If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.
This is highly symbolic language. The Teacher is making a radical claim. Just as water is essential for physical life, Jesus is claiming to be the source of spiritual life.
He makes this announcement on the last day of the annual Jewish Feast of Booths in Jerusalem. A day when water was carried by the priests from the Pool of Siloam and poured out on the altar as a sacrifice to God.
This symbolic act commemorated God’s provision of water for the Israelites in their sojourn with Moses in the desert after their deliverance from Egyptian slavery.
Perhaps Jesus chose the very moment the priests poured out the water on the altar to emphasize His claim to also be the difference between living or dying - Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.
What is He talking about? Jesus says the life-giving water He is talking about is the Holy Spirit - By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive.
Jesus says the Living Water - the Holy Spirit - will flow within those who believe in Him!
Through the Holy Spirit, Jesus lives in those who believe in Him. And through the work of the Spirit in our hearts, the Teacher changes us to become more like Him.
Only by God’s supernatural presence in our lives can students of the Teacher have the kind of life the Teacher talks about.
This is the shared life with the Spirit of God!
There's a line in a song that says " He looks, and ten thousands of angels rejoice, and myriads wait for His word; He speaks, and eternity, filled with his voice,re-echoes the praise of the Lord. As you read the words of this Bible passage, understand that these are not just words on a page. I'm confident that when Jesus stood up and spoke these words, eternity filled with His voice and today these words are re-echoed in our hearing. I'm afraid if we hear it with any less significance we will repeat what is pictured with the reaction of the people who were with Him. You see when God stands before you and cries out "Come to Me and recieve rivers of living water." only a fool would stand their and debate who he is. He says come, so come! Be like Peter and Matthew,. Leave every thing, immediatey and come. When the Samaritan woman at the well was offered this water she said "Lord give me this water." We should do like wise.
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