Song of Solomon 4:15 “A fountain
of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon.”
Reading a topical study on “living water”, I found that there are eight verses in the Bible with the phrase “living water,” four in the Old Testament, four in the New. All beautifully describe a spiritual truth under the figure of a flowing stream of refreshing water. The difference with or without rain in Israel is amazing – the hills can be barren and brown much of the year, but after a season of rain, covered in green meadows and flowers. Where there are rivers, lush vegetation surrounds them, while only yards away, all is barren. Out of this arose the idea of living water, or mayim chaim, which refers to water in the form of rain or flowing from a natural spring, which has come directly from God, not carried by human hands or stored in cisterns. In the Focus on the Family video series, “That the World May Know”, host Ray Vander Laan magnificently uses the example of the spring-fed En Gedi stream in the wilderness of Israel as a metaphor of “living water” compared to water caught and stored in a Cistern.
Reading a topical study on “living water”, I found that there are eight verses in the Bible with the phrase “living water,” four in the Old Testament, four in the New. All beautifully describe a spiritual truth under the figure of a flowing stream of refreshing water. The difference with or without rain in Israel is amazing – the hills can be barren and brown much of the year, but after a season of rain, covered in green meadows and flowers. Where there are rivers, lush vegetation surrounds them, while only yards away, all is barren. Out of this arose the idea of living water, or mayim chaim, which refers to water in the form of rain or flowing from a natural spring, which has come directly from God, not carried by human hands or stored in cisterns. In the Focus on the Family video series, “That the World May Know”, host Ray Vander Laan magnificently uses the example of the spring-fed En Gedi stream in the wilderness of Israel as a metaphor of “living water” compared to water caught and stored in a Cistern.
The first of these references of "living water" in Scripture (above) is a portion of the
description of the lovely character of a bride as seen by her coming
bridegroom, certainly symbolic of the Lord and His people. But then, through
the prophet Jeremiah, God laments that “my people . . . have forsaken me, the
fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that
can hold no water”. “They have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living
waters”. One day they shall return, however, and Zechariah prophesies that
“living waters shall go out from Jerusalem . . . and the Lord shall be king
over all the earth”.
In the New Testament, in John 4:10, the Lord Jesus appropriated this metaphor to Himself as He spoke to a woman of Samaria: “If thou knew the gift of God . . . he would have given you living water.” Jesus continues in John 4:14, “The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life”.
In the New Testament, in John 4:10, the Lord Jesus appropriated this metaphor to Himself as He spoke to a woman of Samaria: “If thou knew the gift of God . . . he would have given you living water.” Jesus continues in John 4:14, “The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life”.
Later in Jerusalem, Jesus
cried out to all, saying in John 7:37-38, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believes
on me, as the scripture hath said [referring, no doubt, to the above Old
Testament passages], out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water”.
Then, in the last book of the Bible is found a special promise for those who
die for the Lord’s sake. In Revelation 7:17 it says, “He shall lead them unto living fountains of
waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes”.
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