Episode 180
Rivers of Living Water: Zechariah 14
As we navigate through the theological implications of Zechariah's prophecies, we focus on the eschatological significance of the events foretold in Chapter 14. The narrative culminates in a vivid depiction of the future, where God's justice prevails, and the faithful are rewarded. The Feast of Tabernacles emerges as a critical focal point, embodying themes of gratitude and remembrance of God's providence.
Takeaways:
- This episode delves into the profound theological significance of the Feast of Tabernacles, emphasizing its role in Israel's history and its implications for understanding God's provision.
- The discussion draws connections between Zechariah and the New Testament, particularly highlighting the relevance of living water in the context of Jesus' ministry.
- Listeners are encouraged to appreciate the complexities of biblical texts, as the conversation illustrates the importance of historical context and literary structure in interpretation.
- The hosts emphasize the necessity of diligent study and familiarity with scripture, advocating for both breadth and depth in biblical reading practices to uncover deeper meanings.
- The conversation reveals how communal worship during significant feasts reflects a collective memory of God's fidelity and provision throughout Israel's history.
- Finally, the episode serves as a reminder of the interconnectedness of scripture, inviting listeners to explore how various biblical narratives inform one another.
Chapters:
- 00:11 - Introduction to Bible Bistro
- 03:11 - Discussion on Zechariah's Messianic Imagery
- 09:57 - Understanding the Feast of Tabernacles
- 10:52 - Understanding the Feast of Tabernacles
- 20:24 - The Flow of Living Water
- 28:26 - Understanding Scripture: The Importance of Context and Connections
- 32:32 - The Importance of Studying Scripture
- 35:15 - Understanding the Importance of the Feast of Tabernacles
- 42:45 - Transition to the Festival of Tabernacles
- 46:11 - The Festival of Tabernacles: A Libation Ceremony
- 51:43 - Introduction to the Water Libation Ceremony
- 58:01 - Living Water and the Bread of Life
Transcript
Foreign.
Speaker B:Welcome back to Ryan and Brian's Bible Bistro.
Speaker B:I'm Ryan.
Speaker A:And I'm Brian.
Speaker B:And this is the Bible Bistro, a podcast all about the Bible theology and.
Speaker A:All things related to the Christian faith.
Speaker B:That's right, Brian.
Speaker B:How are you, my friend?
Speaker A:Back here?
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Speaker A:There's been lots of viruses going around and one of them caught me.
Speaker B:Yes, they are.
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Speaker B:We're here in Greenwood.
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Speaker B:Anyway, here we go.
Speaker B:So we're going today.
Speaker B:And so we're wrapping up the long anticipated Zachariah series.
Speaker A:We should be done with Zachariah.
Speaker B:This is it.
Speaker B:All right.
Speaker B:So, Brian, tell me, tell me what's going on here.
Speaker B:So we kind of built up the beginning of Zachariah.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Now where are we going here?
Speaker A:You know, I'll tell you the couple things I really like about Zachariah.
Speaker A:I.
Speaker A:I find it interesting he's post.
Speaker A:His post exilic prophet.
Speaker A:We mentioned that, you know, just if you remember months and months ago when we began this series, we mentioned he is the longest of the minor prophets.
Speaker A:You know, like I said, kind of like the.
Speaker A:The tallest short person or something.
Speaker A:You know, he's the longest of the minor prophets, but they really.
Speaker A:The thing I love about Zechariah is the.
Speaker A:Is the messianic imagery that we get even back in.
Speaker A:All the way back in chapter one, you might remember, or in chapter one and chapter two, those night visions.
Speaker A:We had a prophecy that seems to be about the inclusion of the nations.
Speaker A:All the nations are going to come into Jerusalem.
Speaker A:My Jerusalem is not going to have walls around it.
Speaker A:Just very interesting things.
Speaker A:It almost doesn't sound like an Old Testament book.
Speaker A:People talk about Isaiah.
Speaker A:You know, the church fathers would call Isaiah the fifth gospel.
Speaker A:For me, Zachariah a lot has this.
Speaker A:And of course, I love the apocalyptic imagery as well and enjoy trying to understand these images and the symbolism.
Speaker A:But we get to chapter 14, and this is one of my favorite parts.
Speaker A:I find this really interesting.
Speaker A:In fact, let's pick up the same verse we left off on in the last episode.
Speaker A:If you were able to get through the whole thing, if this part did not drop out.
Speaker A:Chapter 14, verse 16.
Speaker A:Go ahead and just read that for us.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:Then the survivors from all the nations that have attacked Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the king, the Lord Almighty, and to celebrate the festival of tabernacles.
Speaker A:We've talked a lot about reversal.
Speaker A:And here's this idea.
Speaker A:Those nations that God had used in order to punish his people before they went into exile now are going to be going up to Jerusalem to worship.
Speaker A:And so talk about a reversal.
Speaker A:Last episode, you might remember, it talks about their wealth will be plundered, their wealth will come in.
Speaker A:If you remind me, we'll even maybe look at the Book of Revelation a little bit about that.
Speaker A:But in verse 16, what I find really fascinating here is this mention of tabernacles, the feast of tabernacles.
Speaker A:Of course, it was one of the three major pilgrimage festivals, we call them, along with Passover and Pentecost, where people would go up to Jerusalem to worship.
Speaker A:The people of Israel were supposed to go up and do this.
Speaker A:But tabernacles is not mentioned much after we get out of the law.
Speaker A:Of course, it's mentioned in Deuteronomy, it's mentioned in Leviticus, the places you would expect tabernacles to be mentioned.
Speaker A:We do find it in Two Chronicles when the temple's being dedicated there, talks about the feast of Tabernacles.
Speaker A:Then Ezra talks about when they're reestablishing the Jewish festival calendar, talks about feast of tabernacles there.
Speaker A:But then we don't have it anywhere else in the Old Testament until we get to Zechariah.
Speaker A:And here it is three times in the last half of Zechariah, chapter 14.
Speaker A:So that, you know, anytime you see something, you know, it'd be one thing if that was distributed pretty evenly across the minor prophets.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:But for these three mentions to be in the last half of this, one chapter really draws our attention to it.
Speaker B:Now the other is this, kind of like Melchizedek popping up in Hebrews, but.
Speaker A:A little bit like that.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So here's this guy that's only mentioned one time.
Speaker A:Now it's like Melchizedek in this sense too, that, that you do have these later mentions in later Jewish literature.
Speaker A:And I'll talk a little bit about that.
Speaker A:Not going to spend a ton of time.
Speaker A:But Tabernacles, we find out more about it from extra biblical literature, really about the way it was practiced than we do from within.
Speaker A:We have very little detail given in the scripture about how it's to be observed.
Speaker A:But we do find some things in extra biblical literature.
Speaker A:I'll mention some of them.
Speaker A:I won't Go through all details.
Speaker A:In fact, let me say this, though.
Speaker A:There's a really interesting article.
Speaker A:I'll send this to you, Ryan, and we'll link it to our.
Speaker A:Oh, maybe we'll put this up on our.
Speaker A:What's the new thing.
Speaker A:Substack thing.
Speaker B:Yeah, we're working on that.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:It's an article about the feast of tabernacles throughout history.
Speaker A:And you might find that interesting because it mentions both Zechariah 14.
Speaker A:And then here's the other reason I'm really interested in this.
