The Gift of Thirst
Isaiah 41:17-20 KJV
"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. I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah tree, and the myrtle, and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the fir tree, and the pine, and the box tree together: That they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of the Lord hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it."
Why Am I Always Thirsty?
There are different reasons for thirst:
Dehydration.
Diabetes.
Exertion.
Dry mouth.
1. The Gift of Thirst
Isaiah 41:17 KJV
"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."
The portrait Isaiah paints is of a group of travelers who are beyond thirsty. They are dehydrated. They are poor. They are needed. They lack the most basic necessity of human life, water.
The human body is ? water.
By the time you are 70-years-old, you will have required 1½ million gallons of water.
Studies show that increasing water consumption can decrease fat deposits.
Water is a natural appetite suppressant.
Staying hydrated decreases anxiety.
If you loose 2% of your body’s water supply, your energy will decrease by 20%. A 10% decrease in water, you will be unable to walk, and a 20% decrease – you’re dead.
Water equals life.
The Mars rovers were sent to look for signs of life, the number one being signs of water.
One of the greatest things humanitarians have done in the modern era is use technology to drill wells in places where people were dying because of the lack of water.
The poor and needy were seeking water. Their tongue was dry. They were parched... and God heard...
What exactly did he hear? Was it their audible prayers? Or was it something deeper?
The Bible speaks of unarticulated prayers it calls groans. Groans are our most primal voice. God can hear our deepest thoughts, our unspoken needs and desires.
Exodus 4:7 NLT
"Then the LORD told him, “I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their cries of distress because of their harsh slave drivers. Yes, I am aware of their suffering."
Romans 8:26-27 NIV
"In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God."
Jesus called hunger and thirst a blessing (Matt 5:6). Without thirst we would die.
Jesus, in His solidarity with us knew what is was like to thirst. When he was weary at the well of Samaria, He asked for a drink (John 4:7). Among His final words as He hung dying on the cross were, "I thirst" (John 19:28).
As there is gift of physical thirst within us, there is within every human life a spiritual thirst.
“If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world” (C. S. Lewis).
Our cries, the inner cries of our thirsts both physical and spiritual do not fall on deaf ears.
God hears thirsty souls:
When Hagar and her child Ishmael were thirsty when they had been cast out by Abraham, God heard. He opened her eyes to a spring that was already in her desert.
When Israel wandered in the wilderness and could find no water, God heard. He brought forth water from a Rock.
When David longed for a drink of the cold waters of Bethlehem's well, God heard, He sent David a drink by way of the brave soldiers that fought their way through the Philistine garrisons to bring their king back a drink.
God has many methods of delivery but he hears our deepest thirsts and promises that if we are thirsty we can drink!
Isaiah 55:1 KJV
"Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price."
John 7:37-39 KJV
"In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, 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 water. (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)"
Revelation 22:17 KJV
"And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely."
2. The Gift of Abundance
Isaiah 41:18 KJV
"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."
71% of the earth is covered by water. There is also water deep within the earth that is continually springing forth. There are icecaps and glaciers.
God is not stingy.
Water means life. Mars.
There were four rivers that went out of Eden to water the land.
Oases. Wells.
Rivers, fountains, pool, springs of water.
High places, valleys, wilderness, dry land.
God can quench your spiritual thirst no matter where you are in life.
"I will open rivers.--The words have all the emphasis of varied iteration. Every shape of the physical contour of the country, bare hills, arid steppes, and the like, is to be transformed into a new beauty by water in the form adapted to each: streamlets, rivers, lakes, and springs." Ellicott
If the highest places have water, the lowest will as well.
God goes down into the lowest valleys.
The Holy Spirit is described as like artesian Rivers that flow up from our innermost being.
3. The Gift of Completeness
"I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah tree, and the myrtle, and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the fir tree, and the pine, and the box tree together: That they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of the Lord hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it."
God planted the garden eastward in Eden (Gen 2:8).
Here the LORD promises to plant seven types of trees. Seven is the number of completeness in Scripture.
Isaiah 61:1-3 NIV
The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn,3 and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.
Psalm 1
Like a tree planted by the waters.
Being planted means stability, firmness, and rootedness.
