After weeks of drought, and lawns getting drier each day in the merciless sun and heat, our local area was blest with a downpour. Our rain gauges recorded three inches of rainfall. The almost too-thirsty soil could hardly take it in.
Water is so vital, we wouldn’t even HAVE a garden if we had not been pouring water on it almost daily. Tiny roots of small plants would have dried up and disappeared.
A hose or watering can will keep them alive, but nothing compares to a good rainstorm. The inevitable result, given the season of long days and warm nights, will be a visible spurt of growth, green and lush.
As the rain was falling, I could only think of the spiritual water so vital to LIFE. Water available to us now. Water we CAN have if we but drink it in. No need to be spiritually dry or brown.
Just as all living things need water, so our spiritual life MUST have spiritual watering. What water? The water of LIFE.
God provides. Abundantly. Even now. Isn’t this the promise: heavenly guidance and provision?
Isaiah 58:11 11The Lord will guide you continually, And satisfy your soul in drought, And strengthen your bones; You shall be like a watered garden, And like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.
“Continual” guidance from God. Not occasionally, but all the time. When we feel like we NEED guidance, and when we feel we can go ON OUR OWN.
Then the point of satisfaction. When does water most satisfy? When we are thirsty! We must be thirsty for God’s knowledge, or we won’t go after it. ON whom did Jesus pronounce blessing?
Matthew 5:6 6Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be filled.
Not everyone who is thirsty will be blessed, but those who hunger and thirst for “righteousness.” Everything RIGHT from God’s viewpoint—and we are blessed when our “right” comes from God.
Right actions, right standards, right attitudes. All RIGHT.
Then think about:
1The Lord will guide you continually, And satisfy your soul in drought…
“Your soul” has to survive during “drought” conditions. He promises to satisfy “in drought.” Isn’t that what we have now, drought all around us? Not because water is unavailable but because the water of God’s word lacks appeal. Wrong flavor.
This is the problem when Jesus was teaching. He was not well received, and He knew why:
Luke 16:15 15And He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God.
Oh, it felt good to “justify themselves,” tell how good they were, how right they were, how much God thought of them. But…but…but…time to be careful, because one BIG reason:
“…but God knows your hearts.
No guessing here. God KNOWS. And He knows YOUR HEARTS. Nothing hidden, nothing sealed, nothing covered but GOD KNOWS.
Luke 12:1-2 1In the meantime,…He began to say to His disciples first of all, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. 2For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, nor hidden that will not be known.
No place for hypocrisy.
Now back to Isaiah’s words about those who delight in God’s fountain of water: God will
Isaiah 58:11 11… satisfy your soul in drought, And strengthen your bones; You shall be like a watered garden, And like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.
What an abundance of water is available: enough water to be a “watered garden.” The benefit of being a watered garden is that it is not dependent on the environment for its water. Its source is deeper. Being well watered, it will grow and produce, all the time, rain or shine.
PLUS that well watered soul becomes a resource to others! It is like “a spring of water”—overflowing, and unfailing. Why? Because the source of the spring is God. That is the only way it can be a “spring of water, whose waters do not fail.”
Every human source of knowledge will fail. But keep the connection with God, and you have an unfailing spring—both for yourself and for others.
This is what every well-watered spiritual garden needs to grow luxuriantly.
Now let’s take a walk to the primary garden in Scripture: The Garden of Eden. Why did the Lord God plant a garden in Eden? It is part of a very significant allegory in Scripture, that gives us a picture of God’s way of working.
If you decide to grow vegetables, you dedicate an area to the project, you till and prepare the soil, and put in your seeds or plants. You don’t scatter them all around your premises, but put them together where you can nurture and care for them.
Isn’t this what God has done? Genesis pictures in symbols God’s way of working. He doesn’t sow a few seeds all over the planet. He has a spiritual garden where—figuratively—they can grow––in His garden.
