Water is essential to life, being a necessity to every living organism. Water is a very fitting symbol of the Holy Spirit, as well as of the word of God. Water is cleansing, refreshing, life-giving, and life sustaining. Appropriately Jesus used water as a picture when He spoke of the Holy Spirit in John 7:37-39, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” First it is to drink, and then there is an overflow. In Isaiah 43:3 God says “…I will pour water on him who is thirsty, and floods on the dry ground; I will pour My Spirit on your descendants, and My blessing on your offspring.” Often scriptures that have a natural meaning and interpretation also have great spiritual significance as God uses the natural things that we understand to teach us spiritual truths. Such is the case in Isaiah 35 where verses 1-2 say “…the wasteland shall be glad for them, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the rose; it shall blossom abundantly and rejoice even with joy and singing…” Verses that are applied to the natural land of Israel, but obviously they apply to people as there is rejoicing, joy, and singing; this occurs as the work of the Holy Spirit brings this abundance to the life that has been like the dry, parched, barren wilderness or wasteland, specifically like the Arabah. Then verses 6-7 of Isaiah 35 go on to say “Then the lamb shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing. For waters shall burst forth in the wilderness, And streams in the desert. The parched ground shall become a pool, And the thirsty land springs of water…”
Abundant Water
By Rose Hill
Some people have forsaken You,
And don’t believe Your words are true.
But someday Your glory they will see,
Just as the waters cover the sea. 1
As a deer the lamb shall leap,
And the dumb will be able to speak.
In the places all hard and dry,
There won’t even be a dry eye.
In the wilderness shall water break out,
And streams in the desert all about. 2
(1.) Habakkuk 2:14; (2.) Isaiah 43:19-20.
Scripture quotations are from the New King James Version copyright by Thomas Nelson Co. and are used by permission.