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CHAPTER 10
 

Water and Spiritual Life:
Hydraulics or Hell

 

 

To be sure, hydraulics may be defined as the study of water or other fluids in terms of mechanical or engineering applications, but what is imagery for ? It is to disperse understanding by means of pictures, implicit or even explicit comparisons, awakening the mind, stirring the heart to perception.

The properties of hell also deserve consideration. They include the experience of anguish and guilt without the glory of its pardon freely, the knowledge of rebellion and its outcome, the folly of rejecting one's Father, of having despised His love, forfeiting by mere arbitrary will, His mercy, and living in the midst of sin, or rather dying with it, in a death the redemption of which is foreclosed.

Admittedly, there is a tang to this eternal destruction: processive time as we know it  is an invention (Romans 8:29ff.), a fact the more obvious when you consider that the Creator has no limits, such as awaiting outcomes, but has explicitly constructed a time-frame which has its various assembled properties, from the rigour of which in heaven we are excluded, for there is no more suffering. In hell, it may well be and appears all but certain to be a time relevant to the event. The pang of an eternal anguish and the omission of mere obliteration however, are among its properties.

It is, hell, not a place in which the figure of water would appear fitting imagery.

In life, however, on the other hand, spiritual life, water is a most salutary and apt symbol. Water is to be found when one is thirsty, and one should not substitute for it mere imaginary anodynes to thirst, for its sating!

Water is freely rained on the earth, and freely given to man, but it requires an orifice for its obtaining, and an acceptance; and that entry point, it is Christ. It is from that we find it, for "he who believes in Me, as the scripture has said, out of his midst shall come rivers of living water." It is not even limited to the immediate use of the applicant, but is resurgent with relief on many sides, through the gospel, which directs to the orifice, and protects from confusion in so seeking.

Water is used often in the Bible for the signification of

  • refreshing, scouring, surging beauty of life,
  • quiet containment of its properties in felicity and order,
  • perspicuous pleasantness of maintenance in governed ways,
  • freedom of spiritual life in its origin, its purity in source and resource,
  • the onset of the Gospel moving in surging splendour to terrains both numerous and blessed,
  • the welling up of eternal life,
  • this free from the governing clangors of man, direct from God, for God and used by God,
  • the readability of a life in Christ, in affecting others and bringing them to the thirst quenching power of the Saviour; and
  • the gift of the vitality of spiritual life itself coming from the sacrifice of Christ and reaching whom it will reach.


In such varied phases,  we see it in Ezekiel 47, Isaiah 48:16-19 with Ezekiel 20:45ff., Psalm 1, Jeremiah 2:13, 17:13, 18:14, John 4:14, 7:37-38, Revelation 22.

We shall plan now to study something of these, so that the two relevant features for our purpose may appear: the consistency and persistence of the Biblical concepts, their applicability and veridical verifications in life with their implications, and the verifiability of these also. In passing, we shall have the pleasure of observing something of the scenic splendour of the spiritual life in Christ, which is its own reward, He Himself being the artistic source of mountains and stars, oceans and gravity, flower and skyscape, the governor of space and the creator of life, as God the word, expression of the Father, express in His holy work. Implementing the designs of wonder and executing the ways of life, of which His redemption is chief, being the most costly and the most evocative in personal testimony of His heart, He is His own reward (cf. Genesis 15:1).

 

Ezekiel 47, Psalm 1

As we have surveyed this scene before, we shall start with an extract from Biblical Blessings
Ch. 5, to which the reader may wish to turn for the surrounding flesh of the presentation. The extract is slightly adapted for the present use.
 

Extract:

THE RIVER OF LIFE FROM THE TEMPLE ITSELF

 

This vision is multi-faceted, noble and intense. It fulfils in future beauty the initial intensity of Chapters 1-10, where judgment was so closely related. Now glory is not only in the holiness of the Lord, but spread abroad, glory for judgment, beauty for ashes (Isaiah 61:1-3).

Now we turn to Ezekiel 47, this topographical, effluvial, this riverside, piscine, this fishing extravaganza, as fluent as a butterfly, as deep as the sea, as down-to-earth as wading, as meaningful as radium, with spiritual energy speeding from its words, as if each particle were radio-active.

