Turning again to the Word of
God, and the words to which I would call your attention this evening
are found in that chapter that we read in the Book of the Prophet
Isaiah, chapter 41, and verses 17 and 18. In the Book of the Prophet Isaiah,
chapter 41, verses 17 and 18, when the poor and needy seek
water and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst,
I, the Lord, will hear them. I, the God of Israel, will not
forsake them. I will open rivers in high places
and fountains in the midst of the valleys. I will make the
wilderness a pool of water and the dry land springs of water. When the poor and needy seek
water and there is none and their tongue faileth for thirst, I,
the Lord, will hear them. I, the God of Israel, will not
forsake them. I will open rivers in high places and fountains
in the midst of the valleys. I will make the wilderness a
pool of water and the dry land springs of water." It's not surprising,
is it, that when we come across words like these, we often call
the prophecy of Isaiah the evangelical prophet. Of course, it's true
that all the prophets are evangelical. They all point us forward to
the coming of Christ and speak to us something of His person
and work. That's true of all the books of the Old Testament.
They all point forward to Him. Even those parts that perhaps
are difficult to understand, those more obscure parts, those
genealogies, those long accounts of names and places, they're
all intended to point us forwards to the coming of Christ and to
reveal to us something of the nature of the Gospel. But here
in Isaiah, as you no doubt have noticed, we have so many of these
promises. So many times where the Lord
speaks of what He will do. We read about those promises
in verse 10. Fear thou not, for I am with
thee. Be not dismayed, for I am thy God. I will strengthen thee.
Yea, I will help thee. Yea, I will uphold thee with
the right hand of my righteousness. Fear not thou worm, Jacob, and
ye men of Israel. I will help thee. Time and time
again he gives these promises that are so evangelical, are
so centered in the person and work of Jesus Christ. And of
course he speaks much concerning the person of Christ later on. as that one who grew up before
him as a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground, who
bore our griefs and carried our sorrows, wounded for our transgressions
and so on. He seems to have had a remarkably
clear insight into the work of Christ. Here in this prophecy,
God, as it were, draws back the veil and all those hundreds of
years before Christ came in history, gives a a foretaste of the blessings
of the Gospel, the evangelical prophet. When we come to these promises,
we have to remember that they are to be spiritually understood. When the Lord, through the prophet,
speaks of this water and these rivers and fountains and pools
and springs, he's not talking primarily about physical water.
He's not talking primarily about a physical thirst. It's true
of course that God does work in providence. He is the God
of providence as well as the God of grace and those two things
are intimately connected. We're not to separate them. And
there are those times that no doubt you can think of in the
Old Testament where God has fulfilled this promise in a very real and
literal way. You read about the journey of
the Israelites through the wilderness back there in the book of Exodus,
how shortly after their coming out of Egypt, they come to that
place in Rephidim, and it says there was no water for the people
to drink. Perhaps they had brought some
water with them on their exodus from Egypt, but now it seems
that that supply had run out. And the people began to chide
with Moses. Give us water, they say, that we may drink. And Moses
said unto them, Why chide ye with me? wherefore do ye tempt
the Lord? The people thirsted there for
water, and they murmured against Moses. Wherefore is this, that
thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children,
and our cattle with thirst? They are so quick to forget what
they have seen. It wasn't Moses that brought
them out of Egypt, was it? They'd seen the trials and the
punishments that had come upon Pharaoh and upon his people.
They'd seen the way that he had led them, the provision that
he had made for them in the lamb slain and the blood applied and
the angel passing over. Not only that, they'd seen the
provision of manna in the previous chapter, how when they run out
of food and again they're ready to stone Moses. and they murmur against him.
