Times of Refreshing

The new Biblical month of Cheshvan begins Tuesday night. Cheshvan marks the start of the rainy season in Israel. Prayer for rain is added to the daily prayers. 

In Temple times as an act of calling on God to bless the year with rain, on the last six days of the week-long Sukkot, priests descended from the Temple to the Pool of Siloam and brought up a pitcher of water which they poured out on the altar along with a pitcher of wine. The ceremony was accompanied by much joy, along with music and song, including the words of Isaiah 12:3 “Therefore with joy shall you draw water out of the wells of salvation.” The last day was the most joyous and in John 7:37-39, suddenly Jesus stands up on that last great day, and cries out to the stunned crowd, “If anyone is thirsty, let him keep coming to me and drinking! Whoever puts his trust in me, as the Scriptures say, rivers of living water will flow from his inmost being!”  It was a bold claim that provoked concerned discussions among the religious leaders regarding the person of Jesus.  Was he offering himself as the source of salvation as Isaiah 12: 2 declared? “…for the LORD GOD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.” 

May God favour the Holy Land with rain in its season, and His spirit on its inhabitants as prophesied in Isaiah 44:3, “For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, And floods on the dry ground; I will pour My Spirit on your descendants, And My blessing on your offspring.”