The river of water, as Christ so readily applied it, is of course the Spirit (cf. Isaiah 12), which flows FROM the Lord (John 15:26). HE proceeds from the Father and is sent by the SON. Hence it is from the temple of glory that the stream issues (v.1); but alike, it flows from under the right side of the temple, south of the altar, hence encompassing its goings the sacrificial system, the work of the Lord (Isaiah 53, Daniel 9, Zechariah 12-14, Psalm 2,40). Its stream is first found to touch, then to move upon one, then to rise to make significant impact at the legs, the waist, then to require that one move with it. Not lava from a destructive volcanic explosion, does it come, rising and fatally overcoming; but water from the place of holiness and the site of sacrifice, does it speed, in its healing work.

Then this blessed water is found to become an engulfing reality in the power of which one moves, for it is NOT BY MIGHT NOR BY POWER BUT BY MY SPIRIT, says the LORD (Zechariah 4:6), and we are dealing with what in the Temple, is the STONE on which shall be engraved the sins of the penitent, so that the iniquity of the land shall be removed in one day (Zechariah 3:9).

Thus is the river depicted in Ezekiel 47:1-5: it is a river in which "ONE MUST SWIM". Its power and fulness is such that it is not an influence; it becomes one's environment, ennobling, enabling, showing direction and carrying one, for Him from whom it comes.

The PERSONAL EQUATION being settled, that one forsakes all that one has if one is to be a disciple of the Lord (Luke 14:27ff.), then we find the FUNCTIONAL WORK. First the water flows to the sea, moving throughout the territory of the earth on its way. It is not captured, but free; but as it moves freely, so it is the dynamic and wonderful agency which enlightens, enlivens. To revert directly to the figure: there are vitalised beings ("every living thing, that moves, wherever the rivers go, will live" - v.9); but there are obstreperous, soggy and self-occupied marshy places (v.11), where despite the wonders of the waters, life is not found.

Indeed, "its swamps and its marshes will not be healed; they will be given over to salt"
(v. 11). Otherwise, its waters bring healing (v.8), even to all peoples who RECEIVE what it brings, straight from the altar, which typifies Jesus Christ and Him crucified, yes, rather risen.

That is the FIRST function, to heal, to bring vitality, life more abundantly. The SECOND function, or work of the river is to be instrumental for the fishermen, from its depths and with its currents bringing up the fish who, being people in reality in this work of healing, are moved by the Spirit, who convicts them (John 16:8-13) of sin, righteousness and judgment. AS TO THE FISH - that is the people, they will be "exceedingly many" (v.10), and of the same kinds as in the Mediterranean, that is, of a cosmopolitan character (Psalm 117:1-2, 72:17, 82:8, 86:9, 2:10-12, Jeremiah 16:19, Isaiah 49:6). There are no limits of nationality or type, provided they come.

The trees that grow on the banks of the river (v.12) are like those of Psalm 1, and resemble the plants of Jeremiah 17:5-8, planted flourishing and exuberant, abundant with life by the sides of the river (Isaiah 61:3). THESE trees of Isaiah, the PLANTING OF THE LORD, or more precisely these plants of Jeremiah: they do NOT CEASE FROM BEARING FRUIT! Abide in Me, said Christ, and I in you, and the same will bear much fruit! (John 15). As in Psalm 1, moreover, the leaves of these trees of Ezekiel 47, they do not wither, just as their fruit does not fail.

In fact, they bear every month "BECAUSE" the water flows from the sanctuary, that is from the Christ whom the Temple in such numerous ways typified, and who indeed, as in Isaiah 22, took all the paraphernalia of His Father's house, and bearing it, fell from His nail, where He was "hung". As to that: it was in accord with this divesting grace of poverty of spirit, whereby He bought us who believe, with His own death. As for these fruits, moreover, we read that their trees have leaves that act like medicine, as does a merry heart, as do the lives and graces of those who loving the Lord, love one another, and as does, above all, the presence of the Lord through and in His people, act.

Such is the last, vast vision of Ezekiel, in some of its more striking features, for which we have supplied key, a key which is notably a skeleton key which alike opens many another room in the word of God.

