2 Now the tabernacles, the feast of the Jews, was near. v.2 The feast of “the tabernacles” speaks of rest and glory after judgment. It is prophetic of the rest and glory that Israel will enjoy in the Millennium under the reign of the Messiah (read Lev. 23:33-43). The feast was celebrated after the harvest and the vintage were brought in, when Israel would commemorate their wilderness journey before entering Canaan. The fulfillment of this type will be the millennium, when the harvest and vintage judgments have been accomplished by Christ. Israel will have been restored in their land, and they will find rest in the glorious reign of Messiah. Here in John 7, the Jews were striving for human glory with unjudged hearts. The Lord Jesus addresses that spirit of worldliness, and in doing so reveals (1) His own spirit of patient obedience, (2) the glory that He would receive, and (3) the consequent blessing of the Spirit. The Feast of Pentecost is carefully kept out of sight in John because it falls within the province of Paul (rather than of John) to unfold the truth of the Church.

 

The Jews’ feasts. The Feasts of Jehovah (Lev. 23) were being kept in the time of our Lord as religious festivals. Writing the gospel from the Christian perspective in the late first century (after the destruction of Jerusalem), John gives these feasts the title of “the Jews’ feasts” in his gospel. However, the feasts are used as the occasions for the lord’s teaching. The Feast of the Passover is closely connected with the truth of John 6 and the Feast of Tabernacles with John 7.

The Unbelief of the Lord’s Brethren: Their Worldly Advice (vv.3-5)

¶ 14 But when it was now the middle of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple and taught. v.14 When Jesus did go up to the feast, He went into the temple – the epicenter of the Jews’ religion – and began to teach. What an experience it would been to hear the Author of the scriptures teach from it! The Lord Jesus was the Word become flesh, and He could have leaned on that for this teaching. But we find the Lord learned the scriptures as a man, storing them in his heart (Psa. 119:11) much like you and I, perhaps as he read them week by week (Luke 4:16). This is why Luke 2:52 speaks of the Lord as growing in understanding. It doesn’t take away from His Divine omniscience.

 

15 The Jews therefore wondered, saying, How knows this man letters, having never learned? v.15 The Jews could not comprehend this order of teaching that came from one who was never educated at their feet. They felt that they were “the people” and that knowledge would perish with them (Job 12:2). They thought of Jesus as merely a carpenter. How blind they were to the truth of His Person!

 

16 Jesus therefore answered them and said, My doctrine is not mine, but that of him that has sent me. v.16 He gives the secret of what made His teaching different from the rabbis’ teaching. Not only was His doctrine not from man, but it was not His own in the sense of independence. He perfectly delivered the teaching His Father had given Him. It isn’t so much His divinity that is emphasized, but His faithfulness as “the Apostle” or “Sent One” (Heb. 3:1) to accomplish the Father’s will. The Jews professed to know God, but they really didn’t.

 

17 If any one desire to practise his will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is of God, or that I speak from myself. v.17 The principle of the Lord’s ministry is required for all who will recognize its source. The Jews refused to believe that the Lord’s doctrine was from God because they did not have a predisposition to obey God’s will. Ministry that comes from a heart that is perfectly subject to God will glorify God, and not glorify self. What a comfort to know that God guides and teaches those who desire to practice His will! Read John 18:37.

 

18 He that speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but he that seeks the glory of him that has sent him, he is true, and unrighteousness is not in him. v.18 Self is what blinds the human race. Men seeking their own glory can only speak what comes from themselves. Christ, as the perfect dependent Man, only sought the Father’s glory. This singleness of eye made the Lord Jesus perfectly trustworthy (reverently speaking), because there was no partiality (see John 5:30; 41). “The same is true” (consistent with the mind of God) “and no unrighteousness” (inconsistency in character or word) “is in Him.”