Speaker A:This is really what got me turned on to Zechariah in the first place, was in the New Testament, the feast of Tabernacles is explicitly mentioned only one time, and that is in John 7.
Speaker A:There it mentions.
Speaker A:Of course, it's not that unusual.
Speaker A:We've talked about feast in the Gospel of John before.
Speaker A:There's an episode we can link to that where we've talked about this.
Speaker A:But the other gospel writers, if we don't count the Book of Acts, Right.
Speaker A:If we don't count Luke, acts as a unit, they only mention Passover.
Speaker A:That's the only Jewish feast that they explicitly mentioned.
Speaker A:If you include Acts in thinking about Luke, Acts, we have the feast of Pentecost as well, which of course is a big deal in chapter two.
Speaker A:But then in John, you have Hanukkah, the feast of dedication mentioned.
Speaker A:You have Tabernacles, also called the Feast of Booths, and we'll talk more about that.
Speaker A:And you have an unnamed feast, you have Passover mentioned three times in the Gospel of John, three different locations, Chapter two, Chapter six, and the final Passover that all the gospel writers include.
Speaker A:So John seems to be doing much more with the Jewish calendar than most of the other gospel writers than the other gospel writers do.
Speaker A:So it's interesting, though, that Tabernacles is mentioned here in John chapter seven.
Speaker A:And like I said, that's really what kind of got me onto this in the first place.
Speaker A:So we'll talk about that.
Speaker A:And I'm going to end the episode.
Speaker A:So we're going to Finish up Zechariah 14.
Speaker A:I'm going to pull in John chapter 7 and we'll talk a little bit about it then.
Speaker A:So look at Zechariah 14, 17, then go ahead and read that next verse.
Speaker B:If any of the peoples of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the king, the Lord Almighty, they will have no rain.
Speaker A:Now that seems like a really strange, you know, this is before Smashing Pumpkins, but seems like a really strange kind of thing.
Speaker A:That would happen.
Speaker A:It was a pretty deep dive.
Speaker A:It seems like a strange thing to say that if they don't go up for tabernacles, then the Lord's going to withhold rain from them.
Speaker A:Of course, we've seen other plagues, we've seen other things.
Speaker A:But this idea of no rain on the land gives us a little bit of a hint, though, of what the Feast of Tabernacles was about.
Speaker A:And so let's talk about that some.
Speaker A:What is the Feast of Tabernacles?
Speaker A:Just to give you some bullet points here.
Speaker A:The first thing is it was primarily instituted as a way to remember the way that God had provided for his people when they were in the wilderness.
Speaker A:So tabernacles, the word tabernacle itself.
Speaker A:Well, I'll go ahead and tell you the word.
Speaker A:The Hebrew word is sukkot, and it really means a tent, a tabernacle.
Speaker A:If you think about the tabernacle, you know, the big tabernacle, big T, where they would keep the Ark of the Covenant and where they would offer sacrifice and so forth, it was a tent.
Speaker A:That's what the word really means.
Speaker A:Kind of a temporary dwelling place would be the way that we would say it.
Speaker A:And that's also where the word booth comes from.
Speaker A:Booths in the plural.
Speaker A:By the way, I should say this.
Speaker A:Well, I don't know how important it is.
Speaker A:Sukkot is plural.
Speaker A:So tabernacles is plural, right?
Speaker A:Sukkot.
Speaker A:So in Hebrew, a feminine noun like sukkah.
Speaker A:Sukkah is the singular.
Speaker A:Sukkot is the plural.
Speaker A:So it's.
Speaker A:It's the Feast of Tents or the Feast of Tabernacles or Feast of Booths.
Speaker A:I've even seen what you're really.
Speaker B:You're really laying on the hoo.
Speaker B:So it doesn't sound like booze.
Speaker A:That's exactly the reason I do that.
Speaker A:But I've even seen it.
Speaker B:I don't know.
Speaker B:That could be pretty popular for some folks.
Speaker A:I've even seen it translated as huts.
Speaker A:So the idea is that it's a temporary dwelling place, right?
Speaker A:And if you think about when the children of Israel were in the wilderness, wandering, they were going around place to place in these tents, and God provided for them.
Speaker A:Miraculously, manna, quail provided water, various places where there was no water.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:So what Tabernacles is about is remembering the way that God cared for his people, the same way that Passover reminds them of the way that he gave them redemption from the Egyptian slavery.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:So that's what that remembers.
Speaker A:Tabernacles.
Speaker A:Then Comes later, if you will, and remembers the way that.
Speaker A:Remembers the way that God provided for them in the wilderness.
Speaker A:I was just going to say Pentecost later becomes associated with the giving of the law too.
Speaker A:So all of them kind of follow the story of the beginning of Israel's origin, if you will, as they leave Egypt, as they become a nation, they're given laws.
Speaker A:And then as God provides for them during this period of time.
Speaker A:So when they enter into the promised Land, then.
Speaker A:Then every year at this time, and it's in the fall this year I wrote down, it's October 6th through the 13th, it's a fall festival.
Speaker A:I always say it's a little bit like Thanksgiving, if you can kind of imagine.
Speaker A:It's usually associated with the harvest, but not the spring wheat harvest, but the fall harvest, like when you're harvesting your olive trees and your figs and all those kind of things.
Speaker A:So it's a time of plenty, a time to celebrate, you know, the guy, the way that God has provided in the promised land.
Speaker A:But when they were in the promised land, they would actually, even after they had houses, and they still do this to this day, interestingly enough, they would go out and live in these tents or these booths during this whole festival, seven day or eight day, we think there's various witnesses that give different ones.
Speaker A:We usually say an eight day festival where they would live outside and they would spend.
Speaker A:They would kind of spend it together.
Speaker A:It was a family time.
Speaker A:You can imagine.
Speaker A:Again, people who lived outside of Jerusalem would come and stay with their families in Jerusalem.
Speaker A:Lots of kids running around.
Speaker A:It was a time of rejoicing.
Speaker A:So it was supposed to be a time of joy, celebrating God's provision.
Speaker A:You're taking in the harvest.
Speaker A:God has provided for us.
Speaker A:But then interestingly, it becomes associated.
Speaker A:And we're going to see this in Zechariah 14.
Speaker A:So what happened in 14:7?
Speaker A:If they don't come up, if the nations don't come and worship, there'll be no rain.
Speaker A:It became associated with a certain feature in the weather systems of Israel and in the agriculture where the Israelites depended upon the people of Judah, depended upon the winter rains in order to make sure they're going to have a good crop the next year.
Speaker A:So what they would do during tabernacles and especially at the end of tabernacles.
Speaker A:So it's like, God, thank you for this great harvest we've had.
Speaker A:Thank you for providing for us.
Speaker A:We remember the way that you provided for us, even the wilderness.
Speaker A:And now as you get to the end of the festival, send us the winter rains so that we can continue to have plenty, so you can continue to provide for us.
Speaker A:So the winter rains, what I'm talking about here is Israel is dependent upon the water table that they get in their.
Speaker A:In the winter there are, there's rain that comes in a different kind of way in the winter in this part of the world than there is during the summer.
Speaker A:Summer's are very dry, very hot.
Speaker A:But in the winter when it's cooler, you find an abundance of rain.
Speaker A:The first time I was ever in Israel, we started up in Galilee.
Speaker A:We actually were doing a hike and it was in January.
Speaker A:And you know, it's interesting, you always on flannel board, you know, I always saw camels in the desert, you know, when I assume that's what Israel was like.