A Personal Note

The blessing ? It is the knowledge that there is a path for blessing, service, serenity and entire dedication to God. It is more than ideal, may be expressed in visions, but involves practical action and intense, intimate knowledge of God Himself, for the temple had its patterns and the Christ of whom the prophets spoke so volubly, has His person whom one can know, should know, and indeed, without the knowledge of Him, one is left in marshy places. A prince and priest (Zechariah 6:12-13), He avoids the sometimes austerely unrealistic feeling of some officials, being both spiritual and personal to the most extreme degree. His power comes from the altar which is fulfilled in Calvary; His cooling and refreshing from the same source, for there the transaction is accomplished which has changed the whole world, and which will be the dividing line in eternity. HE HAS DONE IT, and from Him come the waters which heal; and from Him, far from Him, are the marshy places, the soggy spirits which insist on death as if it were the supreme and sublime prerogative of the human race.

End of Extract.

 

The water in this vision comes from the altar at the temple. The temple was to be ONE PLACE only (cf. SMR pp. 823, Deuteronomy 12:5-11) , and it was thus the exemplar and symbol, for the ONE PLACE where Christ came to die, that we might live. From this SOURCE, comes the VITALITY which is the EXPRESSION of the reality of the water which gives life.

What then in life is the nature of this vitality which the water conveys to the land, anointing the trees on the banks with felicitous botanical strength and security ? It is something which is fresh, from the altar; miraculous, coming unexpected, freely; strong, penetrating in its hydraulic flow along courses to the recipients; purifying, cleansing and washing, though not lingering in the marshes which are already so spiritually compromised (as if the conscience were so seared with a hot iron that the application of water would merely make a soggy mess!). It comes surging with a force which is yet restrained, and not volcanic or destructive.

This is a representation of spiritual life in its security, profundity, cleansing purity from the source which is nothing other than the shed blood of Christ, the given life, the ransoming atonement, the sacrificial splendour, the substitution of reality for symbol in the removal once and for all of animal sacrifice (Isaiah 53, 66, Hebrews 8-10) from the agenda, in making a full, free and sufficient sacrifice for man, as many as received Him.

Applied to the individual by the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:7-9. John 16:8-13, Titus 3:5ff., Ephesians 1:7ff., 13-14), this is no more a formality than is actually entering a room with an ocean view a mere formality, because the key which admitted you was a precise instrument.

If it were not precise, the door to all the glory would not open. Because it is precise, the gift of God, the entry is to a frankly exhilarating splendour, clad in humility, costed in blood.

Thus comes the strength, stability and beauty of the fruit-bearing trees (similar to the case in Psalm 1) which grow by the river, bearing those fruits in their season, static in foundation, lively in fabrication with results quietly accruing. That is the way with trees by the river, especially if they are well planted (as in Matthew 15:13), properly selected.

In Australia, one thinks naturally enough of the famed river gums, massive creations with glorious red wood, often whitish bark, with beautifully matching and somewhat contrasting brown, reddish streakings in the trunks, growing statuesque, unhurried, unharried in appearance, with massive roots spreading quietly to the absorption places for water.

Psalm 1 has it thus:

"He shall be like a tree
Planted  by the rivers of water,
That brings forth its fruit in its season,
Whose leaf also shall not wither:
And whatever he does shall prosper."


The ungodly are by comparison, conceived as wind-driven chaff; while the godly are KNOWN by the Lord!

The godly KNOW where they are, why they are, what their function is, the source of their strength, the nature of their design, their Designer (cf. SMR pp. 211, 251ff.), find His SPIRIT which is the reality symbolised by the water (John 7:37-38), and by Him, know the Lord for themselves. Hence they can simply grow as intended, without in the least losing the realities of difficulties, while being fully equipped for overcoming them, be they challenges or winds! Job is a superb example of this! (cf. SMR pp. 372ff.).

Despite these trials (I Peter 1:5-6), which test the faith and exhibit its structural reality, like a tree which stands in wind, because its roots are sure, well-grounded and founded, the God-planted tree (Matthew 15:13) knows in its internal depths, the keeping of its Lord and the power of its placement (John 15:7). It finds that its place is sure, its premises ordered, its relation to the water secure (Romans 8:29-39). Doctrine expresses it, life confesses it.

