John 8:6 In Light of Jeremiah
by Christine Egbert
Proverbs 25:2 says, “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter and the glory of kings to search it out.” (TLV)
The longer I study God’s word, the more I see it as a giant jigsaw puzzle. While each verse gives some details, it is only when a passage from one book of Scripture links, in a perfect fit, to a verse in another of Scripture’s books, that the Bible becomes one unified (echad) masterpiece. In this article, I hope to reveal a unifying link between a passage in the Gospel of John and a verse in Jeremiah.
In John 7:37, we find Jesus (Yeshua) at the Temple in Jerusalem. It’s the last Great Day of the Feast of Tabernacles, known also as Sukkot. (see Leviticus 23:33-35, 39-43)
During this Feast, the priests performed three daily rites, the third of which was known as the Water Libation. On the last “great day” of the Feast, this water libation reached its climax. Priests would circle the altar seven times and then pour out the water. This water pouring was known as the Hoshana Rabbah, this great “HOSHIANA” translates into English as “Save us Now!”
It was during this great Hoshana Rabbah that Jesus (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)
Hearing Jesus (Yeshua), the crowd became split in their opinion. Some believed Jesus (Yeshua) was that Prophet spoken of by Moses, while others did not. In chapter eight, we learn in verse one that right after this Jesus (Yeshua) went up to the Mount of Olives (which is right outside of Jerusalem). He stayed there until dawn the next morning. When He returned to the Temple to teach, some Torah scholars and Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery.
Let’s read it:
John 8:1-8 “But Jesus (Yeshua) went to the Mount of Olives. At dawn, He came again into the Temple. All the people were coming to Him, and He sat down and began to teach them. The Torah scholars and Pharisees bring in a woman who had been caught in adultery. After putting her in the middle, they say to Jesus (Yeshua), “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of committing adultery. In the Torah, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do You say?” Now they were saying this to trap Him, so that they would have grounds to accuse Him. But Jesus (Yeshua) knelt down and started writing in the dirt with His finger. When they kept asking Him, He stood up and said, “The sinless one among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” Then, He knelt down again and continued writing on the ground.”
What Did Jesus (Yeshua) Write?
Over the last two decades, I’ve heard many suggestions as to what Jesus (Yeshua) might have written in the earth that day, but it wasn’t until someone connected this passage to what the Prophet Jeremiah wrote in chapter 17, verse 13, that I began to suspect that Jesus (Yeshua) was writing the names of the Pharisees and Torah teachers in the earth. They were there to try and trap him, and they had heard Him the day before cry out during the water libation, “Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture says, ‘out of his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.”
Unlike the Sadducees, who did not see the Prophets as Scripture, the Pharisees did. They would be very familiar with the verse in Jeremiah which declares: “O LORD (Yahweh), the Hope of Israel, all who forsake You shall be ashamed. Those who depart from Me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the LORD (Yahweh), the Fountain of living waters.”