Speaker A:But we were told, oh, you need to bring a fleece, you need to bring a raincoat, you need to bring good boots.
Speaker A:You know, all these different layers, make sure you have an under layer.
Speaker A:And it was, it was cool in the winter, much cooler than you would have imagined.
Speaker A:And it was wet.
Speaker A:What I mean by that, it was muddy.
Speaker A:Everywhere we went, there were places we could barely.
Speaker A:It was a, it was a prescribed path we were going along.
Speaker A:But there are places where the water was up so high we could hardly see where the path was supposed to go.
Speaker A:We have to cross, you know, almost like a river or a stream there.
Speaker A:Now I mentioned last.
Speaker A:No, I'm just talking, talking questions or comments so far on this or anything you want to add?
Speaker B:No, not at this point.
Speaker A:I mentioned this idea.
Speaker A:I believe his last episode of wadis or dry riverbeds.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:And you might remember back up.
Speaker A:In fact, go ahead and read that back up in chapter 14, I think it's verse, verse 8.
Speaker A:Go up and read that.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:This is in Zechariah 14, 8.
Speaker B:On that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem, half of it east to the Dead Sea and half of it west of the Mediterranean Sea in summer and in winter, summer and in winter.
Speaker A:And this was the, you know, that's something we wouldn't necessarily notice a detail.
Speaker A:But if you just expected rain in the winter, he's saying in that day and the time.
Speaker A:Remember we talked about that day last a lot last episode.
Speaker A:When the Messiah comes, it's going to be a time of plenty and we're going to see water running year round.
Speaker A:Summer and winter, not just in the winter.
Speaker A:That's the beginning of this kind of an idea.
Speaker A:But during this period of Time.
Speaker A:What they would do is they would pray for rain as you get toward the end of the tabernacle so that they could have.
Speaker A:And you see the connection.
Speaker A:So you could have an abundant harvest the next year.
Speaker A:Then, you know, thank you, Lord, for the way you've provided for us.
Speaker A:Now send the winter rain so that we'll have a good crop next year as well.
Speaker B:Yeah, okay.
Speaker B:And this is such an important thing for them as well, because, I mean, it does get dry.
Speaker B:I mean, I remember, see, you know, that there's cisterns where they're collecting water because there is very much a.
Speaker B:A dry season.
Speaker B:That's exactly right.
Speaker B:I remember when I.
Speaker B:When I was in Jordan, we're going up on Mount Nebo, and we could look it out, we could see, like it was just starting to come, you know, starting to turn green.
Speaker B:But there were places that were still very much that brown dead.
Speaker B:And so they were waiting for that to come in.
Speaker A:I have this incredible video that I like to show, and maybe I can find the link for it too.
Speaker A:And basically, it's one of these dry riverbeds.
Speaker A:And the people are gathered there because they know it's that time of year.
Speaker A:And you can just see off in the distance, there's a thunderstorm not near, but thunderstorm far away.
Speaker A:And they're waiting.
Speaker A:And before you know it, here comes this rush of water that comes down.
Speaker A:And before you know it, the whole dry riverbed now is flowing with water.
Speaker A:And you can imagine again if this would be a time of celebration, a time to thank God for the way that he cared for you.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Cisterns is another good example that they would dig these cisterns in order to provide water, you know, for their.
Speaker A:For their flocks and for themselves for the.
Speaker A:For the dry season.
Speaker A:So there was a wet season and there was.
Speaker A:There was a dry season.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:So this message is, if the nations don't go up and worship at tabernacles, they're not going to get no rain.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Now, when we looked at this last week and I talked about the living water, running water, we talked about how it's important for.
Speaker A:For ceremonial cleansing.
Speaker A:It's important in the rabbinics that you have living water.
Speaker A:It's water that gives life.
Speaker A:And of course, living water is an important phrase in the Gospel of John as well.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:But last week, in the beginning of Zechariah, chapter 14, what you just read there in verse 8, it says, half of this flows down to the great sea, is what it technically says in Hebrew.
Speaker A:And the other, it flows to the east to the sea, which is the Dead Sea.
Speaker B:Fresh water going into salt water.
Speaker A:And then I mentioned these two other passages.
Speaker A:So Zechariah is written after the book of Joel.
Speaker A:He's a post exilic prophet.
Speaker A:Joel's a pre exilic.
Speaker A:Ezekiel is written during the exile.
Speaker A:So let's kind of take him in that order.
Speaker A:Joel 3, 18.
Speaker A:You might remember, we looked at and it says that a fountain will spring from the house of the Lord.
Speaker A:Do you remember that passage?
Speaker A:Are you looking it up?
Speaker B:Yeah, I got it right here.
Speaker B:In that day, the mountains will drip new wine, and the hills will flow with milk, and all the ravines of Judah will.
Speaker B:Will run with water.
Speaker B:A fountain.
Speaker A:That word ravine is wadi.
Speaker A:Okay, so go back and do that again.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:And all the hills will flow with milk, and all the wadis of Judah will run with water.
Speaker B:A fountain will flow out of the Lord's house and will water the valley of acacias.
Speaker A:So this water is going to come from the temple, is the idea.
Speaker A:Chapter 47 of the book of Ezekiel.
Speaker A:We have this vision that Ezekiel has.
Speaker A:Now you got to remember, Ezekiel is writing after the destruction of the temple in 586 BC.
Speaker A:He's writing to community of Babylonian Jews who were held captive in Babylon.
Speaker A:And he has this vision where he goes and sees this temple and there's water coming out of the doorway under the temple.
Speaker A:And it's a long passage, chapter 47.
Speaker A:But he says, do you see this son of man?
Speaker A:Which is the typical Ezekiel kind of thing.
Speaker A:And he says he measures off a thousand cubits and the water's ankle deep.
Speaker A:Then it's knee deep, another thousand cubits.
Speaker A:So the farther this water goes, the bigger it gets.
Speaker B:And then we get to that point, no one could cross it.
Speaker A:And then it gets down to this point that everywhere it goes, it says that it makes things alive.
Speaker A:Basically, it's living water in that sense.
Speaker A:It goes down into the Dead Sea is the way it's described in Ezekiel, chapter 47.
Speaker A:And as it enters the Dead Sea, the water there becomes fresh.
Speaker A:Yeah, of course, the Dead Sea is called the Dead Sea because there's nothing in it.
Speaker A:There's nothing alive in it except tourists where you can float.
Speaker B:Just don't.
Speaker B:Just don't dip your face and don't.
Speaker A:Get in your eyes.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:So the idea here is that, that it's imagining this time when this river is going to flow down and even the dead things are going to be made alive.
Speaker A:It's living Water.
Speaker A:In that sense, it's water.
Speaker A:So it's not only moving water, but it's also water that gives life.
Speaker A:So here's my point is this is the, that we see in Jewish literature that this water is going to come out of the temple and it's going to become a source for all this life giving stuff.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And then Zechariah 14 comes along and we have this idea that the Mount of Olives is going to be split in two from east to west.
Speaker A:Water is going to flow half to the Dead Sea, half to the Great sea.
Speaker A:It's following in that same kind of tradition.
Speaker A:So you can see why it connects with the Feast of Tabernacles.
Speaker A:In fact, there's later Jewish literature and here's where we get into some problems.
Speaker A:We'll talk about this even more in just a moment.
