The Last and Greatest Day!
Israel’s seven Feasts of The Lord are well known in Jewish culture… and by most Christians as well.
Passover (Pesach), Unleavened Bread (Hag HaMotzot), First Fruits (Reishit) and Pentecost (Shavuot) kick off the first four Spring feasts commanded to be observed by the Lord.
The next three feasts are celebrated in the Fall beginning with the Feast of Trumpets (Yom Teruah), the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), and ending with Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot).
However, there is one more little-known day commanded to end His feasts—the feast known as Shemini Atzeret or the Eighth Day of Assembly.
The Lord said to Moses, say to the Israelites: ‘On the fifteenth day of the seventh month the Lord’s Festival of Tabernacles begins, and it lasts for seven days. The first day is a sacred assembly; do no regular work. For seven days present food offerings to the Lord, and on the eighth day hold a sacred assembly and present a food offering to the Lord. It is the closing special assembly; do no regular work.
So beginning with the fifteenth day of the seventh month, after you have gathered the crops of the land, celebrate the festival to the Lord for seven days; the first day is a day of sabbath rest, and the eighth day also is a day of sabbath rest.
Leviticus 23:37, 39
Shemini Atzeret
Shemini Atzeret means “eighth day of assembly.” It is designated as a time of rest, during which no work is permitted. At the time of this celebration, all Jewish males (as well as their families) who would have been physically able had made the journey to Jerusalem to observe the Feast of Sukkot.
Upon arrival, each family set up small temporary shelters (booths) where they slept and enjoyed their meals. For seven days they would stay together in the city, worshiping, making sacrifices, while rejoicing in the Lord. On “the last and great day of this feast” or The Eighth Day, the people would assemble one last time to recite a special prayer for rain for the upcoming year.
Water holds an immense significance in the arid, dusty lands of Israel.
It possesses the power of life and death by its abundance or by its absence. In the times of Jesus, it had become a tradition to conduct a water offering ceremony at the Temple in Jerusalem during Shemini Atzeret. Large jars of water were drawn and poured lavishly over the temple altar, accompanied by great rejoicing by the people.
The prayer for rain (tefilat geshem) is recited beginning on the first day which marks the start of the rainy season in Israel. The Hebrew root of this prayer (gimel-shin-mem) means both rain and physical things. This implies that without geshem (rain), there is no gashmiut (physical existence). In simpler terms, without mayim (water), there is no chaim (life). Until Passover, the phrase “masheev ha’ruach u’moreed hagashem,” “Who causes the wind to blow and the rain to fall” is recited in the traditional weekday “Amidah” (prayer).
Simchat Torah
Simchat Torah (Joy of the Torah) is the grand finale of the fall holiday season. It was not originally observed as a separate holiday until the 9th or 10th century. The tradition first began by reading through the five books of Moses (the Pentateuch) all the way through every three years, ending on the Passover. Eventually, readings were made longer so they could be completed within a one-year cycle. Between the 9th and 12th centuries, various Jewish communities read the Torah at different times of the year. However, sometime during the 11th century, the eighth (8th) day of Sukkot took over both the name and the festive ritual of Shemini Atzeret becoming the observance of Simchat Torah.
Today in Israel, Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah have been merged and are celebrated on the same day. There is great dancing, jubilation and rejoicing in the streets. In the synagogues, the yearly reading and studying of the Torah cycle is concluded and a new reading cycle begins fresh with the first book of Genesis.
Jesus and the Greatest Day
On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Yeshua stood up and cried out loudly, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture says, ‘out of his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’
John 7:37-38
The Book of John tells us that Jesus observed all the Feast Days of The Lord, including Shemini Atzeret, the yearly celebration related to the blessing of water that brings life. It is no coincidence that it was on the “last and greatest day” of Sukkot, that Jesus declared His divinity as God as the provider of the water of life (John 7:37-38). This idea of “living waters” is an important and familiar theme in Scripture (Isa. 55:1, Ezek. 47; Zech. 14:8) and something the Jewish people would have understood very well.
Water represented life and was directly affiliated with the blessings of God.
In His proclamation, Jesus declared Himself as The Living Water that brought the blessing of life. To many it was blasphemy, but to those who understood, it was a cool drink that refreshed their souls, as it was for the Samaritan woman at the well:
“If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who is saying to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”
“but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
John 4:10, 14
The idea that Jesus could offer a source of spiritual nourishment that would never run dry would have been revolutionary in that time, and it can be in your life today. Jesus offers “living water” that brings eternal life and spiritual refreshment. This living water represents the Holy Spirit, who quenches our spiritual thirst and brings us into a vibrant relationship with God.
By drinking from this spiritual well, we experience the promise of eternal life.
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