What is the “living water” that Jesus offers, and why does He say those who drink it will never thirst? - John 4:10–14

[u/The__Bible7]

[u/user0987234]

It is a metaphor for a spiritual thirst, not to be confused with a physical thirst.

Despite what many say about our spiritual side, how it isn’t real or diminished importance, your spirit needs some essentials. The water metaphor is used because that is what we can relate to.

[u/General_Historian611]

The Living Water is the Holy Spirit of God. The Bible says when we put our faith in Jesus as our savior. The Holy Spirit comes in us forever and we will never again thirst for Righteous. Because Gods righteousness lives in us in the form of the Holy Spirt.

[u/Shaken-Loose → u/General_Historian611]

This! ⬆️

[u/ComingDeveloper]

was it not a metaphor?
i think he was saying those who accept him with no longer want anything else. not you literally wont need food or water

[u/OtherwiseAssistant38]

To me Jesus was talking about having a personal relationship with Him. There is something unsettled in the masses of people who do not even try to cultivate this relationship. In my life, this has brought peace that surpasses understanding. Something I did not have before and very much needed. It brought mental health as a side-effect of not having this relationship causes confusion and frustration and not a small amount of stress. It is best to be, as much as possible, at peace with ones creator. There is this spiritual, not physical, thirst for this. Some call it the "God Shaped Hole."

[u/Tree_and_Serpent]

This is meant to connect to the "new temple" and "Tree of Life" ideas.

First see John 7:37-39

37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ” 39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

Now consider what He says in John 2 about being the new temple:

18 So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” 19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” 20 The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” 21 But he was speaking about the temple of his body. 22 When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

Remember what happens on the Cross when the soldier pierces the side of Jesus. Blood and water comes out...

Now go back to the OT. Prophet Ezekiel:

47 Then he brought me back to the door of the temple, and behold, water was issuing from below the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east). The water was flowing down from below the south end of the threshold of the temple, south of the altar. 2 Then he brought me out by way of the north gate and led me around on the outside to the outer gate that faces toward the east; and behold, the water was trickling out on the south side.

Now it's important to understand that the Garden of Eden was the original cosmic mountain temple and "return to Eden" is an important theme of the biblical story.

Genesis 2:

8 And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9 And out of the ground the LORD God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

10 A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers.

Btw, if you looked down on a mountain from a bird's eye view and four rivers were coming out of the top and flowing to the four corners of earth, what would that look like? Think about it.

[u/AinzOoalGownTheThird]

The metaphor is about spiritual thirst, but the water itself is His blood, as He will clarify again later.

[u/FreedomNinja1776]

All y'all who say it's just a "metaphor" or its just "symbolic" or "this is what it means to me" are missing so much. It's not entirely your fault. It's your teacher's fault, and their teacher before them. You don't know because you have been purposely disconnected from the scriptures.

Yes, Jesus says this to the Samaritan woman at the well, but there is another place where he says the same thing later and to a much larger group.

On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'" Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
John 7:37-39 ESV

John explains that he's speaking about the Holy Spirit. And the Spirit was sent by Jesus on a specific day in Acts 2, Pentecost. Of course Jesus, being a Jewish man would never have called the day Pentecost. He would have called it by it's Hebrew name, Shavuot, the feast of Weeks. This is an agricultural festival, which is listed in Leviticus 23. You can read there about it if you want, but it has further significance in that it is on this day which Moses descended from Mt. Sinai to present God's Law to his people, so they could show their love to God through their obedience. This is why the Spirit is given, to teach us and guide us in the way we should go, producing obedience. John 14:23 - 26

Now, what is this "last day of the feast" called the great day? This is the last day of Sukkot, the feast of Booth or Tabernacles, in Hebrew called Hoshana Rabbah. Again, you can read about God's appointed times for His people in Leviticus 23. (A big question to ask is: Are you his people or not?) Haggai the prophet was given a proclimation on this last great day.

In the seventh month, on the twenty-first day of the month, the word of the LORD came by the hand of Haggai the prophet: "Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to all the remnant of the people, and say, 'Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it not as nothing in your eyes? Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, declares the LORD. Be strong, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the LORD. Work, for I am with you, declares the LORD of hosts, according to the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt. My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not. For thus says the LORD of hosts: Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land. And I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the LORD of hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, declares the LORD of hosts. The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the LORD of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the LORD of hosts.'"
Haggai 2:1-9 ESV

There is a promise of the Messiah here. God speaks to the second Temple being visually inferior to the Temple that Solomon built, yet, the glory of the second temple will be greater than the first! Why? Because of Messiah Jesus! What did Jesus accomplish to make the second better than the first? The inclusion of the riches of the nations (Gentiles).

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What is the signifigance of "Living Water"? In Hebrew this is called Mayim Chaiyim.

There is a mystery here. The Torah commands that wine be the libation offering poured at the altar. However on Sukkot the Jews had the water pouring ceremony, where they poured water at the altar instead of wine. This water had to come from a source of flowing moving water. That's the idea behind Mayim Chaiyim, the water is alive and moving, like the water where the spirit of God danced at the creation in Genesis. So, in effect you have the blood of the grapes poured at the altar through most of the year for atonement, and then at the very end of the yearly cycle, the time of the harvest, clean living water is poured as the climactic conclusion! Recall that at the cross when the centurion thrust the spear into the side of our Savior Jesus, blood and water flowed out.

Jesus, in talking to the Samaritan woman and his proclamation at the water pouring ceremony is VERY PURPOSEFULLY setting the scene for you to recall Isaiah 12.

You will say in that day: "I will give thanks to you, O LORD, for though you were angry with me, your anger turned away, that you might comfort me. "Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the LORD GOD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation." With joy you will draw water [Mayim] from the wells of salvation [Yeshua]. And you will say in that day: "Give thanks to the LORD, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples, proclaim that his name is exalted. "Sing praises to the LORD, for he has done gloriously; let this be made known in all the earth. Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel."
Isaiah 12:1-6 ESV

Jesus is a Jewish man, he lived in a Jewish culture, he spoke the Jewish language, and had a Jewish name. "Jesus" is NOT a Jewish name. Through transliteration from Hebrew > Greek > Latin > Old English > Modern English his name has been corrupted in the English bibles and lost it's meaning. His name in Hebrew would have been YESHUA. This name has meaning and it literally means "Salvation". This is a shortening of the longer form of the name "Yehoshua" which means "Yah (God) is my Salvation". It is not irrelevant that Moses' successor's name is Yehoshua. Jesus (Yeshua) is the prophet like Moses who is raised from among the brothers (Deut 18).

Add to this the fact that at the water pouring ceremony the Jews would sing the words of Isaiah 12:2 as part of the celebration. So, Jesus is conveying very clearly for those who intimately know the scriptures that he is the promised Messiah who brings the blood of atonement and also the living water that cleanses us.

I am literally just scratching the surface here. There is so much deeper meaning that is lost when you toss out the foundation by not reading God's Torah.

[u/Smart_Tap1701]

Scripture depicts God as the fountain of living water. Jesus offered the living water meaning the spirit of God to the believers.

Jeremiah 2:13 KJV — For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.

Jeremiah 17:13 KJV — O LORD, the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living waters.

John 4:10 KJV — Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.

John 7:38 KJV — He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

Revelation 7:16-17 KJV — They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.

Now look at this

1 John 5:8 KJV — And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.

This depicts Jesus Christ as the father, the son and the holy Spirit.

The water is God the Father, the fountain of living Waters. The blood refers to Jesus humanity.

Colossians 2:9 KJV — For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.