Conversations with Jesus – Love in Action – Life Lesson No. 24: A Conversation with Scribes, Pharisees, and a Woman Caught in Adultery – Fountains of Salvation and Stone Tablets

For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all. James 2:10.

Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:

Jesus had many conversations with the Pharisees and the scribes and often such conversations would also include people the Pharisees considered sinners, such as the woman who anointed the feet of Jesus at the Pharisee’s home, the tax collector  Zacchaeus, a man blind from birth, and today we will consider a woman caught in the sin of adultery by the Pharisees and brought to the Temple.

This conversation occurs when Jesus had come up to Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles. It was the day after the eighth day of the feast which is the high holy day. Just the day before, on the eighth day of the festival, He had cried out in the Temple for anyone who was thirsty to come to Him and drink, stating that for all who believed in Him rivers of water would flow out of them.

Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, 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.’” But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. John 7:37-39.

It was then the crowd became deeply divided, some proclaiming Him Messiah and others denying it. John 7:40-44. The Pharisees and priests sent the guard to arrest Jesus, but they refused to do so, saying that no man had ever spoken like that before. They understood what He was saying.

What was all that excitement about? To understand you must know something about the Feast of Tabernacles, the most joyous feast of the appointed times (moedim) I gave to Moses as the foretelling of all the events to come till the end of time when I join My Heavenly City, the New Jerusalem, with earth as one.

The Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot in Hebrew: סוכות‎ or סֻכּוֹת), I also call it the Feast of Ingathering, is the last appointed time on the divine calendar, Passover being the first. I counted this moed (appointed time) of Tabernacles as one of the top three of the appointed times, which also is very significant for you to understand. I told Moses of these three pilgrimage feasts even before I set out the divine timeline for him. In the book of Exodus I first told him of these after I gave the Ten Commandments while he was with Me in the cloud of glory on Mt. Sinai, “Celebrate a festival in My honor three times a year. Observe the Festival of Unleavened Bread. As I commanded you, you are to eat unleavened bread for seven days at the appointed time in the month of Abib, because you came out of Egypt in that month. No one is to appear before Me empty-handed. Also observe the Festival of Harvest (Shavuot, Pentecost) with the first-fruits of your produce from what you sow in the field and observe the Festival of Ingathering (Tabernacles) at the end of the year, when you gather your produce from the field. Three times a year all your males are to appear before the LORD God.” Exodus 23:14-17. And again later in the cloud of glory I told Moses: “Observe the Festival of Unleavened Bread. You are to eat unleavened bread for seven days at the appointed time in the month of Abib (later called Nissan) as I commanded you. For you came out of Egypt in the month of Abib . . . Observe the Festival of Weeks (Pentecost) with the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, and the Festival of Ingathering (Tabernacles) at the turn of the agricultural year. Three times a year all your males are to appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel.

I call the Feast of Tabernacles “My festival.” So you know it is the crown of them all. It is the ingathering of the year’s harvest but signifies the ingathering of all people who will come under My wings, into My Kingdom, back into My bosom to tabernacle with Me as I tabernacle with you. It will be fulfilled when the end comes after the great tribulation and the final battle and I join Heaven with earth and tabernacle among you.

You came forth out of Me in My image, and many of you went astray like lost sheep, pursuing your own ways and your own thoughts, which are lower than Mine, but I have never stopped trying to gather you back into My arms and carry you in My bosom. Isaiah 40:11.

And here is the final instruction I give in the teaching of My timeline as summarized before Moses as My holy calendar of appointed times: “You are to celebrate the LORD’s festival on the fifteenth day of the seventh month for seven days after you have gathered the produce of the land. There will be complete rest on the first day and complete rest on the eighth day. On the first day you are to take the product of majestic trees—palm fronds, boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook—and rejoice before the LORD your God for seven days. You are to celebrate it as a festival to the LORD seven days each year. This is a permanent statute for you throughout your generations; you must celebrate it in the seventh month. You are to live in booths (sukkot) for seven days. All the native-born of Israel must live in booths (sukkot), so that your generations may know that I made the Israelites live in booths (sukkot) when I brought them out of the land of Egypt; I am Yahweh your God.” So Moses declared the LORD’s appointed times to the Israelites.” Leviticus 23:39-44.