Speaker A:But when you get into later rabbinic literature, you have to ask, okay, is this the way it was in the time that it's being ascribed to, or is this something that they're seeing later?
Speaker A:But there's even some indication that Zechariah 14 would have been read as a part of the keeping of the Feast of Tabernacles during the first century.
Speaker A:There's some indication of that.
Speaker A:Some people would say very strongly that that's the case.
Speaker A:I think you have to be careful of it.
Speaker A:Anytime you're dealing with rabbinic literature, which I'm going to give you some here in just a little bit, you have to be careful about the dating of it.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Any, any other questions or comments on that?
Speaker B:Well, I think here's my, I don't know if I have a question about this, but what would you say, and this is a very practical thing.
Speaker A:Sure.
Speaker B:Let's say someone's going through this text and they're reading this, like, how do they, how do they see these connections?
Speaker B:How do they.
Speaker B:Because I think more conversations I'm having, it's just like it's such, you know, I don't know many people that are like Ezekiel 47 that reminds me of that.
Speaker B:Or, you know, especially when you get in this prophetic literature to kind of see like, oh, I can see where this is coming from and I can see where this is going.
Speaker B:Because I think oftentimes again, I'm projecting.
Speaker A:Sure.
Speaker B:I think at least for me in the past, it's like, okay, I'm reading Zachariah and I'm like, oh, I didn't see this whole river thing happening.
Speaker A:That's a great question.
Speaker A:I'm going to answer it two ways, if I can remember the second answer by the time I get done with the first.
Speaker A:But first, I'll tell you the way I came across this.
Speaker A:And I just told you I was studying John chapter seven, and I was actually looking at this phrase, living water, trying to understand what it meant.
Speaker A:And I was looking at Feast of Tabernacles, and I found this connection in Zechariah, living water, verse 8, and feast of Tabernacles.
Speaker A:Now, again, so this was a search.
Speaker A:It was a search I did through a computer program like Blue Letter Bible.
Speaker A:We've showed people how to use that.
Speaker A:You and I both own Logos, which is not a cheap tool.
Speaker A:But if you are really a, if you're really somebody who wants to dig into this, it's something.
Speaker A:But you need some way to search and look for those.
Speaker A:That's how you find these kind of connections.
Speaker A:They're linguistic connections.
Speaker A:Is what we're making.
Speaker A:What's compelling to me.
Speaker A:If the Feast of Tabernacles was in every book in the minor prophets, it might not be a big deal, but that you only find it, you find it so seldom in the Old Testament, and then you find these three occasions right here.
Speaker A:So that's kind of a second thing if you're reading along and you see this repetition of something, that's a unique word.
Speaker A:So when I do the search again, Feast of Tabernacles, well, that's the only time it's mentioned in the New Testament by name.
Speaker A:There's one other possible allusion to the Feast of Tabernacles I'll mention maybe in just a minute, but it's the only time it's mentioned by name.
Speaker A:And so you begin to draw those kind of connections and you begin to ask the question, what is this going on here?
Speaker A:And then, you know, as I began to study it more then I was bringing in and using some commentaries, and they mentioned Joel 3:18 and Ezekiel 47.
Speaker A:You begin to say, okay, this is a pattern in Jewish literature.
Speaker A:It's not just here in Zechariah and in John, where these two things are connected.
Speaker A:And I'm going to show you why I was asking this question when I get down to John.
Speaker A:So hold on to that for just a minute.
Speaker A:So that's the way that I found it.
Speaker A:Okay, now let me answer the question the second way.
Speaker A:And this is even more general.
Speaker A:That's a specific way that I found it.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:So using tools like search, you can even use a concordance to do this kind of work.
Speaker A:Like if you looked up Tabernacles in a concordance.
Speaker A:You could potentially come up with this.
Speaker A:But, you know, we live in a.
Speaker A:I don't know if you guys know this, but we live in an information age.
Speaker A:What most of us have in our pockets, the ability to find this kind of.
Speaker A:Do these kind of advanced searches.
Speaker A:I was telling you, we didn't broadcast this.
Speaker A:I think this was after.
Speaker A:After we recorded the last episode.
Speaker A:I think I was reminding you of when the first search that I could do in the Greek.
Speaker A:You remember me talking about this in the Greek Testament.
Speaker A:We had.
Speaker A:It was hooked up to like, what do you call those?
Speaker A:The big.
Speaker A:Like, you had mainframe computer someplace.
Speaker A:We had a terminal in the library at Cincinnati, and we thought we were really hot.
Speaker A:Cincinnati Bible College.
Speaker A:And so you'd have to basically put together your search ahead of time and you'd go.
Speaker A:It's almost like coding it.
Speaker A:Like, you'd have to put in the.
Speaker B:Search.
Speaker A:And then it would give you back the results.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:So you had to borrow time.
Speaker A:You had to set up a time to come in and do this, and then it would give you your answer.
Speaker A:Well, now today in your pocket, you can go on.
Speaker A:If you don't want to use Blue Letter Bible, which I just like the power of it.
Speaker A:You could even just look on Bible Gateway and do a search on Bible Gateway for tabernacles, and it would come up.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So my point is that we have that ability.
Speaker A:So using the tools, thinking about the frequency with which something is mentioned and looking for those kind of connections is what I was talking about so far.
Speaker A:Let me give you a general answer in the second way.
Speaker A:And this actually probably be good for us to do a whole few episodes on.
Speaker A:But I always would tell my students when I was teaching, I would always say, read large sections of scripture quickly, study small sections of scripture in depth.
Speaker A:You've heard me say that before.
Speaker A:I probably said it on this podcast.
Speaker A:And what I mean is this.
Speaker A:And I just don't know any other way to get around it.
Speaker A:Now I'm going to preach for just a minute.
Speaker A:Well, you asked.
Speaker A:I did.
Speaker A:If we want to know this stuff, there's no shortcut.
Speaker A:It takes work.
Speaker A:And the reason we read large sections of scripture quickly is you got to remember that a lot of these people, the illusions and things like Paul would have had, I believe the majority of the Old Testament memorized verbatim in Hebrew.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:We don't live in that kind of an age anymore.
Speaker A:But we need to be familiar with the scripture.
Speaker A:And I don't Just mean reading through quickly and not paying attention to it either.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:But reading through quickly and trying to remember these kind of connections.
Speaker A:So when you see river imagery and I've asked you questions like this before, and I would always ask this kind of thing in class.
Speaker A:Tell me a.
Speaker A:Tell me a rain story.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:Tell me a story about two brothers, Right?
Speaker A:And those kind of.
Speaker A:Tell me a story about the oldest being preferred before the youngest.
Speaker A:Right, Sorry.
Speaker A:Apologize.
Speaker A:Tell me a Mount of Olive story.
Speaker A:You know, those.
Speaker A:We.
Speaker A:We have to familiarize ourselves enough with the scripture that those kind of connections begin to be made, if that makes sense.
Speaker A:Tell me a story about horses.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:Well, we've got.
Speaker A:We've got the first of the night visions, Zechariah, chapter one.
Speaker A:You've got the four horses there.
Speaker A:You've got the four horse, the four chariots in Ezekiel.
Speaker A:You've got the four horsemen of the Apocalypse in the book of Revelation, right?
Speaker A:And pretty soon you begin to see those kind of.
Speaker A:Those kind of connections.
Speaker A:Tell me a story about fire.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:Those are the.
Speaker A:Those.