Returning then to the contents of the river of Ezekiel 47, we see that the fish are found by fishermen, and the waters are a base for them.  Features include these three.  First, the clear waters expose the fish (involving in spiritual reality, the conviction of sin, righteousness and judgment as in John 16:;7ff.). Secondly,  in the broader sense, the waters relate to the spiritual foundations of the earth (as in Genesis 1:2), the Spirit hovering as it were, over what had been formed, now alas deformed and needing to be 'caught' to be restored to the fashion intended (as in Ephesians 4:23-24). Thirdly, in the more precise sense, the waters act as the environment in which the fish are found (cf. Mark 1:17): that is, the people who will be moved to the Fisher's hand itself!

The environment IS spiritual, for the god of this world seeks to muddy the waters, some of which are left by the flow, being swamps. It is the waters of God which impact.  In the murky swamps however, some prefer to remain unredeemed, and queer indeed are the fish in these quarters. Many flee, but it is Christ who came to seek and to save what was lost! (Mark 2:8-17, Matthew 18:11, Luke 19:10), and many are enabled to be saved (Ephesians 2:1-12) by an act of sheer grace and intrusive mercy.
 
 

ISAIAH 48

Yet there is a cost for loss. The lost unfound, the unfound foundering, these are sad topics, but endemic in the Bible.

Thus in Isaiah 48 we see the foretaste of the Messiah, and in those terms (just as in Isaiah 7:1-14 with Isaiah 8:8), the water-based imagery of the cost of His loss through rejection.
 

  • “Come near to Me, hear this:


I have not spoken in secret from the beginning;
From the time that it was, I was there.
And now the Lord God and His Spirit
Have sent Me.
 

  • "Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer,


The Holy One of Israel:
'I am the Lord your God,
Who teaches you to profit,
Who leads you by the way you should go.

"Oh, that you had heeded My commandments!
Then your peace would have been like a river,
And your righteousness like the waves of the sea.
Your descendants also would have been like the sand,
And the offspring of your body like the grains of sand;
His name would not have been cut off
Nor destroyed from before Me.' ”


First you find the oft-repeated testimony of the Word of God. How often He has spoken and come to them, God the sent, so that  God the Sender is with Him (John 8:29, cf. Zechariah 12:10, 2:8), His Spirit indeed also being noted here in Isaiah, comprising together, One as the trinity. That clear, we look at the results of avoidance. There IS a way. There IS order, organisation, propriety, seemliness, spirituality, obedience, there is law, there is truth, there is guidance and there is its negation: "I am the Lord your God who teaches you to profit, who leads you in the way you should go."

  • There is also its negation, leading to grief of heart, personal pity and lament.
     

    "Oh, that you had heeded My commandments!

    THEN your peace would have been like a river ..."

     

The stately and well-defined traverse of this river would have been not merely an avenue for water, but a course for life, well-formed and carefully formulated. There should have been peace. The water of life would have been moving in loveliness from the Lord.

Not only so, but the righteousness, the rightness, the correctness, the assiduity of accuracy would have been there too. "Your righteousness would have been like the waves of the sea." These, if you watch, tend to cover the entire surface, here with a ripple, there with a cautious swell, here with a rolling minor surge, breaking into white splendour, there with massive breakers, thrusting their liveliness shoreward. What a cover is this which is so natural, so empowered, so proper and yet so individual in its mood, colour, picturing of action in all its particularity.

Nor is this all. The covering is not merely active, but PROVIDED. Thus we find in Isaiah this word also (43:3-8), as we turn back for the moment, from the oceanic to the riverside life:

"For I will pour water on him who is thirsty,
And floods on the dry ground;
I will pour My Spirit on your descendants,
And My blessing on your offspring;
They will spring up among the grass
Like willows by the watercourses.’
One will say, ‘I am the Lord’s’;
Another will call himself by the name of Jacob;
Another will write with his hand, ‘The Lord’s,’
And name himself by the name of Israel.

“Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel,
And his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts:
‘I am the First and I am the Last;
Besides Me there is no God.
And who can proclaim as I do?

"Then let him declare it and set it in order for Me,
Since I appointed the ancient people.
And the things that are coming and shall come,
Let them show these to them.
Do not fear, nor be afraid;
Have I not told you from that time, and declared it?
You are My witnesses.
Is there a God besides Me?
Indeed there is no other Rock;
I know not one.’ ”


Here we find

1) that the water is poured out by divine decision.

