Life Spark: You don’t have to be spiritually dehydrated. (John 7:37-39)
“On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, ‘If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.’” (John 7:37)
I was out with some friends hunting elusive birds called chukars on a very hot October day. We were five miles from our pickup and we forgot to bring water. I found a marshy place where cows had trampled a little spring. I was so desperate that, as my two buddies watched in horror, I drank some brownish yellow water from the cup of a cow’s hoof-print. That afternoon as we headed home, I stopped in the tiny burg of Mitchell and bought a Big Gulp, which I gulped! (Dehydrated people don’t sip.) Upon arriving at home, I called a doctor friend and he got me some anti-giardia pills. I was surprised they worked, and I didn’t get giardia. Thirst can drive you to do things you didn’t think you would ever do.
On the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles the priests would lead a procession from the temple to the pool of Siloam, where they would take a pitcher, fill it with water from the pool, and pour it out ceremoniously to memorialize Moses striking the rock in the wilderness just before water gushed out for a desperately dehydrated nation. (Numbers 20) As the priests piously poured out the water, Jesus stole the show by yelling out:
“If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.” (John 7:37, NIV)
Today, as I read that verse, it dawned on me for the first time that the living water comes from the heart of Jesus. In John 16:7 Jesus promised that after He went away He would send the Spirit. The river that comes from His heart is the Spirit of Life. (See verse 39) Wow. Because Jesus sent the Spirit of Life, we don’t have to be dehydrated! “The Spirit alone gives eternal life.” (John 6:63, NLT) “… anyone who wants to; let him come and drink the Water of Life without charge.” (Rev. 22:17, TLB)
In his book, “Selling Water by the River” (Jericho Books), Shane Hipps points out the “If” in verse 38: “This gift of eternal life is only a possibility for people, not a certainty. It comes with a condition. In John 7:37 Jesus begins his proclamation by saying “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.” The first condition is to be thirsty. The experience of eternal life is exclusively reserved for thirsty people.”
Are you thirsty?
Life-action: Scriptures challenge us to keep being filled with the Holy Spirit. (Ephesians 5:18) When was the last time you took a big gulp from the Living River? How about now?