What were the waterpots of stone in John 2:6?

Six water-pots there were of stone, placed for purifying, after the manner of the Jews. The Evangelist, who was present, not only tells us they were of stone, but also informs us of their capacity, holding of water, when full, two or three firkins apiece. The whole has been reckoned at about one hundred and twenty-six gallons. The wine exhausted, and the water-pots partially if not wholly empty, such was the state of things when the Lord addressed the servants. Just two commands He gave them. First, "Fill the water-pots with water." "And they filled them up to the brim." Clearly there was nothing in them now but water, and no room for anything else. The next command was, "Draw out now, and bear to the governor of the feast." The servants obeyed. "They bare it," writes the Apostle (7, 8). The miracle was wrought. The water had become wine; and the governor of the feast, tasting it, and attesting that it was wine, and good wine, proceeded to compliment the bridegroom on having kept the good wine till then. He knew not, we read, whence the wine came, though "the servants which drew the water knew" (9). The Creator was present, and had made water become wine. No further scarcity is hinted at. Doubtless the supply was adequate for the occasion.

"His mother saith to the servants, Whatever He shall say to you, do. Now there were six waterpots of stone set there according to the purification of the Jews, holding each two or three measures." The Jewish system was a witness of defilement; and its ordinances could do no more than sanctify to the purifying of the flesh.50 This was human. Jesus was here for Divine purposes, then in testimony, by and by in power. "Jesus saith to them, Fill the waterpots with water. And they filled them up to the brim. And He saith to them, Draw now and carry to the master of the feast. And they carried. But when the master of the feast tasted the water that had become wine (and he knew not whence it was, but the servants that had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom and saith to him, Every man at first setteth on the good wine, and when they have drunk freely, then the worse; thou hast kept the good wine until now."51

At the wedding feast of Cana of Galilee, when the resources of men had failed, the Lord Jesus provided a quality of wine that was better than anything the guests had tasted. There were six vessels of different capacities that were made of stone, which the Jews used for purification, and these the Lord commanded to be filled with water. Vessels used for purification would be clean vessels, and for His service the Lord uses clean vessels, vessels “unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the Master’s use, and prepared unto every good work” (2 Tim. 2:21).

For the use of the Master, like the stone vessels of Cana, He would have us filled with water, the water of the word stored in the heart and the mind, and displacing everything that comes from the heart and mind of man. When the vessels poured out their contents they brought cheer and joy to those who were at the feast, for the water, by the grace and power of the Son of God, had been turned into the choicest wine. If we are clean vessels, separate from all contact with defilement, and filled with the knowledge of God’s word, the Lord will be able to use us to bring refreshment, cheer and joy to others.

"It was laid down that the hands were first to be washed clean. The tips of the ten fingers were then joined and lifted up, so that the water ran down to the elbows, then turned so that it might run off to the ground. Fresh water was poured on them as they were lifted up, and twice again as they hung down. The washing itself was to be done by rubbing the fist of one hand in the hollow of the other. When the hands were washed before eating they must be held upwards, when after it, downwards, but so that the water should not run beyond the knuckles. The vessel must be held first in the right, then in the left hand; the water was to be poured first on the right and then on the left hand; and at every third time the words repeated: 'Blessed art Thou who hast given us the command to wash the hands.' It was keenly disputed whether the cup of blessing or the handwashing should come first; whether the towel should be laid on the table or on the couch; and whether the table was to be cleared before the final washing or after it."

The answer of the Lord to the question of the Pharisees stamped this rite with its true character. In essence, it was a commandment of men, not of God. And their ablutions had an external effect only, not an internal. The six stone water-pots, each holding about twenty gallons, standing empty during the marriage banquet at Cana of Galilee, illustrate what ample provision it was customary to make for the sacramental purification of the guests (John 2:6). Yet to the Omniscient eye, this ritual so scrupulously enforced by the Jewish elders contemplated nothing further than the purity of the hands and of domestic utensils, the outside of the cup and the platter (Matt. 23:25), while it ignored the condition of the heart, that ever-flowing, and over-flowing spring of pollution.

