Leviticus 23:33-44 GNT;
37 (These are the religious festivals on which you honor the Lord by gathering together for worship and presenting food offerings, burnt offerings, grain offerings, sacrifices, and wine offerings, as required day by day. 38 These festivals are in addition to the regular Sabbaths, and these offerings are in addition to your regular gifts, your offerings as fulfillment of vows, and your freewill offerings that you give to theLord.)
39 When you have harvested your fields, celebrate this festival for seven days, beginning on the fifteenth day of the seventh month. The first day shall be a special day of rest. 40 On that day take some of the best fruit from your trees, take palm branches and limbs from leafy trees, and begin a religious festival to honor the Lord your God. 41 Celebrate it for seven days. This regulation is to be kept by your descendants for all time to come. 42 All the people of Israel shall live in shelters for seven days, 43 so that your descendants may know that the Lord made the people of Israel live in simple shelters when he led them out of Egypt. He is the Lord your God. 44 So in this way Moses gave the people of Israel the regulations for observing the religious festivals to honor the Lord.
We don't often read of interaction between Jesus and His family but here in
John 7:3-9 we read of Jesus' interaction with His brothers (James, Joses or Joseph, Simon, and Judas). Let's look at that interaction starting with the knowledge gained in verse 5, that even His brothers didn't believe in Him.
His brothers told Him, He should not hide there (in Galilee) but go into Judea where His followers could see His miracles. They told Him He would never be famous if He stayed hidden. (That made me think they considered His motivation might be to be famous. Jesus repeatedly made it clear He was not here to bring glory to Himself but to His Father. He undoubtedly ran into such sentiments many times, now even among His family.) Here is one of those little words that carry a powerful truth, His brother's next sentence is (vs4b) , "IF you can do such wonderful things, show yourself to the world!"
That comment immediately brings to mind Mark 6:4 NKJV "But Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor except in his own country, among his own relatives and in his own house." We are also reminded of Isaiah 53:3 "He was despised and rejected by men." Also notice the exclamation point at the end of Jesus' brother's comment. Can't you hear them making fun of Him? As if telling Him, "If you are so great show your wonderful self to the world," laughing and snickering the entire time.
Jesus avoided a brotherly competition and merely told them it was not the right time for Him to go into Judea for the festival. But, He said something very powerful. He told them they could go anytime. Jesus told them the world hated Him because He accused it of doing evil. The world opposed Jesus, He was not one that belonged to the world nor did He do things of the world. In fact, He accused the world and pointed out it's evil. That tells us Jesus' position. But He also told them they could go because, "The world can't hate you." It is reasonable to think Jesus was saying they were of the world and being one of the world, the world couldn't hate them. Jesus pushed back hard yet I wonder if His brothers got it. They did not believe in Him and therefore, as unbelievers, were no different than the very world that was trying to eliminate Him. Jesus' brothers went to the festival while Jesus remained behind.
Once His brother had gone, Jesus secretly went. He went in secret and stayed out of the public eye. The religious leaders expected Him to be there and hunted for Him with no success. Apparently, Jesus was quite the topic of conversation. People were arguing that He was a liar and a fraud while some said He was a good man. We read that for fear of getting into trouble with the religious leaders, no one said anything good about Him. I imagine while Jesus wandered around town, He must have heard the talk of the people. I cannot imagine the burden He carried hearing such things while His great love for the people only wanted them to spend eternity with Him.
Midway through the festival, Jesus started teaching in the Temple. People were surprised at what He taught. They asked Him how He could know so much when He had never been properly trained.
Jesus did not take credit in any way but told them His message was from God, who sent Him. He went on to tell them that anyone who wants to do God's will would know His teachings are from God, not from Him. He added, anyone who speaks in order to bring notoriety to themselves does so for the glory such fame would bring. However, one who speaks to honor the One who sent Him, speaks to honor Him and therefore speaks only the truth. This is a good point as we see it often in public lives of some people. Some who try to glorify themselves will speak whatever it takes to elevate them to high regard, lies included.
Jesus pointed out that Moses gave them the Law but they didn't obey it. Jesus continually did miracles on the Sabbath which was one of the religious leaders' big charges against Him and here it begins to come back at them. Not only that, but He pointed out that they were trying to kill Him. They responded by telling Him he was possessed by a demon and asked Him to tell them who was trying to kill Him.
Jesus told them He did one miracle on the Sabbath and they were amazed. He went on to alert them that although they attacked Him for working on the Sabbath, they also worked on the Sabbath. He brought up the following the Law of Moses regarding circumcision. The Law of Moses from Genesis 17:9-14;
9 And God said to Abraham: “As for you, you shall keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations. 10 This is My covenant which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: Every male child among you shall be circumcised; 11 and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you. 12 He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised, every male child in your generations, he who is born in your house or bought with money from any foreigner who is not your descendant. 13 He who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money must be circumcised, and My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. 14 And the uncircumcised male child, who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant.”
