ARE WE DRINKING FROM MUD PUDDLES?
By Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com (YouTube: Wade Hughes)
*MUD: a slimy, sticky mixture of earth and water. Mixture of clay and water.
*PUDDLE: a small pool, amount of water on the ground, usually dirty.
MANY SEEM TO BE DRINKING FROM MUDDY SPRINGS.
Proverbs 25:26 A righteous man falling down before the wicked is as a troubled fountain, and a corrupt spring. Proverbs 25:26 (MSG) A good person who gives in to a bad person is a muddied spring, a polluted well. Proverbs 25:26 (NLT2) If the godly give in to the wicked, it’s like polluting a fountain or muddying a spring.
I really understand this verse from personal experience. When I was in the 7th and 8th grades my dad pastored in OLIVER SPRINGS, TENNESSEE. My brother was a year older than I was. Dad would allow us to “go exploring” in the hills behind our house. It would be hot spring and summer time. We would climb the hills. We would get very thirsty. There were springs all over the hill sides. I would run ahead of Charles and get a drink of the cool, pure water. It was so good. Before my brother got there, I would drink what I wanted and I would take my hand and stir of the water. The mud and sediments in the bottom of the spring would make a muddy mess. Charles could not drink the muddy water and he would get so mad at me….
I ALSO UNDERSTAND JEREMIAH’S WRITING FROM EXPERIENCE. Drinking from mud puddles.
My Dad pastored in Clermont County, Ohio. We lived in a parsonage behind the church. The church was out in the country. There was no water lines. The church had built a cistern behind the church. Twice a year I was “chosen” (Because of my size) to go go down in the cistern and wash the sides and bottom of the cistern. I hated every minute of it. Then I hated drinking the water. We liked fresh cool waters that came from deep wells.
Jeremiah 2:13 For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.
Jeremiah 2:13 (MSG) "My people have committed a compound sin: they've walked out on me, the fountain Of fresh flowing waters, and then dug cisterns— cisterns that leak, cisterns that are no better than sieves.
Jeremiah 2:13 (NLT2) “For my people have done two evil things: They have abandoned me— the fountain of living water. And they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all!
My Dad pastored in Clermont County, Ohio. We lived in a parsonage behind the church. The church was out in the country. There was no water lines. The church had built a cistern behind the church. Twice a year I was “chosen” (Because of my size) to go down in the cistern and wash the sides and bottom of the cistern. I hated every minute of it. Then I hated drinking the water. We liked fresh cool waters that came from deep wells.
I never realized someday my experience would help me illustrate a sermon?
WE HAVE A CHOICE: 1. LIVING WATERS VS. CISTERNS… BROKEN CISTERNS… broken cisterns will leak and go dry.
THE JORDAN RIVER IS OFTEN A MUDDY RIVER… I THOUGHT CAN KILL YOUR MIRACLE… MUDDY RIVER: HOW DARE THAT DUMB PREACHER TELL ME GO TO THE MUD? MUD PUDDLES? MUD IN THE BIBLE IS VERY SYMBOLIC… DUST? MUD? SYMBOL OF THE ORIGIN OF LIFE. SACRED.
Mud is something amazing… GOD BRINGS LIFE FROM NATURE… MUD IS THE SACRED FOUND IN THE ORDINARY DAILY LIFE. Mud speaks of the obedience to the creation/re-creation.
2 Kings 5:10 And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean. 11 But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the LORD his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper. 12 Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage.
NAAMAN IN A RAGE, TEMPER FITS ARE OFTEN AN ATTEMPT TO MANIPULATE THE CIRCUMSTANCE. The act was not the mud, but the obedience to the MAN OF GOD! NAAMAN YOU MUST HUMBLE YOURSELF TO THE MUD.
WHY ARGUE:WHO SINNED? WHY MUD? WHY THE POOL OF SILOAM? SILOAM MEANS SENT! ARE WE LOOKING FOR MAGIC WATER? A MAGIC PORTION?
John 9:4 I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.
5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. 6 When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay, 7 And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing.
The pool of Siloam was built by King Hezekiah. This pool was near the SHEEP GATE. The Pool of Siloam was the only source of fresh water within the city limits of Jerusalem. If Jerusalem was ever unseized the Pool was life. The pool was 53 feet long, 18 feet wide, and 19 feet deep it was fed by a spring.
In Jesus’ day the pool was near the temple. AT THE FEAST OF THE TABERNACLES FOR 7 DAYS WATER FROM THE POOL OD SILOAM WAS POUR ON THE ALTAR. ON THE 8TH AND FINAL DAY
OF THE FESTIVAL, NO WATER WAS POUR OUT… JESUS IDENTIFIED HIMSELF AS THE LIVING WATER.
WHAT A SIGNIFICANT PROBLEM FOR A BLIND MAN TO WALK TO THE POOL OF SALOAM? Why could not someone have carried the water to the blind man? We do not know how far the walk was… but at best it would have been a great challenge for a blind man with mud in his eyes. The crowd probably had questions?
There was a blind man that lived in darkness, the unnamed blind man was about to see the LIGHT OF THE WORLD. KNOW THE SPIT AND MUD (ORDINARY COMES TO THE SACRED) AND WASHES IN THE POOL OF FRESH LIVING WATER. God uses the common, ordinary mud to bring the living water and the light to this blind man. GOD USES THE ORDINARY TO RELEASE A MIRACLE.
LET US RETURN TO THE PREACHER JEREMIAH… JEREMIAH IS KNOWN AS THE WEEPING PROPHET. GOD CALLED JEREMIAH TO CALL THE PEOPLE TO REPENTANCE AND SPEAK OF THE COMING JUDGMENT FOR SIN AND WICKEDNESS.
Jeremiah was concerned with false prophets and false worship styles. Jeremiah mourned for his people. Jeremiah was despised and rejected by God’s people. Jeremiah preached 20+ years. Jeremiah’s message was DESTRUCTION IS COMING. The Kings and people hate the message and the messenger.
Jeremiah 1:6 Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child. 7 But the LORD said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak. 8 Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the LORD.
9 Then the LORD put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the LORD said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth. 10 See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant. 11 Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Jeremiah, what seest thou? And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree. 12 Then said the LORD unto me, Thou hast well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it.
JEREMIAH SPEND SOME OF HIS MINISTRY IN THE MUD, THE MIRY CLAY…THE KING WANTED TO SILENCE JEREMIAH’S NEGATIVE MESSAGE…
Jeremiah 38:6 Then took they Jeremiah, and cast him into the dungeon of Malchiah the son of Hammelech, that was in the court of the prison: and they let down Jeremiah with cords. And in the dungeon there was no water, but mire: so Jeremiah sunk in the mire.
THE MUD CANNOT SILENCE GOD’S MESSAGE… COME MY FRIEND, TRUST GOD’S PLAN.
Jeremiah 20:9 Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.
I refuse to drink out of muddy puddles.
Jeremiah 33:3 Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.
CONCLUSION: I read a story of two men locked up in the same prison cell. One stood at the window and all he could see was the MUD. The other prisoner lay on his bunk and saw the bright stars all night. Which prisoner are you?
His servant, Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com (YouTube: Wade Hughes)
