The River Of Living Water

The River of Living Water

• What is the River of Living Water?

• Where does it begin and where is it going?

• What does it do and what is its purpose?

• How can I be a part of it?

There are numerous passages of scripture where the Living Water is spoken about and in every instance it is something that brings life and blessing to those who jump in and allow the water to carry them along in its flow. One familiar passage is found in John chapter 4 where Jesus meets the woman at the well.

John 4:10 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.

John 4:11 The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water? (Notice that it was a well that she was trying to drink from. It was stagnant water, a cistern. It may have been fed from the ground, but it didn’t have a constant flow of water filling it or it would have overflowed and caused a creed or river to form.)

We find the answer to the source of the River in John 7:38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

The “belly” found in this scripture refers to the heart. It would come from within Jesus alone, and it would be all-sufficient for every spiritual thirst. It was more than natural flowing water, which is what the world would call “living water”. This water was “spiritual, supernatural and of heavenly origin”. This Living Water came from God above to the earth and to men below, and later on we will see its origin and its destination more clearly.)

Sometimes, in reading the Bible, it is often hard for us to understand, and grasp the full meaning of certain phrases and object lessons because they come from a Hebrew mindset that is very different than our own. Many words translate one way into English, but actually have a richer meaning when seen in the Hebrew language, or even in the Greek.

It’s also important to have somewhat of an understanding of the spiritual imagery that the Bible uses; to get into the minds of the ancient Israelites and see how they saw things which helped them to experience God’s presence in the world.

The Jews often find pictures and object lessons that teach theological concepts in the world around them, and God often communicated with them through those things that they saw. Jesus also uses object lessons and images to tell about himself. Sometimes they are called Parables, which many believe are only stories, but which I personally believe are true stories that teach a moral. We need to understand his culture, and some things concerning Hebrew thought in order to comprehend more of Jesus’ message, both to Israel and to the church.

One of the things that can be much greater understood is this idea of what is meant by “Living Water”.

We will look at some of those images and ideas about water in the Bible and try to expand our understanding of what the River of Living Water is all about and in the process try to answer all of the questions that we had in the beginning.

In the Middle East, water is often scarce and precious. Water is necessary for survival and without it everything suffers and dies. But it only rains a few months out of the year in Israel, and the rest of the time the ancient Jews survived on stagnant water that was stored in cisterns in the ground, just like the one where Jesus met the woman at the well. Survival meant getting up early, walking perhaps miles to the well with a large empty waterpot, and then walking miles back carrying the water on your shoulder.

Some of us remember the time when there was no running water in the house. It meant going out in the heat, or in the cold, perhaps at night, priming the pump handle in the yard or the shed, filling up a bucket or two and them carrying them back in. It was outside, but at least it was close. There have been a lot of people who have had to abandon homes and move simply because the well ran dry and there was no water near enough to live on. So it was time to move and find a new well. And in some places they hired “Water Witches” with “Magic sticks” to find water when things got desperate.