Speaker A:So that's why I say you've got to read large sections of Scripture quickly if you want to know this stuff.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:We've got to familiarize ourselves enough with the Bible that it is familiar to us.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:We familiarize ourselves so that.
Speaker A:So that we are.
Speaker A:We're able to get a hold of it.
Speaker A:But we've also got to dig down sometimes, if that makes sense.
Speaker A:And that's where I think you really begin to see those kind of connections.
Speaker A:I think I mentioned this last week, but I'll say it's worth repeating.
Speaker A:Maybe the audio dropped out.
Speaker A:When I was saying this, I was teaching First Timothy First, Second Timothy in Sunday school, and it had never struck me the way it did before.
Speaker A:But you know the passage very well.
Speaker A:Study to show yourself approved.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:A workman that needeth not be.
Speaker A:That need not.
Speaker A:I'm going all King James on you.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:You are a workman that does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing or rightly handling the word of truth.
Speaker A:And it never struck me that the word workman was used there.
Speaker A:Now I've memorized that.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Obviously.
Speaker A:Originally memorized that in the King James Version when I was in church camp.
Speaker A:I've probably read that.
Speaker A:I probably quoted that a hundred times.
Speaker A:It never struck me until this last time that it's a workman.
Speaker A:Why is that the right image that Paul's saying to Timothy?
Speaker A:I think he's saying it's because this is work, right?
Speaker A:This isn't.
Speaker A:You Know, just being, you know, you also get a rabbi and one of a rabbi degree.
Speaker A:One of the things that Paul's talking about there is the false teachers.
Speaker A:And he's saying, basically they're saying words without meaning.
Speaker A:And he's saying to Timothy, you can't be like that.
Speaker A:You've got to be somebody who's worked at this to the point that what has been entrusted you can be entrusted to others.
Speaker A:And that's the other thing I'll say is it's good to have a teacher.
Speaker A:I mean, that's why.
Speaker A:That's one of the reasons we want to put this out.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:I'm not always right, but I have spent time thinking about these things and studying these things, and there's certain things that I think I've figured out.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Things that have been entrusted to me.
Speaker A:So that's 2 Timothy 2.
Speaker A:2.
Speaker A:What you've heard me saying, the presence of many reliable people and trust to others.
Speaker A:I'm sorry, what you've heard me say in the presence of many witnesses and trust to reliable people who in turn will be able to teach others.
Speaker A: That's the: Speaker A:So you get what I'm saying is it takes effort, it takes work, but it is good to have somebody to help you along the way, too.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Well, you know, just in these conversations, it, you know, one of the things that I think about that we talked about early on in this podcast and you said we beat the theme to death was the temple.
Speaker B:You know what I mean?
Speaker B:Like, for me to go back and to read and to see temple imagery or to see the temple concepts, it's like I have a whole new appreciation for that.
Speaker B:And I.
Speaker B:How many times I had read it before and had not seen those connections.
Speaker B:And just, you know, I think it's one of those things to say, like, to have a teacher like yourself and, you know, there are those who taught you and those, you know, I mean, like, we're kind of standing on the shoulders of those who've gone before us.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:But to, you know, it's only when you invest in it that it kind of.
Speaker B:It opens up itself.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:To be discovered in that.
Speaker A:I think that's.
Speaker A:That's, that's right there.
Speaker A:I don't think there is a shortcut to this.
Speaker B:Well, yeah, and I'll say what I have.
Speaker B:I said to someone the other day, it was just like, as they were thinking about this, and this is something Jody Owens talked about when we went to his retreat several years ago, was just like this Is wisdom literature.
Speaker B:Like it's made to be read and reread and read again.
Speaker B:And that contemplated stuff contains.
Speaker A:Yeah, he did a really good job of thinking about that.
Speaker A:And also the reason we gather together with other believers to study this stuff.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And to put the effort in.
Speaker A:It's not just something.
Speaker A:It's not a consumable.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:It's something that we.
Speaker A:We have to do with effort.
Speaker A:Anyway, that's probably longer than we should have spent on that.
Speaker A:Go ahead and read verses 18 and 19 of Zechariah 14.
Speaker B:It's our podcast.
Speaker B:We do what we want.
Speaker A:We can do what we want.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:This is a repetition, then, in a specific way of this warning to Egypt.
Speaker A:So go ahead and read verses 18 and 19.
Speaker B:If the Egyptian people do not go up and take part, they will have no rain.
Speaker B:The Lord will bring on them the plague he inflicts on the nations that do not go up to celebrate the festival of tabernacles.
Speaker B:This will be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not go up to celebrate the festival of tabernacles.
Speaker A:So three times there.
Speaker A:I mean, this is one of those things you begin to develop an ear when you hear something like that repeated over and over again.
Speaker A:You're like, this may be something important we need to pay attention to.
Speaker A:So here's my question, and I'll open this to you, and we can think about it.
Speaker A:So given what we've seen, that Zachariah is about, what the message is and.
Speaker A:And the way that he's conveyed this message, what he's preaching to this community of people who've returned from exile, why do you think Feast of Tabernacles is especially important for them?
Speaker A:Why?
Speaker A:What.
Speaker A:What do you think?
Speaker A:Why is Tabernacles the right thing to bring in here?
Speaker B:I.
Speaker B:I think it's about deliverance, you know, I mean, it's.
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker B:It's about the.
Speaker B:God's provision.
Speaker B:God's provision to deliver them from the oppression.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:And it's a difficult time, but God has taken care of us in the past, and God will continue to take care of us.
Speaker A:I think the connection with the temple.
Speaker A:You mentioned the temple stuff, and that's what Zechariah is all about.
Speaker A:We got to get this temple rebuilt.
Speaker A:It's a very important part of God's redemptive plan is the way that he sees it, I think.
Speaker A:And where are we going to celebrate this?
Speaker A:In fact, it's not just for us.
Speaker A:It's also for the nations, which is A very.
Speaker A:I mean, think about that.
Speaker A:Compared.
Speaker A:Think about Zachariah and he's writing in the same time as Ezra.
Speaker A:In fact, you know, Zechariah is mentioned twice in the book of Ezra and here he is writing at the same time.
Speaker A:But what a different attitude he has than even we see in Ezra.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Because Ezra is all about, hey, we need to get rid of the foreigners, cast off.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:And Zechariah saying, you know, there's a time coming when all the nations, which is that the goy, the Gentiles, when all the gentiles are going to come to us, they're going to come and worship here at this place.
Speaker A:And so I think it's important for that reason.
Speaker A:But no, I think it's exactly.
Speaker A:Tabernacles is reminding us that God is able to provide what we need.
Speaker A:So go ahead and finish up Zechariah then.
Speaker B:Can I take a question real quick?
Speaker A:Sure, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:So I've got my Logos open up here, looking at both these.
Speaker B:So I'm looking at Joel 3, 18.
Speaker B:And when we saw Egypt here, I was like, ah, so Joel 3:18, a fountain will flow to the Lord's house and will water the valley of Acacias.
Speaker B:19.
Speaker B:But Egypt will be desolate.
Speaker A:Desolate.
Speaker B:Edom, a desert waste because of violence under the people of Judah and whose land they shed innocent blood.
Speaker B:So is this kind of, I mean, do we see this as kind of a parallel with Joel here talking about like using Egypt again?
Speaker B:I mean, I know Egypt is the constant foil.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:That's what I would say is the issue.
