Man I Am Thirsty; Living Water

April 27

Read: Exodus 15

Man I Am Thirsty; Living Water

“…and the LORD showed him a log, and he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet.” (v.25)

Think for a moment on the importance of water. It is easy for us to breeze through a bible passage totally disconnected from what it is saying. Can you imagine walking three days in the desert without water? How dire you would feel… and just plain thirsty? Your mouth dry… your head pounding… delirious in the heat. In this earthly realm, water is LIFE… and in the spiritual realm it is the SAME.

Jesus said to the Samaritan woman at the well:

“If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water…Everyone who drinks of this (earthly) 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 4:10,13,14)

And later on he declares to the crowds:

“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)

When we hear these words from Jesus and we see the account of God’s people in the wilderness - it becomes abundantly clear that God is committed to giving us the water we need to live. This is both a material truth and a spiritual truth. This is truly a “Kingdom Truth” because it spans both realms being brought together!

When life seems like a barren desert… like you have been walking for a proverbial three days in the rugged heat without water … God will bring you to water. (cf. Exodus 15) When the Israelites arrive, I am sure their spirits were lifted only to be crashed again when they discovered that the water was “bitter” and undrinkable. What a crushing blow! It is like being lost at sea and dying of dehydration while surrounded by water. How do God’s people respond in this moment? Some begin to grumble and complain. (v.24) Moses, well he “cried to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a log…” (v.5) Really? A log!?! I wonder how big it was? It wasn’t called a stick… it was called a “log”! That would be pretty heavy for someone to lift and throw into the water. In his tired and dehydrated state… Moses threw the log into the water and the water became “sweet”… it became drinkable.

You see, God turns bitter water into sweet when we cry out to him and obey what he tells us to do! God brings us what we need… tangibly… the real, actual, “water” that we need to live! This is why we pray, “give us this day our daily bread”. (cf. Matt. 6:11, etc.) God has the power to turn the bitter sweet. It doesn’t stop there though! The water from Sarah refreshes them enough to carry on. It holds them over until they arrive at Elim where there are 12 springs of water and 70 palm trees providing shade from the heat of the desert. God doesn’t just meet us in the bitter to make it sweet and give us what we need… he carry us to places of blessing and abundance as well. No need to throw a log at Elim… no need to “work for it”… God delivers it straight away at the next stop.

The spiritual truth of God as the “water provider” is highlighted in Jesus as he calls us to “come and drink the living water.” Everything that is true about the physical described above is true about the spiritual and emotional parts of who we are. When we feel spiritually “sun-scorched” and “parched” Jesus calls us to come to him and DRINK. We forget that Jesus has unlocked a spring of living water that wells up INSIDE OF US. This living water is present WITHIN us. We need only to turn inward, approach, and drink. We do this through prayer. We do this through reading the word. We do this through solitude. And we do this through obedience to do what God is asking us to… when we experience his super natural work in and through us it is like drinking that fresh living water.

God wants his people to understand that “I am the Lord, your HEALER”. (v.26) He is the one who brings us to what we need “in the desert”. The Lord is the one who makes the “bitter” into something “sweet”. Jesus is the one who dispenses living water to our souls! Drink up today my friends! If you are feeling “spiritually dehydrated” … come to Jesus and ask for the living water. If you are feeling burnt, sun-smacked, parched and hot… cry out to the Lord like Moses! (Don’t grumble and complain like the people.) The Lord will bring you what you need… he will carry you to Elim! He will give you what you need for your journey in the wilderness. Love you guys. - JDP