2) that it quenches (spiritual) thirst.

3) that it accompanied by blessing.

4) that it exhibits itself in exuberance and vitality.

5) that it is parallel to proclamation that one BELONGS to the Lord.

6) that it relates to God as the REDEEMER, who is the eternal God (as in Isaiah 53 with 43:10-11).

7) that this is the ONLY GOD there is.

8) that He attests Himself by unique predictions over historical time, embedded in the history of the race, always verified, never invalidated.

9) that these not only relate to the past, but to the future, at the time of speaking.

10) that He is the sole foundation and strength, security and profundity for His people, or for that matter, ANY people.


REDEMPTION is paramount, so that righteousness is imputed, the result of purchases IN righteousness of what is NOT intrinsically righteous. This is in turn COVENANTAL by divine decree, not by human invention or intention! (Isaiah 32:17, 53:5ff., 27:5), the last reading thus:

"Or let him take hold of My strength,
That he may make peace with Me,
and he shall make peace with Me."

 

By faith, one must close with the covenant, which IS Christ (Isaiah 42:6, 49:6, Matthew 26:28).

In Isaiah 54:17, we find the honourable protection of the Lord, which this author has found so often and sometimes most dramatically, associated with this fact, that "their righteousness is of Me" (as in Isaiah 53:5-6).

  • " 'No weapon formed against you shall prosper,


And every tongue which rises against you in judgment
You shall condemn.
This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord,
And their righteousness is from Me,'
Says the Lord."

 

So do we conclude our visit to Isaiah 48:16ff., finding available for all,  the righteousness like the waves of the sea, the peace like a river, "for He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, to as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity, and He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father" - Ephesians 2:14-18.

This it is which fundamentally separates the Jew from the Palestinian, speaking in broad terms (for some of each would be Christians at this time, though a relatively small percentage): united in being far from God, they are also separate from one another.

NEITHER has found the peace like a river, neither dwelling in that cool and refreshing stream of divine pity and provision, abundantly cherishing the spirit and restoring the heart: for each is caught if not in unbelief of all religion,  then in disbelief in Christ.

  • The one is traditionally right, but culturally wrong; and

 

  • the other is traditionally and culturally wrong, and seeking to disperse the other, for the Arab is not merely Palestinian, but with whatever other elements, mighty in jihad rugged ruthlessness towards human life.

 

It is these things which are abounding in surrounding nations, bordering or close to Israel, a fact the Press all but always ignores, one rightly expressed by an official Jewish figure in this country some years ago. Indeed, this passionate and murderous fervour has so possessed now, so many Islamic people that one of them, wielding al Qaeda,  is threatening the USA as if it were religiously proper to do so!

The flame grows and is being thrown, spread by the angry wind of vain religion, answerable to what is not, but to answer to Him who is (cf. More Marvels Ch. 4), whose word is truth, verified and alone valid from God to man (cf. TMR Ch. 5, Repent or Perish Ch.  2, SMR Chs. 1, 10).

To this mêlée of inapposite opposites in the Middle East, peace comes like a whirlwind, and rivers like torrential rain and floods that destroy.

There IS no peace when that which is historically right, but delinquent from its very heart, meets that which is wrong from the start, and they war as if there were no peace. It is not to be found in the UN, that sacrilegious institution which affirms morals in delinquent indifference to the morality of God Himself in the Bible, and this without ground or reason; nor it delivered by mere force of arms. Arms do not create truth!

It is to be found in the river of contented progress according to divine design, for the Jew in his place, and the Gentile in his; and it is to be found in reconciliation through repentance and faith, not through the provision of pre-determined thoughts of man, as if he were God Himself! Alas many will suffer before these things which do not wait on man to be true, are realised!

However, the Christian, whether Arab or Jew, can find in this river of peace, the righteousness typified by the covering of waves on the very depths of the ocean, in Christ, who mourns and laments for them here, as He did when on earth, over Jerusalem (Luke 19:42ff.). Thus, it is just to exhort those who seek by human design to control that city, that you are warned by GOD in Zechariah 12,  of the high price of doing so.

