The Water of Life

Exod 15:25-26

25 Then Moses cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became sweet. There the LORD made a decree and a law for them, and there he tested them.

26 He said, "If you listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, who heals you."

Without water, one dies. Without Jesus one dies. Good morning. Today I am going to cover the subject of water a 2nd time because last week it was a very small glimpse I gave you regarding the water the people were able to drink and the connection to Jesus’ death and resurrection. Today we will get into more analogies, many or most given us by Jesus.

Before I start I want to point out that most of the time in Jesus’ day and up until about the mid 19th century, people had to go to a well to get water, or get it from a spring or a creek or a river. I know many people forget that piped in water is a rather new invention, despite the fact that in some cities in ancient times actually thought of piping water to homes, but only in civilizations that were pretty technically advanced. By and large, most people for most of this planet’s existence have had to use wells, springs, creeks, rivers, lakes etc. for their water supplies. That being said, let us look at some scriptures:

Ps 1:3

3 He will be like a tree {firmly} planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers.(NAU)

Here you see the fact that a tree well watered flourishes. Of course this is an analogy the psalmist made regarding life and he was right because the true source of the water of life comes from Jesus. Remember this conversation?

John 4:10-14

10 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.

11 The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water?

12 Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?

13 Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:

14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.(KJV)

Note: To all you evangelists, notice how Jesus used the situation-he was hot, tired, and thirsty, and someone comes along with a bucket to get water. So He tells her about living water using as the introduction-‘would you give me a drink of your water?’ in effect. As you can tell, I reworded it as I think He would have asked politely rather than commanded her.

So here we have an introduction in John that Jesus is the source of the water of life, the water of salvation; "the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life".

Another instance:

John 7:37-39

37 In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.

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

39 (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)(KJV)

This feast Jesus was at was the feast of Tabernacles. The 8th day the people celebrated a special celebration

Lev 23:36

36 For seven days present offerings made to the LORD by fire, and on the eighth day hold a sacred assembly and present an offering made to the LORD by fire. It is the closing assembly; do no regular work.(NIV)

where a special offering was made. They had a custom during this Feast of Tabernacles called the Drawing of the Water. After the Jewish people resettled in Jerusalem and their surrounding land after the Babylonian captivity, they instituted a custom where by during this Feast of Tabernacles they would go to the pool of Siloam and draw water from it and take it in a parade to the temple. They carried this water in a silver pitcher and when they got there, they poured the water on the altar. This was a ceremony for invoking God’s blessing on the nation by providing life giving water. It was at this time Jesus spoke to the people to come to Him for living water. And the living water Jesus spoke of course was the Holy Spirit, who was to be given in power on Pentecost. Jesus said then as He says now, "Come to me and drink from me." Come to Him to get the Words of Life that will sustain you, save you, nourish you, strengthen you, build you up, make you more than a conqueror over those sins that can easily beset and throw you.

Isaiah says:

Isa 12:3

3 Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.(KJV) That water of salvation comes from Jesus. Jesus is our well of salvation.

When the water had been made sweet that day that they found the bitter water in the wilderness, they were saved. They had been thirsty and in great need of water. God provided, but used the symbol -a tree-to make the water pure enough to drink and satisfy. The people were saved that day. And thousands of years later, Jesus provided the well of salvation-Himself-as the source of the Living Water-all through that death on that tree. And the relationship between man and God Himself was made possible directly. God, in His grief over the death of His Son, tore the covering He had over Himself symbolically-tearing the curtain of the temple between the Holy Place and His own presence in the Holy of Holies, and in effect told mankind that no longer would a person have to approach Him thru ceremonies with these priests of the tribe of Levi, but that direct access to God was now possible.

You can see from all this, that God has used the Old Testament to be a shadow of the New. Even the Jewish customs that were developed after Moses time shadowed many of God’s truths that we see in the New Testament. And water is used by God as a symbol of life as well as living water a symbol referring to the Holy Spirit.

What should we learn from all this? I would say we need to recognize that God is always there as our supply. God always does supply our needs. God does let us get thirsty at times, because that helps us to draw closer to Him. And the closer we are to Him the better off we are. And He even gives us greater value because when we have that Living Water in us, it can also flow out of us to nourish others. We can be "little Christs"–Christians.

When you run into the subject of water in the Bible, keep your eyes open as you will see God speaks many messages to us of spiritual importance in the events that involve water. It is no accident that these various things have been placed into the Bible. God very carefully wove the information He wanted into our scriptures. More things in the Bible have meaning than we are often aware of. And all of the meanings in the end point to Jesus Christ as King of Kings, Lord of Lords, and Savior [the Passover Lamb of God] from our sins and death.

Now for last week’s Bible Trivia Question: What stopped them (the Roman soldiers) from whipping him(Paul)? He was a Roman citizen. As a Roman citizen (and born one) that entitled him to certain privileges that non-citizens did not have. One of those privileges was that a Roman citizen could not be flogged, whipped in order to drag information out of him. There was a severe penalty when that right was ignored by authorities. [You can stop and make analogy here regarding you and your membership in God’s kingdom. Do you remember what Jesus said regarding paying taxes and that children of a king were not usually the ones who had to pay the taxes, but the foreigners in a kingdom got taxed. We are in the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of God does not tax us. We don’t have to pay God a debt, like the non-believing world does. The non-believing world has a debt to pay. Ours has already been paid.] At any rate, when Paul confronted the soldiers with his citizenship as a Roman, that stopped them in their tracks and they went immediately to the commander who ordered they release Paul to a cell till the next day for a hearing. The interesting thing is the next conversation Paul had with the chief captain -for when he asked Paul if he was actually a Roman citizen, Paul said yes,and then the captain said he had paid a very large sum of money for his citizenship, and Paul’s answer was, "I was born one". I suppose people born in Tarsus or in Cilicia were automatically citizens. I really don’t know. But being born a Roman citizen gave Paul certain rights and privileges that the rest of the populace throughout the Roman empire did not have.

This week’s Bible Trivia Question: The next day when he was brought to confront the council of Sadducees and Pharisees, what did he use to defeat their whole purpose in being there?

That is all for today folks. May the Water of Life fill you today. Your Good News Lady

Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem even more so now. "They shall prosper that love thee." Psalm 122:6 Pray also for wisdom for President Bush as enjoined us by I Timothy 2:1-03 and pray for our troops. Continue especially to pray God’s protection around our soldiers that are still in Iraq and other parts of the Arab world.