19 Has not Moses given you the law, and no one of you practises the law? Why do ye seek to kill me? v.19 The Lord Jesus perfectly discerned the leaders’ intention to murder Him. They had settled on this course of action earlier (John 5:16; 18). The proof that none of them were seeking the Father’s glory is that they were disobedient to the law of Moses (which was only a limited revelation of God’s mind) in their plan to commit murder. The law said, “thou shalt not kill” (Ex. 20:13). It took the coming of Jesus to fully manifest their murderous hearts.

 

20 The crowd answered and said, Thou hast a demon: who seeks to kill thee? v.20 “The crowd” (commoners) were not aware of how far hatred had pushed their leaders, and had no suspicion that Pharisees and chief priests were bent on killing Jesus. The Lord identified those who were ambivalent toward Him with those who plotted to kill Him. They replied with rash irreverence, and in doing so revealed the truth of His words.

 

21 Jesus answered and said to them, I have done one work, and ye all wonder. v.21 Notice that He doesn’t react with rashness to their insult. Instead He draws attention to their incredulity of His “one work” – the healing of the infirm man on the Sabbath day (John 5:1-16). This was a shock to them – “ye all wonder” – because they had not brought God into their thoughts.

 

22 Therefore Moses gave you circumcision (not that it is of Moses, but of the fathers), and ye circumcise a man on sabbath. 23 If a man receives circumcision on sabbath, that the law of Moses may not be violated, are ye angry with me because I have made a man entirely sound on sabbath? vv.22-23 In these verses we have an example showing the hypocrisy of the Jew’s false judgment about the John 5 healing. It was a common occurrence to circumcise a male child on the eighth day, and they would make no exception if the eighth day fell on a Sabbath day. Why did they allow for this practice? They honored the law of Moses, although actually circumcision was given as a sign earlier than Moses; first to Abraham (Gen. 17:9-12), then Isaac, etc., “the fathers”. They recognized that the rite of circumcision must be kept, even though it required physical work in the surgery. But when Christ, in pure grace, healed on the Sabbath day, an act which did not require actual physical work, they were angry to the point of plotting His death! How could the Jews possibly justify their objection to this miracle?

 

24 Judge not according to sight, but judge righteous judgment. v.24 He had exposed how unrighteous and superficial their judgments were by their practices in regard to circumcision. Why was their judgement so untrustworthy? See v.18, they were not seeking the Father’s glory. The first verb “judge” is a general exhortation to not focus on the external. The second “judge” is a specific exhortation to change their judgment in this matter.

25 Some therefore of those of Jerusalem said, Is not this he whom they seek to kill? v.25 This is a different class than what has been before us so far; not the crowd of visitors, nor the religious leaders, but residents of Jerusalem. They were not the ones plotting His death, but they were aware of it (c.p. v.20). They could see by the character of the Lord, and His words (v.21) that this was Jesus.

 

26 and behold, he speaks openly, and they say nothing to him. Have the rulers then indeed recognised that this is the Christ? v.26 The fact that the rulers has not arrested Jesus might have made the citizens wonder if the rulers had changed their minds about Him, having realized that He was the Messiah, and for this reason were fearful to carry out their murderous intentions. But they were really only indulging in irony.

27 But as to this man we know whence he is. Now as to the Christ, when he comes, no one knows whence he is. v.27 These Jerusalem residents weren’t convinced that Jesus was the Messiah. They were stumbled by imagining they knew His human origin. They had a very mystical (and false) notion that Messiah would appear from no known source… like a superstar. But their own scriptures spoke of His coming from Bethlehem and being born of a virgin in the royal line of David (Micah 5:2; Isa. 7:14; 2 Sam. 7:12-26). This is an example of judging “according to sight” (v.24). The nation of Israel will one day confess that they misjudged their Messiah, but they will not do that until they finally turn to the Lord (Isa. 53:2).

Jesus States His Obvious Identity & Their Ignorance (vv.28-29)

30 They sought therefore to take him; and no one laid his hand upon him, because his hour had not yet come. v.30 These are the Jerusalem residents, who had not been part of the plot (vv.25-26), but upon hearing His testimony manifest the same murderous heart as their rulers. But they can’t touch Him until the hour of suffering had come (see note on the various “hours” in John’s Gospel). 