Why have you brought us out here, Moses? There's no food. They've
seen the manna descending from heaven, and yet they're so quick
to forget, just as we are. And when they run out of water
again, they're ready to blame Moses. Well, the God fulfilled
this promise in a very real sense, didn't he, at that time? Moses
directed to go on before the people and take his rod and to
go and stand on the rock and to smite the rock and there shall
come water out of it that the people may drink. And that water
was enough for the whole company. All those hundreds of thousands
that came out of Egypt. It was a literal fulfillment
of this promise. When the poor and needy seek
water and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst,
I the Lord will hear them. I the God of Israel will not
forsake them. I will open rivers in high places. He does these
things in a natural sense, in a physical sense, but of course
even there, really it's a picture, isn't it? That whole journey
is a picture. And the provision that God makes
for them throughout that journey is a picture of what God does
for his people in a spiritual sense, even today. This promise
is a gospel promise. It's an evangelical promise.
It's a promise that speaks of Christ, of what he did, of what
he is, of what he did, of what he still does. Well, it's very important, isn't
it, when we come to these promises to take account of who the promise
is for, who it's spoken to. It's not for everyone. And that's true of all the promises
of the Gospel. So often the people that they're
spoken of are described to us. You look at the end of the previous
chapter when we have another set of promises. It speaks of
some who will renew their strength. who will mount up with wings
as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, and they shall
walk and not faint. Again, it's a promise, but who is it talking
about? It's talking about they that wait upon the Lord. And
again here, we have these people described to us in these two
words at the beginning of verse 17. This is who the promise is
about, this is who the promise is for. It's the poor and the needy.
The poor and the needy. And they're not the same thing,
are they? It's not just needless duplication of words. It's one
thing to be poor, but it's another thing to be needy. What is it
to be poor? Well, we all know something about
what natural poverty is. What is it to be naturally poor?
Well, it's very simple. It's not to have very many possessions,
isn't it? It's not to have much in the
things of this world. The poor man is a man who is
low down. He doesn't have a great store
that he can fall back on. He has to live very much hand
to mouth and very often he has to be dependent upon the charity
of others. He's not an independent man. Well, it's true in a natural
sense. Doesn't it carry over into the
spiritual? What is it to be spiritually
poor? Well, the Lord Jesus spoke of
it, didn't he? He said, blessed are the poor in spirit. Well,
if the man who is naturally poor doesn't have a great deal of
natural possessions, isn't it obviously true that the spiritually
poor man, he doesn't have a great pile of spiritual blessings and
possessions that he can fall back upon in time of trouble?
It's not that when he comes into difficulty, he can just go to
this cupboard and pull out the spiritual promise and take it
and apply it to himself. No, he's very dependent upon
God, day to day, hour to hour. That's why the hymn writer said,
I need thee every hour. There was a poor man, someone
who realized his poverty. The poor and the needy. It speaks
of humility. It speaks of one who is not puffed
up within himself and ready to talk about what he has got and
what he has done. The poor. We have a very striking
image, don't we, in that parable of the Pharisee and Publican
that the Lord Jesus spoke. And there is a very striking
contrast, isn't there? Here is a man who is spiritually
rich. He comes up to the temple to pray. And he doesn't really
pray, does he? He's all ready to talk about
himself, what he has done, what he is doing. He doesn't ask for
anything. He doesn't think he needs anything.
There is a man who thinks of himself as rich. But here is
the publican and he comes with a short prayer. But it's a prayer
that's full of asking. God be merciful to me, a sinner.
