" If any man thirst let him come unto Me and drink " (John 7 :37.)
We learn from the early part of the chapter that it was " the Jews' Feast of Tabernacles." This was their best feast, and on the last day, it's great day, the eighth-for there was an eighth day to that feast which makes it differ from every other -on the great day of the feast Jesus stood and cried, "If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink."
Our blessed Lord here, and indeed all through John's Gospel, takes the place of all the types and all the shadows. Instead of shadow, in Him we get substance; instead of picture, reality. In the first chapter we find Him presented as the Lamb of God, God's Lamb. There He takes the place of the paschal lamb, that to which Israel turned as the foundation of all blessing. The Lord is the true Lamb of God, the One that not only removes Israel's sin, but shall remove sin from the whole universe. He is God's Lamb, "which taketh away the sin of the world." He superseded the passover. How infinitely better He is than the type that turned aside the destroying angel! He will flood the universe with blessing as well as deliver from judgment.
In chap. 2:19 He says, " Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." The blessed Lord takes the place of the temple:the shrine where God dwells is His own blessed person. In the person of Jesus we get the true temple, the true dwelling-place of God, just as in the first chapter the tabernacle is superseded in the One that " became flesh and tabernacled amongst us."
In the third chapter He takes the place of the serpent in the wilderness. "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up." When Israel looked to the serpent lifted up it brought deliverance from death. Here is far more and better. In a lifted up Son of Man we find heavenly things, the opening out to us of God's gift-eternal life. This life enables us to enter into a new sphere of affections; we are introduced into that blessed scene where the Father delights in the Son, and the Son delights in the Father. In the Son of Man taking the place
of the brazen serpent we get a wonderful opening into all the blessedness of heavenly things.
In the fourth chapter the well of water which came from Jacob is eclipsed. Without toil or effort on our part, Christ delights to refresh and satisfy every heart, and fill them so full that they will sing a much richer song than they who drank from Jacob's well. The blessed Lord says, " He that drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst" The Lord is taking the place of the well that would dry up; those who drank of that well would thirst again; but here is One who can remove thirst forever.
In the fifth chapter, we find the pool of Bethesda, that pool which intimated God's goodness to Israel. It was the gracious intervention of God on behalf of a people who had wandered away from Him, yet He would not wholly set them outside His mercy. The very meaning of Bethesda is "house of mercy." The blessed Lord visits the pool. What does He see ? Helpless people desiring healing, but lacking power to appropriate the virtues the angelic visitant imparted to its waters. Into that scene the blessed Lord comes, and He says, I am the true House of Mercy. He is the One in whom the mercy of God is brought truly to us. He not only gives the invitation, but He accompanies the invitation with power to appropriate it. When He said, "Wilt thou be made whole ? " He gave the man the power that He needed. How true that is with each of us-mercy brought to our doors and power given to appropriate it given by the One who has brought it to all who desire it.
In chap. 6 we read that that which sustained Israel in the wilderness was the manna that fell from heaven day by day. Here the Lord says, I have come to bring you something better than that. He presents Himself as the " Bread of God," the " Bread of life," and the "Bread which came down from heaven." That bread is given us as the present sustainment of our souls; the food of eternal life, the gracious means by which we are kept in living freshness and power in communion with God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. We eat His flesh and drink His blood, and not only have life eternal, but present communion.
In chap. 7 we find Him at the feast of tabernacles. There He takes the place of the Smitten Rock with its flowing stream; He is here the water of life, just as in the next chapter He takes the place of the cloud by night, which lighted Israel, as the light of life, and says, " He that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness."
How blessed it is that the Lord having come, has fulfilled every type, given us substance instead of shadows, saying, I am the reality of it all.
The Spirit of God delights to engage our hearts with Him. It is our privilege to contemplate Him, and see that all that was foreshadowed in type has come out in Him, displayed and fulfilled, as He went through this world.