Just  as God made plans for the human body and brain, so did He determine certain other issues for proclamation (cf. Galloping Events Ch. 4, SMR Ch. 9). To ignore these is about as wise as ignoring your own design, and fiddling with partly unknown drugs, till the side-effects have to TELL you to stop!*1

That is reminiscent of Ezekiel 20:45ff., where we find what God is determining on the ultra-rebellious southern kingdom, "Judah". At that time,  the North already had lost its identity through Assyrian invasion, the price of its settled stubbornness against the word of God, and its secure blindness of heart, which no spectacles could ever heal, but only the more spectacular awakening of repentance back to the eternal God and His vernal WORD which He has for millenia proclaimed in perfect harmony, consistency and efficacy, both for individuals and in historical fulfilment.

What did the Lord tell them there ? This:

"Furthermore the word of the Lord came to me, saying,  'Son of man, set your face toward the south; preach against the south and prophesy against the forest land, the South, and say to the forest of the South, ‘Hear the word of the Lord!

 

"Thus says the Lord God:

“Behold, I will kindle a fire in you, and it shall devour every green tree and every dry tree in you; the blazing flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be scorched by it. All flesh shall see that I, the Lord, have kindled it; it shall not be quenched.”

 

"Then I said, "Ah, Lord God! They say of me, ‘Does he not speak parables?’ ” "

There is a fire which is to devour, and not only so: it is UNQUENCHABLE! So does the fiddling fiasco of man, deprived of truth, depraved before the designer morals of God, who has brought to bear eternal principles in the particularities of man, learn too late his feckless folly, reckless haste and needless waste.

How much better that quietly flowing river and those waves of the sea, how much more to be desired that cover of righteousness imputed, that work of spiritual vitality conferred, which brings a peace past all understanding, because it has a meaning as deep as the heart of God!

Alas, as in the world now, so in Judah in Jeremiah's day, but few found it! (cf. Matthew 7:15ff.)
We turn thus to the refreshing realities of Jeremiah in this domain.
 
 

Jeremiah 2:13, 17:13, 18:14

First in Ch. 2, we find the divine apostrophe, the profundity of the horror at what Israel is doing in NOT taking the lively and fresh waters that come, spiritually from God, to anoint the heart, to moisten the spiritual tongue and delight the journeying life.

Then in Ch. 17 we shall see something of the delightful purity of the origin of the waters which come in timely fashion, and water those lands that are not to be burnt, bringing vitality and arresting joy to its sites.

First however we find the horror of Jeremiah 2, which in its expression sets the field for the contrast to come.
 

 “ 'Therefore I will yet bring charges against you,'

 

     says the Lord,

'And against your children’s children I will bring charges.
For pass beyond the coasts of Cyprus and see,
Send to Kedar and consider diligently,
And see if there has been such a thing.


'Has a nation changed its gods,
Which are not gods?
But My people have changed their Glory
For what does not profit.
 

'Be astonished, O heavens, at this,
And be horribly afraid;
Be very desolate,' says the Lord.

“ '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.

'Is Israel a servant?
Is he a homeborn slave?
Why is he plundered?

'The young lions roared at him, and growled;
They made his land waste;
His cities are burned, without inhabitant.
Also the people of Noph and Tahpanhes
Have broken the crown of your head.
Have you not brought this on yourself,
In that you have forsaken the Lord your God
When He led you in the way?


'And now why take the road to Egypt,
To drink the waters of Sihor?
Or why take the road to Assyria,
To drink the waters of the River?

'Your own wickedness will correct you,
And your backslidings will rebuke you.

'Know therefore and see that it is an evil and bitter thing
That you have forsaken the Lord your God,
And the fear of Me is not in you,'
Says the Lord God of hosts.

" 'For of old I have broken your yoke and burst your bonds;
And you said, "I will not transgress,"
When on every high hill and under every green tree
You lay down, playing the harlot.

'Yet I had planted you a noble vine, a seed of highest quality.
How then have you turned before Me
Into the degenerate plant of an alien vine?
For though you wash yourself with lye, and use much soap,
Yet your iniquity is marked before Me,' says the Lord God.

'How can you say, "I am not polluted,
I have not gone after the Baals"?

