The Gospel of John Lesson 23 (2-24-2013) John 7:40-53

The Gospel of John (2-24-2013)

Lesson 23 – John 7:40-53

As we saw last week in vs. 37-8 Jesus made an offer to those present on the final day of the feast of booths, offering them a refreshing drink of the Spirit likening the Spirit’s drink to rivers of Living water. It was something to be received, not to be purchased, earned or worked for. His offer was straightforward and made available to anyone that would receive it.

I make a point of this because even though this was an unbelievable and yet very practical offer, if we were real honest with ourselves we would have to admit that receiving such an offer is not so easy for us, especially in our day. When someone offers us a gift, especially one like this, we may consider receiving it, but not without wanting to earn the right to have it or pay back at least part of the cost of what we are offered.

Think of it, if someone buys you dinner it is only natural to want to pick up the tip or if someone does something good for us our initial response all too often is ‘You can’t do that for me!’ or ‘Oh, don’t do that.’  Down inside it makes us uncomfortable to receive. Something inside us makes us want to earn what we get. It’s part of our nature and spirit of man.

I believe that it is even more accurate when God makes the offer or shows us His kindness in freely forgiving our debt of sin. It is not natural for man to receive a full pardon for a debt so great without wanting to pay Him back in some way, usually in service. In essence, this was the difference in perspectives between Cain and Able. Cain offered God the works of his hands as his offering as payment for his offenses while Able received God’s offer of forgiveness recognizing what had been done by offering God a blood sacrifice. Receiving from God has always been hard for man, but I believe this is even more true in our day, even for those in the Church. It seems that we would much rather do something for God than receive from Him.

If you think of it all of the history of man can be summed up as man’s advancements and achievements that free him from his dependence on receiving from God. We want to put it under our control, in our timing, as much or as little as we want. In our present culture man has no need for God and what God can do for him. Instead he has all that he needs found in his present world and does not need to ask God for barely anything,..and man seems to like it that way.

As the industrial age and the technological age has advanced it is easy to see that man has relied less and less on God. If man has a need it is evident by his actions that man’s faith in the hope for the answers for tomorrow’s problems has shifted from seeking out God for these answers to some new technique or procedure devised by man bypassing the need for God almost entirely.

Sadly this perspective has also been adopted to a large extent in the church as seen by our actions trusting instead in modern so called marvels and in our own abilities to not only answer our own questions, but to meet our own needs, waiting on God for little to nothing and offering God our good deeds as if that were enough to give Him.

But, here in Jn. 7:38-9 we see Jesus the Son of God make the claim that in reality that we are thirsty down inside and that it is a thirst that cannot be quenched by our own efforts or with our offerings to God. God says that we must receive what we need from Him.  We must receive refreshment from God quenching our thirst. For a doing culture and a doing Church it is not easy for us to be on the receiving end, especially when it is God that is giving.

Here in vs. 38-9 He was offering them something that they had to receive in order to get the benefit. Are we willing in our culture today to freely receive from God so that we may give to those in our world? How often do we stop to truly receive a message or direction from our Lord? This was the question that Jesus asked Martha in her continual service or doing. Mary had stopped to truly sit at the Masters feet to receive and to worship. The question that I have is ‘are we willing to receive from God direction and the answers of this life’ or are we always offering God our version of life? Even though God does want us to serve Him, it is important to freely receive from Him those things that He offers us. His desire for us is only good! In order to do so we may need to stop like Mary for a while and sit at His feet.

In vs. 40-2 we see those who heard Him come right up to the line almost to the point of believing that Jesus is indeed the Messiah, but some stop short being confused on some of the remaining details. There was still some confusion as to Jesus’ origin. Jesus had spent so much of His time up and around Galilee that many were confused as to His true origin of birth thinking that He was actually from Galilee. Even though He was born in Bethlehem, in essence He had grown up in Nazareth, and was known as Jesus of Nazareth. This last point was a big one because they knew that in order for this to be the Christ that every detail of prophesy shad to be fulfilled.

They were right that it was prophesied and foretold that the Christ would be born of the seed of David in the town of Bethlehem. But, many had associated Him and His origin with Galilee. This was most likely because He grew up in that region and had spent most of His time there in ministry.

