Thirst
”If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” (John 7:37-38)
The Downside of Modernism
I suspect that the thirst metaphor does not have the same effect in our day among people who have running water on tap in their homes. While everyone recognizes that water is a precious commodity, those in the ancient near east during the first century were no doubt more respectful of this finite resource. This is one of a thousand ways that the comforts of modernism have made us less receptive to the language of the bible. It seems old-fashioned to speak of thirst when any of us can get a glass of water any time we want it, often chilled, flavored, or sparkling if we prefer.
DROUT IN THE WEST
In the American west, a lack of water is forcing communities to ration their consumption. This shortage is also reducing their ability to generate hydro-electric power. Some chalk this up to man-made, global warming. It’s important to recognize, however, that much of the west is a desert and that apart from the human ingenuity required to harness and redirect water, many western cities would be utterly uninhabitable at their current levels of occupancy. Those who settle in a barren land should find it no strange thing if the contrivances of man intended to overcome the dictates of nature ultimately fail, leaving them as dry and parched as the barren wasteland they chose to inhabit.
SPIRITUAL DROUT
I believe that Christianity has in many respects decided to homestead in a waste howling wilderness - a place of little to no spiritual water at all. The aqueducts of vain religion have gone to great lengths in an effort to route something drinkable to this location and to encourage settlement there. As a result, many families loaded their wagons in a mad dash to lay claim to a place therein, only to find that the waters were bitter and unable to assuage their spiritual thirst. That might be a depressing thought, were it not for a miracle working good shepherd, who finds his sheep no matter where they may have wandered. The Lord found Jacob in such a place:
“For the LORD'S portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.” (Deuteronomy 32:9-10)
GOT THIRST?
Are you spiritually thirsty today? Do you know where to find the waters required to quench a spiritual thirst? I believe that many of God’s people find themselves in a place of no water guzzling a tall glass of dust in a vain effort to assuage their their spiritual thirst. They are very much in need of the waters of life found only in the word and doctrine of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is free for the taking in the cistern of his New Testament Church.
If someone was naturally thirsty, none of us would hesitate to offer something to drink. It would be cruel to do otherwise. However, with water on tap, natural thirst is no longer the pressing concern it once was. Still, if someone pulled all the plumbing out of your house, you would move. Natural water is just that essential to everything we do in modern society. Yet many choose to occupy a religious house with no running water. Might be time to move.
“As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country.” (Proverbs 25:25)
- Elder Daniel Samons