Water of Life

Genesis 1:20 Then God said, “Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures.”

 

Water is a essential element of life; every organism we know of needs water to survive. In fact, without liquid water, life on God’s green Earth could not exist. From the simplest organisms to the most complex plants and animals, water plays a critical role in survival. Most of the human body is water, with an average of roughly 60%. As a general rule of thumb, a person can survive without water for about 3 days. God designed us and all life to be sustained by water.

 

Ecclesiastes 1:7 explains that, “All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full; to the place from which the rivers come, there they return again.” The hydrosphere (from 'water', and 'sphere') is the combined mass of water found on, under, and above the surface of our planet. Our Creator God made the hydrologic water cycle where water moves from one reservoir to another, such as from river to ocean, or from the ocean to the atmosphere, by the physical processes  of evaporation, transpiration, condensation, precipitation, infiltration, surface runoff, and subsurface flow. In doing so, the water goes through different forms: liquid, solid (ice) and vapor. The oceans covers 71% of the earth’s surface and contain 97% of planet’s water. The ocean plays a key role in the water cycle as it is the source of 86% of global evaporation. But, man does not live by food and water alone.

 

In John 4:10-14 Jesus answered the Samaritan woman at the well, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?” Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”

 

As physical water which God gives is essential to life and quenches our body’s thirst, the “living water” which Christ gives is essential for spiritual life and the quenching the thirst of our soul. John 7:37-38 states that 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. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” Commentator Matthew Henry explains that the Gospel invitation given here by the Lord is very general: If any man thirst, whoever he be, he is invited to Christ, be he high or low, rich or poor, young or old, bond or free, Jew or Gentile. It is also very gracious: “If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink. If any man desires to be truly and eternally happy, let him apply himself to me, and be ruled by me, and I will undertake to make him so. If any man hunger and thirst after righteousness, that is, truly desires the good will of God towards him, and the good work of God in him. If any man want spiritual blessings or the inclination of their souls and their desires is towards a spiritual happiness, he may be supplied by me; let him go to Christ, admit His doctrine, submit to His discipline, believe in Him as Savior and Lord. Come to Him as the fountain of living waters, and the giver of all comfort. 

 

Revelation 22:17, 20 proclaims, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely. He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming quickly.” Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

 

In Christ, Brian