But let us go back to when Jesus was celebrating this feast in the Temple at Jerusalem while He was with you as one like you.

When celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot or the Feast of Booths), there is a water drawing ceremony during which Isaiah 12 is recited, particularly verse 3, that is, “Therefore with joy you will draw water from the springs of salvation.” This, was of course, sung in Hebrew and the word for “salvation” in Hebrew is “Yeshuah,” which is Jesus’ name in Hebrew as all the people at His time on earth would have known Him. Joseph, at the angel’s direction named Him “Yeshuah” because He would save His people from their sins.

This verse was sung during the water-drawing ceremony (Simchat Beit HaShoevah) that took place each day of the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot).

“Behold, God is my salvation (Yeshuah), I will trust and not be afraid; for the LORD God is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation (Yeshuah).” Therefore you will joyously draw water from the springs of salvation (Yeshuah). Isaiah 12:2-3.

During this ceremony, priests would draw water from the Pool of Siloam (where Jesus sent the man born blind to wash the mud paste off his eyes and be healed, “Siloam” means “One who is sent”) and carry it to the Temple in golden vessels. As the water was poured on the altar, the people would chant the words from Isaiah 12:3.It was against this backdrop that Jesus made his proclamation about living water in John 7:37-39.

Why? His Name is Yeshuah, and as He told the Samaritan woman by the well, if you knew My gift you would ask Him for a drink and He would give you living water that becomes a wellspring in you leaping up to eternal life. And you only draw that water with joy.

The officers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees, and they said to them, “Why did you not bring Him?” The officers answered, “Never has a man spoken the way this man speaks.” The Pharisees then answered them, “You have not also been led astray, have you? No one of the rulers or Pharisees has believed in Him, has he? But this crowd which does not know the Law is accursed.” Nicodemus (he who came to Him before, being one of them) *said to them, “Our Law does not judge a man unless it first hears from him and knows what he is doing, does it?” They answered him, “You are not also from Galilee, are you? Search, and see that no prophet arises out of Galilee.” Everyone went to his home. John 7:45-53.

Since the crowd was so divided and the guards were refusing to arrest Jesus, and it was late, everyone went home, but Jesus went out to the Mount of Olives and spent the night in prayer. John 8:1. The Pharisees and scribes were angry that they had not been able to arrest Him during the Feast and were looking for a way to trip Jesus up while He was still in Jerusalem.

Early in the morning Jesus came again into the Temple, and all the people were coming to Him, having heard what He had said at the Feast the day before and of the miracles He was performing among the people they were thirsty for more. Also they noted, He had not been arrested, so some of them were saying, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill? But here he is, speaking in public, and they say nothing to him. Could our leaders possibly believe that he is the Messiah?” John 7:25-26.

Jesus sat down and began to teach them. The scribes and the Pharisees were furious but they had a distraction to bring. While He was teaching the people, the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery and set her right in the center of the court where He was teaching. And they proceeded to say to Him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in adultery, in the very act. Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women; what then do You say?” John 8:4-5.

Now they were bringing up the Law I gave Moses, which was first written by My own finger as ten commandments on stone tablets on Mt. Sinai. And because the people immediately broke My commandments with their immoral feast celebrating and worshipping a golden idol in the image of a grass-eating bullock that their own High Priest Aaron had fashioned, Moses broke those two tablets rather than convict the people. However, I wrote them for Him a second time after he interceded with Me for the people so that My divine judgment did not fall upon them and wipe them all out. But on Mt. Sinai, where I gave Moses ten commandments, I also gave him the plans for the Tabernacle and the sacrifices that would cover the sins of the people on credit until Jesus came and paid for your sins in full. My just wrath fell on Him for all your sins. The true scapegoat, Passover lamb, and morning and evening sacrifice. He fulfills all five sacrifices of the Tabernacle of Moses and more.

