Introduction
The Feast of Succot is also known as the Feast of Booths, and Feast of Ingathering. These names serve to symbolize God’s protection and provision, reminders of the forty years of wandering in the wilderness (Lev. 23:42).
Celebration of this last of the annual Feasts carries with it a number of prophetic and Messianic implications, two of which are the water libation (Nissuch Ha Mayim) and Temple illumination aspects. This presentation will explore these two aspects of the feast.
Water Libation (Pouring) Ceremony
The water pouring ceremony was hugely significant, and was accompanied by the procession to draw water from the Pool of Siloam (meaning sent, or sent one). It was a jubilant occasion with all its pomp, joy and tradition, but also one in which Messiah Yeshua took advantage to make a bold statement (John 7:37-38) about who He is, and what He came to do.
The week-long Feast was essentially a 24 hour, 7 day (Lev. 23:34) feast with activity around the clock, involving all 24 courses of Priests.
There was added to the 7 day feast an eighth day (Lev. 23:36, 39), in which the first and eighth days were to be holy convocations, High Sabbath-rest days of no customary work.
In the Second Temple days the water drawing and libation ceremony began early in the morning, long before sun-rise, and was done for all seven days of the feast. It was done in anticipation of, and in conjunction with, the morning sacrifice.
While the morning sacrifice was being prepared, a priest, accompanied by a great procession of music, went down to the Pool of Siloam to draw water into a golden pitcher.
At the same time, on the first day of the feast, another procession went down to the Kidron Valley where they obtained willow branches and other species (Lev. 23:40), to place them around the altar of sacrifice, forming a kind of leafy canopy.
As the sacrifice proceeded, the priest who had gone down to the Pool of Siloam timed it such that he now entered through the Watergate, accompanied by a three-fold blast from the priests’ trumpets.
The priest carrying the golden pitcher, accompanied by his procession, circled the altar once each day (7 times on the last day), then went up the rise of the altar to where there were two silver basins or bowls with narrow holes which led to the base of the altar (cf. Zech. 14:20).
Into these two silver basins or bowls the drink offering of wine, and the water from Siloam were poured. As this occurred the throngs of people who had filled the Temple courts would shout ‘Raise thy hand,’ so they could see that the wine and water libation was actually flowing onto the altar.
As soon as the wine and water were being poured out, the Temple music began, and the ‘Hallel’ (Psalm 113-118) was sung by the Levitical choir, accompanied by music.
When the choir came to Psalm 118:1, ‘O give thanks to the Lord,’ and again Psalm 118:25, ‘O work then now salvation, O Lord,’ and again Psalm 118:29, ‘O give thanks to the Lord,’ all the worshipers would shake their lulavs (the four species, from Lev. 23:40) towards the altar in unison, making the sound of a great rushing wind – the Ruach – or Holy Spirit working.
The waters of the Pool of Siloam, fed from the Gihon Spring through Hezekiah’s tunnel, held both historical and prophetic significance. Isaiah 44:3 tells us God will pour out His Spirit upon all flesh. The waters of Siloam were used to anoint kings of the House of David (1 Kings 1:45), and that anointing was symbolic of the Holy Spirit coming upon an individual (1 Sam. 16:13). So, the living waters of Siloam became associated with an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Also, waters from the Pool of Siloam were used in the ordinance of the red heifer described in Num. 19, where Moses was instructed to mix “living water” with the ashes of the red heifer.
Based on Isaiah 12:3, the Pool of Siloam became known as the “well of salvation,” and thus was associated with the Messianic age. To the people of the Second Temple era the pouring out of the “living waters” on the altar at the Feast of Succot was symbolic of the Holy Spirit being poured out in the days of Messiah.
On what was likely the last day of the feast (or possibly on the 8th Day – Shemini Atzeret), and probably right after the symbolic water pouring ceremony and chanting of the Hallel Psalms praying for the Lord to send salvation, Messiah Yeshua stood and cried out in a loud voice, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water (John 7:38-39).” At that point the stunned crowd heard, but only those that believed on Him would have known what He meant. What ensued is recounted for us in John 7:40-52.
