Water is one of the most powerful images in all of Scripture. From the rivers of Eden to the living water Jesus offered the woman at the well, God uses water to speak of something deeper — life, renewal, and the presence of God Himself. This message explores the Hebrew concept of mayim chayim, living water, and what it reveals about what God is offering us.
We saw this pattern again in the prophets where God prophesied that He will make the fruitful land like a wilderness or desert but then the voice of one crying (As in WORDS proceeding from a mouth) will come from the wilderness preparing the way for the glory of THE LORD to be revealed, that is of course talking about John the Baptist and Jesus Christ leading to the greatest renewal, rejuvenation and salvation event which is Christ’s death and resurrection as the First of the First Fruits .
And then we saw that even personally our conversation process repeats this wilderness cycle- we know we have sinned and have earned only death that we are the living dead, but we hear, obey and believe the WORD that He is our savior and then we are personally renewed, rejuvenated brought back to life so to speak because our God is “the God of the dead but of the living” (Luke 20:38).
When I think about the wilderness and this renewal process the scripture that first leaps to mind is
Isa 35:1 — The wilderness and the wasteland shall be glad for them, And the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose;
Isa 35:2 — It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice, Even with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, The excellence of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the LORD, The excellency of our God.
It goes on and talks about how God will strengthen the weak, tells the fearful to be strong and not fear, the blind will see, the deaf will hear, the lame shall not just walk but will leap and those who can’t talk will not just talk but sing. What a time of renewal and rejuvenation and If you drop down to verse 10 we see how this ends – salvation.
Isa 35:10 — And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, And come to Zion with singing, With everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness, And sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
This similar to the time shown in Revelations when God wipes away every tear, with no death and no sorrow.
But let’s back up a few verses because God states plainly how this transition from wilderness, wasteland and desert to a land that blossoms and rejoices and exceeds the glory of Lebanon.
Isa 35:6 — Then the lame shall leap like a deer, And the tongue of the dumb sing. For waters shall burst forth in the wilderness, And streams in the desert.
Isa 35:7 — The parched ground shall become a pool, And the thirsty land springs of water; In the habitation of jackals, where each lay, There shall be grass with reeds and rushes.
From a physical perspective the only way to rejuvenate a desert, a wasteland or the types of wilderness the land of Israel has is by water flowing abundantly. In Israel, this was especially true as there was not an abundance of rain or sources of water. They needed the morning dew, Hezekiah built his tunnel in Jerusalem to protect their water supply in case of invasions, they needed rain in due season. And for much of the country there was a relatively long dry season. We even know of the Children of Israel and how many times the last faith in God during their 40 years of wondering that He would let them die of thirst but we know physically God, ensured that Israel did not thirst those 40 years in the wilderness.
Isa 48:21 — And they did not thirst When He led them through the deserts; He caused the waters to flow from the rock for them; He also split the rock, and the waters gushed out.
God caused, in a desert with little water, and what little water was there most of it was bitter or not fit for consumption, clean flowing water to gush out enough that millions of people and sheep and cattle were able to drink and not thirst. You stop to think about how much water would be needed. Millions of people and animals day after day after day. Being in the desert, God was their only source of water. There is a deep spiritual lesson there and the prophet Jeremiah tells us how important this lesson is for us. Let’s turn to Jeremiah 2.
Jer 2:1 — Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
Jer 2:2 — “Go and cry in the hearing of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD: “I remember you, The kindness of your youth, The love of your betrothal, When you went after Me in the wilderness, In a land not sown.
Jer 2:3 — Israel was holiness to the LORD, The firstfruits of His increase. All that devour him will offend; Disaster will come upon them,” says the LORD.’ “
Jer 2:4 — Hear the word of the LORD, O house of Jacob and all the families of the house of Israel.
Jer 2:5 — Thus says the LORD: “What injustice have your fathers found in Me, That they have gone far from Me, Have followed idols, And have become idolaters?
Jer 2:6 — Neither did they say, ‘Where is the LORD, Who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, Who led us through the wilderness, Through a land of deserts and pits, Through a land of drought and the shadow of death, Through a land that no one crossed And where no one dwelt?’
Jer 2:7 — I brought you into a bountiful country, To eat its fruit and its goodness. But when you entered, you defiled My land And made My heritage an abomination.
Jer 2:8 — The priests did not say, ‘Where is the LORD?’ And those who handle the law did not know Me; The rulers also transgressed against Me; The prophets prophesied by Baal, And walked after things that do not profit.
Jer 2:9 — “Therefore I will yet bring charges against you,” says the LORD, “And against your children’s children I will bring charges.
Jer 2:10 — For pass beyond the coasts of Cyprus and see, Send to Kedar and consider diligently, And see if there has been such a thing.
Jer 2:11 — Has a nation changed its gods, Which are not gods? But My people have changed their Glory For what does not profit.