Now to our point of a watered garden: Eden has water. The world around may be dry, but there is water in Eden. So much water that a river comes out of the garden!
Genesis 2:10 10Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it parted and became four riverheads.
The river from Eden became four riverheads! And these rivers spread all over the earth. Here is the picture of God’s knowledge filling the earth, as the prophet Isaiah described,
Isaiah 11:9 9They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord As the waters cover the sea.
Also the prophet Habakkuk:
Habakkuk 2:14 14For the earth will be filled With the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, As the waters cover the sea.
Remember Ezekiel’s vision of the water that came from under the threshold of the temple, and grew from a trickle, to what? It is worth re-reading.
Ezekiel 47:1–5 1Then he brought me back to the door of the temple; and there was water, flowing from under the threshold of the temple toward the east, for the front of the temple faced east; the water was flowing from under the right side of the temple, south of the altar.
2He brought me out by way of the north gate, and led me around on the outside to the outer gateway that faces east; and there was water, running out on the right side.
3And when the man went out to the east with the line in his hand, he measured one thousand cubits, and he brought me through the waters; the water came up to my ankles.
4Again he measured one thousand and brought me through the waters; the water came up to my knees. Again he measured one thousand and brought me through; the water came up to my waist.
5Again he measured one thousand, and it was a river that I could not cross; for the water was too deep, water in which one must swim, a river that could not be crossed.
The tiny stream grew quickly into a river that you couldn’t cross!
That is the way God’s knowledge will spread, once the evil is removed and the new government is in place.
This life-giving water is only in the garden now, but soon, with the coming of Christ, it will start to spread, and spread, and spread until it covers the earth! Then there will be well watered gardens all over the earth! As Jeremiah says:
Jeremiah 31:12–14 12Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, Streaming to the goodness of the Lord For wheat and new wine and oil, For the young of the flock and the herd; Their souls shall be like a well-watered garden, And they shall sorrow no more at all.
There is that word “Satisfied” again. Water that satisfies the thirst.
Going forward, there will be more and more water for everyone. Isaiah says more about this wonderful time when the whole earth gets watered—because once the world has been cleansed of sin and evil, the whole earth will be God’s garden. Notice the different terms Isaiah uses to describe the abundance of water. Rivers… fountains… pools… springs of water! Speaking for God He says: “I will
Isaiah 41:18–20 18… open rivers in desolate heights, And fountains in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water, And the dry land springs of water.
19I will plant in the wilderness the cedar and the acacia tree, The myrtle and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the cypress tree and the pine And the box tree together,
20That they may see and know, And consider and understand together, That the hand of the Lord has done this, And the Holy One of Israel has created it.
All will know where the water came from. No mystery about it. When “all know the Lord,” they will all want His life-giving water.
God will supply. Abundantly.
Again Isaiah says of God’s supplying of water:
Isaiah 44:3 3For I will pour water on him who is thirsty
This is NOW, God supplies His water of life for any who are thirsty, who have the desire for it. This is His promise.
Then in the future when He pours out His spirit He will pour out
“floods on the dry ground; I will pour My Spirit on your descendants, And My blessing on your offspring;
That’s a whole lot more than can be compared to 3 inches of rainfall. 3” is good for the small garden, but when the need becomes worldwide, God will open the windows of heaven and pour out an abundance for all who will drink it.
What a promise!
The prophet Joel speaks also of the satisfaction this life-giving water will give.
Joel 2:26 26You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, And praise the name of the Lord your God, Who has dealt wondrously with you; And My people shall never be put to shame.
Never. That is a long, long time. A people who will never be conquered, never be overcome, never be put to shame.
Want a WELL WATERED spiritual garden? There’s plenty of water available, good clean water in the Word… plenty for ALL our gardens, and more!
Let’s be sure we keep drinking this life-giving water, get thirsty for more and more of it. BE that well watered garden, or the well of water “springing up into everlasting life.”