The
Bible contains motifs and symbols that help to tell the story and to remember
the story.
Today,
I want to look at: WATER
You
can use water to tell the story of God.
In
the beginning, God made water (Gen 1:2). But God didn't want only water. From
the beginning, we see God's desire to create distinction and categories even in
the way He made and organized water. First, He separated the water and placed
some above and some below (Gen 1:6-7). He
then again desired to separate the water left below by creating land (Gen 1:9).
So from the very beginning, what we learn even from looking just at water is
that God likes distinctions. He likes things organized and creates categories
out of chaos and distinctions out of disorder (Isaiah 5:20)
When
the people God made plunged themselves into sin, He promised to plunge that
unrepentant world back under water (Gen 6:17). God used a flood to wash away
the world with the exception of Noah and those he assembled onto God's ark (gen
7:7).
God uses
water to bring life and an agrarian society routinely felt the weight of being
without life-giving water. God withheld the water above from the world below (1
Kings 17:1). The separation of waters left those below thirsty.
Jesus
said that those who hunger and thirst for righteousness would be satisfied
(Matt 5:6). Only those who recognize that they are dry beg for water from
above. Those who know that know well exists deep down inside are positioned
best to beg for free water to rain down from above.
Jesus
declared Himself to be a well of living water (John 4:10, 7:37-39) He promised
that He possessed in Himself an eternal stream of life that would fill up those
who confess their thirst without Him. And the living water was led to the
deathly hill after sweating profusely the night before (Luke 22:44). His cross
was covered in sweat, blood and tears (Matt 27:46) and after He gave up His
spirit after completing the work God gave Him to do, His lifeless body poured
forth water (John 19:34) The water and the blood give witness that Jesus Christ
was God's accepted sacrificed on our behalf (1 John 5:6).
And
those who confess that Jesus is Lord and believe in their hearts that God
raised Him from the dead, immerse themselves in Him and symbolically show this
internal immersion by being physically immersed in water (Matt 28:18-20). They
go down into the water and come up out of the water (Acts 8:39) just as Jesus
went up on to the cross, went down into the grave and rose up from it on the
third day. But some, wash their hands of Jesus altogether (Matt 27:24). How we
respond to Jesus' life is described in terms of water: immersion into Him by
means of it and separation from Him by means of it.
And
in the end, a river of life will feed and flow through the new earth providing
life and livelihood to all who profess that life is found only in the person
and work of God's only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. (Rev 22:1-2)
There
is more, of course, but that is a Cook's Tour of the Gospel of Jesus Christ
according to: WATER
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