There is a poor man. He realises he needs something
and he comes to ask for it. When the poor and needy seek
water, Well, in a sense, all men are
poor, aren't they? When we have them before God, when we look
at them in the sight of God and in the sight of eternity. You
take the richest man that lives on the earth. He may have millions
of pounds in the bank, a great stock of possessions, many houses
and cars and luxuries of this life. And he may look at these
things and think of himself as a rich man. Well, in a physical
sense, maybe. But if we're talking about spiritual
riches, except a man be born again, he has nothing. All men are poor, even those
who think of themselves as rich, even that Pharisee. In a sense,
he was a poor man. Even Paul, before his Damascus
Road experience, when he was a Pharisee of the Pharisees,
at the top of his class, exceeding all his peers in his knowledge
of the law as he thought, He wouldn't have described himself
as a poor man, but he was poor. That's surely why we have this
second description added. These people are not just poor,
but they're needy. They're not just poor, but they're
needy. While that Pharisee was a poor
man, he wasn't a needy man. He didn't really need anything
from God, that's why he didn't ask for anything from God. When
Paul was a Pharisee, he was a poor man, but he thought himself a
rich man. He wasn't a needy man. If you'd gone and asked him,
Paul, what do you need? He would have no doubt said, well, I don't
really need anything. I have it all squared away and
sorted out. All men are poor in a sense,
but not everybody is needy. You think of an illustration.
Here are two men, and they may be very rich men. Lots of money
in the bank. and then one day perhaps the
bank fails, and all their money is gone. Well, they're both poor. But
supposing one man was to go to the bank and ask for his money,
and he was to be told, well, it's not here anymore, you don't
have any. Well, that man would still be poor, but now he's needy.
Now he sees it. The other man who has not discovered
the loss yet, he's a poor man, just the same, but he's not a
needy man. He still thinks that he's rich. He probably still
lives as if he's rich. Well, we have to apply these
descriptions to ourselves, don't we? We're all poor in spiritual
things. There's not one of us that can
stand up before God, really, and say, well, I've got this,
and I've got that, and I've achieved this, and I've never done that.
We're all poor, but how many of us are needy? Are you needy? Have you seen the empty bank
account, as it were? Have you realised something of
the insufficiency of your own religion and of your own righteousness? Paul had a lot of religion. That
Pharisee had a lot of religion. That rich young ruler who came
running to the Lord Jesus Christ and knelt down before him, he
had a lot of religion. But he wasn't a needy man. This
promise is for those who are poor and needy, those who want
something. Do you want something? Do you find yourself wanting
something as you come up to chapel or when you open the Word of
God? Are you looking for something? Are you looking for this water
that the Prophet goes on to speak of? When the poor and needy seek
water. Well, these poor and needy people then are those that this
promise is for. That's why it's here. For those
who are spiritually poor, for those who are spiritually needy,
who don't have much and realise it. But what situation is it that
these poor and needy people are in? Well, it's described to us
in three ways, isn't it? Here in verse 17, and there almost
seems an escalation as you go through the verse, doesn't there? We're first told that they're
seeking water. Why does the Prophet speak of
water? Well, again, it tells us something about what
they're seeking, doesn't it? It's not a luxury. Water isn't
a luxury, is it? It's not something that we can
do without. We can live without many things,
many things that we think are essential. If they were taken
away, we could live quite well without them. But not water. You take water away from a man,
he won't last many days, will he? These poor and needy people,
they are seeking something essential. They're not looking for something
that they could manage without. It's not that they're coming
and saying, well, this would be nice to have, but if I don't
get it, I suppose it doesn't really matter. No, they're looking
for something absolutely essential. The Samis knew something about
this experience, didn't he? You remember that psalm where
the Samis compares himself to the heart that's panting after
the water brooks? He says, as the heart panteth
after the water brook, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My
soul thirsteth for God, for the living God. He compares it to
a thirst, again, for water. When the heart, the deer, is
looking for water, it's being hunted perhaps, it's not looking for something
optional. It's not looking for something that it can have alongside
itself, bolted onto its life. No, it's something fundamental.
Something essential. Well, what about your seeking?
What is it that you're seeking for as you've come here tonight?
Is it something that you see as essential? Is your religion something that
you cannot do without? Is the knowledge of Christ something
that you cannot do without? Do you know anything of that
determination of the apostle? when he casts away all that religion
that he had before, his pedigree, and his own righteousness. All
these things, he says, were gained to me, but I count them lost
for Christ. He says, now I want this one thing, to know him.