The Response of the Crowds (v.31)

The Response of the Rulers (v.32)

The Lord’s Promised Ascension (vv.33-34)

35 The Jews therefore said to one another, Where is he about to go that we shall not find him? Is he about to go to the dispersion among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks? v.35 The human mind of unbelief can rise no higher than this earth (see John 6:62). They can think of nothing else than Jesus going to a different earthly location, perhaps to preach to the Gentiles. Preaching to the Gentiles was a distasteful business for the Jew; but even this they felt was beyond His reach. Wow. The irony of this is that Christ was exalted to His Father’s right hand, crowned with glory and honor (Heb. 2:9), and from that place He has done the very thing they despised! “Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it” (Acts 28:25-28). Christ “came and preached peace to you which were afar off…” (Eph. 2:17). The term “the dispersion” refers to the Hellenistic Jews as representative of Gentiles in general.

 

36 What word is this which he said, Ye shall seek me and shall not find me; and where I am ye cannot come? v.36 While the blessing of God showers down on the Gentiles during the administration of the mystery, Christ is lost to the unbelieving Jew who cannot find Him, because He is in heaven and they have nothing but an earthly mind.

The river of living water. There are seven figures of the Spirit of God used in John’s gospel. The wind mysteriously quickens (John 3). The springing fountain shoots upward in the power of worship as a result of communion (John 4). But rivers of living water flow outward by the Holy Ghost in power of testimony to the world (John 7), bringing refreshment to this parched world, which knows nothing of honesty, righteousness, kindness, or grace. While the King was rejected and was going to return to the Father, the blessing of the Spirit (promised in the Old Testament) would not have to wait until the Millennium… as soon as Jesus was glorified, the Spirit would be sent. It would not be “poured out on all flesh” like in the Millennium (Joel 2:28), but rather it would indwell believers permanently! Yet the “rivers” of blessing would not be material as they will be in the Millennium. Rather they are spiritual, bringing a message of life and peace. “As the scripture hath said” does not refer to the quotation of a written statement in the Old Testament, but rather the general testimony of Old Testament scriptures; for instance, Ezek. 47:1-9 speaks of a river of waters of life. Where does this refreshment issue from? “Out of his belly” – from inside the believer! The Spirit takes residence in our bodies, and gives us the privilege of being channels of its blessing! The Israelites drank of water from the smitten Rock; and afterwards the Rock was to be spoken to for water abundantly. But no Israelite, not even a Moses or an Aaron, could be a channel of living water, as every believer is now!

The Promise of the Spirit Consequent on His Glorification (vv.37-39)

44 But some of them desired to take him, but no one laid hands upon him. v.44 Some of the (Jewish) officers who had been sent to arrest Him were still among the crowd. They wanted to arrest Him, but did not because they were powerless before God’s time.

 

45 The officers therefore came to the chief priests and Pharisees, and they said to them, Why have ye not brought him? v.45 The chief priests and Pharisees demanded a reason for the failure of the officers, even though they could have done no better themselves. This demand originated out of their own frustration, but God was going to twist even this question to hinder their purpose.

 

46 The officers answered, Never man spoke thus, as this man speaks. v.46 It was the consciences of these ones – not as deadened as the rulers’ – which involuntarily drew out before the rulers a confession of the power with which Jesus spoke. They did not understand what He said, but felt that His words placed Him in a different category altogether from mere men.

The Conceit of the Pharisees Exposed (vv.47-49)

53 And every one went to his home. v.53 They all went to the comfort of their own homes, but none thought of giving Jesus a place to lay His head (John 8:1). If you turn to the Psalms, you can hear how this made Him feel; “I am become like the pelican of the wilderness, I am as an owl in desolate places; I watch, and am like a sparrow alone upon the housetop” (Psa. 102:6-7).