Water
Our pool is a lovely shade of green. It almost looks like the emerald waters in Destin. But we have no white sand or waiters to bring us fruity-drinks. It looked great most of the summer, but then the Mr. went out of town and it was just too hot for me to work on the pool, bless my heart. Such a first world problem.
I am spoiled to my first world problems; emerald green pool, broken ice-maker (now fixed), the hunt for the perfect curtains. I suffer so. I recently have read two books that, in a round about way, have made me more aware of these "first world" problems. It's a really round about way so stick with me. The books are Dig Deeper by Nigel Beynon and Andrew Sach, and God's Big Picture by Vaughn Roberts. Both discuss the theme of the Bible, but in different ways. Roberts traces the story line of the Bible, it's meta narrative, while Benyon and Sach outline their way to "dig deeper" into scripture. In turn, I now read the Bible with greater observation and thought than before.
For instance, water. It's a constant theme throughout the Bible and I began to wonder why. I did not do exhaustive research, but simply read the commentary in my Bible and happened, (or predestined?), to hear a few sermons and lectures that gave me more information about water in Biblical times. Did you know that having fresh water was one of the most important elements of survival in Biblical times? Seriously. Notice that all first civilizations and their great cities are located near water, fresh water and ports. Nomadic tribes moved to find fresh water. One of the greatest accomplishments of the Roman Empire was the construction of massive aqueducts that would transport fresh water. So it makes sense that when God wants to stress how much we need him, he calls himself living water. Let's take a look...
"The Lord is the fountain of living water." Jeremiah 17:13
And the famous 'woman at the well' passage, "Jesus said to her, "Every one who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." John 4:13-14
"On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water." John 7:37-38
And God knows that we try and quench our eternal thirst with countless other things in our life; we've been doing this since the beginning of time. In Jeremiah 2:13 he says, " they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water," In those days, if a community needed fresh water and did not have immediate access to any, they would build a cistern. Hewed out in rock, preferably, or dug in the ground. Inevitably the water would seep out and the people would have to continue to fill it up with more water; in futility.
Do you see what God is saying here? He is the fountain of living water. When we have him as our savior and he lives in us, then that living water is in us too. We need that water and we know we need it, even if we don't know exactly what that water is or where to get it. Hence the cistern hewing. And filling up and filling up and filling up, only to need to fill it up again. But if we have that living water, it flows constantly in us regardless of us because it is not of us, but of Him.
I am spoiled to my first world problems; emerald green pool, broken ice-maker (now fixed), the hunt for the perfect curtains. I suffer so. I recently have read two books that, in a round about way, have made me more aware of these "first world" problems. It's a really round about way so stick with me. The books are Dig Deeper by Nigel Beynon and Andrew Sach, and God's Big Picture by Vaughn Roberts. Both discuss the theme of the Bible, but in different ways. Roberts traces the story line of the Bible, it's meta narrative, while Benyon and Sach outline their way to "dig deeper" into scripture. In turn, I now read the Bible with greater observation and thought than before.
For instance, water. It's a constant theme throughout the Bible and I began to wonder why. I did not do exhaustive research, but simply read the commentary in my Bible and happened, (or predestined?), to hear a few sermons and lectures that gave me more information about water in Biblical times. Did you know that having fresh water was one of the most important elements of survival in Biblical times? Seriously. Notice that all first civilizations and their great cities are located near water, fresh water and ports. Nomadic tribes moved to find fresh water. One of the greatest accomplishments of the Roman Empire was the construction of massive aqueducts that would transport fresh water. So it makes sense that when God wants to stress how much we need him, he calls himself living water. Let's take a look...
"The Lord is the fountain of living water." Jeremiah 17:13
And the famous 'woman at the well' passage, "Jesus said to her, "Every one who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." John 4:13-14
"On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water." John 7:37-38
And God knows that we try and quench our eternal thirst with countless other things in our life; we've been doing this since the beginning of time. In Jeremiah 2:13 he says, " they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water," In those days, if a community needed fresh water and did not have immediate access to any, they would build a cistern. Hewed out in rock, preferably, or dug in the ground. Inevitably the water would seep out and the people would have to continue to fill it up with more water; in futility.
Do you see what God is saying here? He is the fountain of living water. When we have him as our savior and he lives in us, then that living water is in us too. We need that water and we know we need it, even if we don't know exactly what that water is or where to get it. Hence the cistern hewing. And filling up and filling up and filling up, only to need to fill it up again. But if we have that living water, it flows constantly in us regardless of us because it is not of us, but of Him.
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