That's what it is to have this water, is to know him, is to
feed upon him by faith. The man who is seeking water,
It's not that he can stop seeking and go and do something else
for a time. When the animal is looking for
water, it's not that it can think to itself, well, there's nothing
here, but perhaps in a few days I'll come back and there'll be
plenty of water. I'll go and do something else in the meantime.
When we're thirsty, when we're thirsty enough, it becomes all-consuming,
doesn't it? Nothing else matters. Nothing else is attractive to
us. All those things that perhaps
we enjoy when we're not thirsty. All those things that we entertain
ourselves with when we're not thirsty. When we become thirsty. It doesn't matter what you put
before a man when he's thirsty. It won't satisfy him. There's
only one thing that will. Water, drink. This is the kind
of seeking that this promise relates to. It's not half-hearted. It's not a man who comes to church
or chapel one day in seven and then forgets about it for the
rest of the week. It's a wholehearted seeking. When the poor and needy seek
water. Here is the first description of this situation that these
poor and needy people are in. But then it seems to get worse,
doesn't it? To seek water is bad enough, but isn't it much
worse when you realize that there isn't any? Again, you can think of many
illustrations. Here is a man who's been doing some physical
work and he feels like he wants a drink. He goes to the tap and
turns the tap and nothing comes out. Now suddenly the situation is
ten times more serious. These poor and needy people are
not only seeking water, but they can't find it. They don't find
it anywhere. Well, again, it's a spiritual
promise to a spiritual people concerning a spiritual need.
Doesn't it teach us that there are those times in the life of
the Christian when he comes into places where there is none, where
there is no water? And you might think, well, surely
that's not possible. Doesn't he have the Word of God? Doesn't
he have so many good books? Doesn't he have the means of
grace? The ordinance of prayer? But you look through the experiences
of so many Christians down through the ages and don't you find that
they come to these places where these things don't seem to do
them any good? And they take up the Word of God and open it
and it seems like a closed book. And they come to hear the preaching
of the Word and it just seems to go in one ear and out the
other. Or they take up good hymns that they've enjoyed singing
in the past and there doesn't seem to be any water in them
anymore. Nothing to feed them, nothing
to satisfy. They want something more than just these outward
things. They want Christ revealed to
their souls. There is none. They can't find
him. Don't we have it spoken of in that little book of the
Song of Solomon? Here is the bride on her bed
and the bridegroom puts in his hand by the hole of the door
and she's raised up to go and seek him but when she opens the
door he's not there and she goes about the city and she can't
find him anywhere. The poor and the needy, they're
seeking water and there is none. What should we do when we find
ourselves in this situation? Well, shouldn't we confess it?
It's no good pretending. It's no good imagining that everything
is well. when we can't find water, when the Word of God seems dry,
when the preaching seems ineffective. We have to confess it. The fault
is very often in us. There's nothing wrong with the
Word. People talk about dry doctrine
sometimes. They say, dry doctrine, we're
not interested in it. But we have to be very careful
about how we speak. The doctrines of the Gospel are
not dry. They can never be dry. If we find them dry, the fault
is in us, it's not in the word. If the preaching is good, if
we find it dry, the preaching is not at fault, we are. These poor and needy people,
they've come to a place where they can't find any water. They're
looking everywhere for it, and there is none. But then again, look at the third
description of this situation. It's not just that they're seeking
water, that would be bad enough. It's not just that there isn't
any, that would be bad enough. But now, it seems to be even
worse. Their tongue faileth for thirst.
Their tongue faileth for thirst. What does it mean? Well, again,
you imagine a man who hasn't drunk for a few days. He won't have a strong voice,
will he? He may not be able to speak at all. His tongue, it's
failed for thirst. Well, again, what is it in a
spiritual sense? Doesn't it speak of an inability to pray? Doesn't it speak of those times
in the life of the Christian where he has this great thirst,
this great need, where something essential is lacking from his
life? And no matter where he looks, he can't find it, but
now, even worse, he doesn't seem to be able to pray about it.
