Nuggets and Gems from the Bible

Life’S
Quenching –
the need
of the
thirsty
 LIFE’S QUENCHING—
THE NEED OF THE THIRSTY
From chapter seven of the Gospel of John
we shall consider the need of the thirsty. This
case is in contrast with chapter six of John, the
need of the hungry. In chapter six the Lord is
clearly revealed as the bread of life to satisfy our
hunger, but here in chapter seven the Lord brings
the flow of living water to quench our thirst.
In chapter six the people are hungry, but in chap­
ter seven they are thirsty. Chapter six presents
the living bread, and chapter seven introduces the
living water. The bread of life is for hungry peo­
ple, and the rivers of living water are for thirsty
people. For the thirsty, Christ is the quenching
life. He is the very life that is able to quench man’s
thirst.
The thought that the Lord is our food and
water is seen throughout the Scriptures. For exam­
ple, in Genesis 2 the tree of life is a picture of the
Lord as our life supply of food. Beside the tree of
life in Genesis 2 there is the river of water, which
is a portrait of the Lord bringing us the rivers of
living water. In other words, this pictures the Lord’s
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purpose in the creation of man—man must eat
and drink. If he fails to eat, he will become hun­
gry, and if he fails to drink, he will become thirsty.
The Lord is the food to satisfy our hunger, and
He has the living water to quench our thirst.
Later in the Scriptures, the children of Israel,
as they traveled through the wilderness, also had
both food and water. On the one hand, they had
the manna from heaven as their daily food (Exo.
16:14-15); on the other hand, they had the living
water flowing from the smitten rock to quench
their thirst (Exo. 17:6).
In the Gospel of John, the Lord also is the
living bread and He offers the living water to sat­
isfy the hunger and the thirst of the multitude.
The Father, the Son, and the Spirit, the three Per­
sons of the Triune God, are very much related to
this matter of food and water. God the Father is
the source, God the Son is the food, and God the
Spirit is the drink. The first Person of the Triune
God is the source of the second Person as the
food, from whom the third Person flows out as
the drink.
First Corinthians 10:3-4 also points out these
two things. There, Christ Himself is the spiritual
food and He is the smitten rock from which flows
the spiritual drink. The Holy Spirit is the spiritual
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drink flowing out of the crucified Christ. There­
fore, Christ is our food, and the Holy Spirit who
flows out of Christ is our drink.
Finally, we come to the end of the Scriptures,
where we see the New Jerusalem. Again, the flow
of the living water is the Holy Spirit, and the tree
of life growing in the flow is Christ (Rev. 22:1-2).
Hence, there is a line running throughout the
whole Scriptures showing us that Christ is our
spiritual food, that the Holy Spirit is our spiri­
tual drink, and that man needs both to eat and to
drink in order to satisfy his hunger and thirst.

THE SCENE OF THE FEAST

OF TABERNACLES
John 7 is a continuation of chapter six, because
the matter of food is related to water. In the scene
of chapter six, there was the feast of the Passover.
In the scene in chapter seven, there is the feast of
Tabernacles. The feast of the Passover is the first
of the annual Jewish feasts, and the feast of Tab­
ernacles is the last (Lev. 23:5, 34). The feast of
the Passover, as the first feast of the year, implies
the beginning of man’s life (cf. Exo. 12:2-3, 6),
which involves man’s seeking for satisfaction and
results in man’s hunger. The feast of Tabernacles,
as the last feast of the year, implies the completion
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and success of man’s life (cf. Exo. 23:16), which
will end and result in man’s thirst. In the scene
of the feast of the Passover, the Lord presented
Himself as the bread of life, which satisfies man’s
hunger. In the scene of the feast of Tabernacles,
the Lord promised that He would flow forth the
living water, which quenches man’s thirst.
The feast of the Passover occurred early in the
year, when the people were working and labor­
ing hard. The case of the feeding of the five thou­
sand finds the people working to fill their hunger,
but failing to be satisfied. They labored, they
worked, they sought something to satisfy, but
they failed. The feast of Tabernacles, on the con­
trary, occurred at a time when the harvest was
over. The people had reaped the corn and the
wine (Deut. 16:13-14). Everything of the harvest
had been reaped, and the people were to come
together at the feast of Tabernacles and enjoy
everything with their families and even with their
servants. We must realize that during the feast
of Tabernacles the people do not labor because
the work is over, the crop has been reaped, and the
corn and wine have been harvested. That was
the time to rejoice in their enjoyment—but they
were still thirsty! This case reveals that their thirst
was not quenched even by their success.
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 If you read the verses concerning the Pass­
over in Exodus 12, you will see that the Passover
indicates or implies the beginning of life. The
Passover, of course, is for salvation. When we
were saved, we had a new start. The Passover was
always in the first month of the year. Hence, it
marked a new beginning. In a sense, all of the
young people are in the Passover, for their life has
just begun and they have many high expectations.
Although perhaps you have not yet graduated
from college, you expect that after graduation
you will be a professor, doctor, or attorney. This
is the feast of the Passover. We have already seen
that the feast of the Passover always ends in hun­
ger. After your graduation there will be nothing
but hunger. The higher position you attain in
your profession, the more hunger you feel. The
more money you earn, the more dissatisfied you
will be. In John 6, the feast of the Passover, as
the initial step in life, ends in hunger.