Now there is to be a marriage upon earth, but it must be according to God. The Song of Solomon tells us of that. There is to be a time, when the land of Israel will be called Beulah, or married, when "Thy Maker is Thy husband" will be true of Israel as a nation but how is that marriage to be effected? Is it to be effected naturally? If so, then there will be just what you have here. The guests are together, the ceremony goes on, and in the very midst of the feast the wine fails, the joy fails. Instead of the joy of the marriage there is disappointment; and that is what has ever characterized all Israel's partial repentances. There has been no true recovery to God, and therefore no true joy of the marriage feast. Those empty water-pots tell the tale. They speak of the manner of the purifying of the Jews, but they are empty, mere forms and ceremonies. That is just the condition in which the Jews were; they had plenty of forms; they would not eat with unwashed hands; they would not do anything ceremonially wrong; they would strain out a gnat; they would pour out all their water through a sifting cloth, for fear they might drink some kind of a living creature, and then they would swallow a camel, as the Lord says: they had the form without the reality. They were empty water-pots.

Now the Lord says, Take those forms and fill them with water; fill those water-pots with water to the very brim. Let the word of God come in in its activity, and bring home to your soul the fact that if there is to be true purifying, it must be by repentance, the true acknowledgment of sin. When they do that, they will find the wine of the marriage-feast. So in the day that is coining, when Israel will take her place in true repentance, owning all that she is and has done, she will find that the valley of Achor is a door of hope; the valley of repentance, the valley of humiliation is the key of hope and blessing, of marriage joy for her. Then it is that the last part of this portion comes in. The Lord appears and with a scourge of small cords He purifies the temple by His power.

Why? when the need is apparent, and confessed? Ah, the need of wine is; but there is another need, deeper, yea, fundamental, which they do not confess, nor realize. Those six empty water-pots of stone, set there for purifying, but incapable now, symbolize the condition of hollow formalism. Six is the number of labor without rest, though capable of assuming another significance; but how long has this been the suited expression of a people away from God; the practical comment upon His words, "Mine hour is not yet come"! In this interval time is not reckoned, and not as yet have we seen the end of it.

But the time comes at last, and He must work to secure the blessing which without Him will never come. Now He says to the servants, "Fill the water-pots with water"; and they fill them to the brim. The number now may be that of discipline, which we know in fact God will use to bring them under the power of His word, which is His means of purification. "The washing of water" is "by the Word" (Eph. 5:26).

SIX. Incompleteness, imperfection (one short of the perfect number seven). Solomon had six steps to his great throne, 1 Kings 10:19; but it was not elevated enough to save him from idolatry. Six hundred sixty and six talents of gold were brought him in a year, 1 Kings 10:14; yet he had to confess that all was vanity and vexation of spirit. The Jews at Cana had six water-pots for purification, John 2:6; but they expressed the insufficiency of ordinances to meet man's need. The number of the imperial beast will be six hundred sixty and six, Rev. 13:18, being imperfect in every particular.

On the occasion of the marriage at Cana no external glory marked the presence of Jesus. His disciples were there and His mother also, but He soon showed, by the answer He gave His mother, that the initiative was His and not hers; and also that His hour was not yet come — neither the hour of His suffering, nor the hour of His glory, when "all things" will be at His disposal. However, He quickly manifested His glory by showing that water was at His disposal, and that He could make of it that which He pleased. He turned the water of purification into the wine of rejoicing. This was the beginning of His miracles or signs, and as a sign it looked on to the ultimate result of His work. There can be no gladness of an abiding sort save on the basis of a purification which He brings to pass, and the gladness which will spring forth when at last the marriage day comes for a cleansed Israel, will be the best of all. The "good wine" is kept until that day. This sign, demonstrating His glory, confirmed the faith of His disciples, and may well confirm ours.

The marriage in Cana of Galilee (Galilee is always connected with the remnant in contrast with Jerusalem which is connected with the Pharisees) opens up the order in which blessing is going to be brought to Israel in the latter days. The joy fails in the midst of the feast, even as Israel's joy has ever failed in the midst of her most favored seasons. The water-pots, after the manner of the purifying of the Jews, suggest the ordinances of the law. These are empty unrealities until filled with the living power of divine truth. Then drawn out, this truth becomes the wine of joy for Israel's feast of tabernacles.

The way the Lord takes to supply the good wine is surely significant. He causes the empty waterpots of purification to be filled and from these waterpots the wine is drawn forth. Does this not tell us, in a symbol, that the happiness of men will only be secured when holiness is maintained?