Oh, it's an easy thing to go on his knees. That's easy enough.
And to close the eyes and to bow the head. But prayer is more
than that. Prayer is about the state of
the heart. This poor and needy person here, their tongue is
failing for thirst. Have you ever been here? Are
you here tonight? The psalmist is often here, doesn't
he? The pastor often talks to us about this kind of prayer.
when it's a groaning, a muttering, a crying. It's not long and articulate
sentences. It's not fine and well-ordered
prayers. It's just a moaning, a muttering.
The tongue is failing. It's a gasping. This is the kind
of prayer that the Lord brings his people to. These are the
kinds of places that they come into. They seek water, there
is none. Their tongue faileth for thirst.
They can't ask for what they need. They don't seem to be able to
cry out for what they need anymore. Their strength is gone. Their
tongue is failing for thirst. Well, what's the promise for
these poor and needy people in this life and death situation? It's a wonderful thing, isn't
it? Two wonderful things that God
promises to do for them here in verse 17. And it's a remarkable thing,
isn't it? That when their tongue is failing for thirst and they
can't speak, what does he say? I'll hear them. I will hear them. They may not think much of their
prayers. And when you come into places like this, you won't think
very much of your prayers. But he hears them. He says, doesn't he, before they
call, I will answer. While they are yet speaking,
I will hear. He hears even those inarticulate
prayers. The psalmist again, he so often
knew something about this, didn't he? I waited patiently for the
Lord and he inclined unto me and heard my cry. That's how
he speaks of his own prayers. Just like a cry, like a newborn
baby. The newborn child, it can't say what it wants. It can't put
it into words. It doesn't really know what it
wants, but it knows it wants something and it cries. And the
mother or the father, they understand, they know what the child needs.
It needs food, it needs sustenance, it needs milk. And they hear. Well, it's like that with the
psalmist and his cries here. I waited patiently for the Lord
and he inclined unto me. He put his ear down to me and heard my cry. I, the Lord,
will hear them. He is paying attention to them,
even in this desperate situation that they find themselves in,
when they're seeking water and they can't find it, and their
tongue is failing for thirst, and all hope seems to be fading
away. I, the Lord, will hear them. He's paying attention. But then it's something even
more remarkable, isn't it? Look at what he says at the end
of verse 17. I, the God of Israel, will not
forsake them. He doesn't just say, I will come to them and
help them. It's not that he's been watching
them from a distance and he sees that they've come to this point
and he says, well, I'd better intervene and do something. What
is it to forsake someone? You can't forsake someone if
you're not with them. The implication is that he's
with them all through this verse. He doesn't just come in at the
end. When they seek water, he's there, he's watching, he's with
them. When they can't find it anywhere, he's there, he's watching,
he's with them. When their tongue is failing for thirst, he's there,
he's watching, he's with them. I, the Lord, will hear them.
I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. The Prophet uses,
or the Lord through the Prophet uses a very strong illustration
of it, doesn't he, later on in this book. Can a woman forget
her sucking child? That she should not have compassion
on the son of her womb? It's one of the strongest natural
ties, isn't it? When you hold your newborn baby,
the father or the mother, And especially in those early days,
it seems to be all-consuming, doesn't it? You don't seem to
be able to think about anything else. And you wake up in the
night and your first thought is, where's the baby? Is the
baby alright? Well, the Prophet says, even
in that relationship, the woman can forget. They may forget.
It's possible. Yet, will I not forget thee? I the Lord will hear them, I
the God of Israel will not forsake them. He's with them all through
this terrible experience that they're passing through. Just as he was with the children
of Israel all through that journey. When they come to the place where
the food runs out, it's not that he's left them. When they come
to the place where there's no water left, he hasn't left them. They wouldn't have realised it,
would they? You think of those many trials that they passed
through. Think of them there at the shores of the Red Sea.