Jer 2:12 — Be astonished, O heavens, at this, And be horribly afraid; Be very desolate,” says the LORD.
Jer 2:13 — “For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, And hewn themselves cisterns—broken cisterns that can hold no water.
Let’s pause here as The LORD says something very important. Out of all the things we know the Children of Israel did and we know all they did there were two evils that they did.
1) Forsook God – the fountain of living water but wait didn’t Christ say He was the fountain we will look into this more.
2) Hewn themselves cisterns and broken cisterns at that. Cisterns that could not hold water. What is a Cistern?
A cistern is essentially a pit that was dug to hold water. Early ones were hewn in rock or dug in clay soil so it would hold water but later ones were plastered so that they could hold water longer and then they cracked they could be repaired. Typically it held rain water and would be covered so people or animals wouldn’t fall into it.
Again think about from a human perspective. You had a have a cistern because you needed a way to store water especially in that environment.
Water is a critical substance for life- human or plant life. Per the U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) Water Science School about 60% of the human body is water, and we can go very little time without water a few days at most and it is a relatively low percentage of water we lose before serious issues start to appear. From a BBC article from October 2020 called Why We Can’t Survive without water it says there are three stages of dehydration stage 1 is just 2% water loss and is when thirst starts to kick in and the body starts trying to conserves water, stage 2 is at just 4% blood pressure drops and fainting can occur, (remember ~60% of your body is water and losing just 4% can have serious consequences, and then stage 3 occurs at about 7% and this is when organ damage starts to occur. And of course our body is constantly losing water through, sweat, tears, spit and urination so we have to constantly be replenishing.
So during the dry season when it wasn’t raining you needed a cistern so you could always have water. So why would God hold that against Judah as one of the TWO GREAT EVILS. Just like Noah and Moses being putt in a box with no way to steer themselves to safety or us not wanting to be in the wilderness but in the comfort of what we had before the wilderness cycle here again with human reasoning there is no reason to not have a cistern. But to God this was a great evil. Yes it is that Judah didn’t have faith in God but even more they replaced what God had promised and shown He could deliver with something inferior.
You see cisterns had two major flaws compared to natural springs
1) They were stagnate. Now I don’t know if you have ever drank stagnate water but if you haven’t just do a test. Take a glass of water and leave it out on the counter for a day or so. Then come back to it and taste it compared to a glass of water that you have freshly poured. There is a big difference, now imagine that water had sat for months. It would be warm, stale, more likely to contain contaminates compared to what God was offering which was cool, clean, fresh. I don’t know if you have ever drank from a cool mountain stream but after a long day walking or hiking there is nothing to compare how much it refreshes and revitalizes you. Especially on a hot day that stream is still going to be 20, 30, maybe 40 degrees cooler then the outside temperature and there is not much that can cool you down faster and compare that to old, stale, lukewarm water why would anyone pick the cistern.
2) And this might be even worse than the first one is that it is limited. You can only dig a cistern so big and depending on how much rain came it will only fill it up so fast and when you are talking all the water you have for yourself, your animals, any washing and plants, whatever you needed it for, through a long hot dry period you will have to conserve it. But if you have a natural fountain of water it is constantly flowing. We have a little stream near our house and even when it is seemingly not flowing very much through the summer there are thousands of gallons of water flowing every hour. Compared to a cistern it is a limitless amount.
So not only did Judah not have faith in The Lord even after He caused gushing water to come from rocks during the wilderness wonderings of the Israelites but they traded it in so something that was inferior and severely limited. And isn’t that what we can do spiritually? Trade God’s limitless living water for something stale, lukewarm and severely limited.
Further on in Jeremiah, God makes plan what these broken cisterns were
Jer 17:1 — “The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron; With the point of a diamond it is engraved On the tablet of their heart, And on the horns of your altars,
Jer 17:2 — While their children remember Their altars and their wooden images By the green trees on the high hills.
Jer 17:3 — O My mountain in the field, I will give as plunder your wealth, all your treasures, And your high places of sin within all your borders.
Jer 17:4 — And you, even yourself, Shall let go of your heritage which I gave you; And I will cause you to serve your enemies In the land which you do not know; For you have kindled a fire in My anger which shall burn forever.”
Jer 17:5 — Thus says the LORD: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man And makes flesh his strength, Whose heart departs from the LORD.
Jer 17:6 — For he shall be like a shrub in the desert, And shall not see when good comes, But shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, In a salt land which is not inhabited.
Jer 17:7 — “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, And whose hope is the LORD.
Jer 17:8 — For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, Which spreads out its roots by the river, And will not fear when heat comes; But its leaf will be green, And will not be anxious in the year of drought, Nor will cease from yielding fruit.
Jer 17:9 — “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?
Jer 17:10 — I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give every man according to his ways, According to the fruit of his doings.
Jer 17:11 — “As a partridge that broods but does not hatch, So is he who gets riches, but not by right; It will leave him in the midst of his days, And at his end he will be a fool.”