Speaker A:So I always say there's two major superpowers throughout this entire part of.
Speaker A:This entire part of history.
Speaker A:It is Egypt and whoever controls Mesopotamia.
Speaker A:Now, the players change in Mesopotamia and technically they change in Egypt too, but they maintain the same so called Egypt.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:So that's the interesting thing about Egypt.
Speaker A:I always say, if you know, it'd be a great place to start if you're playing a game of risk, which I know that's a really geeky board game thing to say, but yes, you are correct.
Speaker B:I'm going to firmly on that.
Speaker A:Egypt is.
Speaker A:You've got the Mediterranean to the north, right.
Speaker A:You've got desert to the to the west, and you have desert to the south.
Speaker A:You can probably tell me more about this than I can.
Speaker A:You've been there, Right.
Speaker A:So it is a defensive.
Speaker A:In the ancient world, it is a defensible position, right?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:The only way to get there is through.
Speaker A:Is through Israel.
Speaker A:Well, through Israel, the king's highway along the.
Speaker A:Along the Mediterranean, you know.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:So all these Assyrians.
Speaker A:Let's go back to the Assyrians, all these people from Mesopotamia, if they want to get to Egypt, these other.
Speaker A:The other major superpower, Right, they got.
Speaker B:To go through Jerusalem.
Speaker A:Let's say they want to put tariffs on them or something.
Speaker A:I don't know.
Speaker A:But.
Speaker A:But they.
Speaker B:Oh, my gosh.
Speaker A:They would go up the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, they would come down.
Speaker A:They would cross the valley of Megiddo.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:They would go across the valley of Megiddo, through these mountains, they would come down the Mediterranean into Egypt.
Speaker A:That's the only way to bring an army.
Speaker A:It's the only way to bring a trade caravan.
Speaker A:And Edom is further east.
Speaker A:But a similar.
Speaker A:Yeah, similar situation.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:You've got to go the trade route in order to get down into Edom, There were prescribed places to go.
Speaker A:So Egypt is.
Speaker A:Is continually a place that was oppressing God's people, even after Zechariah.
Speaker A:You'll remember the kings of the north, the kings of the south, we saw in Daniel, you know, during the period of the Maccabean kings, they continue to come up and cause issues for.
Speaker A:For the people of Judah.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Judea.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:So, yeah, I think.
Speaker A:I think for that reason.
Speaker A:But, yeah, it's.
Speaker A:It's a similar kind of concept.
Speaker A:Now, the difference is, I would say Joel is announcing judgment.
Speaker A:We're going to be in a better position than Egypt.
Speaker A:You know, that.
Speaker A:That's like saying, you know, I don't know how to describe it, but Egypt was the superpower.
Speaker A:They were the ones that we had to bow to.
Speaker A:But they're going to be desolate, whereas we're going to be lifted up and God is going to provide us miraculously water and wine and.
Speaker A:And.
Speaker A:And milk flowing out of the mountains.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:We will have everything we need here.
Speaker A:It's that.
Speaker A:Yeah, I guess Egypt will be desolate if they don't come and pay homage to God, if they don't worship him at the feast of Tabernacles, is the difference.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:All right, so I'm going to read 20 and 21 here.
Speaker A:Yeah, we'll finish it up.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:On that day, holy to the Lord will be inscribed on the bells of the horses.
Speaker B:And the cooking pots in the Lord's house will be like the sacred bowls in front of the altar.
Speaker B:Every pot in Jerusalem and Judah will be holy to the Lord Almighty.
Speaker B:And all who come to sacrifice will take some of the pots and cook in them.
Speaker B:And on that day, there will no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the Lord Almighty.
Speaker A:Okay, interesting way to finish your prophecy.
Speaker A:Well, but here's what it's saying.
Speaker A:It's saying even the common pots, right?
Speaker A:Even the pots and pans in your house will be like the ones that are consecrated to service in the temple.
Speaker A:So this is similar to the image we would say, I want you to be a nation of priests, right?
Speaker A:The whole land is going to be set apart for the worship of God.
Speaker A:It's not just the temple.
Speaker A:It's not just the articles that are for use there, but it is the entire nation.
Speaker A:And all the cook pots are going to be set apart.
Speaker A:To be holy to him is basically the idea.
Speaker A:So that's what I think is going on with this final image now, the Canaanite.
Speaker A:There will no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the Lord.
Speaker A:First of all, Canaanite is almost an anachronistic term, right?
Speaker A:But it reminds us.
Speaker A:It reminds us that this is what God had told his people to do from the beginning, right?
Speaker A:Drive the Canaanites out so that you can be a people set apart to me.
Speaker A:You're going to be a people holy to me.
Speaker A:And again, it was always.
Speaker A:It was never about driving out the Canaanites so we could purify Israel, but it was so that they could be pure, so that the nations could come to know who God is.
Speaker A:They could become a nation of priests and lead the rest of the Gentiles to him.
Speaker A:That's the point.
Speaker A:And so again, I think that's what Zechariah is pointing to, this future time where all are going to be God's people.
Speaker A:There's no longer going to be this Canaanite, but it's all going to be set apart to him.
Speaker B:That's good.
Speaker A:So we've kind of gone along today, but let's go to John 7 and let me just quickly kind of show you the connection here.
Speaker A:I like with Tabernacles.
Speaker A:Look at John chapter 7 and start.
Speaker A:Just read the first five verses there to just kind of set the scene.
Speaker B:After this, Jesus went around in Galilee.
Speaker B:He did not want to go about.
Speaker B:Did not want to go about in Judea because the Jewish leaders were there looking for a way to kill him.
Speaker B:But when the Jewish festival of Tabernacles was near, Jesus brother said to him, leave Galilee and go to Judea so that your disciples there may see the works you do.
Speaker B:No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret.
Speaker B:Since you are Doing these things, show yourself to the world.
Speaker B:For even his own brothers did not believe in him.
Speaker A:So a couple of interesting things here.
Speaker A:First of all is this.
Speaker A:I just will say this is one of those things that gives accounts like this credibility.
Speaker A:They call it the criterion.
Speaker A:If you're talking about historical Jesus research, this is the criterion of embarrassment.
Speaker A:Like that Jesus own brothers did not believe in him is not something that if you're wanting right in there, if you're wanting to paint a great picture about who Jesus was and everybody was familiar with him, you would leave that out.
Speaker A:But anyway, leave that aside for a moment.
Speaker A:So what we have going on with the rest of this is they're kind of egging him on, saying, oh, if you're going to be this big public figure, you better go up to the festival.
Speaker A:Jesus was not going up because of the Jewish leaders looking for him.
Speaker A:He ended up going up in secret is what happens then later on.
Speaker A:And there's a lot of debate about this, but let's just say he goes up in secret.
Speaker A:It's interesting.
Speaker A:John tells us there's all kinds of this conversation going on.
Speaker A:Is he going to come to the festival?
Speaker A:Is he not?
Speaker A:People are wondering.
Speaker A:We've heard he's done these incredible things by this point in the Gospel.
Speaker A:He's done these signs.
Speaker A:Is he going to come to Jerusalem or not?
Speaker A:It's always an interesting.
Speaker A:So here's another little study tip.
Speaker A:When you're studying the Gospels, the later you go in them and the closer you go to Jerusalem, the more conflict there is.
Speaker A:So here's the general concept there.
Speaker A:You always have to think about the setting and the time of the event that's taking place in a narrative.
