Sukkot   (continued)

The Levitical choirs burst into song - the messianic and prophetic words of Isaiah:

Behold, God is my salvation,
I will trust and not be afraid;
For GOD the LORD is my strength and song;
And He is become my salvation.
Therefore with joy shall ye draw water
out of the wells of salvation.
(Isaiah 12:2-3 JPSA)

And God's invitation announced by Isaiah:

Ho! everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat ... without money and without price. Why do you spend money for that which is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen diligently to Me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance. Incline your ear and come to Me. Hear and your soul shall live. (Isaiah 55:1-3)

Thus said the LORD:

I will pour water upon the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground. I will pour out My Spirit upon thy seed, and My blessing upon thine offspring. (Isaiah 44:3; 58:11 JPSA)

The Prophet Joel had foretold:

And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance (or, salvation), as the LORD has said, and among the remnant whom the LORD calls. (Joel 2:28-32)

The Hebrew prophets had foretold a day when the thirsting soul would be satisfied; when sinful human nature would be "reborn" or "regenerated." This would be the work of the Holy Spirit. And so the Holy Spirit is pictured in the language of the Hebrew Scriptures as being "poured out" into the human vessel.

God would "take away the stony heart" and give sinners a "new heart and a new spirit," (Ezekiel 11:19; 18:31-32; 36:25-28). God would become a reality to believers (Jeremiah 31:31-34).

But, before the "regeneration" of sinful human nature, Messiah must come to perform His redemptive work (Isaiah 53; John 3:1-7; Titus 3:4-7; 2 Corinthians 5:17).

John wrote, "the Word became flesh and lived ["tabernacled--sukkot"] ... among us," John 1:14.  Jesus may have been baptized on the Feast of Tabernacles and then immediately went into the wilderness for forty days, lacking food and water, and there was tempted of the Devil.  The watery immersion at Sukkot gave birth to Christ's earthly ministry which would eventually lead to Calvary exactly three and one-half years later at Passover.

Yeshua often used the feast days to reveal His Messianic role and to teach spiritual lessons during His ministry. He is the eternal Ben-Elohim, Son of God - HaDavar - the Logos; the Living Word that became flesh, Who spoke the Torah at Mount Sinai for the observance of the Festival. Now, He stands in person to view His own ordained Feast of Tabernacles!

His voice burst forth in a compassionate cry: "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.  By this He meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive," John 7:37-39.

Jesus also compared the tribulations that His followers would face in the future to that of drink and watery baptism in Matthew 20:22-23 (K.J.V.).  "Are ye able to drink of the cup [persecution] that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism [death and burial] that I am baptized with?  They say unto him, We are able.  And he saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with."  His disciples would give their lives for the cause of Christ in the years that followed.

After Christ's baptism at Sukkot, He entered the wilderness where He fasted without food or water for forty days, being tempted of the Devil.  In contrast, the 144,000 elect will also experience the baptism of tribulation that Jesus endured.  As a woman in great travail with child ready to be delivered, the elect will enter the time of Jacob's trouble that will also last forty days (see the Appointed Times & Seasons Calendar # 19).

Watery Birth of a Nation

Jeremiah 30:4-7 speaks of Israel's coming forth in the imagery of pregnant men with hands on their stomachs experiencing severe pains, ready to give birth. "How awful that Day [of the Lord] will be! None will be like it. It will be a time of trouble for Jacob [or, time of Jacob's trouble], but he [the nation] will be saved out of it.  On the Mount of Olives Jesus offered detailed signs about the end of the age as recorded in Matthew 24.  When we see a staggering increase in demonic phenomenon, wars and natural disasters around the globe we are told that "all these things are the beginning of birth pains," Matthew 24:8.   What birth do we await?