We have to remember that information in that day, or should we say misinformation, traveled through unreliable sources often making its way to the people not containing all of the details. Some degree of misinformation was common in the message concerning most news or details. The only source that could reasonably be counted as reliable was what was written down. This is why the Scriptures and their teachings were so reliable. But, much of the information that the people received other than Scriptural teaching was by word of mouth or possibly hearsay, some good and fairly accurate and some having little to no basis at all, or at least missing some of the details. As stated in v. 43 this led to a division among the people concerning who Jesus was and what they believed about Him. (Is this also true today??)

In v. 44 we see that the division was so strong and the opinions concerning Him were so diverse and opinionated that some wanted to take Him by force and deliver Him to the officials, namely the Jewish rulers or the Pharisees to be punished and in all likelihood put to death. But His time had not yet come and it says in v. 44 that try as they must no one was able to lay hold on Him.

In v. 45 it tells us that the officers that were sent out to take hold of Him and secure Him had to go back and report to the chief priests and the Pharisees empty handed. They were met by the chief priests with the question of why? Why were they not able to bring Him back as they were instructed? They gave the religious leaders an interesting reply, one that they didn’t expect and that they did not want to hear.

But, no one could deny that their reply was an honest one.  They had been overcome with the Words of the Master. Their reply was ‘Never a man spoke like this man!’ Their response infuriated the chief priests and Pharisees. These officers were supposed to be on their side. These religious leaders had sent out these men to retrieve a man they considered a blasphemous deceiver and they returned to them not only empty handed but close to also believing that this man was special and could indeed be who He claimed to be.

Those that were sent out were not considered common folk. These were officers. Officers of the temple sometimes considered temple police. They were trained in the duty of protecting the temple and in particular protecting the Holy Place from uncleanness as instructed by Israel’s religious leaders.

These were not Roman officers, but Jewish officers and officials that had the duty and position of carrying out the demands and duties under the leadership of the Jewish religious hierarchy. The following is an excerpt from the following web address in actuality referring to those that came to take Jesus at His Crucifixion, but in actuality could have been this setting and this incident recorded here in John 7:

(http://www.jesuswalk.com/lessons/22_47-53.htm)

The Make-up of the Crowd

Of whom does the crowd consist? Luke indicates that it includes "chief priests, the officers of the temple guard, and the elders." (22:52)

Luke's term, "officers of the temple guard" (NIV) or "captains of the temple" (KJV) translates the Greek noun strategos, which means here, "commander responsible for the temple in Jerusalem."[2] He is not a Roman officer, for the Romans are not under the chief priest's authority.

The term "elders" (Greek presbuteros) refers to members of a group in the Sanhedrin, the ruling council of Jerusalem.[3]

Matthew characterizes the group as "a large crowd armed with swords and clubs, sent from the chief priests and the elders of the people" (Matthew 26:47). Mark adds "teachers of the law" (NIV) or "scribes" (KJV) to the list of conspirators (Mark 14:43). John includes "a detachment of soldiers and some officials from the chief priests and Pharisees" (John 18:3). John's term "detachment of soldiers" (NIV) or "band of men" (KJV) is the Greek nounspeira, a military technical term that refers to a "cohort" (the tenth part of a legion which normally had 600 men).[4] These were temple troops.

Day and night the temple was guarded by Levites to prevent, so far as possible, the unclean from entering. They also acted as the temple police. At night guards were placed in 24 stations about the gates and courts, each guard consisting of 10 men. In all, 240 Levite guards were on duty every night, relieved each morning. The officers of the temple guard were in charge of these troops.[5] It is ironic that the soldiers who took Jesus into custody were normally charged with protecting the Holy Place from uncleanness.

The religious leaders could not believe that officers of the temple could be so gullible as to be deceived and taken in by one such as Jesus and in vs. 48-9 they begin to use peer pressure to try to bring them back to their perception of reality telling them that only common folk that are unlearned could be so gullible as to believe Jesus. The religious leaders make the assumption that none of those who have been educated in the law and know better have been deceived and have cast in their lot with Jesus and have begun to follow Him. But, in reality by assuming this they are really wrong on two counts.

First what they did not realize was that some of the religious leaders had begun to question some of the temple practices and had begun to side with Jesus concerning His teachings and doctrines. What Jesus had said had begun to make sense to them and what the religious leaders did not realize was that most that were questioning the religious leader’s rules and doctrine were afraid to do so publically for fear of retaliation from them receiving punishment or feared being cast out and being ostracized from the temple.

