Did Jesus declare his deity when he claimed he could quench thirst on the last day of the Feast of Taber­na­cles? We read the following:

Jn. 7:37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and pro­claimed, “If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink. 38 He who believes in me, as the scrip­ture has said, ‘Out of his heart shall flow rivers of liv­ing water.’” 39 Now this he said about the Spirit, which those who believed in him were to receive; for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

First of all, we find the insti­tu­tion of the Sukkot (Feast of Taber­na­cles) in Leviticus:

Lev. 23:33 And the LORD said to Moses, 34 “Say to the peo­ple of Israel, On the fif­teenth day of this sev­enth month and for seven days is the feast of booths to the LORD. 35 On the first day shall be a holy con­vo­ca­tion; you shall do no labo­ri­ous work. 36 Seven days you shall present offer­ings by fire to the LORD; on the eighth day you shall hold a holy con­vo­ca­tion and present an offer­ing by fire to the LORD; it is a solemn assem­bly; you shall do no labo­ri­ous work.

37 “These are the appointed feasts of the LORD, which you shall pro­claim as times of holy con­vo­ca­tion, for pre­sent­ing to the LORD offer­ings by fire, burnt offer­ings and cereal offer­ings, sac­ri­fices and drink offer­ings, each on its proper day; 38 besides the sab­baths of the LORD, and besides your gifts, and besides all your votive offer­ings, and besides all your freewill offer­ings, which you give to the LORD.

39 “On the fif­teenth day of the sev­enth month, when you have gath­ered in the pro­duce of the land, you shall keep the feast of the LORD seven days; on the first day shall be a solemn rest, and on the eighth day shall be a solemn rest. 40 And you shall take on the first day the fruit of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and boughs of leafy trees, and wil­lows of the brook; and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God seven days. 41 You shall keep it as a feast to the LORD seven days in the year; it is a statute for ever through­out your gen­er­a­tions; you shall keep it in the sev­enth month. 42 You shall dwell in booths for seven days; all that are native in Israel shall dwell in booths, 43 that your gen­er­a­tions may know that I made the peo­ple of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.”

No pour­ing of water is men­tioned for a rea­son. Let us con­tinue with read­ing the fol­low­ing about the pour­ing of water (water liba­tion) from a Jew­ish website:

“The Water Libations

Every sac­ri­fice brought in the Tem­ple was accom­pa­nied by a flour offer­ing and the pour­ing of a pre­scribed mea­sure of wine on the altar. Dur­ing the seven days of the Fes­ti­val of Sukkot a liba­tion of water was added to that of wine together with each of the daily morn­ing offer­ings. This water liba­tion is not explic­itly men­tioned in Torah but it is a law revealed to Moshe on Sinai to which the Sages have found allu­sions in the Torah.

The Water Liba­tion was per­formed with intense joy. Accom­pa­ny­ing the Water Liba­tion were fes­tiv­i­ties enti­tled Sim­chas Beis HaShoavah, or hap­pi­ness of the house of the water-drawing) refer­ing to the waters, which were drawn from the pool of Shiloach (which is referred to as the waters of sal­va­tion). The fes­tiv­i­ties were held in the Ezrat Nashim, which was the court­yard of the outer Tem­ple. Though a rel­a­tively small area, mira­cously, many thou­sands of happy peo­ple were able to crowd in. There was danc­ing and singing in cel­e­bra­tion of the draw­ing of the water.

Our sages said, “He who has not seen the rejoic­ing at the Sim­chas Beis Hashoavah, has never seen rejoic­ing in his life.”

Why was the Water Liba­tion such a happy occa­sion? It is as if G-d says to Israel, “All your offer­ings are pre­cious to Me, but this offer­ing of the water which you pour on the altar dur­ing the fes­ti­val is espe­cially pre­cious. Water requires nei­ther plant­ing nor reap­ing or press­ing no puri­fy­ing. Let it be joined with the wine liba­tion, which requires all sorts of prepa­ra­tions. In my eyes, your wine and water are equal, those that require great effort and those that don’t, so long as you rejoice in me with­out any mix­ture of for­eign thoughts or ulte­rior motives.” Through the water liba­tion, the Jew­ish peo­ple knew that all their exer­tion in the ser­vice of G-d through­out the year rises to be accepted by him.”

http://www.ou.org/chagim/sukkot/libations.htm

And again,

“The nature of the water liba­tion was based on the famous verse from Isa­iah (12:3), “Ush’avtem mayim b’soson, mima-ai-nay ha’yeshoh” (“You shall draw water with joy from the wells of sal­va­tion”). Sukkot is the most joy­ous offes­ti­vals, and the most intense joy cen­tered around the nisuch ha’mayim (pour­ing of the water). On chol ha’moed (inter­me­di­ate days), with the excep­tion of Shab­bat, these fes­tiv­i­ties called Sim­chat Beit ha’Shoavah (hap­pi­ness of the place of water-drawing), were accom­pa­nied with great pub­lic cel­e­bra­tions, replete with musi­cal instru­ments and song.”

http://www.ou.org/shabbat/recipes/chayeisara62.htm

The water for the liba­tion cer­e­mony was drawn from the pool of Shiloah (mean­ing ‘sal­va­tion’) in the City of David. So let us keep these in mind as we fur­ther deal with the subject.