'See your way in the valley;
Know what you have done:
You are a swift dromedary breaking loose in her ways,
A wild donkey used to the wilderness,
That sniffs at the wind in her desire;
In her time of mating, who can turn her away?
All those who seek her will not weary themselves;
In her month they will find her.


'Withhold your foot from being unshod, and your throat from thirst.

'But you said, "There is no hope.
No! For I have loved aliens, and after them I will go." ' "

(Colour emphasis added.)

The people have not only forsaken the delicious water of life, but have even made ridiculous, unruly, inadequate and necessarily broken cisterns, wells for water that seeps away in its muddy bottoms. It is just this that is typified when Jeremiah is for state discipline, set in a stinking well, soggy in the bottom, in danger of suffocation. What was THEIRS, they tried to give to him, but he was rescued from it! (Jeremiah 37:11-38:28). The king however who put him there, albeit reluctantly, he who  failed to use his sight concerning the Lord's offer through Jeremiah, lost his eyes in the vengeance of the affronted King of Babylon, whose covenant he broke.
 

EVIL and BITTER was the nation's refusal of divine waters; amazing was their self-defilement and emptiness in the light of the provisions made, and so peremptorily refused, after so long a time, so tried a course! There came to be a sense of frustrated hopelessness as their dimmed hearts led into darkness of spirit and contumely of soul, failed to respond to even the most tender appeals: all this leading to their judgment.

Leaving that grievous scene, now we come to Jeremiah 17:13ff..

"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.

"Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed;
Save me, and I shall be saved,
For You are my praise."
 

The simplicity of the thing! Forsaking the God of heaven and earth, the Creator,  leads to shame. What WOULD you expect! Designs disestablishing their Designer is certainly a special case, for not too many designs are CAPABLE of this; but then, that is both the wonder and the vulnerablility of the human design, that they can not merely dismiss the concept of their own Designer (it is not so easy to dismiss the living reality of His word, mercy and judgment however, for God is love), but have designs on His position!

Those who flee from Him are 'written in the earth' ? There is the sad lament of history often so horrible that it almost seems,  in its distressing calamities,  a sort of sound track to the picture of man in a muddle because of his pride, vanity, hostility, ingratitude and arbitrarily senseless efforts at sedition against God, his own Maker! against His word, against His work!

Jeremiah however gives the lie to the lie: HIS is the cry, "Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved, for You are my praise."

Seek and you shall find! It is not different today. The predicted end came then (Jeremiah 25), precisely with its exile of 70 years. The predicted end gathers now like dusk at sunset, precisely as Christ depicted its stages (cf. SMR Ch. 8, with Answers to Questions Ch. 5).

Jeremiah had suffered much from the enemies of the faith, as do many to this day. He had been wrongfully imprisoned, near to death from suffocation, in the midst of sinking mud, it seems, yet he could cry without fear to the fear of Jacob, to the One whose mercy is more profound than any depths of depravity, whose lift is more potent than any gravity, whose light is dismissive of darkness as dawn of the night. He could cry and KNOW that what God said, He would do. Hence in security his heart rested even in the midst of what he suffered for God, in warning the people and magnifying the name of the Lord to the end of the scenario, before the judgment came, and invasion of the land of Judah was complete.

Accordingly, the prophet went ahead with his task, faithfully (as seen in Jeremiah 17:19ff., 18:1ff.), and with his profound work of appeal to the people, of warning, exhortation and pity from the Lord. It is in Jeremiah 9:1ff. that you hear the intensity of the pity and feel the grandeur of grace, the kindness of the mercy, the love of the lost!

From whom then do the people make a guideless way of their barren own ? It is from Him who is the "fountain of living waters."

This means first, that He is ebullient, unforced, freely providing, gushing with grace, overflowing with goodness, accessible and moving to the field of His love. Secondly, it shows that His is life, not death, there being no mere stagnation of the static: for His stability is not found in immovability (though His certainties are immovable), but with all the vividness and freshness of life in its abundance as well. In a city cut off, He is still abundant in water, in provision, in hope.

To ignore Him, is to seek to the sovereignty of circumstances, which is merely, really the use of the stage as the Program Director and Producer. THIS, the living God,  is a Producer who knows well how to handle that attitude (cf. Psalm 1:5).
 
