Isaiah 44
Do you know thirst? I thought I did as a child. I remember when my mother used to spend hot summer afternoons trying to teach my sister and me how to play tennis. We were so hot and thirsty. She promised us ice-cream sodas to keep us going and to try to encourage a more positive attitude in us. We were hot and tired, but we never really knew deep thirst as the Scripture speaks of it. Imagine thirst that might be truly life-threatening as people travel through a dry land searching for water. This is something that I have simply never known.
God is the supplier of water upon a thirsty land – not merely the physical water that we need day by day, but the spiritual water of the pouring out of the Holy Spirit. Without the Spirit of God we will be bone dry as it relates to true spirituality. Worse than dry, we will truly be dead in our trespasses and sins, without God and without hope in the world. With the Spirit of God we have a river of living water, and wherever that river flows there is fruitful and useful life. When God pours out His Spirit in the New Testament era, in the most unusual and unexpected places in the world there will be people acknowledging the Lord and owning Him as their only hope and prized possession.
The Samaritan woman at the well wanted to know where she could get the living water that Jesus described so that she would not have to keep on returning to the well in order to take care of her daily needs. Here in Isaiah we find an early announcement of the only possible source of this true spiritual water. Have you considered this truth? Only the Lord God could send the Holy Spirit. Others may claim to bring the freshness of new life through their intriguing spiritualities, but they will all leave you dry before long. Those wells of false spiritual water are shallow and unclean. Only God can send you the gift that you most need. There is only one God, and He is the giver of the Holy Spirit.
Yet the world is full of false gods. Silent idols seem to clamor for our attention. They are worthless on this point. They are nothing, and they can do nothing. They certainly cannot cause the Spirit of God to dwell within us. This is no small matter. It is from the Spirit of God that we are first effectually called to life in Christ. It is also the Spirit of God who moves us in the direction of holy living. It is the Spirit of God who effectually works in us to produce every spiritual blessing. Jesus said, “If you keep my commandments you will abide in my love.” But this is not at all an easy thing to do. This kind of settled life of turning to the word of the Lord with a heart of obedience is something we may love with our lips, but then end up hating with our hearts and therefore our lives before the day is done. Only by the Spirit of God can a man be brought to fully love the life of obedience to the commandments of Jesus Christ. Idols cannot help us here at all. They cannot send the Spirit.
The story of the idol-maker and idol-worshipper is truly ridiculous and pitiful. Isaiah describes this condition well. Do we not see anything troubling about the way that we would make an idol from a piece of wood, and then use the rest of the same wood as something for the fire upon which we cook our meal? The truth is that we should be thanking God for the food that we enjoy every day. Instead the idol-worshiper thanks a piece of wood. We can so quickly become like the block of wood that we worship. We lose all that makes us alive, and we become slaves of sin and death. But where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
What are we to think of the idol-worshipping way of living? The consideration of such a deluded soul is very sad. Yet despite our dangerous and distracting sin, God will not forget His Israel. There is a “Cyrus” who is coming who will announce the victory – a victory that is far beyond our wildest dreams. The Servant of the Lord came and gave His body as a curse upon a tree. He did this for us who would hear and believe. What an amazing love!
Having the spiritual riches of the fountain of all life granted to us, let us draw near with a full assurance of faith, our consciences cleansed from the water of God. Let us never flatter ourselves into thinking that our salvation was just a blind activity of a divine force or being who is not sure of what He is doing. God has redeemed us in Jesus Christ. It was an amazing prophecy for Christ to be the source of a whole new way of life. Yet He is God. More than that, His bleeding wounds still plead for the dead and bring new life. It is from those wounds of atoning blood that we have received streams of living water unto eternal life. Thank God for the down-payment of the Holy Spirit. Thank God for this token of His great love and for the whole promised blessing that will be ours as we one day receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit according to the heavenly promises of God.
posted by Pastor Magee @ 7:00 AM
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