And here is Pharaoh's army chasing after them. And they look in
front and there's the water. And they look behind and here
comes Pharaoh. And they're ready to give up and to say, well,
it would have been better for us to stay in Egypt if you'd gone
to them at that point and said, well, don't be concerned about
it because the Lord is with you. Or they would have said, however
can he be when we're in this desperate situation. If you'd
gone to them there when the bread ran out and there was nothing
to eat and the whole congregation is murmuring against Moses and
Aaron in the wilderness. Would to God, they say, we had
died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we
sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full,
for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness to kill
this whole assembly with hunger. Again, if you had gone to them
and said, don't worry, the Lord is in this, the Lord is with
you in this. Well, they would have said, if he's with us, why
has he let us come to this place? And again, when they ran out
of water, wouldn't they have said the same? But you think of what
they saw by being brought into those trials. Think of what they
saw as a result of being on the shores of the Red Sea. What does Moses say to them when
they complain to Moses, fear ye not, stand still and see the
salvation of the Lord? They were going to see something
as a result of this experience that they hadn't seen before.
And they did. And you see them there in the
next chapter. And what do they sing about? I will sing unto
the Lord for he has triumphed gloriously. The Lord is my strength
and song and He has become my salvation. He is my God and I
will prepare Him in habitation. My Father's God and I will exalt
Him. They would never have come to
that place. They would never have sung that song if they hadn't
had to pass through the Red Sea and see Pharaoh's army dead upon
the seashore. Again, think of the manor. They
would never have seen that manor if they hadn't come to that place
of extremity. They would never have seen the water coming out
of the rock if they hadn't come to that place of desperate thirst. This is why God brings them here.
This is why the poor and needy are brought to those places where
they seek water and they can't find it and their tongue fails
for thirst. He's going to show them something. He's with them
in the trial. Again, look at it in the next,
in the 43rd chapter. God says to Jacob and to Israel,
when thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee, with them in the trial, not just
there to pick them up and shake them off at the end. I will be
with thee when thou passest through the waters. When thou walkest through the
fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle
upon thee, because he's there with them in the trial. I will
not forsake them. I, the Lord, will hear them.
I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. And then again,
look what He promises to do for them in verse 18. He gives them
exactly what they need. They're seeking water. He opens
rivers and fountains. He makes pools of water and springs
of water. But again, look at the places
that He makes these things in. High places, valleys, wilderness,
dry land. When we read about high places
in this verse we're not to think about rolling hills like we might
see in the Lake District or on the South Downs. We're not to
think about smooth green meadows that we can walk in quite comfortably.
High places, the implication of the word that's used here
is of windswept and barren places. More like the mountains of Scotland
or Snowdonia. You go up those mountains, you
won't find much grass growing. It's rocky. It's windswept. There almost seems to be no life
there. Places where you might enjoy going and standing for
15 or 20 minutes, but you wouldn't want to live there. These are the high places that
God opens rivers in. The midst of the valleys. Dark
places. Doesn't it bring to mind the
23rd Psalm, the valley of the shadow of death? The wilderness.
The dry land. Places where you wouldn't live.
Places where you couldn't live. He gives what's needed even in
those places. Even in those places where life,
naturally speaking, is impossible. And in this place where the poor
and needy are, in this 17th verse, it's a place where spiritual
life, naturally speaking, seems impossible. And they're ready
to conclude, well, it's no use. My tongue is failing for thirst.
Now life will fail. No, says God, I will hear, I
will not forsake, I will open rivers. Hard places to be, but
even there, what they need is provided. He gives what's needed. Even
in the place of trial, didn't the apostle have to prove this
with his thorn in the flesh? He prayed three times for it
to be taken away. And God said, no, that's not
what I'm going to do. I'm going to do something better.
