#JESUS2019 - Daily DevotionalsSample

For one week the people of Israel celebrated the “Festival of the Tabernacles” in the temple to commemorate when God had protected and accompanied them in the desert. To celebrate this festival they made huts from foliage, and depending on how hardcore they were, they either lived in them for a week or just ate there together.

Every day the priests performed a ritual of pouring water over the altar. They took a golden bottle, and in a procession led by the high priest they went to the pool of Siloam, drew water from it and brought it back to the altar. The water, along with wine, was poured into bowls and then poured out over the altar. This symbolised that God in general provides rain for the harvest, but also specifically that God at that time provided water in the desert and would pour out his Holy Spirit in the end times. 

It must have been quite a spectacle, because a report in a Jewish document states: “Anyone who has never witnessed this ceremony, has never experienced true joy in this life.” It is in this context that Jesus speaks in John 7:37-39: “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. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.’ By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive later on. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.”

During this time four lampstands, which were about 25 meters high, were erected in the “women’s forecourt”. Ladders were placed on them so that the novice priests could climb up carrying large oil vessels to fill the basins at the top with oil. Old priests’ clothes were used as fuses and they were lit. These lamps were supposedly seen throughout Jerusalem. Pious men then danced around them with torches in their hands and the Levites played their instruments. What a performance!

On the last day of the festival the lamps were dismantled. We can imagine that this part was not so joyful - as when we have to take down the decorations from the Christmas tree. For the Jews, it was particularly sad, because they once again became aware of the fact that God’s glory, his cloud, had not been seen for many centuries.

It was precisely in this atmosphere of dismantling the lampstands and the end of the festivities that Jesus said his words. He was in the treasure chamber with the lamps which symbolize the lost glory of God, and he said these words: “I am the light!”. In fact, this is a crazy statement!

“What you are longing for, or what you want to have back: It is me! I am not like the prophets or gurus who point to glory, but I am the light itself. This is how God’s light can dwell in you permanently and you in him.”
Jesus is essentially saying: “I give life. I show truth. I give peace. Come to me!”

ACTION STEP:

Jesus wants to be your light as well and he wants to provide direction for you. Tell him in your prayer where you would like him to show you the way today.

John-Michael Warkentin - ICF München