Life-Study of John

Life-Study of Johnpor Witness Lee

ISBN: 0-7363-0957-8
Copia impresa: Living Stream Ministry disponible en línea

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We have covered five of the nine cases in this gospel. In the first case, the Lord talked with a superior, moral man about the regeneration of life. Through the new birth, the Lord is our second life, the divine life. In the second case, the Lord spoke to an inferior, immoral woman about the satisfaction of life. The Lord Himself is the living water which satisfies the dissatisfied hearts. In the third case, the Lord healed a dying child. The Lord heals the dying people by His life-giving word through believing. In the fourth case, the Lord enlivened an impotent man who had been sick for thirty-eight years. This shows that the Lord enlivens the impotent by life. In the fifth case, the Lord fed the five thousand with the bread of life. This indicates that He is the living, heavenly bread with which to satisfy the hungry multitude. Therefore, in brief, the Lord regenerates with His divine life in the first case, gives the living water in the second case, heals the dying by the life-giving word in the third case, enlivens the impotent in the fourth case, and feeds the multitude with the bread of life in the fifth case.

Now in chapter seven we come to the sixth case—the need of the thirsty. This case is in contrast with the fifth case, the need of the hungry. In the previous case the Lord is clearly revealed as the bread of life to satisfy our hunger, but in this case the Lord brings the flow of living water to quench our thirst. In the fifth case the people are hungry, but in the sixth case they are thirsty. The fifth case presents the living bread, and the sixth case introduces the living water. The bread of life is for hungry people, 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 example, 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 purpose in the creation of man—man must eat and drink. If he fails to eat, he will become hungry, 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 satisfy the hunger and the thirst of the multitude. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit, the three Persons 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 drink flowing out of the crucified Christ. Therefore, 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 spiritual drink, and that man needs both to eat and to drink in order to satisfy his hunger and thirst.

The Gospel of John is a book of pictures. The writer used figures and pictures as well as plain words because the matters of life are too deep, profound, mysterious, and abstract. If John had only used plain words, it would have been difficult for people to probe into the riches. So John, under God’s inspiration, used various pictures. In chapter four we have a picture of a thirsty Savior and a thirsty sinner meeting at Jacob’s well. In chapter five we see a multitude of sick, blind, lame, and withered people waiting by a pool. In chapter six we see a wilderness, a mountain, and a stormy sea. On the sea is a boat, tossed to and fro, and the people in the boat are terrified. Suddenly a man comes to them walking upon the waves. This is the man who fed the hungry crowd with five loaves and two fishes. In chapter seven we see still another picture.

A. In Contrast with the Scene
of the Feast of the Passover in Chapter Six

The sixth case is a continuation of the fifth case, because the matter of food is related to water. In this connection, there is also another contrast. In the scene of the fifth case, there was the feast of the Passover. In the scene of this case 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 Tabernacles 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 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 laboring hard. The case of the feeding of the five thousand 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 contrary, 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! The sixth case reveals that their thirst was not quenched even by their success.

If you read the verses concerning the Passover 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 hunger. 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.

Living Stream Ministry

Editorial de Watchman Nee y Witness Lee

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