Jer 17:12 — A glorious high throne from the beginning Is the place of our sanctuary.
Jer 17:13 — O LORD, the hope of Israel, All who forsake You shall be ashamed. “Those who depart from Me Shall be written in the earth, Because they have forsaken the LORD, The fountain of living waters.”
That cistern, it is sin, it is serving other God’s, it is trusting in yourself or other men to make you strong but what does that all come down to? A deceitful heart, one that is desperately wicked because that is the fruit that was being borne. What do we know in other place that heart is called. A heart of stone. Now you might say thanks CJ but you are preaching to the wrong people we have hearts of flesh. God gave us those when He gave us His Holy Spirit. But who is God through Jerimiah talking to? Not those who never had a heart of flesh, no, no, He is talking to me, He is talking to you. Why did you FORSAKE THE LORD the fountain of living water?
Just like Judah you had it, you saw what I did, I gave it to you, and gave it to you and gave it to you even when you didn’t have faith but it should have built your faith and then even after all of that you forsook this perfect limitless fountain of living water, that was able to turn your heart of stone, a heart that was only leading to your death, to a heart of flesh and then you cast it away not just for another heart of stone but a heart that was deceitful and not just wicked but desperately wicked. A limited inferior heart that will lead to your death from which you were just saved, just like that broken cistern.
This is just God using different metaphors for the same warning. But it is a warning for me, it is a warning for you to turn back to the fountains of living waters.
And if we won’t turn to and hold tight to the fountain of living waters that God promises He will find those who will.
We know in the book of Revelations that a great multitude clothed in white robes its says will come up before the throne and before the Lamb knowing from whom salvation comes from and then it says
Rev 7:15 — Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple. And He who sits on the throne will dwell among them.
Rev 7:16 — They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any heat;
Rev 7:17 — for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
And then if the great multitude was not enough He will bring the rest of mankind through to that time when the Father will dwell with His Son and all mankind and it says at the end of the book that this fountain of living water proceed from the throne of God and Christ and will cause the healing of the whole world
Rev 22:1 — And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb.
Rev 22:2 — In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
But what is the Living Water?
Christ spoke clearly what the Living Waters are.
Joh 7:37 — On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.
Joh 7:38 — He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”
Joh 7:39 — But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
Again confirming the warning we read in Jeremiah is for those who have the Spirit of God indwelling in us.
Let us turn to one more important set of scriptures about living waters before we close.
This is the story of Christ at the well with the Sarmatian woman. This is John 4:5-45.
I want to cover the story quickly to make one important point about what a different having this fountain of living water can make in us doing the work God has given us.
The basic story is that Christ needed to go through Samaria and He stops at a well that had been build by Jacob. So it was an ancient well. Christ sees a woman and asks her for a drink, a simple request that turns into a powerful witness.
In verses 10 and 14 Christ says if only she knew who He was and would ask He would give these fountains of living waters we have been talking about. She not knowing the spiritual meaning is intrigued and asks for these waters. I have always wondered if Christ had said “I can give you my Holy Spirit” would she had been interested. But she was interested in not having to draw water from the well and never being thirsty again, that drew her interest which is always a good reminder of Christ as the master teacher often didn’t go head long in a doctrinal dissertation but appealed to what people knew they needed food, water, health and then brought them along.
Anyway how the story ends is that after a long conversation she now understand who Christ is and believes, goes back convinces many others to come and hear for themselves and Christ stays for two more days and it says many more believed because they heard Christ directly:
Joh 4:42 — Then they said to the woman, “Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.”
She became a powerful witness for Christ but she was an unlikely one at best. What do we know about her:
1) She was a Samaritan which was thought of as lowly and while she was around other Samaritans she had to convince them of Christ who was a Jew and the Jews and Samaritan were enemies
2) She was a woman and we know how woman were viewed at this time.
3) She had had 5 husbands which
4) She lived with one who was not her husband
She was likely an outcast in society. This is hinted at in the beginning of the story where it says that it was the sixth hour when Christ came. The sixth hour for the Jews was noon. So at the heat of the day this lady was coming to get water. Why would that be? If you were going to walk to get water when would you normally do it? Probably early morning and late afternoon? It would not be as hot and you would want water on hand during the heat of the day not having to go walk for it and carry back a heavy jar. So why was she likely going during this time? Because no one else was. She would not have to be part of the gossip and activity when most of the other women came. We can see this in the fact that it appears no one else is around. So here a complete outcast from society who seemly avoided social situations with others now draws a crowd to Christ.
But what do we know she thirsted for that living water, and even before she fully understood what she thirsted for it changed her, powerfully and because of her many believed in Christ. That is the power of thirsting for the fountains of living water that Christ offers.
Brethren thirst for the fountains of living waters that Christ died for so that you may have them for all eternity, as it says “As the deer pants for the water brooks, So pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. (Psa 42:1-2)”