The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. John 1:5REFLECTION
Maybe some people have doubts about the presence of light in this world, but nobody can deny the existence of darkness. It sure is a dark place down here on earth! If you are completely blind, no one will blame you for not being able to see; but if there’s nothing wrong with your sight, you only need to open your eyes and look up. The light is not to blame, you need to make a decision, you need to believe and look up. Sure, there’s light! Maybe you were just looking in the wrong places...
PRAYER
Father, please help me to make a decision. Forgive me for not being more open to the light of your love. You never told me to live a life of darkness and despair down here on earth. You told me to trust you and look up. I don’t want to be a hindrance to others. I want to reflect your light and by doing so, the total amount of your light in this dark world will increase. Lord, I want to see more of you and I want to understand you better. Please bless me and use me to be a blessing. In Jesus' name. Amen.
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1 comment:
My experience of Succoth (Feast of Tabernacles) is limited to hanging around under an arbor chatting, so I decided to look some stuff up. This is incomplete knowledge, Paul; if your readers have more understanding, I’d love to hear it.
Succoth is not merely a harvest festival. It was established to commemorate the Lord providing for the Israelites during their period of wandering in the desert. It was one of three pilgrim holidays, the other two being Passover and Shavuot (Pentecost), both of which are well known to Christians. Now that I spent the evening reading about it, I think Succoth should be better understood too.
Much of the ritual of this holiday is Mishnaic and as such comes down through Rabbinic Judaism from the Pharisees of the Temple period. Rabbinic Judaism is based on the tradition that the law revealed to Moses has both a written and oral form. I personally reject this approach as gnosticism.
Somewhere along that Rabbinic path, Succoth acquired a High Holy Day gloss. It was no longer a commemorative festival; it became about God judging the nations for water. This is most pronounced on the last day, Hoshannah Rabba, which has acquired overtones of Yom Kippur. According to this view, God’s book of judgment is finally closed for the liturgical year with this judgment of water.
Jesus, as a good Jew, would have wanted to make this trip, and he wasn’t really worried about being arrested—he tells us in John 7:30 that the time wasn’t right. So why did he slip in the back door?
In my opinion, this chapter is quite a showdown between Jesus and the Pharisees. He seems to be pointing out the distortions of the Levitical code in verses 14-24, even saying, “Has not Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps the law.”
In this context, the passage you quoted stings. It points out that the Mishnaic water libation on the altar was not from Moses, but from Man. In counterpoint, Jesus alone is the source of our water, and what’s more, it’s Living Water. The spirit of the water judgment was fear. The spirit of the Living Water is the exact opposite of that.
What’s particularly rich is that the holiday closes with prayers expressing hope for the speedy coming of the Messiah. You couldn’t make this stuff up!
To be fair we have to admit that we tend to find ritualism as appealing as the Pharisees did. It's so easy to embroider on God's instructions, isn't it?
BTW, I found this interesting site while I was surfing:
http://www.templeinstitute.org/main.htm
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