This was a big deal. To do so not only meant that you did not get to go to church, but in reality if this happened you would then become in essence an outcast of society. All of Israel’s social and political society centered around their religious practices and beliefs which found their expression in and around the temple and temple life. The temple was everything.  If you were cast out of temple life and temple practices there was not much left.

The second thing that they were wrong about was that only the common people did not know the law and therefore were being deceived by Jesus because of their ignorance. But, these religious leaders were also blind to the Truths contained in the Law and Scripture, blinded by pride and their own conceit.

In actuality the law that they espoused was not the Law of God at all, but in reality were their laws and rules that they had formed over hundreds of years of manmade traditions and practices that they turned into strict practices and religious laws. These were not God’s observances and therefore they had no foundation from God’s perspective as far as their being law. This was a tough situation that caused many to be overly cautious deciding to remain silent concerning what they thought or really believed.

In v. 50 we see a good example of this. In v. 50 we see a ruler of the Jews reemerge named Nicodemus. We remember him and his encounter with Jesus in chapter 3 where because of the probable penalties of being associated with Jesus he came by night to Jesus to ask Him questions that were troubling him.

Now we see him here in v. 50 of chapter 7. Some time has passed. He has had some time to think about his encounter with Jesus in chapter 3 and the words that were spoken to him then and in v. 51 we see that he has gotten a little bolder and shows signs of being more convinced that Jesus is speaking the truth that he tries to reason with his peers asking them to at least listen to what Jesus has to say before they pass judgment on Him.

But, his peers would not listen to reason and pretty much accuse him of being also ignorant of the facts using as their justification the premise that it was not prophesied that the Messiah would come out of Galilee accusing him of siding with the Galileans.

But, here again it was Nicodemus’ peers that did not have all of the facts right. It was true that the Messiah would not come out of Galilee, but Jesus was not born in Galilee. Somehow they missed this fact concerning Jesus. Jesus was indeed born in the city of the Messiah, Bethlehem of Judea. At least Nicodemus began to try to talk some sense to them. We will see him again later in this book going further in his faith toward the cross, but for now v. 53 tells us that the meeting and discussion eventually broke up and everybody went home.

Some Bible commentators believe that it was Nicodemus’ words that brought an end to the discussion, again dividing those present. Some believe that the Sanhedrin in reality could not refute Nicodemus’ words and therefore broke up and left the meeting frustrated taking no real action going to their own homes. 

The Gospel of John Lesson 22 (2-17-2013) John 7:36-41

The Gospel of John (2-17-2013)

Lesson 22 – John 7:36-41

It is possible that the dialog and encounter that we find that ends in v. 36 could possibly still be mid week. However, we find the Apostle John gives us a new time marker in v. 37 telling us that at that point it was the end of the week for the feast of the tabernacles. He says that it was a great and popular day and because of this we could assume that everyone in all likelihood would have been there and wouldn’t have missed this part of the celebration for anything.

It was here, in this setting, that Jesus purposely chose to stand up speaking very loudly and make a public display of Himself. He wasn’t irreverent. And, He wasn’t disruptive. Those who were in charge did not realize that He was a planned part of this festival sent to it and to them by the One that they claimed that this gathering was for.

In standing in this public place probably in the most prominent spot of the festival it tells us in v. 37 that He cried out, meaning very loudly, so that all could hear, a Promise to a then hungry and thirsty crowd promising to satisfy their thirsty souls with refreshing waters that would give them long lasting satisfaction. 

V. 37-8 The first thing that He says after standing is that if you are thirsty come to me and I will give you a drink. That got everybody’s attention. There were probably not too many there on that day at that time that were not thirsty and would not have been ready for a free drink. Have you ever been to an event with lots of people? Water is at a premium. But, now when He had their attention He explains His meaning telling them that He was not referring to refreshment in physical terms, but was going deeper providing a drink that was deep and satisfying, telling that this drink will in the end turn into a river that could not be contained and would gush out spilling refreshing water everywhere.

In v. 39 the Apostle John tells us exactly what Jesus meant by this statement and exactly what He was offering. He tells us that He was referring to the Living refreshing Water of the Presence of the Holy Spirit of Life that was promised to all those who would receive His offer. What many of them probably wanted was a physical drink much like the woman at the well, but Jesus was here to offer them more. He wanted to satisfy a need that they did not realize that they had.