Now the scribes and Pharisees came with an adulterous woman trying to test My Son so that they might have grounds for falsely accusing Him and murdering Him. But Jesus stooped down and with His finger wrote on the ground. The court of the Temple where Jesus was teaching had a stone pavement, formed of separate slabs of stone. I had also written the law with My finger on tablets of stone, and if you broke one law, you were just as guilty as if you had broken them all.

For whoever keeps the whole Law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.  For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not commit murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but do commit murder, you have become a transgressor of the Law. So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty.  For judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment. James 2:10, Deuteronomy 27:26.

Interesting, they planned to murder My Son and accused another of adultery. But they were not reading what He was writing yet.

But when they persisted in asking Him, He straightened up, and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” John 8:7. Again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. Do you remember? I had to write the commandments a second time rather than let My wrath fall on the sinners, but the second time the sacrifices to cover sins by the blood of the lamb had been interjected. And the true Lamb of God was there before them, interceding for them.

This time they looked at what He was writing. And I shone a revelation light in their hearts. If they had broken any of them, including coveting, murder, theft, dishonor of their parents (Jesus had previously been after them about this is declaring they would not support their parents if they dedicated their money to Me) you were guilty of all. And some of them had heard Him teaching similar to the Sermon on the Mount, that is, if you planned murder in your heart it was like you had done it, and the same with adultery.

Furthermore, when they heard Jesus say that only one without sin could cast the stone, they knew what He was talking about. Under the Law if you accused someone falsely, the judgment you planned for them was then carried out on you. None of them wanted that applied for they planned to stone her. So they began to go out one by one, beginning with the older ones. The Sanhedrin, supreme court of Israel, left and their corrupt judgment was not done. No stoning took place for Jesus had written My law for them in all its pristine simplicity again with His finger upon the stones. Jesus and I are One. He is My Word. The Pharisees and scribes had dared to try to condemn Jesus with the very Word He wrote.

Jesus, Salvation Himself, your great High Priest who ever lives to make intercession for you, was left alone with the woman, for she was still right where they had put her, in the center of the court. Straightening up, Jesus said to her, “Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on sin no more.” John 8:9-11.

Jesus did not condone her sin, He told her to go on with her life but to sin no more. He did not come to condemn you but to save you. There is no condemnation now for those in Christ Jesus for He took your condemnation from you. Sin is a horrible thing, it can turn your life and the lives of those you touch to hell on earth, for it is fueled by the fire of hell, which has nothing to do with My fire of love. The burning bush was not consumed. The wages of sin is death and it still is. That has not changed. The wicked cut their lives short. My Son came to save you from that.

When you were baptized into Christ you died to sin, and when He was raised to new life, I raised you with Him and sat you above at My right hand in Him. My Tabernacle is spread over you.

“These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. For this reason they are before the throne of God, and they serve Him day and night in His temple; and He who sits on the throne will spread His tabernacle over them. They will no longer hunger nor thirst, nor will the sun beat down on them, nor any scorching heat; for the Lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and will guide them to springs of the water of life; and God will wipe every tear from their eyes.” Revelation 7:14-17.

Are you thirsty? The woman caught in adultery was. Did you notice, she addressed Jesus as “Lord”? She was grateful and she remained faithful. The one who is forgiven much, loves much. She had been purified by pure love. She no longer wanted the worldly substitute of lust.

I love you. Jesus died for you. Do not throw stones. Remember this conversation.

And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by people but is choice and precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For this is contained in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a choice stone, a precious cornerstone, and the one who believes in Him will not be put to shame.” This precious value, then, is for you who believe; but for unbelievers, “A stone which the builders rejected, this became the chief cornerstone.” 1 Peter 2:4-6.