In the Bible there are several natural symbols for the Holy Spirit (HS). e.g. dove, oil, fire, wind, cloud, (“living”) water. Here we’ll focus on the water of the Spirit. (Symbolism will build as we proceed.)
God wants to fellowship with humanity and His saints through the HS. And God wants us to deeply desire or “thirst” for His ways and for fellowship in/with His Presence. Jesus said in Mt.5:6, “Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied”.
Ge.2:15 at the beginning, God placed the first human Adám in the garden of Eden to cultivate it. Ge.2:9-10 “A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden.” This river watered the trees of Eden. Ge.3:8 the Presence of the Lord God was there in the garden with Adam & Eve.
Ge.2:16-17, 3:6 but they sinned, and hid from God! (see “Tree Symbolism in Scripture”.) The Lord is holy and wouldn’t fellowship with sin. Ge.3:24 so God cast mankind out of the garden, away from His Presence. But He had a plan…humanity wouldn’t forever be separated from God! Skipping ahead….
800s BC Joel prophesied that God’s Spirit would be poured out, eventually becoming available to all. Jl.2:28-29 “I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind.” Again, water is symbolic of the HS. Also Is.44:2-5 “I will pour out water on him who is thirsty; I will pour out My Spirit on your offspring.”
Fulfillment began around 30 AD. In Jn.16:7, Jesus said it was necessary for Him to depart, so the Helper, the HS, could be sent to His disciples. Jn.19:34 “One of the soldiers pierced His [Jesus’] side and out came blood and water.” Symbolic availability of the water of the Spirit. Reappearing after His crucifixion death, Jesus is with His disciples in Jn.20:22. “He breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.” The disciples inhaled Jesus’ breath into their lungs. Jesus gave them a pledge or foretaste of the HS, soon to be sent. (cf. Ge.2:7, Job 32:8 the breath of life and human spirit were given.)
We read of the miracle sending approximately 50 days later in Ac.2:4. “They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak in other tongues.” v.13-18 “But others mocked saying, ‘They’re full of new wine’. Peter declared, ‘These men aren’t drunk; this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel.” Those newly full of the HS weren’t drunk with wine. (see the topic “Spiritual Gifts and ‘Tongues”.)
Prior to Ac.2, other of Jesus’ encounters prefigured this outpouring of the HS. In Jn.7, Jesus was at the Jews’ annual Feast of Booths in Jerusalem. A traditional water-pouring libation ceremony was part of this October festival. Priests would draw a pitcher of water at the pool of Siloám, then in procession enter the Temple’s south Watergate, and pour the water at the base of the altar. It reminded them of God’s promise in Jl.2:23. “Rejoice, sons of Zión, He has poured down for you the early [Nov-Dec] and the latter [Apr] rain. The threshing floors will be full of new grain and the vats of new wine.”
Jesus’ Hebrew name is Yeshúa (Strongs h3442 masc), shortened from Yehoshúa (h3091), meaning ‘YHVH saves/is salvation’. (see “Savior’s Name in Bible Languages”.) He figuratively linked their water libation to the soon-coming HS. Jesus said there in Jn.7:37-39, “If any man thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water. This spoke He of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him would receive.”
The scripture to which Jesus/Yeshua referred is Is.55:1. “Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters.” Also Is.12:2-3 “Behold, God is my salvation [yeshúah h3444 fem]. Therefore you will joyously draw water from the springs of salvation [yeshuah h3444].” Is.12:3 was sung annually at the Feast water-pouring ceremony! Is.25:9 regarding Yeshua/Jesus, “Behold this is our God for whom we have waited that He might save us. Let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation [yeshuah h3444].” Amen…Jesus/Yeshua is God and Savior! Believers receive the living water of the HS.
An earlier encounter was Jn.4:5-7. “He came to a city of Samaria called Sychár. Jesus sat by Jacob’s Well.” A woman of Samaria came to draw water from it. v.10-15 “Jesus said to her, ‘You would have asked [Me/Jesus], and He would have given you living water. The water that I shall give will become a well of water springing up to eternal life.” Jesus is the giver of living water, the HS. The name of that town, Sychar, meant ‘intoxicating drink’! And when the HS was sent, in Ac.2:13 some wrongly said Jesus’ disciples were full of new wine! (But the HS is the Spirit of a sound mind, 2Ti.1:7.)
1Co.12:13 the apostle Paul wrote, “We were all made to drink of one Spirit”. And Ep.5:18 “Don’t get drunk wi th wine, which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit.” The apóthegm ‘Holy Ghost wine’ (Ac.2:4, 13 KJV) is intoxicating drink, but in a spiritual sense only! Ac.2:15 they weren’t inebriated! Although Paul advised a little wine therapy for Timothy (1Ti.5:23), drunkenness is sin (Ro.13:13).
Jacob’s Well is thought to be at the site of ancient Shechém, where Jacob lived upon his return from N. Mesopotamia. ref Ge.33:18-20. To water their herds, Bible patriarchs’ servants laboriously dug wells, sometimes through limestone. Ge.26:15-19 Isaac re-dug the wells of his father Abraham. From this, there’s a lesson in perseverance. If the flow of the HS has been hindered, we can ‘re-dig the ancient wells’ by worship and prayerfully pressing-in. I’ve heard the admonition preached, “When you appear before God without worship, you’re like a well without water; you dry up”.
Jesus said living water would flow from believers (Jn.7:38). Paul calls believers the temple of the HS. 1Co.3:16 “You are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you.” Christians are the temple!
Ezk.47:1-7 was an inspiring allegory of the future ‘temple’ with water increasingly flowing from it. v.12 “By the river on both sides will grow all kinds of trees. Their leaves won’t wither and their fruit won’t fail. They will bear every month because the water flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food and their leaves for healing.” Trees with fruit and healing leaves on the banks of the “river”.
