Water

A man can live up to sixty days without food, but only a few days without water and only a few minutes without air.  Water is, in and of itself, an interesting element.  Two parts unstable (explosive) hydrogen and one part combustion-accelerating oxygen, it would seem to make a volatile mix, but God created water in such a way that it is one of the most stable elements on earth.  The oceans are filled with it, rivers and streams flow with it, fountains of it bubble out of the ground, both hot and cold.  It can be pure or poisonous, clear or murky, and a person can drown in a matter of minutes if he or she is submerged in it.  Nobody but God Himself has ever been able to walk on it.  John the Baptist immersed Jesus in it and those of us who believe are commanded to follow our Lord in baptism by immersion in water.

  It's certainly one of the most plentiful substances on earth.  And since Jesus holds everything in place by His infinite, inexhaustible power (Colossians 1:17), all He has to do in order to destroy the earth by fire is to remove His sustaining hand from the mix of hydrogen and oxygen we call water.  The earth would instantly dissolve in a nuclear fireball of global proportions, and we're told in Peter's epistle that this sin-scorched planet is headed for just that.

 "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up."  II Peter 3:10

From the very beginning, water appears to have been the most pivotal element in the creation of the earth.

 "And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters."        Genesis 1:2

 "…by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water.."      II Peter 3:5b

 There was a thick layer of superheated water trapped beneath the surface of the earth, water above the earth that shielded this planet from the harmful ultraviolet rays of the sun (Genesis 1:6-7). The earth was surrounded by a firmament that separated the waters above from the waters below and the entire globe was a perfect paradise. Dinosaur remains have been found in the polar regions, proving that it was once warm there.  In the days before the Genesis Flood there was no rain, but a mist of water from the earth that nourished the plants (Genesis 2:6), along with the prodigious amounts of pure water that flowed from God's home on earth, the Garden of Eden:

 "And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads."      Genesis 2:10

 These "four heads" were four rivers that flowed out to all parts of the antediluvian continent, which was apparently all in one piece (Genesis 1:9) before God opened the fountains of the deep and released the water above the firmament, snuffing out all land-dwelling life on earth.  All life, that is, except Noah, his family, and the animals on his ark.  Another interesting fact is that the water God used to destroy the rest of mankind actually saved those on Noah's ark according to I Peter 3:20.

 God gave Moses power to poison the waters of Egypt as a plague Exodus 7:17 literally turning them to blood. The Two Witnesses of Revelation will be empowered by God to do the same thing all over the planet (Revelation 11:6).  And everybody remembers how God used the waters of the Red Sea to destroy Pharaoh and his army as they pursued the Israelites. But consider this: While it may be figurative language, it's interesting to note that in Revelation 12 as the remnant of Israel leaves Jerusalem to escape the persecution of the future Antichrist, the "dragon" opens his mouth and pours out a great flood of water in an attempt to drown the fleeing Israelis in much the same way God swept Pharaoh's satanic army away, but God once again protects His elect.  The earth splits open and the flood from the dragon's mouth is swallowed before it can harm the Jews.

 Even more interesting is the fact that pure, life-giving water seems always to be flowing from God to men.  By God's command, Moses let the Israelites into a wilderness where they had to depend totally on His provision for water.  When the water was bitter at Marah, He purified it.  When there was no water, He had Moses bring it forth from dry rocks.  We all depend on God for our water, whether we realize it or not, and the whole planet would be nothing more than a dry and lifeless rock like the moon without God's provision. God told Jeremiah that the people of Israel had

"…forsaken Me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water…"  (Jeremiah 2:13) 
 

Men are still doing that today.  There is no real life apart from the living water from the throne of God.

   In Isaiah, God gave Isaiah a prophetic picture of the earth as it will be during the millennial reign of Christ, and one manifestation of God's blessing will be "rivers in the desert" (Isaiah 43:19-20).  Where will these rivers come from?  Where will they originate? 

 "And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be. And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one."       Zechariah 14:8-9

 After the glorious consummation of history, when evil has been abolished and God brings forth a new heaven and a new earth (Revelation 21:1), God will once again take up physical residence on the earth, this time in the enormous New Jerusalem:

 "And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away."                  Revelation 21:2-4

  In Revelation 21:6, Jesus names Himself as Alpha and Omega and promises at that point to give "the water of life" freely to anyone who thirsts.  This brings to mind His meeting with the woman at the well near Samaria in John chapter 4 where Jesus told 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."                                   John 4:10b           

In Revelation 22:1-2, we read:

 "And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations."

Remember how the water flowed out of God's home in Eden to water the pre-flood world?   The water described in the passage above will do the same thing when God finally brings the earth full circle and lives here again.  Crystal clear water will flow in an inexhaustible supply and water the entire earth.  Furthermore, the Tree of Life which grew so bountifully in God's garden of Eden will grow on both sides of a mighty river that flows all over a planet that has no sea, only a global paradise continent where there will be no war, no disease, no bloodshed, and no death. There will be no painful goodbyes, no separation from those we love.  Best of all, there will be no evil and no devil.  It's all really hard to comprehend, but God's promises are true, and His living water  plays an all-important part.

So what does all this mean to us in this day and age? As we believers live from day to day and our flesh strives against the Holy Spirit of Christ who lives within us (Galatians 5:17), we need to especially heed the words of James, where he writes:

 "Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be. Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?"     James 3:10-11

 Notice James compares our words to water. All the water that comes from the inner dwelling of God's spirit will be sweet.  And once again, Jesus said we will either be justified or condemned by our words and that men shall give account for every careless word they utter (Matthew 12:36-37).

 "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. He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (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.)"      John 7:37-39

 The Holy Spirit is available to any and all who come to Jesus and receive the "living water" He has to offer.

   And if we obey His Word, crucifying our flesh with its passions and desires, He will sanctify us and use us to bring others to Himself, thus glorifying him and reducing the future population of hell, where there is no water, living or otherwise.   He has an inexhaustible supply of living water available to those who thirst after righteousness (Matthew 5:6).  

Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.  Matthew 5:6 (KJV)

Self-examination:
 

Do you and I truly  thirst after righteousness?

     R.W.M.