THE COMPLETION AND SUCCESS

OF LIFE WITH ITS ENJOYMENT
IN A RELIGIOUS WAY
After the full harvest of their crops, the Jew­
ish people observed the feast of Tabernacles to
enjoy what they had reaped in the worship of God
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(Exo. 23:16; Deut. 16:13-15). Hence, this feast
signifies the completion, achievement, and suc­
cess of man’s career, study, and other matters of
human life, including religion, with the joy and
enjoyment thereof. Thus, the feast of Tabernacles
implies the completion of your job, achievement,
and career. Although you may be successful in
your occupation or career, you must realize that
it will all issue in thirst. Eventually, after work­
ing your entire life, you will be thirsty, because
everything has a last day. Everything ends. The
last day is always a great day. After people attain
a certain success, other people will give them a
memorial day. A person’s memorial day is always
his last day. It is the end, and the end is empty. It
results in thirst. In John 6 we have the beginning
of life, which results in hunger; in John 7 we have
the success and completion of life, which end in
thirst. The case in John 6 sets forth the people
laboring, working, seeking, and striving to find
something to satisfy their hunger, but they fail
to get it. This case sets forth the people already
having everything they need, but they find
that it does not quench their thirst. They have
obtained everything; they have enjoyed every­
thing. But with all of their success, with all of
their gain, even with all of the things connected
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with their feasts—their religion and their tem­
ple—their thirst cannot be quenched. Therefore,
these two cases compare those who are working
with those who are resting. Nevertheless, regard­
less of whether you are working or resting, you
cannot fill your hunger or quench your thirst.
However, the Lord is the food to the peo­
ple who labor and He will afford living water to
those who rest. Actually, humanity exists in only
one of two conditions. One is that because they
lack something they must seek, work, strive, and
labor; the other is that because they have every­
thing they may rejoice and enjoy their riches.
In other words, at first you find that you do not
have anything; therefore, you must work and labor
hard. For example, perhaps you are in the first
year of college and you have to labor over your
studies. This is like the feast of the Passover. After
you have graduated and received your degree
and have an excellent occupation, you are rich.
This is like the feast of Tabernacles because the
work and labor are over. Now you are at rest and
are in the position to rejoice and enjoy the ben­
efits of your labor.
Which feast are you attending—the feast of the
Passover or the feast of Tabernacles? Regardless
of which feast you are attending, you are still
7
hungry or thirsty. Whether you are in a poor or
rich condition, whether you are in a state of pov­
erty or plenty, you will realize that you are either
hungry or thirsty. Many foreign students come
to the rich country of the United States for an
education, but in reality, they are simply hungry.
After they work hard for several years and finally
achieve their Ph.D. degree, some will become
very wealthy, but they will still be thirsty.
Perhaps as a young person you are consider­
ing marriage. This reveals that you are hungry—
hungry for a wife, hungry for a helpmate, hungry
for a family and children. I must tell you that
although you may marry the best wife, have the
best children, and possess the best of everything,
you will eventually be seventy or eighty years old.
That will be your feast of Tabernacles in which
you will rejoice in everything and enjoy every­
thing. At that time, you will discover that noth­
ing has been able to quench your thirst. At the
Passover, you were hungry, but after the feast of
Tabernacles, you were still thirsty. When you
made out your application for college, you were
hungry, but after your graduation, you were still
thirsty. When you were first married, you were
hungry, but now, after you are married, you
sense that you are still thirsty.
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 Praise the Lord that Christ is the bread of life
for those who are laboring at the feast of the Pass­
over. A college education can never be the bread
of life. Only the Lord Himself can be our satis­
faction. Furthermore, only Christ can quench the
thirst for those who are resting and rejoicing at
the feast of Tabernacles. Even when people have
everything, the corn and the wine, they realize
that an inner thirst still persists. They may rejoice
and enjoy the produce that is in their hands, yet
only the Lord has the living water to quench their
thirst.
If you see the thought concerning these two
feasts, you will see the two phases of man’s con­
dition and the two aspects of Christ as our sup­
ply of life. On one hand, He is the bread of life
while we are laboring; on the other hand, He
supplies us with the living water while we are rest­
ing. Once you see this thought, you will under­
stand the whole of John 7. Although it is a long
chapter, it is brief in thought. The thought is that
when you have succeeded in all of your achieve­
ments, when you have enjoyed all of your pos­
sessions, when you have rejoiced in all of your
best circumstances, you will then realize that
your thirst has not been quenched. Nothing is
adequate to quench your thirst. Only the Lord
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can quench your thirst by affording you the liv­
ing water.