Speaker A:In a narrative you have to think about where does this fit in the Gospel, where does this fit within Jesus ministry?
Speaker A:And also where is it located.
Speaker A:So there are times in Caesarea Philippi, for example, Jesus is different than he is in Jerusalem.
Speaker A:I shouldn't say he's different.
Speaker A:How do I say that?
Speaker A:He speaks differently because of the situation, because of the conflict.
Speaker A:So here he goes down secretly and then read verse 14.
Speaker A:Just quickly kind of gives us that halfway through.
Speaker A:So remember, this is an eight day festival.
Speaker B:Okay, so 14.
Speaker B:14.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:No, 7.
Speaker A:14, John 7.
Speaker B:14 John 7.
Speaker B:14.
Speaker B:Sorry.
Speaker B:Not until halfway through the festival did Jesus go up to the temple courts and begin to te.
Speaker A:So we know this is the festival of tabernacles.
Speaker A:We learned that back in verse two.
Speaker A:So he begins to teach in the temple courts and they become amazed.
Speaker A:They say, how did he get to know these things and he says some controversial things, so they're upset at him.
Speaker A:So again, there's these.
Speaker A:Some groups are believing this is the thing throughout the whole Gospel of John.
Speaker A:Some people believe in him, others are just put apart by him.
Speaker A:And so then go down and look at verse 37, just the very first part of this verse 37.
Speaker B:On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, let anyone who is thirsty come to me.
Speaker A:Okay, let's stop drinks right there, because we have to, we have to deal with that.
Speaker A:So on the last and greatest day of the festival, that's the setting for this pronouncement that Jesus is about to make.
Speaker A:So, so again, eight day festival, this is where we have to go to some extra biblical literature in order to understand the kind of things that would happen.
Speaker A:So I mentioned that as it got toward the end of Feast of Tabernacles, we believe that the Jewish leaders, the priest, would begin to lead the people in prayers for winter rains.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:One of the things that they would do is they would actually, on the last day of the festival, they would do what's called a libation.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:And there's a couple different references to this.
Speaker A:I'm just going to give this to you quickly.
Speaker A:Josephus mentions this, Philo mentions it, and there's a book we call Pseudo Philo now that mentions this practice.
Speaker A:And all those are pre New Testament.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:All those are pre 1st century.
Speaker A:But the clearest description we have of how this took place is in rabbinic literature that it's, it's part of the Mishnah that is called Sukkot.
Speaker A:Okay, Sukkot means tabernacles.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:So, so the Mishnah is divided into how you perform these different festivals.
Speaker A:Now, the problem we have is we know that, that the Mishnah has its origins in oral tradition that would have begun before it was written down, but we don't have it written down until a later period of time.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker A:So this is one of those things you have to kind of think, okay, how much of this is dependent on later material?
Speaker A:Earlier material, I would say because of what we have in Zechariah 14, the connection with rain in Zechariah 14 because of the Gospel of John and what Jesus says in the last and greatest day of the feast, and then these other references that we have give us some indication that at least the beginnings of this kind of a ceremony were going on.
Speaker A:Okay, but I want to read for you the description of what took Place it says with regard to the water libation.
Speaker A:A libation is just a poured out offering.
Speaker A:When Paul in second Timothy says I'm already being poured out like a drink offering, that's a libation, right?
Speaker A:So he says this is the, the rabbi saying, according to the, according to the right of the water libation performed in the temple during the festival, Festival Sukkot, how was it performed?
Speaker A:One would fill a golden jug with a capacity of three log.
Speaker A:So this is a big golden jug with water from the Siloam pool.
Speaker A:So we know the pool of Siloam from the Gospel of John.
Speaker A:Now this is one thing that tells me that this has to have an origin at least earlier than the destruction of the temple in AD 70.
Speaker A:Because when the temple is destroyed in 80 70, the Siloam Pool becomes filled in.
Speaker A:And so this is at least somebody who knows something about the topography of Jerusalem before the destruction.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:So they get the water from the Sloan pool and then they bring the water reaching the gate of water.
Speaker A:Now what we think is that this would have been a big procession that people, this has been like a parade.
Speaker A:And I didn't mention this as well.
Speaker A:One of the parts of the festival that people would do, there's a prescribed different kinds of branches.
Speaker A:We usually associate this with Palm Sunday.
Speaker A:But these different branches that were tied together and they would, they would wave them.
Speaker A:There's a really cool.
Speaker A:I didn't mention second Maccabees tells about this as well, I should say a cool story.
Speaker A:There's this one really interesting story in second Maccabees because one of the things that these palm would have citron fruits on it like big kind of oranges or big grapefruit.
Speaker A:And there's one time Alexander Janaeus is performing his ceremony at the feast of Tabernacles and the people start pelting him with the citron fruits.
Speaker A:They start pulling the citron fruits off and, and hit him.
Speaker A:Now the not funny part is he had a bunch of them crucified that day for doing that.
Speaker A:But anyway, so great story.
Speaker A:So they reach the gate of water.
Speaker A:So basically the pool of Siloam is now at the bottom of Mount Zion.
Speaker A:They march up through the gates of the city into the temple is where they're coming into the gate of Water, so called because the water for the libation was brought through this gate leading to the temple courtyard.
Speaker A:And then it gives us real details about what instruments were supposed to sound when which I've cut that part out.
Speaker A:The priest then ascended the ramp of the altar and turned to his left, there were two silver basins there into which he poured the water.
Speaker A:And then there's a Later Rabbi Yehuda said they were limestone basins.
Speaker A:They just looked silver because of the wine that they used.
Speaker A:But they would pour water into one of these, and they would pour wine into the other of these.
Speaker A:And basically they had nozzles, it says they had nose like protrusions that would put this water down onto the altar.
Speaker A:That's.
Speaker A:That's what these things did.
Speaker A:So one of the basins used for the wine libation had a preparation that was broad and one with a lot of water libration had a preparation, was thin.
Speaker A:So basically the idea is the wine's thicker, so it.
Speaker A:It had a broader.
Speaker A:So both of them would pour onto the altar at the same time was the idea.
Speaker A:So they pour wine into the one, they pour the water into the other.
Speaker A:And.
Speaker A:And so the basin to the west of the altar was for water, the basin to the east of the altar was for wine.
Speaker A:So that libation then off putting on the altar this water and this wine is asking God for these rains and praying.
Speaker A:Basically, here we're offering up this water that you've given us, and we're asking you to send more water is the point of these kind of things.
Speaker A:So let's go back to John, chapter seven, 37, 38, I think, and I'm not the only one, but I think that it's.
Speaker A:When it says, on the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, what he says here is in the context of this water libation ceremony.
Speaker A:Okay, let's stop for just a minute and review.
Speaker A:Well, no, let's not.
Speaker A:Let's go ahead and then we'll come to something here in just a minute.
Speaker A:I just thought of how to do this.
Speaker A:I just figured out how to do this.
Speaker A:On the last, greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, and I'm going to warn you, what I'm going to read here is not going to be the way that most of your text read in the text itself.
Speaker A:But if you have a current translation, most of them will have what I'm going to read to you in the footnote.
Speaker A:And it's not a textual variant.
Speaker A:This isn't like some manuscripts say this, and some manuscripts say that.
Speaker A:It all has to do with the way it's punctuated.
Speaker A:And I will remind you that in the original manuscripts, there was no punctuation.