Water like food has a way of coloring every area of our life. When we are thirsty, or hungry for that matter, life can appear to be more difficult or tense. Depending how thirsty that we are, we are proportionately driven to seek out water to quench our thirstiness. Depending how thirsty we are, our priority in our life may shift from whatever we are doing or are focused on and the thirstier that we are the more that water now becomes our priority and center of focus. Quenching our thirst for water makes whatever we are doing in life tolerable and manageable again.

 Just meeting the need for water and food, quenching our thirstiness and satisfying our hunger makes life ok even if life is difficult. God and the Holy Spirit have this effect on life. Jesus’ promise was descriptive and accurate. What He was/is offering is no exaggeration. Receiving God and the Presence of the Holy God referred to as the Holy Spirit puts all of life no matter how difficult into perspective allowing us to deal with what we are up against as if we were satisfied regarding the essentials of food and water. As Promised here in v. 39, the river of refreshment provided by God’s Spirit is always abundantly available no matter how much this life pours on the heat.

He is saying here that whenever we are tired and thirsty from the heat and difficulty of daily life there remains available a glass of cold water very near at our beckon and disposal to refresh us to continue our often difficult journey before us. In life no matter how difficult it is, if we have nourishment and refreshment to go on we can handle just about anything that comes our way.

It says in v. 39 that the Holy Spirit had not yet been given meaning that it was a promise yet to be delivered or fulfilled, and He was not yet to show up still for a little while. He was due soon and He would manifest Himself guaranteed, but He had not arrived yet. He could not yet come or manifest in the complete way that Jesus meant and Promised. There was something that was yet to happen that had not been completed before the fullness of the Promise could transact. What He had Promised was a new complete version of God’s Presence in life that would fill every dimension and aspect of life and it would never need an upgrade to a better version…it would be complete.

But, His offer would cost. And, it would cost big. Someone would have to pay. The price of this offer, however, was beyond man’s ability to afford to pay for what was offered. Not to worry though, there was still hope. Along with Jesus’ offer of the gift of the Spirit and the benefits that were attached came as another part of the packaged offer that made this an offer that would be hard to pass up. Even though man could not in any way afford to purchase what Jesus was offering, the unique part of this offer was that not only did the product that was offered have unbelievable benefits, but along with the offer was the offer to pay the full price for this offer, asking no repayment in return except to believe and receive what was offered, and, to live life accordingly to get the benefit of His packaged deal.

Prior to this, that is the Holy Spirit’s arrival as offered by Jesus, God’s Presence moved men and rested on them from the outside pressing or urging upon them God’s will and direction for their life. However, what was offered here was a new thing..a new type of the Presence of God. It was a New and Living Presence of God now more Personal and more Real. God would now become part of their life. This is what He was offering them. But, it would require a change in their life to receive what He was offering them. The biggest change required was a change in focus…from themselves to God.

To us this may seem a strange statement coming from Jesus at the end of this festival. Such a statement would be hard for us to understand, v. 37-8. Making such a public statement at the end of this great festival shows the significance of what Jesus was saying. Again, to us its meaning would be difficult to grasp, especially if John had not given us the clarification that is found in v. 39. But, to those present their response in vs. 40-1 to what He said tells us that it indeed meant something to them. All that had gone on that week culminating with Jesus’ statement in vs. 37-8 confirmed what they had been thinking about Him making them 99 per cent sure of what they believed about Him. All that remained was their assessing some remaining details about Him deciding whether it was all there or not as to whether or not to give Him full endorsement.

The people had been taught and brought up in a society that knew enough of what was supposed to happen next as far as the prophetic order of events. From what Jesus declared publically at this festival it made them more convinced than ever that He indeed could actually be the Messiah. But, one should ask what was the connection concerning the meaning of what was said and their reaction in vs. 40-1.  Those there on that day evidently heard something in what He said that connected Him with something that they were aware of or knew that convinced them that He indeed was the One that they should be looking for, i. e. the Promised Messiah.