The water of life and liv­ing water are used inter­change­ably. The liv­ing water is sim­ply free flow­ing water, such as a well, a stream or a river, but not still water.

Song 4:15 a gar­den foun­tain, a well of liv­ing water, and flow­ing streams from Lebanon.

Jer 17:13 O LORD, the hope of Israel, all who for­sake thee shall be put to shame; those who turn away from thee shall be writ­ten in the earth, for they have for­saken the LORD, the foun­tain of liv­ing water.

Wow! Didn’t Jesus say sim­i­lar things? Isn’t he also the foun­tain of liv­ing water?

John 4:10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is say­ing to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you liv­ing water.”

John 7:37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and pro­claimed, “If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink. 38 He who believes in me, as the scrip­ture has said, ‘Out of his heart shall flow rivers of liv­ing water.’” 39 Now this he said about the Spirit, which those who believed in him were to receive; for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glo­ri­fied. 40 When they heard these words, some of the peo­ple said, “This is really the prophet.”

Ops! So all those who believe in him become foun­tains them­selves! It appears being the foun­tain is not equiv­a­lent to being God! So how do we inter­pret this?

In Judaism liv­ing water is related to the law of God. Remem­ber that obe­di­ence brought bless­ings, pros­per­ity and life, and dis­obe­di­ence brought curse, des­o­la­tion and death. In the same way, when Moses in the wilder­ness struck the rock, the water gush­ing out of it also meant life to the Jew­ish peo­ple. The Feast of Taber­na­cles is about the wan­der­ing in the wilder­ness. Though the pour­ing of water is not insti­tuted in the law, it might have been derived from the story of Moses strik­ing the rock.

When we look at John 7:39 we have fur­ther evi­dence that the liv­ing water is related to the law of God. It says, Jesus referred to the Spirit. What do we learn from the Tanakh about the pur­pose of giv­ing the Spirit?

Ezek 36:27 “And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be care­ful to observe my ordi­nances.”

Is it about being happy-clappy? Or is it about obe­di­ence becom­ing one’s very nature? Hav­ing the Spirit is syn­ony­mous with hav­ing the law in the heart. It leads to com­plete obedience.

Jer. 31:31 “Behold, the days are com­ing, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant which I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, though I was their hus­band, says the LORD. 33 But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my peo­ple. 34 And no longer shall each man teach his neigh­bor and each his brother, say­ing, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the great­est, says the LORD; for I will for­give their iniq­uity, and I will remem­ber their sin no more.”

So what is the result of receiv­ing the law into the heart by the Spirit? That obey­ing the law of God becomes one’s very nature.

Jesus had the Spirit. What was his life like? He taught oth­ers how to live right, how to cor­rectly obey God. This is what liv­ing water is about. Those who believe in him, and hav­ing the Spirit walk as he walked, should do the same.

It is often claimed that in Jn. 7:39–40 Jesus chose the moment of high­est cel­e­bra­tion to pub­licly declare his deity. But the peo­ple thought some­thing different:

John 7:40 When they heard these words, some of the peo­ple said, “This is really THE prophet.”

Read it again to make sure you didn’t miss the word. They thought he was THE PROPHET. Not God. The prophet like Moses who would teach the chil­dren of Israel right­eous­ness, ini­ti­ate the new exo­dus and deliver them from their ene­mies. These are some of the tasks of the Mes­siah. If Jesus wanted to tell them he was God, he utterly failed. He could have cho­sen dif­fer­ent words. How­ever, nei­ther the peo­ple, nor the gospel writer make such a claim — only evan­gel­i­cal theology.

We find in Matthew that the King Mes­siah was also believed to be a prophet:

Matt 21:9 And the crowds that went before him and that fol­lowed him shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the high­est!” 21 And when he entered Jerusalem, all the city was stirred, say­ing, “Who is this?” 21 And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee.”

Matt 21:44 When the chief priests and the Phar­isees heard his para­bles, they per­ceived that he was speak­ing about them. 45 But when they tried to arrest him, they feared the mul­ti­tudes, because they held him to be a prophet.

What did Jesus say about himself?

Mark 6:2 And on the sab­bath he began to teach in the syn­a­gogue; and many who heard him were aston­ished, say­ing, “Where did this man get all this? What is the wis­dom given to him? What mighty works are wrought by his hands! 3 Is not this the car­pen­ter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sis­ters here with us?” And they took offense at him. 4 And Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not with­out honor, except in his own coun­try, and among his own kin, and in his own house.”