The prophetic and Messianic implications of the water pouring ceremony are numerous:
The ‘Watergate,’ whose name was derived from the water pouring ceremony, has eschatological significance because it has been identified by some scholars and rabbis as the south gate of Ezekiel’s Temple, through which the water of life will flow to all the land (Ezek. 47:1-5).
Significantly, in Messiah Yeshua’s offer of His Living Water we are reminded of Zechariah’s vision that all nations will come up to Jerusalem, “…from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.”
Mentioned previously, the words of Isaiah 12:3 are believed to be based on the water pouring ceremony; or alternately, that this ceremony was derived from the words of Isaiah.
Messiah’s self-revelation as the source of ‘living waters,’ is symbolized throughout the Biblical text: He becomes the new Temple from which the waters of life will burst forth; He becomes the new rock in the wilderness that quenches the people’s thirst; He invites those who believe in him to satisfy their thirst now with His waters of salvation; the outpouring of water signals the Messianic age has arrived in the form of His own person, as the new Moses (from Jewish Feasts and the Gospel of John, by Gale Yee, Pg. 80).
The Gospel writer John symbolizes the Spirit in the living water from Messiah’s pierced side (John 19:34). *
* Medically speaking, only blood would have flowed from a living body. “Blood and water” would signify massive heart failure as the cause of physical death.
Temple Illumination
Many scholars believe that the setting of Messiah Yeshua’s self-proclamation as the “light of the world (see John 8:12)” is related to the nightly illumination in the Court of the Women that took place during the Feast of Succot. The Temple was illuminated by three (or four) golden candlesticks, rising nearly 75 feet high from the floor of the court. They were lit by young men climbing tall ladders. Their light could be seen throughout all Jerusalem. As the ceremony progressed through the night respected men of faith and Levites danced and sang around the candlesticks, often carrying flaming torches. The shofars blew in three blast intervals, and the whole affair was characterized by joy and outright exuberance.
The light shining out of the Temple courts was seen as a symbol of the Shekinah (God’s glory manifested in the Most Holy above the ark), and also of the ‘great light’ that ‘the people that walked in the darkness’ were to see, and which was to shine ‘upon them that dwell in the land of the shadow of death (Isaiah 9:2).’
Messiah, by proclaiming Himself as the light of the world (John 9:5), was revealing Himself to be the fulfillment of the Messianic pillar of fire which guided the Israelites through the wilderness (Ex. 13:21).
As the light, Messiah “…enlightens every man…coming into the world (John 1:9), by revealing the way they should walk (1 John 2:3-11).
Messiah said, “I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me may not remain in darkness (John 12:46).”
Messiah said, “While you have the light [Messiah], believe the light, that you may become sons of light (John 12:36).”
Conclusion
In the apocalyptic fulfillment of the Feast of Succot we find both water and light. The water is presented not as a golden pitcher of water from the Pool of Siloam, but as “the springs of living waters (Rev. 7:17),” and as “a river of the water of life, bright as crystal [light], flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb (Rev. 22:1).” This description is most interestingly paralleled in Zechariah 14:8, which predicts a future Feast of Succot when “living waters shall flow from Jerusalem,” half of them towards the eastern sea (Dead Sea) and half towards the western sea (the Mediterranean). And there is Messiah’s final appeal in Rev. 22:17, “… Let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.” Thus the water of life offered by Messiah Yeshua represents the ultimate fulfillment of the water typology of the Feast of Succot.
We read in John 1:6-9, “There was a man sent from God, whose named was John. This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light [Messiah Yeshua], that all through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness to that Light. That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world.” The ‘true Light’ of Messiah Yeshua was represented in the Temple illumination at the time of Succot, but “the darkness (mankind – in the form of the Priests and elders) did not comprehend it (John 1:5).”
Reference:
Edersheim, Alfred, The Temple, Its Ministry and Services, Hendrickson Pub., Updated ed., 7th printing, Nov. 2006, ISBN 13: 978-1-56563-826-6.
Water Libation (Pouring) Ceremony: Pgs. 220-227; Isa. 12:3, 43:20-21, 55:1-3
Yeshua: Pg. 223; John 7:37-38, 40-44
Temple Illumination: Pgs. 226-227; John 8:12
