Welcome To The Arena Of Indubitable Truth!
Topic: Unveiling These Verses Of The Scripture (Part One)
There are two main verses in the Bible that have some
vagueness attached to them this is because these verses were quoted and
references made about them; surprisingly those references cannot be located or
found in the Scripture. Therefore, is very important that they should be
unveiled for us to have a comprehensive knowledge of them. In the gospel
according to Apostle John, Jesus was found quoting this verse of the Scripture:
“He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out
of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.”
John 7:38
In the verse above Jesus was quoting the Scripture, He
said ‘the Scripture said”. It means that He was alluding to what the Scripture
has said; meaning if one goes to the Scripture one should find this quotation
in the Scripture. It is interesting to know that this was not the only time
Jesus has quoted the Scripture, in the gospel of Matthew in Chapter four we
found Jesus quoting Scripture and all the Scriptures He quoted are traceable.
However, in the case of the verse quoted above, it cannot be traced to any of
the scriptures (understand that the scripture here is the beginning, the law
and the prophets. For better understanding of what I mean, check my articles on
the topic “Elucidating The Testaments” on this blog).
If this verse could not be found in the Scriptures, the
question therefore is, why did Jesus say the Scripture says? The next verse
gives us an insight of the subject of His statement and it says:
“(But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that
believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because
that Jesus was not yet glorified.)
John 7:39
From the explanation given in the verse above it
signifies that the “rivers of living water” here is referring to the Holy
Ghost. Aptly, we can extract that phrase and interpolate the word Holy
Ghost and we should have the quotation like this:
“He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out
of his belly shall flow the Holy Ghost.”
This means that what Jesus said is that according to the
Scripture any one that believes in Him from him shall flow the Holy Ghost. It
is important to point out here that before one can grasp what is said in this
verse completely one has to understand how the scripture said it. Let’s see
what the book of Hebrews says:
“God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in
time past unto the fathers by the prophets,”
Hebrews 1:1
The verse above says “God spoke to the fathers in time
past in divers manners by the prophets” therefore it means that those who wrote
the Scriptures communicated the massages in divers manners. Again we should
find out what divers manners means in order to come to a better understanding of
the verse above. Divers manners imply the use of symbols, vision, dream,
ritual, practices etc and all pointing to Christ. Since rivers of water
represents the Holy Ghost, we should be looking at in the prophets where rivers
of water was revealed in a vision and we can catch that from the vision of
Prophet Ezekiel and that is in chapter 47 of the book of Ezekiel.
“Afterward he brought me again unto the door of the
house; and, behold, waters issued out from under the threshold of the house
eastward: for the forefront of the house stood toward the east, and the waters
came down from under from the right side of the house, at the south side of the
altar. Then brought he me out of the way of the gate northward, and led me
about the way without unto the utter gate by the way that looketh eastward;
and, behold, there ran out waters on the right side. And when the man that had
the line in his hand went forth eastward, he measured a thousand cubits, and he
brought me through the waters; the waters were to the ancles.Again he measured
a thousand, and brought me through the waters; the waters were to the knees. Again he measured a thousand, and brought me
through; the waters were to the loins.Afterward he measured a thousand; and it
was a river that I could not pass over: for the waters were risen, waters to
swim in, a river that could not be passed over. And he said unto me, Son of
man, hast thou seen this? Then he
brought me, and caused me to return to the brink of the river. Now when I had
returned, behold, at the bank of the river were very many trees on the one side
and on the other. Then said he unto me, These waters issue out toward the east
country, and go down into the desert, and go into the sea: which being brought
forth into the sea, the waters shall be healed. And it shall come to pass, that
everything that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come,
shall live: and there shall be a very great multitude of fish, because these
waters shall come thither: for they shall be healed; and everything shall live
whither the river cometh.”
Ezekiel 47:1-9
But I would like us to pay attention to these verses
below from the quotation above:
“Then said he unto me, These waters issue out toward the
east country, and go down into the desert, and go into the sea: which being
brought forth into the sea, the waters shall be healed. And it shall come to
pass, that everything that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall
come, shall live: and there shall be a very great multitude of fish, because
these waters shall come thither: for they shall be healed; and everything shall
live whither the river cometh.”
(47:8-9)
These verses summaries what Jesus was saying in John
7:38-39. You find the river giving life to the fishes and the fishes here
stands for them that believes in Him. On the other hand I like the way prophet
Zachariah just puts it.
“And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go
out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward
the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be.”
Zachariah 14:8
Here actually the message of salvation which is the
product of the living waters (Holy Ghost) emanated from Jerusalem and flow
through them that believed in Jesus Christ and it spread to the ends of the
earth.
However, some schools of thought that believe that what
Jesus said was a summary of the whole activities of the Holy Ghost in the
Scripture, such as what we found in Numbers 24:7, Deuteronomy 18:15, Isaiah
58:11,etc. Well, these are not far from the truth, but the exact
interpretation, should be related to what is said and happened in the Zachariah
14:8 and Ezekiel 47:1-9.
To be continued…..
Till I come your way again, keep on
basking in the Arena of Indubitable Truth!
Chukwuemeka
C. Asiegbu
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