Luke 13:31 At that very hour some Phar­isees came, and said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” 32 And he said to them, “Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and per­form cures today and tomor­row, and the third day I fin­ish my course. 33 Nev­er­the­less I must go on my way today and tomor­row and the day fol­low­ing; for it can­not be that a prophet should per­ish away from Jerusalem.’

How about Peter? What did he say about Jesus?

Acts 3:21 whom heaven must receive until the time for estab­lish­ing all that God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old. 22 Moses said, ‘The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet from your brethren as he raised me up. You shall lis­ten to him in what­ever he tells you. 23 And it shall be that every soul that does not lis­ten to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people.’

Indeed, Jesus did what prophets always did. Tried to turn the chil­dren of Israel back to God by warn­ing them about their sins and teach­ing them right­eous­ness, and warned them about the com­ing judgment.

Let us now con­sider some pas­sages in Rev­e­la­tion con­cern­ing the throne of God (and of the Lamb) and the liv­ing water. Tra­di­tional the­ol­ogy often iden­tify the Lamb with the water of life. How­ever, we read,

Rev 7:17 For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shep­herd, and he will guide them to springs of liv­ing water; and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

If the Lamb is the guide to wells of liv­ing water, then the Lamb him­self can­not be the liv­ing water. Let us try to gain fur­ther insights.

Rev. 3:21 He who con­quers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I myself con­quered and sat down with my Father on his throne.

Wow! So the priv­i­lege Jesus received, to sit down with God on His throne, was his reward because he also con­quered. Just what throne is in view? What is the throne of God in rela­tion to the Messiah?

1Chron. 29:23 Then Solomon sat on the throne of the LORD as king instead of David his father; and he pros­pered, and all Israel obeyed him.

The throne of God is the throne of Israel. It is most often referred to as the throne of David. Jesus earn­ing the priv­i­lege to sit on the throne of God sim­ply means he earned the right to rule Israel (and the world) in the com­ing King­dom. In the larger con­text the throne of God is Jerusalem because that is where the King will rule the world from:

Jer 3:15 “‘And I will give you shep­herds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowl­edge and under­stand­ing. 16 And when you have mul­ti­plied and increased in the land, in those days, says the LORD, they shall no more say, “The ark of the covenant of the LORD.” It shall not come to mind, or be remem­bered, or missed; it shall not be made again. 17 At that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the LORD, and all nations shall gather to it, to the pres­ence of the LORD in Jerusalem, and they shall no more stub­bornly fol­low their own evil heart.

Another pas­sage gives us fur­ther hints about the future Kingdom:

Mic 4:2 and many nations shall come, and say: “Come, let us go up to the moun­tain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

Now, I think enough is said, under­stand­ing the fol­low­ing pas­sage should not be a problem:

Rev 22:1 Then he showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crys­tal, flow­ing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 through the mid­dle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yield­ing its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree were for the heal­ing of the nations. 3 There shall no more be any­thing accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and his ser­vants shall wor­ship him

What is this pas­sage talk­ing about? It is about the Mes­siah rul­ing the world from Jerusalem in the King­dom, from where the law and the related bless­ings go forth. There will be no more dis­obe­di­ence (no more curse) and there­fore peo­ple will pro­duce good works (trees with leaves and fruit).

Per­haps you should also notice the author’s care­ful dis­tinc­tion between God and the Lamb.

The sub­ject requires some fur­ther comments.

John 4:13 Jesus said to her, “Every one who drinks of this water will thirst again, 14 but who­ever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst; the water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eter­nal life.”

John 7:37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and pro­claimed, “If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink.

We have seen in the ear­lier post that the water in Judaism relates to the law of God. Well, that was a brave state­ment to give but gave lit­tle evi­dence to sup­port it. Per­haps it is time that sup­port is given.

Jesus preaches what is known as the ser­mon on the mount. Among oth­ers he says this:

Matt 5:6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for right­eous­ness, for they shall be satisfied.

The chil­dren of the King­dom are those who hunger and thirst for right­eous­ness. Jesus reflects on what the prophet Isa­iah said:

Isa. 55:1 “Ho, every one who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk with­out money and with­out price.

Clarke, I think, is spot on in his commentary:

““Water,” says Kim­chi, “is a metaphor for the law and wis­dom: as the world can­not sub­sist with­out water, so it is impos­si­ble that it can sub­sist with­out wis­dom. The law is also com­pared to wine and milk: to wine because wine rejoiceth the heart, as it is writ­ten: ‘The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoic­ing the heart,’ Ps 19:8. It is com­pared also to milk, because milk is the sub­sis­tence of the child; so are the words of the law the nour­ish­ment of his soul who walks in the Divine teach­ing, and grows up under it.”