The seventh day of Sukkot is called Hoshana Rabba in Judaism. I am sending this out to you since this day begins. I previously sent a post on the meaning of Sukkot in general. Now I want to concentrate on this Seventh-day. Remember the 8th-day celebration that follows, a day of new creation. This is also an important Sabbath day.
This Feast is connected to prayers for rain and good crops for the coming year. As we have just celebrated the end of the year’s harvest, we look forward already to the new harvest that will come at Shavuot or Pentecost. The key to that harvest is rain and hence the prayer for rain with the hope that the early rains will start soon after the Feast and then continue into the Spring where we will see the latter rains. We are so much more conscious of this living in Israel. It is was on this very day of the Feast that Yeshua stood up and said,
“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. Now He said this about the Ruach whom those who trusted in Him were going to receive; for the Ruach was not yet given since Yeshua was not yet glorified.”
As rain produces fruitfulness and both satisfies our thirst and brings increase, so the Spirit satisfies our spiritual longing and brings increase, for by the Spirit we are able to see the harvest of people into the Kingdom. It is again fitting to remember the harvest themes of this season.
Scholars tell us that this might have been spoken in the context of the water-pouring ceremonies at that time. The priest would draw water from the pool of Siloam and put this out in the Temple as an offering, signifying both giving our lives and calling for rain as well.
A great miracle was also connected to this time; the healing of the blind man in John 9. We again have a Sukkot theme, namely that Yeshua is the light of the World. This statement of Yeshua in John 8:12 promises those who follow Him will have the light of life. Thus the blind man is healed as an illustration of the physical of being healed of our spiritual blindness. His words, “I was blind, but now I see.” John 9:25. The context is the glory of the lamps that were lit in the court of the women that produced a grand glory over the Temple and the City.
As we celebrate Hoshana Rabba, let us remember these wonderful themes and renew and pray for the renewal of the power of the Spirit in us so that we may have inner satisfaction, walk in His light, and be part of the great harvest. It is fitting to pray for revival indeed.