My grace is sufficient for thee. He gives rivers in high places,
fountains in the valleys, a pool of water in the wilderness, springs
of water in the dry land. What does it speak of? Doesn't
it speak of Christ? Remember how he spoke of himself
there in the seventh chapter of John's gospel. On the last
day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried saying,
if any man thirsts, let him come unto me and drink. If any man
thirsts, let him come unto me and drink. Here is the poor and
needy they're seeking, they're thirsting. The promise is to them, the invitation
is to them. If any man thirst, let him come
unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the
scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living
waters. Again, he spoke of it to the
woman at the well, didn't he? And he turns the conversation
from natural water to this water of life, living water. Whosoever
drinketh of this water, says Jesus, shall thirst again. But
whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never
thirst. It doesn't mean they'll never
thirst in the sense that they never have any need anymore.
It means they will never ultimately perish because of thirst. But
the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water,
springing up into everlasting life, rivers in high places,
fountains in the midst of the valleys. It's Christ that these
poor and needy people are seeking for. Don't you see it in so many
of the hymns when you read about the desires of these hymn writers? You see what it is there to be
poor and needy. John Berridge says, I come, O
Lord, and thirst for Thee. Some living water give to me
or I shall faint and die. All other means my heart has
tried. All other streams are vain beside what flows from Calvary. He had tried the other streams.
He had tried the other means. He was seeking water, there is
none. His tongue's failing for thirst. Well, is it Him that you're seeking
for? Is it Him that you seek for in
the Word, in the preaching of the Word? As you open your Bible,
is your prayer, show me Christ here? There are those places
that are hard to understand, aren't there? And it's easy to
be discouraged. How we need to pray for that
opening of our eyes that we might see Christ revealed in all the
Scriptures. It's a promise, isn't it? It's
not something uncertain. It doesn't say I might open rivers.
It doesn't say I might hear them and I might not forsake them.
No, it's a certain thing, a sure thing. Well, these promises are
here to be brought before the Lord in prayer, aren't they?
We have to plead these promises before Him to say to Him, haven't
you said that you would do this? Haven't you promised to open
rivers in high places? I, the Lord, will hear them.
I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. Well, they're fulfilled
in this life in a measure. He does this for his people. Their life is maintained, their
spiritual life, and sometimes it seems almost like a miracle
that it is. But the rivers are opened, the fountains are opened,
the pools of water, the springs of water, so that they can drink
and be refreshed. and strengthened and able to
continue. He does it for them from time
to time here, but isn't it seen in its ultimate fulfilment when
we come almost to the end of Scripture? What did John see there in the
Book of Revelation? As he sees that great multitude
which no man could number, all nations, kindreds, people and
tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed
with white robes and palms in their hands. What does the angel say? They
are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in
his temple, perfect service, uninterrupted service. And he
that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them, they shall
hunger no more, neither thirst any more. Neither shall the sun
light on them, nor any heat, for the lamb which is in the
midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto
living fountains of waters, and God shall wipe away all tears
from their eyes. That's where this promise is
ultimately to be fulfilled. And John speaks of it, doesn't
he, again in chapter 21. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning
and the end. I will give unto him that is
a thirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. It's the
same promise. and let him that is a thirst
come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.
It's given freely. It's not sold. It cannot be bought. Again the Prophet speaks of it,
doesn't he? Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters. Buy and eat without money and
without price. Well, do you know anything of
what it is to be here? In those places where you seek
water and can't seem to find it, and the tongue fails for
thirst, well, be encouraged by the fact that there is a promise
here for that exact set of circumstances. God makes provision for that
exact situation, and he promises to be in that situation, to hear,
not to forsake, to open rivers and fountains, I will make the
wilderness a pool of water, even those dry places and the dry
land springs of water. May He do these things for us
in this life and bring us to that place where this water is
to be drunk without interruption, where there is no more hunger,
no more thirst, but the water of life flows from the throne
of God and of the Lamb. Amen.