Speaker A:All the punctuation has been added later.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:So here's what we have.
Speaker A:So Jesus, on the last greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink the one who believes in me.
Speaker A:So this is a Hebrew parallel statement.
Speaker A:This is like Hebrew poetry.
Speaker A:Let anyone who's thirsty come to me drink.
Speaker A:Which is parallel to thirsty.
Speaker A:Believe in me.
Speaker A:Believe in me is parallel to come to me.
Speaker A:It's similar.
Speaker A:Let them respond to me.
Speaker B:If you're thirsty, come.
Speaker B:And if you believe, drink.
Speaker A:There's almost exactly a parallel statement in John chapter six, where it says, anyone who hungers, let him come to me and eat.
Speaker A:Anyone who is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.
Speaker A:See those parallels?
Speaker A:And so I think in the way we usually translate this in terms of the punctuation, we've messed up this Hebrew parallelism.
Speaker A:And I'll tell you in just a minute why it's important.
Speaker A:Let anyone who's thirsty come to me, Jesus says, and drink the one who believes in me.
Speaker A:As Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within.
Speaker A: Now, the NIV: Speaker A:It says them.
Speaker A:This is what we call the believer's understanding of this passage.
Speaker A:Anyone who's thirsty, let him come to me and drink.
Speaker A:And the one who believes in me, as Scripture has said, from within him will flow rivers of living water.
Speaker A:They've made it plural because they have tried to erase the male pronouns, Right?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:So here's what it says.
Speaker A:Let anyone who searched, let him come to me and drink the one believing in me.
Speaker A:Jesus says, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within him.
Speaker A:Or this.
Speaker A:It actually could be.
Speaker A:Read it.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Where does the scripture say rivers of living water will flow?
Speaker B:Will it flow from?
Speaker A:I'm saying where in this.
Speaker A:Where do the Hebrew scriptures say.
Speaker A:He says.
Speaker A:The scriptures have said this.
Speaker A:What's he quoting here?
Speaker B:Oh, Zechariah.
Speaker A:He's not quoting anything specifically, but he's referring to Zechariah.
Speaker A:He's referring to this tradition.
Speaker A:Ezekiel 47, Joel 3:18, Zechariah 14.
Speaker A:And what do they teach us?
Speaker A:That the water, living water, will flow in that day, as Scripture has said, from within the temple.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:And Jesus is the temple.
Speaker A:That's how I understand this passage.
Speaker A:This is a part.
Speaker A:So how do we understand this within this context?
Speaker A:The first, within an immediate context, tabernacles.
Speaker A:What it stood for and what it represented.
Speaker A:God's provision for his people and that he would give them the rains that they needed.
Speaker A:He would give them what was necessary in Order to continue to have a good harvest.
Speaker A:Jesus says that now comes from within me, not the temple.
Speaker A:Okay, in the larger context of the Gospel of John, you mentioned the temple theme, and we have a whole episode on this.
Speaker A:One of the temple themes we see is Jesus is saying what the temple represented I have now fulfilled.
Speaker A:I'm the presence of God in the midst of his people.
Speaker A:And I am able to bring people to God.
Speaker A:No one comes to the father.
Speaker A:John, chapter 15 and John chapter 14, except through me, right?
Speaker A:You don't draw near to God now.
Speaker A:Through the sacrifice, through the altar, you now come through me.
Speaker A:Hebrew writer says something very similar.
Speaker A:We now have confidence to enter into the most holy place through the body that is his flesh.
Speaker A:So anyway, that's how I see this John 7:37,38, within the context of the feast of Tabernacles.
Speaker A:And I do think he's really referring back living water.
Speaker A:Tabernacles is in Zechariah 14.
Speaker A:He's referring to this, which is the larger tradition.
Speaker A:I don't think he's quoting any scripture here.
Speaker A:He's saying, the Jewish scriptures have pointed toward this, right?
Speaker A:And now I am the one who can provide for you water, living water.
Speaker A:It's not going to be from the messianic age has come, right?
Speaker A:And I am the one now from whom you can drink living water.
Speaker A:He's already presented back in chapter four, right?
Speaker A:Give you water.
Speaker A:He says to the woman at the well, I can give you water that if you drink, you'll never thirst again.
Speaker A:Chapter 6.
Speaker A:I can give you bread, not like manna.
Speaker A:I can give you bread that if you eat of it, you will never die.
Speaker A:So anyway, that's how I understand.
Speaker B:I like that.
Speaker A:I like Zachariah.
Speaker A:That's why I think Zachariah is fantastic.
Speaker B:Because it always leads back to John.
Speaker B:That's why he likes Zachariah.
Speaker A:That's how I came to it, I guess.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Well, that's great.
Speaker B:No, I think this is great.
Speaker B:Again, you know, we kind of talk about this earlier.
Speaker B:It's just like, how do you see this?
Speaker B:But then to see where.
Speaker B:How it connects to all of scripture, the corpus of scripture here, I think it paints a really great picture for, you know, for me, this.
Speaker B:This is an exciting stuff to see these connections and to see how this story has been.
Speaker B:Has been unfolding and how this all connects back to each other.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker A:Excuse me, I didn't mention this, but salvation.
Speaker A:So, so, so, Teres, that's one of the things that they would shout as they were, as they were, you know, in this.
Speaker A:And so he's saying, here I am providing you this salvation.
Speaker B:I think so.
Speaker B:So they would say salvation when they're pouring the water, like.
Speaker A:Well, in the.
Speaker A:In the whole festival, that was part of the things that the people would shout.
Speaker A:So that I.
Speaker A:That idea.
Speaker B:Interesting.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker B:Well, this is great.
Speaker B:Well, Brian, I appreciate it.
Speaker B:Yep, yeah.
Speaker A:Yep, yep.
Speaker A:There we go.
Speaker B:All right.
Speaker B:Well, we hope that you're enjoying the Bible Bistro.
Speaker B:You can find us.
Speaker A:Hopefully this worked.
Speaker B:Oh, yeah, we'll see.
Speaker B:Everybody just cross your fingers.
Speaker B:We hope this works.
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Speaker B:Love it.
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Speaker B:You can also find on thebiblebistro.com a little bookstore of sorts where you can find recommended resources that go along with some of the things we've talked about.
Speaker B:So check us out there.
Speaker B:If you purchase something from one of those links, we get a very small portion.
Speaker B:We've made $12 off of that bookstore.
Speaker B:So, yeah, hey, every.
Speaker B:Every little bit.
Speaker B:Accounts to help us pay for new services and so forth.
Speaker B:To bring you the podcast.
Speaker B:And so.
Speaker B:And as Brian mentioned, we're looking at some other options to put some print resources maybe together and put those in your hands and some writing.
Speaker B:Some of my school work that Brian, you've looked at, and some other things as well.
Speaker A:Soon, I think, John 15.
Speaker B:Soon we're gon.
Speaker B:John 15, so.
Speaker B:So Brian can critique me.
Speaker A:I think you did a great job critiques.
Speaker B:So, Brian, I really appreciate it, really appreciate you taking us all the way through Zechariah and.
Speaker B:And helping us see how.
Speaker B:How this all is connected.
Speaker B:So thanks so much.
Speaker A:All right.
Speaker A:All right, see you soon.
Speaker B:We'll talk next Tuesday.
Speaker A:Bye.
Speaker B:Bye.
Speaker A:All right.