If we want the need of our consciences met, how do we get it ? In God's Lamb. He is the one, and only one, who can perfectly and fully meet every need. If we want to know the way into all that blessed scene of glory where He is, and into all the divine affections into which He has entered, He is presented to us lifted upon Calvary. Life eternal is in His own blessed person:"He that hath the Son hath life." Do we long for our hearts to be filled with adoring worship and praise ? filled so that they will run over in adoration ? How do we reach it ? It is by appropriating the blessed Lord Jesus Christ Himself, the living spring ever uprising in all its freshness. Thank God, that fountain will never run dry.
God is the One from whom all blessing comes, but it comes through Christ and goes back by the Spirit, in holy, blessed, adoring, worship. If we are not worshipers, the whole secret is that our hearts are not engaged with Christ.
How much does the blessed Lord occupy our hearts, minds, and thoughts ? The Spirit of God is here to take of His things and to show them to us, to bring us into present, living, positive enjoyment of those things that are in Him-heavenly things. There are heavenly things, and these heavenly things are the things that are truly ours. The Spirit of God has come in order to lift our souls outside this earthly scene, and all that belongs to it, into that bright and blessed home where Christ is everything, where the substance is of all the shadows. His great mission is to lift us outside ourselves, outside this world, and bring us into that blessed place where He fills everything. When we get into the glory, what will occupy us ? Jesus, the center of the throng. Jesus, He is everything there, and the Spirit of God delights to lead our souls into that now. We shall get it then-there is no question about that; but one of the reasons, among the many, why the Spirit of God is here, is that He gives us heaven before we. get there. Heaven is what and where Jesus is, and occupation with Him carries us to heaven.
As we contemplate Him in these various ways prefigured in the Old Testament, the Spirit of God delights to fix our gaze on the great Antitype, to present Christ to us.
In the beginning of this seventh chapter His brethren ask, Are you not going up to this feast ? In ver. 8 He says, "Go ye up unto this feast:I go not up yet unto this feast; for My time is not yet full come." Why does He say that ? Because He waited to give them something better than a "Jews' feast."
Picture for a moment the scene in these days. The four golden lamps that lighted up Jerusalem stood in the Court of the Women, irradiating the whole city, whilst daily, for seven days, the priests poured out of silver cups the water of Siloam, and caused it to run down into the brook Kedron, whilst psalms were chanted and people rejoiced. "Those who have never seen the pouring out of water at the Feast of Tabernacles have never known what real joy is" was a proverb in Israel. From all parts of the country, happy and rejoicing, multitudes had thronged Jerusalem. It was the great feast of the whole year, the feast which culminated in joy of every sort.
Jesus tarries until their feast is nearly over, after they have had seven days of joy together. He then comes into the midst and says, Are you satisfied ? (What a challenge to religious ordinances!) Will mere externals do ? Will mere outward joy do ?
They had the right temple; they had the right service, but the Lord of the feast was outside, so He comes and says, Are you satisfied ? I think that is the Lord's challenge to us in the midst of all the
religion we find around us. The Lord is saying, Are you satisfied ? If we admit that we are not, how does He propose to meet the need ? He answers, "If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink." There is our resource. There is our fountain that is always springing, always full; so all we have to do is just what He says, "Come unto Me and drink." And what will be the effect? The effect will be–without effort on our part- "Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water," that is, streams of refreshment for both saint and sinner. That is what God would have us be. That is what the Spirit of God would produce in us. "Come unto Me" is the secret of it all. It is to get Christ for ourselves, and so much of Christ for ourselves that we can impart of Him to others. If there is a bit of want, or dissatisfaction, or feeling of thirst in our souls, may we ever remember this word, "Come unto Me." Oh, but you say, That is for thirsty sinners. True, but it is also for thirsty saints, they also can ever and always turn to Jesus and be refreshed by the living streams that flow from that blessed One. He is the spring. May God in His rich grace enable each one of us, ever and always, to turn simply to Him, to make everything of Christ. He not only meets the needs of thirsty sinners, but delights to fill and satisfy the hearts of His people, so that we run over in worship to God, and in service to those round about us. That will surely be true, if we respond to His invitation, " If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink." H. N.