22.7: Jesus, Messiah Quenches Every Spiritual Thirst - Are You Thirsty? John 7

<p>I love festivals! When I lived in Miami, I &nbsp;looked forward to President’s Day Weekend and the Coconut Grove Art &nbsp;Festival. Artists and artisans set up booths and it was an open-air &nbsp;gallery. In today’s chapter 7 in John’s Gospel, we have Jesus attending &nbsp;the annual Festival of Tabernacles (or Shelters), known to the Jews as &nbsp;Sukkot. It was the equivalent of our 4th of July, Thanksgiving and New &nbsp;Years all rolled into one. Party time!</p> <p>Jews still celebrate it today. It was ordered by God back in the Old &nbsp;Testament. They traveled from all over to Jerusalem to set up their &nbsp;shelters.</p> <blockquote>“Each year every man &nbsp;in Israel must celebrate these three festivals: the Festival of &nbsp;Unleavened Bread (Passover), the Festival of Harvest (Pentecost), and &nbsp;the Festival of Shelters (Tabernacles / Sukkot). On each of these &nbsp;occasions, all men must appear before the Lord your God at the place he &nbsp;chooses, but they must not appear before the Lord without a gift for &nbsp;him. (Sacrifice)<br> Deuteronomy 16:16 NLT</blockquote> <p>Sukkot lasted 7 days — they were the holiest and greatest days. On &nbsp;the last day, the temple priest would go down in a procession to the &nbsp;Pool of Siloam to draw water. He’d then pour the water on the altar &nbsp;where they do the sacrifices, washing off all the blood. It was a &nbsp;reminder of how God drew water from a rock for the people in the &nbsp;wilderness (<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus%2017&amp;version=NLT" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Exodus 17</a>). &nbsp;The priest would then walk around the altar 7 times. This commemorated &nbsp;the victory at Jericho when Joshua was told to have the people walk &nbsp;around the city 7 times. It also looked forward to the day that God &nbsp;would pour out the water of His Spirit onto His people (<a href="https://giselleaguiar.com/2021/01/02/the-holy-spirit-comes-the-good-news-is-preached-and-a-church-is-born/" rel="noreferrer