Gotquestions.org What are the different Jewish Feasts?
Compelling Truth: How did Jesus fulfill the feasts?
Jewish men were commanded to attend several feasts in Jerusalem each year (Deuteronomy 16:16). The Festival of Tabernacles, also known as the Feast of Booths, was a 7-day event (Leviticus 23:33–34) celebrating the journey of Israel through the wilderness. The rituals of this festival reminded the people of how God had provided for Israel during their journey out of Egypt. This involved enormous lamps whose wicks were made of priestly robes (John 8:12), and priests carrying water from the Pool of Siloam (John 7:37). These symbolized the pillar of fire (Exodus 13:21), and the provision of water from the rock (Exodus 17:1–6), respectively.
An excerpt from: https://jewsforjesus.org/publications/issues/issues-v06-n07/sukkot-a-promise-of-living-water Sukkot occurs after the harvest has been completed and before the beginning of the new agricultural year. It includes the well-deserved rest from one's labor and sincere rejoicing in what God has done in providing for his people. Jews are also called upon to remember God's providential care over us after we were redeemed from bondage in Egypt. Jews are to remember his provision for us during the forty years of wilderness wandering. That is why God commanded Israel to observe the festival by leaving our permanent dwellings to live in the more fragile, temporary booths, or "sukkot." God instituted Sukkot as a reminder that dependence upon him was not something that ended when the Promised Land was reached. Thus, even after a good harvest, we need to remember year after year the temporal nature of this life and the fact that we must ultimately rely on God to provide for us. The priests of the Temple performed three main daily rites during the feast:
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37 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 and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”[a] 39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.
On the last or "great" day of the feast, the water libation rite reached its climax. The priests circled the altar seven times and then poured out the water with great pomp and ceremony. This was Hoshana Rabbah, the great "HOSHIANA," (which translated is "save now"). It was on this day, the last and greatest day of the feast (possibly just as the water was being poured out), that Yeshua stood up and boldly proclaimed to the celebrants, "If a man is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." (John 7:38) Imagine the uproar his statement must have caused! The priest had just poured out the water libation as an appeal to the Creator God to provide water for the people, and Yeshua (Jesus), as if to answer the prayer, tells the people to come to him for water. What a radical statement and shocker to the crowd. Messiah promised "living water" for all who believe. What is living water? It is cool, fresh spring water. In the land of Israel water is especially precious, and in Jesus' time there were three main ways of obtaining it. You could build a cistern to collect the rain, but if there was not enough rain, as was often the case, you couldn't fill it and the water soon became stale. Or you could dig a well, which was more reliable. However, the most prized source of water was a spring. Spring water was the sweetest and best water of all. It bubbled up from the recesses of the earth and continued to flow even when other streams were dried up. |