Je.17:7-8 “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord. He will be like a tree planted by the water. Its leaves will be green, and it won’t cease to yield fruit.” Also Ps.1:1-3 “Blessed is the man who delights in the law of the Lord. He will be like a tree planted by streams of water which yields its fruit in its season.” Men symbolically as a tree which bears fruit from the living water of the HS; it won’t wither. (Interestingly, Mk.8:24 the blind man Jesus healed initially saw men who looked like trees walking.)
Jn.15:16 Jesus said, “You should bear fruit and your fruit should remain”. Pr.8:19 the HS Wisdom said in 1st Person, “My fruit is better than gold”. Wisdom of Sirach 1:14-18 Orthodox Bible (ref KJV 1611 Edition) “The gratification of Wisdom is the fear of the Lord, and she intoxicates them with her fruits; sprouting peace and well-being for healing.” (It’s not drunkenness.) And in Ga.5:22 Paul writes of “the fruit of the Spirit”. The fruit & attributes of the HS (within the saints) are better than gold!
Ezekiel’s river reappears in the final book of the Bible. Re.22:1-2 “He showed me a river of the water of Life, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb. On either side of the river was the Tree of Life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the Tree were for the healing of the nations.” From the beginning in Genesis, there was also a river and the Tree of Life (Ge.2:9-10). In Revelation, twelve kinds of fruit are produced from the living water of the Spirit. (And there’s twelve months in a year.) Let’s look at the twelve kinds of fruit which heal the nations:
Ga.5:22-23 “The fruit [g2590, Greek] of the Spirit [g4151] is love [g26], joy [g5479], peace [g1515], patience [g3115], kindness [g5544], goodness [g19], faith [g4102], meekness [g4236], self-control [g1466]; against such there is no law.” This one passage reflects nine kinds of fruit. There’s more….
Ep.5:9 KJV “The fruit [g2590] of the Spirit [g4151 pneúma] is in all goodness [g19], righteousness [g1343] and truth [g225].” Barnes Notes “The fruit of the Spirit; that is, since the Holy Spirit through the gospel produces goodness, righteousness, and truth, see that you exhibit these in your lives.” Gill Exposition Ep.5:9 “Where the Spirit of God, and the work of grace are, there will be more or less an appearance of these fruits.” Meyer NT Commentary “The fruit of the Spirit is also the fruit of the light.” So two more here, righteousness and truth, bring to eleven the subtotal of healing kinds of fruit/co-product of the HS. (Goodness [g19] was counted among the nine in Ga.5:22 previously.)
Ro.6:22 “Having been freed from sin…you have your fruit [g2590 karpós] unto holiness [g38 hagiasmós, sanctification], and the end everlasting life.” Gill Exposition Ro.6:22 “Holiness is a fruit of freedom from the bondage of sin, begun in regeneration. It is a fruit of the Spirit.” Holiness has been called the ‘ultimate fruit of the Spirit’. (Others might say that “love” is.) This brings the total seen in Paul’s epistles to twelve kinds of fruit, as Re.22:2 also indicates! Praise the Lord!
For emphasis, here’s two more verses which associate some of the twelve fruit with the HS. 2Th.2:13 “God has from the beginning chosen you for salvation, through sanctification [g38] in the Spirit and faith [g4102] in the truth [g225].” Ro.14:17 “The Kingdom of God is righteousness [g1343] and peace [g1515] and joy [g5479] in the Holy Spirit.” Both of those verses reflect three (different) fruit.
Recounting…the twelve fruit/co-product that heal the nations are: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control, righteousness, truth, holiness (sanctification). As we bear these positive attitudes/traits which the HS produces in our lives, we and others experience spiritual healing. And the mustard seed grows (Mt.13:31-32)…and Ezekiel’s symbolic river becomes deeper, and deeper!
The Odes of Solomon, the earliest Christian hymnbook, was probably written in Aramaic Sýriac pre-125 AD. The following is from Ode 6:7-13 (translated by James H. Charlesworth): “Our spirits praise His Holy Spirit. For there went forth a stream and it became a river great and broad; indeed it carried away everything, and it shattered, and brought it to the temple. And the restraints of men were not able to restrain it. For it spread over the face of all the earth, and filled everything. Then all the thirsty upon the earth drank, and thirst was relieved and quenched; for from the Most High the drink was given. Blessed therefore, are the ministers of that drink, who have been entrusted with His water. Because everyone recognized them as the Lord’s, and lived by the living water of eternity. Hallelujah.” In this inspiring Ode, we see glimpses of Ezk.47, Jn.4:10-15 and Jn.7:37-38.
Also Re.7:17 “The Lamb in the center of the throne shall be their Shepherd and guide them to springs of the water of life; and God shall wipe every tear from their eyes.” Re.21:6 “And He said to me, ‘It is done. I Am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost.” This Giver is Jesus (Re.22:13, 16).
Conclusion: In Genesis, mankind began in the garden of Eden with a cosmic river and the Tree of Life. They sinned, and humanity wasn’t allowed access to the Tree of Life. Millennia later, after Jesus died and rose again, the symbolic Spirit of the water of Life was given in Acts 2. Our Bible canon ends in the paradise of Re.22 with the river of the HS issuing from the throne (cf. Ezk.47), nourishing trees of life which bear twelve fruit of the Spirit month after month.
Re.22:17 “The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come’. And let the one who hears say, ‘Come’. And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of Life without cost.” Come to salvation’s living waters! It’s a wonderful spiritual future, available for us…in eternal Life! To God be the glory!
Bible Topic Exposition 