To us from our perspective and background it may be somewhat of a mystery as to what He said that caught their interest. But, from their response to what He said it must have been something pretty significant and something that they were readily familiar with. It is good to remember that cultures and backgrounds and heritage play a big part in national understanding and perspective and that this is probably the case in this passage. Israel was structured functionally different than other nations. It functioned on foundational principles that made its people and society function and think differently. A statement like this, vs. 37-8, may not mean much to us, but as we see from their response that it did to them. The reference that Jesus made to drinking water and refreshment and the flowing of Living waters had been part of their cultural background and teaching as we find prophetic references to this in the following passages: Is. 12, 43:19-21, 44:1-8, 55:1-6. It is statements such as this that we find Jesus making that would identify Him specifically with the people of Israel asking them to believe that He is indeed the Promised One.  

The Gospel of John Lesson 21 (2-03-2013) John 7:21-37

The Gospel of John (2-03-2013)

Lesson 21 – John 7:21-37

In the next few verses He brings up what they had used as their justification for their position and proposed actions being so mad that they had proposed radical and unjustified steps of action wanting to put Him to death. In vs. 22-4 He essentially gives them a rebuttal saying to them, ‘what is the sense in that’, referring to their proposed action. Jesus tells them to put that which He is accused of on God’s scale of justice, against their stated standard, them quoting their version of the Law, and telling them to take a look at the scale to see which way it tilts. In doing so they would see that God’s scale weighing out Jesus’ actions did not tilt at all, but would be found to be perfectly balanced and equal with God’s perspective.

They had condemned Him for healing on the Sabbath. But, Jesus challenges them to think about the accusation in a different light thinking about it from God’s perspective saying in essence that the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath, Mk. 2:27.

At the end of v. 24 He tells them to measure what they are questioning with the proper standards and not with practices that have been adopted over time that have no real value at all only that they have become traditions…being accepted as truths when in reality they are not at all.

This would be a good thing for us in the Church to evaluate and analyze as to our standards and practices seeing if they do adhere to God’s standards and not being just prideful standards of what might be our own so called Pharisical laws or traditions.

It is true that not all traditions are bad. Many are good in principle. Jesus told them to measure what they claimed to be God’s rules with God’s original Laws. He would tell us to do the same. We must find justification and conviction for the standards and beliefs that we hold to back them up in not only principle but precept also as found in the Scriptures. These religious leaders were found quoting the supposed laws without including the precept on which they were founded upon. Jesus fulfilled both the Law and its intent knowing these laws intimately Him being the Author and Originator of them.

In v. 25 some begin to question the reaction, or actually the lack thereof, of the religious leaders to His bold straight forward talk. They had heard that the religious leaders were seeking to kill Him. They had more than likely put out a reward of some sort as an incentive to possibly locate Him and or incriminate Him. But, they were surprised by the religious leader’s response to Jesus’ open talk concerning the truth. So, much so that the people took the silence of the religious leaders as a confirmation as to Jesus’ true identity thinking that even they must know by their actions that this is indeed the Christ.

 In v. 27 the people create their own scorecard saying in essence that everything adds up concerning Jesus except this one thing…His origin. They had gotten a lot of the pieces right, but not all of them. For some reason although it was clearly prophesied they seem confused on the exact truth of the prediction holding to the belief that the Christ’s origin would be a secret and that no man would know it.

However, they knew where this man was from, or at least they thought they did. They were even confused on this detail making Him out to be from Galilee when in fact He did have His birthplace right being from Bethlehem of Judea. Later in this chapter they will discuss His origin in more detail, but again as we will see that even then they still will miss some important details either being misinformed or still not wanting to accept the truth.

But in v. 28 Jesus again makes a bold move and attempts to reason with them publically in the temple by reminding them that they do know Him and that they need to reconsider their logic because He does have all of the details right validating and backing up His claims.

It is interesting that He challenges them willing to stand alone in a very public setting stating the facts hoping to bring them to the truth. He turns the table on them and reminds them not to use faulty logic to come up with their conclusions about Him attempting to help them to think straight concerning Him (apologetics?).

As we saw at the end of chapter 6 He was looking to convince those that the Father had given to Him knowing that the Holy Spirit was involved preparing the hearts of those that the Father had given Him to hear His message. He reminds them in v. 28 that He is not saying these things to make a reputation for Himself, but is sent to deliver someone else’s message, the Father’s, to them.