THE NEED
OF THE ETERNAL TABERNACLE
God ordained this feast of Tabernacles so that
the children of Israel would remember how their
fathers, while wandering in the wilderness, lived
in tents (Lev. 23:39-43) with the expectation of
entering into the rest of the good land. Hence,
this feast is also a reminder that people today are
still in the wilderness and need to enter into the
rest of the New Jerusalem, which is the eternal
tabernacle (Rev. 21:2-3). Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob also lived in tents, looking forward to this
eternal tabernacle (Heb. 11:9-10), in which there
will be “a river of water of life,…proceeding out
of the throne of God and of the Lamb” to quench
man’s thirst (Rev. 22:1, 17). At the end of such a
feast with such a background, Christ cried out
the promise of the rivers of living water, which
will satisfy man’s expectation for eternity (John
7:37-39).
The feast of Tabernacles reminded the people
of their need of the eternal tabernacle with the
river of life flowing in it. Many years ago I read
some articles that said that when the Israelites
10
celebrated the feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem
in the ancient times, they set up a huge rock and
over the rock they had waters flowing as a re­
minder that their forefathers wandered in the
wilderness and drank of the waters that flowed
out of the cleft rock. Near the rock there might
also have been tents showing how the forefathers
lived in tents and wandered in the wilderness,
but had the cleft rock with the living water to
quench their thirst. All of this signifies that all
of human life is in the wilderness. Whether you
collect the trash or are the President, a laborer
or a professor, you are wandering in the wilder­
ness. Whether you live in a high-rise apartment
or a brick house, you are living in a tent. A tent
signifies a temporary dwelling. Compared to the
New Jerusalem, even a palace is a tent. We all are
pilgrims wandering in the wilderness, living in
tents, and needing to drink living water out of
the rock. This reminds us that one day the real
feast of Tabernacles will come. That will be in
the new heaven and new earth within which the
New Jerusalem will be the eternal tabernacle.
Revelation 21:3 says that the New Jerusalem is
the tabernacle of God with man. It is the real,
constant, eternal tabernacle. In the tabernacle
of the New Jerusalem there will be the river of
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water flowing continually to quench the thirst
of God’s elect. Thus, the feast of Tabernacles re­
minds us that we have such a future and causes
us to realize that we can never be satisfied with
the things of this age. Those things are the things
of our pilgrimage. All of them will end. We are
travelers. We are journeying toward our final
goal—the eternal tabernacle of the New Jeru­
salem in the new heaven and the new earth. We
do not have the real quenching water here; it is
there in the New Jerusalem.

This booklet is compiled from

Life-study of John
© 1984 Living Stream Ministry
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