4:24 – God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.