FIRST FRUITS - (Part Two) - The Water turns into Wine
Last time we discussed the rule of the First Fruits.
Last time we discussed the Rule of the FirstFruits found throughout the Scriptures from the first day of creation to the firstborn Son of God.
- 1. Every Harvest contains the first fruit
- 2. First Fruits are always the best of the entire crop.
- 3. First Fruits always belong to the Lord.
- 4. Accordingly, the First (of anything) in the Bible is always preeminent –
This rule of Firstfruits applies to the First Miracle of Jesus, as well as the first parable of Jesus, and the first public reading of Jesus in the synagogue.
In this first of Miracles, Jesus turns the water
into wine. We read about it in the Gospel of John chapter 2:1-6
On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.” “Woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim.
Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.”
They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.”
We are all familiar with
the water turning into wine at the wedding at Cana in Galilee,
but have we stopped to meditate on this scripture to understand the deeper message hidden in the prophetic elements of this simple story of this most important demonstration of the overarching purpose of Jesus' ministry on the
earth displayed in the first miracle?
In the very next chapter of the gospel. Nicodemus visits Jesus in the night and Jesus told him, "you must be born of water
and of the Spirit."
“Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
Jesus had already turned the water into wine every year for centuries since the creation of the common grapevine. The grapevine pulls moisture out of the soil with its roots and the vine delivers this ‘water’ to the branches which in turn produce buds, then flowers, and finally, grapes, which when crushed provide the blood of the vine, wine. Jesus compares us to those fruitful branches, He compares Himself to the vine which turns the ‘Logos’ water of the word into the ‘wine’ (fruit) of the new covenant by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Jesus was called ‘Emmanuel’ “God with us, but the Holy Spirit whom he sent is, God in us. Jesus is the vine, but the Holy Spirit causes the branches to produce the fruit (wine).
This first miracle displayed
that the mission of Jesus on the earth was to make a way for the God of the
universe to dwell in a tabernacle of living flesh, a tabernacle not made
with human hands. He is the new wine that flows out of our bellies like rivers
of living waters.
“We heard Him say, ‘I will destroy this temple made with hands, and within three days I will build another made without hands.’ ” Mark 14:57
Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? 1 Corinthians 6:19
Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him - John 14: 23
Just a few verses later Jesus goes on to say…
You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. John 15:3-5
Back to the First
Miracle and the wedding at Cana - The context of the story is the celebration of cutting a Marriage
Covenant. The wine was essential to the sealing of the Covenant promises made.
In the context of the Jewish celebration, the bride and groom were already
within the bridal chamber consummating their vows. The wedding guests were all
outside feasting surrounding the bridal chamber for seven days. And the most
devastating thing happened, they ran out of wine.
Their running out of wine reminds me of a parable where the foolish virgins ran out of oil. Both wine and oil are indicative of
the Holy Spirit in the believer's life.
We find this parable in
Matthew 24.
The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep. “At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’ “Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’ “‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’ “But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut. “Later the others also came. ‘Lord, Lord,’ they said, ‘open the door for us!’ “But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I don’t know you. ’“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.
Running out of oil
before the wedding by a member of the bridal party was as devastating
personally, as it would be for the Father of the groom to run out of wine
during the wedding feast. In both stories, the oil in the parable of the virgins and the wine
in the wedding of Cana Miracle, indicate the ability to sustain the light or
keep the joy of celebrating Covenant Promises. The Holy Spirit is the one who sustains us and keeps the light of revelation lit in our 'virgin' hearts.
“They
have no more wine.”
- The biblical meaning
of the name, Cana is Zeal, jealousy, and possession.
- The biblical meaning of the name Galilee is: Wheel, revolution
- Six stone water jars,
- the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial
washing,
- “Fill the jars with water”;
- tasted the water that had been turned into
wine.
- you have saved the
best till now.”
Six is the number of the natural world or of, Adamic race of men. Six natural ages from creation until the second coming of Christ as King.
Thence down to the time in which we are now living are six ages, this being the sixth, as you have often heard and know. The first age is reckoned from Adam to Noah; the second, from Noah to Abraham; and, as Matthew the evangelist duly follows and distinguishes, the third, from Abraham to David; the fourth, from David to the carrying away into Babylon; the fifth, from the carrying away into Babylon to John the Baptist; the sixth, from John the Baptist to the end of the world. - Augustine
Stone pots are symbolic of the rigid unchangeable law of God – unlike a clay pot which if marred in the potters' hand can be redeemed, a potter can remake the vessel into another shape.
Water jars describe their purpose to contain the water of purification in the Old Covenant a rigid ritual of self-cleansing, now made obsolete by the working of the Holy Spirit to cleanse from within in the New Covenant.
Water is a sign of natural man, 'born of water our natural bodies are made up of 75% water. Water also is indicative of the Logos word.
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Various writings from the past
The Road Not Taken
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