What Jesus was saying was that they attacked Him for doing miracles on the sabbath while when a son's 8th day, the day to be circumcised, fell on the Sabbath, they had it done. That would be considered working on the Sabbath, doing exactly what they attacked Jesus for doing. Jesus asked them how they could be angry with Him for basically doing the same thing they were doing. He warned them to look deeper into things before they judged Him. (We can heed His warning in our daily life. Many of our encounters with others are merely a moment in our life and the life of another. We don't see the complete picture of another's life as God does. I believe that is why we are warned so often about judging others or being judgmental, we never have all the information. We see it in our legal system. Mistakes are made all the time. Criminals are set free and innocent people are sent to prison. Try as we may, we may not always have all the information. In this case with Jesus, people were so busy looking at how they saw the law and what Jesus did out in the open that they missed they subtle, almost undetected error of their own actions.)
Many people who lived in Jerusalem heard all Jesus had to say and the exchange with those He was talking to. They recognized Him as the one some were trying to kill. So why didn't anyone stop Him or try to kill Him right there? The people began to wonder if their religious leaders also had come to a place that they now believed He was the Messiah. They were confused because in their understanding, the Messiah would simply appear and no one would know where He came from. In their understanding, Jesus could not be the Messiah because he was a carpenter from Galilee. They did not know His true background, being born of a virgin in Bethlehem of the lineage of David, exactly as was foretold.
Jesus cried out making a serious announcement. He responded by saying that they knew Him and where He had come from although it was not the whole story. They thought that the limited knowledge they had about Him told them all they needed to know. Jesus gave them the big picture saying that while they thought they knew Him they really didn't. He told them He was not there on His own but sent by the One who is true and they didn't know Him. Jesus told them He knew Him because He came from Him and He was the one who sent Him to them.
Again the leaders made an attempt to arrest Jesus but no one did because it was not time for that to happen. After hearing what Jesus said, many in the temple believed in Him. They proclaimed what more could the Messiah do than Jesus had been doing. What they expected of the Messiah, Jesus had done, so He must be the Messiah. The religious leaders heard the people and knew they had to stop what was happening and sent for the Temple guards to arrest Jesus.
Jesus spoke, saying He would only be among them a little longer and would return to the One who sent Him. Once that happens, they would search for Him but never find Him nor could they go where He was going. (Jesus was telling them that soon He would be gone. He knew His death was coming and He would no longer walk among them. At His death, many would mourn His going. He will have gone to the Father but they will not join Him there for they have not believed in Him as the Messiah.)
The Jewish leaders heard this but could not understand what He was saying to them. They asked each other where He was going. They thought maybe He was going to leave them and go teach Jews in other lands or maybe even teach the Greeks.
Throughout the festival, they celebrated many rituals and traditions. Now it was the last day of the festival, the biggest and most anticipated time of all. Jesus stood in the midst of it all and shouted to the crowds of people. He invited those who were thirsty. (perhaps those who were in need of refreshing from the burdens of life or who were dried up, parched and exhausted by life) to come to Him. (vs. 37, 38) Anyone who believes in Me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, "Rivers of living water will flow from His heart." Jesus was telling them of the Holy Spirit that He would soon offer. He would offer the Spirit out of His love for all men but only those who believed would be able to receive it.
In the midst of the closing ceremonies of the festival, Jesus declared what faith in Him would bring. At His declaration, many believed in Him as Messiah. Others disagreed saying He came from Galilee and the Messiah was to come from Bethlehem where David was born and from David's royal line. Some were so troubled, they too wanted Him arrested. Even so, no one laid a hand on Him.
Finally, the Temple guards returned to the religious leaders from their mission to arrest Jesus. They came back without Him and the leaders asked why they hadn't arrested Him. Their reply was that they had never heard anyone speak as Jesus did. (Maybe they had come to believe too.) The leaders had to be furious and asked them if they had also been led astray for in their minds faith in Jesus would be just that. They explained that if they believed Him, they must have been led astray because, for example, none of the religious leaders believed Him and they were the authority on such matters. They exclaimed that the crowd that had come to believe were foolish and ignorant of the law. They exclaimed they would be cursed by God. (Isn't the cry of the world similar today? Aren't we told that if we believe in Jesus we are foolish and ignorant?)
Nicodemus then spoke up (remember Nichodemus had his encounter with Jesus in chapter 3. It was during that encounter that Jesus spoke this popular verse; John 3:16 NLT; "For God loved the world so much that He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life.") Nicodemus brought up the fact that it really wasn't legal to convict a person before there is a proper hearing. The response from the other religious leaders was to ask him if he too was from Galilee. They proclaimed that if Scriptures were checked, they would see no prophet ever comes from Galilee. They used that to make the point that Jesus claims were impossible and no hearing is needed. The meeting broke up and everyone went their own way.