John Chapter 7
Leviticus 23:33-44
the feast of tabernacles
MY OPINION
I think that when we read the gospels, we are so far removed
from the society of the time, that we have lost something of the understanding
that the original readers would have had.
This is set during the festival of tabernacles and the original readers
would have a lot of experience of what that meant and of actually being present
at it.
The Feast
of Tabernacles
The events of chapter 7 take
place in the context of the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem. It would be good
for us to understand the meaning and significance of this feast, and some of
the elements of the ceremony. William Hendriksen summarizes these things for us
very well:
On this feast see Lev. 23:33-44
and Numbers 29. It was celebrated from the fifteenth to the twenty-first or
twenty-second day of the seventh month, which approximates our October. It was
a feast of thanksgiving for the vintage. But besides being a harvest-festival
it was also a joyful commemoration of the divine guidance granted to the
Atonement, the idea of joy after redemption was naturally very prominent. In a
decreased daily scale a special sacrifice of seventy bullocks was made. The
temple-trumpets were blown on each day. There was the ceremony of the
outpouring of water, drawn from Siloam, in commemoration of the
refreshing stream which had come forth miraculously out of the rock at Meribah
(Ex. 17:1-7), and in anticipation of blessings both for Israel and for
the world. There was the illumination of the inner court of the temple, where
the light of the grand candelabra reminded one of the pillar of fire by night
which had served as a guide through the desert (Num. 14:14). There was a
torch-parade. And above all, everywhere in and around Jerusalem, in the street,
the square, and even on the roofs of the houses booths were erected. These
leafy dwellings provided shelter for the pilgrims who came from every direction
to attend this feast. But most of all they too were reminders of the
wilderness-life of the ancestors (Lev.
23:43)
The
feast reminded them of Gods goodness in the past. How he had led their
ancestors through the wilderness to the Promised Land.
There
was a division of opinion about Jesus, and he did not go to the feast
immediately. Instead he went to the temple courts halfway through the feast and
began to teach.
We
are not told what he taught, but whatever it was, it was far better than the
rabbis because the Jews were amazed and said “How did this man get such
learning without having studied?”
Verses
16-19. Jesus takes them on and says that
his teaching comes from him who sent him.
If anyone chooses to Gods will he will whether the teaching comes
from God or if Jesus speaks on his
own.
Is
that our experience? Gods word promises
to deliver from sin?
It
promises we will have life in abundance.
It
makes a lot of promises. Is this our experience?
One
would not think looking at this chapter that the feast of tabernacles was a
joyous occasion. However it was. It was
while all the merriment was going on that these arguments about who Jesus was,
where he came from and putting him to death arose.
I
presume that he would be fulfilling what was commanded in Leviticus that he
would be making merry, but there was something in his teaching that they had
never heard.
They
wondered if he would be there.
I
presume that like other people he would also be dwelling in a booth.
V6 Jesus is aware that there were
people who wanted to Kill him for performing a miracle on the Sabbath. He chose his moment. His brothers
who were not believers at the times said that he should to Judea so that people
could see his miracles during the feast of tabernacles. Presumably they knew the threats to his life,
so why would they suggest such a thing?
Jesus
did not go at first, not because he was afraid, but for him the right time had
not yet come. He was prudent. We see from this verse that in spite of all
the plotting, the conspirators were not really in control. Indeed when he did appear at the festival
they did nothing for they were afraid.
It seems to me that if Jesus had gone at the start they would have
seized and killed him, but in the middle of it, with the festivities and the
crowd around him, their evil intent was restrained and it was Jesus who
controlled events, not them as they probably thought.
Jesus had cured the man during a Jewish
festival, and here he was in the middle of another one, and there were
people there who remembered the previous one and would be wondering if he would
be there at this one and do more miracles and there were those who had been at
the first festival and were out to kill him at this one
Festivals
given by God for his glory were to be used to capture and kill Jesus in their
minds. They had completely lost sight of
what these festivals were for. They were
supposed to be reminders of Gods goodness.
Verse
24, JUDGING
Jesus
expects us to judge. Some people say that it is not up to us to judge but they
take it out of context. We are to judge
ourselves and we are also to exercise wisdom and in doing so we will
judge. In this case Jesus is saying that
they must judge him rightly and if they do they will see the truth about him.
People
believed that when the messiah came, no one would know where he came from and
as they knew where Jesus came from then he could not be the messiah. They failed to recognise that they did not
know where he came from. They could not
see that he had come from the father, and that he was going back to the father.
They
thought they understood the prophecy about the coming messiah, but they never
imagined Jesus, and when he was standing there in front of them, teaching them,
some of them failed to recognise him for who he was because the clung to their
pre conceived ideas. They thought they
knew his parents. They had no idea that he had come from the father.
Some
said that he was demon possessed; such was the hardness of their hearts
The
messiah had been prophesied, but we see in this passage that the way he
appeared on the scene is not what they imagined and consequently some did not
accept him and failed to see the fulfilment of it.
I
think that stands as a warning. We know
that there are prophecies yet to be fulfilled, but if they were to be
fulfilled, would we recognise it when it does not conform to what we imagine? We only recognise Jesus because we have the
benefit of hindsight. However we do know
that one day, all that we see now, will be wrapped up, and the judgement will
come and there will be a new heaven and a new earth. Will we be ready? I think the Key to that, is not getting caught
up in the details of prophecy that we cannot see, but being faithful.
Amen
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