 

The poignancy of it all

is found next in Jeremiah 18:14ff..

The SOURCE of the freshness, individuality of access, meaning of finding, is now exposed with its magnificent loveliness. It is not only what it DOES, but what it IS, which is to be considered, and that well!
 

"Therefore thus says the Lord:

'Ask now among the Gentiles,
Who has heard such things?
The virgin of Israel has done a very horrible thing.
Will a man leave the snow water of Lebanon,
Which comes from the rock of the field?
Will the cold flowing waters be forsaken for strange waters?

'Because My people have forgotten Me,
They have burned incense to worthless idols.
And they have caused themselves to stumble in their ways,
From the ancient paths,
To walk in pathways and not on a highway,
To make their land desolate and a perpetual hissing;
Everyone who passes by it will be astonished
And shake his head.

'I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy;
I will show them the back and not the face
In the day of their calamity.'

"Then they said, 'Come and let us devise plans against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come and let us attack him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.' ”

 

They proceed to forsake the highway, that of holiness (Isaiah 35) in which, though a fool, a man, a pilgrim may safely walk, so sure is the Lord. 

 

What then do they do ? This: "they walk in pathways and not on a highway"; and why ?

 

It is for anyone listening to the concerns of due causality, a matter of making the land a hissing. The persecution of the prophet (‘Come, let us devise plans against Jeremiah…’) merely intensifies their bombast, while their lambasting merely gives increment to their coming destitution (cf. Matthew 23:35!).

In what does it end ?

Have they no eyes, ears, history or awareness at all ?

Is the mercy of God to be construed as delay,

or His kindness as incomprehension!
 

But no! The cry is merciful and intense (cf. II Peter 3:9).

"Will a man leave the snow water of Lebanon,
Which comes from the rock of the field?
Will the cold flowing waters be forsaken for strange waters?"

Yes, he will and if he continues to forsake the cover of righteousness like the waves of the sea, and the peace like a river, then is not fire a fitting end to the flitting! If it is not Designer hydraulics in the heart, is it not then the desperation of destruction ?

If water is despised, is fire to have no retardant ?

Ask them in the USA this Summer, did they like the fires ? Was the water not a good adjunct to have ?

 Yet man in his millions roasts in flames of desire, frustration, peregrination into impurity, rebellion into ceaseless wars of pride, bombast, pomp, hatred and illusion, built on mud, and as murky, till the ground is dust.

The message never changes, the results never change, and the mercy never changes; nor does its penalty in being despised, in the end, change.

This word of over 3 millenia is as fresh and earnest to this day, and its mercy is on the same basis as it was, noted in Isaiah, specified in the Psalms (e.g. 32), felt in the nation of Israel, and now, in the same entire and even clearer environment of terms, being felt in this world. The wind is sown; the whirlwind is reaped. Sin is sown, iniquity is reaped. Lust is sown, ambition is spread forth; death is reaped, frustration is freely exhibited.

The beauty becomes ashes; but the beautician is not ashes. He lives. As it declares in Revelation 22:17, "And the Spirit and the bride say, 'Come!' And let him who hears say 'Come!'. And let him who is thirsty, come. And whoever will, let him take of the water of life freely." His life is still available, upon request; and how upon request ? for it is He who knows the heart of man past a man's own surmisings, and knows how to relieve even the relentless, and to show mercy even to the dead!
 
 

END-NOTE

*1 A rather fascinating program appeared on SBS television last night (July 11), in which drugs and their effects, in the case of weight-reducing types, were examined. It was a sad tale, the litany of failure, of peril, of ravaged lives and ruined hopes was rather long. The list of drugs successively being tried, the various grounds for hopes were historically reviewed, while the failings of this and that effort, compared with ever new hopes was made rather a fiasco of frustration that a marvel of science.

The design of our bodies is not understood well by man, though he is increasing to the point that like an intelligent 'teen-ager, he is meddling with more and more results, sometimes tragic.

In this case in point, one of the main endeavours was to enable many to EAT MORE THAN THEY SHOULD or of what they should not, in order to be sated in this way, while not being fat.

With such an exalted aim and mission as this, it is not altogether amazing that the results were less exalted even than the objective, producing barbs for the many bewildered, hoping against hope, or hurt.