However, at the end of v. 28 He says something that makes them angry. He made the statement that in essence that He knows God the Father and goes farther stating that, this is the part that makes them angry, they do not. Ouch! In v. 29 He continues making a more absolute statement saying that He is not only familiar with the Father, but is intimately connected to the Father using language that in reality says that He is family, related…closely related, having the impression of being One with God. This makes them mad…so mad that they seek to take hold of Him with the intent to deliver Him to the religious leaders who intended to kill Him.

For the most part they took issue with two main things. The first was that He claimed to be from the Father clearly saying that He and the Father were not just close buddies, but were actually One in the same. This is probably what got them most upset. But, the other thing was that got their goat was that He claimed to know the Father and also stated that they did not! This came a close second to the first.

These two things made them so mad that their anger moved them to consider taking drastic action. But, try as they would, even though they were right there with Him and outnumbered Him in all probability surrounding Him they could not lay their hand on Him. Someone had protected Him and His death at this time would be untimely and would not accomplish what God had purposed. How did this encounter look? How would this encounter and scene actually look if we were there watching it all happen.

Well, the next few verses in John’s Gospel may describe just that, v. 31-36. We see that the crowd that was there that day was found to be divided. In v. 31 it says that the people, the non religious people that were there that day, did not really know what to think. But, it is interesting that for some reason it seems that they appear to use better logic than the religious leaders did, at least on that day. It says that when they took an honest look and were not blinded with pride and selfish ambition that they could only draw one conclusion…this is the Christ.

However, the Pharisees had a different view. It wasn’t that they found holes or inaccuracies in the claims that Jesus shared with them, but they were annoyed with the competition that they felt from Him and what He said. Until now they, the Pharisees and the religious leaders, were in the spotlight and pretty much held control over the people dictating to them what they could and could not do. But, when Jesus came He came with a different message, one that even though it was uncompromising it still resonated with the heart of the people and the people began to believe in what He was saying and began to follow His message and Gospel instead of the Pharisee’s. So the Pharisees and the religious leaders sent officers to take Him hoping to put an end to this.

However, when they came and confronted Him hoping to take Him they were met with a strange statement from Him that mystified, intrigued and yet angered them. He told them that He would be leaving soon, and that when they came to look for Him that they would not be able to find Him. One of the things that this statement did right away was that it divided His enemies up right away and left them asking different questions to His statement in essence leaving them divided as to what to do next. One thing that they all agreed to was that no one understood what He meant by this statement and therefore didn’t know what to do with it.

In this one statement he had essentially said several things that in reality did not fit together. First he said that He was going away. If this was all that He said it wouldn’t have been so bad because the obvious response to His statement would have been ‘where are you going?’ To this a normal expected response would have been ‘away from the Temple’ or ‘down the street’ or ‘back to Galilee’ or even ‘to another country’.

But, in making this statement He added some interesting components by telling them that He was going back to Him, implying God the Father, and that when they would seek Him out, and they would, that they would not find Him. This confused them. This confused them so much that they did not know what to make of it and in doing so they did not know what action to take next. In their mind there was no where He could go that they could not find Him and began to go down the list beginning to names the surrounding countries that He could possibly mean. They had still not come to the place to believe His connection with God.

They were so confused that after a short discussion we see them make the comment in v. 36 in frustrated logic ‘What manner of saying is this?’ At this time it is hard to know exactly what time it was during the feast. John’s record told us earlier the Jesus had gone up and had begun to teach in the Temple about in the middle of the feast. However, as we progress with the recorded dialog John does not give us enough details to give us a chronological time clock of the recorded events.

It is possible that the dialog and encounter that we find that ends in v. 36 could possibly still be mid week. However, we find the Apostle John give us a new time marker in v. 37 telling us that at that point it was the end of the for the feast of the tabernacles. He says that it was a great and popular day and because of this we could assume that everyone in all likelihood would have been there and wouldn’t have missed this part of the celebration for anything.

It was here, in this setting, that Jesus purposely chose to stand up speaking very loudly and make a public display of Himself. He wasn’t irreverent. And, He wasn’t disruptive. Those who were in charge did not realize that He was a planned part of this festival sent to it and to them by the One that they claimed that this gathering was for.

In standing in this public place probably in the most prominent spot of the festival it tells us in v. 37 that He cried out, meaning very loudly, so that all could hear, a Promise to a then hungry and thirsty crowd promising to satisfy their thirsty souls with refreshing waters that would give them long lasting satisfaction.