Even though Jeremiah speaks so much concerning Israel’s sin and God’s wrath, chastisement, and punishment, in this book we also see that God’s intention in His economy is to be the fountain, the source, of living waters to dispense Himself into His chosen people for their satisfaction and enjoyment to produce the church as God’s increase and enlargement. Hallelujah!
This week in our Crystallization-study of Jeremiah and Lamentations we come to the matter of, The Two Evils of God’s People and God’s Faithfulness in Fulfilling His Economy.
God doesn’t use this word “evil” loosely; He considers that His people committed two evils in His eyes. However, there’s also the other side, the matter of God’s faithfulness.
On one hand His people committed two evils, and on the other, we see the faithfulness of God.
May we receive this word regarding the two evils that we as God’s people commit, and may we bring it to the Lord, realizing that He is faithful and He wants us to return to Him as the fountain of living waters to deeply drink of Him.
The book of Jeremiah is full of speaking concerning Israel’s sin and God’s wrath, chastisement, and punishment, and this book also reveals that God’s intention in His economy is to be the fountain of living waters, the source of living waters, to dispense Himself into His chosen people for their satisfaction and enjoyment.
God desires to dispense Himself into us, His chosen and redeemed people, to produce the church, God’s counterpart, as God’s increase, His enlargement, to be God’s fullness for His expression (Jer. 2:13). Hallelujah!
The kernel of the divine revelation in the Bible is that God created us and redeemed us for the purpose of working Himself into us to be our life and our everything (Psa. 36:89; John 3:29-30; 4:10, 14; 7:37-39; Rev. 7:17; Eph. 3:16-19).
This is the desire of God’s heart; this is His good pleasure in His economy.
Such a thought is sown as a seed in Jer. 2:13 and it is developed in full in the New Testament, where we see that God Himself was incarnated, became a man, lived a perfect human life, died on the cross to redeem us, resurrected to become a life-giving Spirit, and ascended to pour out the Spirit for us to drink and be immersed into. Hallelujah!
As believers in Christ today we need to drink of Christ as the Spirit, the living water, so that we may become the increase of God, His enlargement, for His corporate expression on earth!
God Intends to be the Fountain of Living Waters to Satisfy us and Make us His Increase for His Expression
The entire Bible was written for God’s economy; the book of Jeremiah is no exception to this.
We need to see from the word of God, under the Lord’s shining, that God’s economy is clearly unveiled in Jeremiah.
In particular, as seen in Jer. 2:13, God’s word to Israel – His elect – was concerning the two evils they committed and God’s desire and intention in His economy to be the fountain, the source, of living waters to satisfy His chosen people for their enjoyment.
In His economy God desires to dispense Himself into us, His chosen people, to produce His increase, His enlargement, to be His corporate expression on earth.
So Israel should not have left God to go after idols but rather, they should have drunk of God as the fountain of living waters that they might become His increase as His expression.
However, they forsook God as their fountain and turned to a source other than God; these two evils govern the entire book of Jeremiah.
They hewed out cisterns (which were broken and could hold no water) to replace God as the fountain of living waters. Oh Lord!
Apart from God Himself dispensed into us as living water NOTHING can quench our thirst and make us God’s increase for His expression!
Whatever happened to them and whatever they did is a type of us, and this also happens to us in principle; Israel is a type of the church, and what God spoke to them He also speaks to us.
This thought is sown as a seed in Jer. 2:13 but it is strengthened and developed in the New Testament, especially in Paul’s writings.
Paul tells us in 1 Cor. 12:13 that in one Spirit we were all baptized into one Body, and we were all given to drink one Spirit. Hallelujah!
On one hand we were baptized in the Spirit, which means that we were put in the Spirit, immersed in the Spirit, so that we may be lost in Him.
On the other hand we were given the Spirit to drink as our bountiful supply, which means that we have our being saturated with Him.
Furthermore, in 1 Cor. 10:3-4 Paul speaks of the people of Israel who ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank of a spiritual rock which followed them, and the rock was Christ.
Christ is both our spiritual food (the reality of the manna which the children of Israel had daily during their travel through the wilderness, Exo. 16:14-18), and our spiritual drink, the living water flowing from the cleft rock (which is a type of Christ, Exo. 17:6).
So today we need to simply drink of the Lord as the living water, realizing that He was crucified and resurrected and, as the life-giving Spirit in resurrection, He is now flowing as the living water for the believers to drink, be filled with, be constituted with, and be produced as His enlargement, His fullness, for His expression!
May we not abandon God as the source of living waters as the children of Israel did, but may we return to Him, drink of Him, take Him as our unique source, and allow ourselves to both be immersed in Him and saturated with Him as the living water!
God as the fountain of living waters wants to quench our thirst, satisfy us, and fill us, with the goal that we become His increase, His enlargement, for His corporate expression on the earth.
May we take this word from the Lord to us, may we consider this before the Lord, and may we forsake anything that replaces Him as the fountain of living waters in our being.
Hallelujah, God’s intention in His economy is to be the fountain, the source, of living waters to dispense Himself into us for our satisfaction and enjoyment with the goal of producing the church, God’s counterpart, as His increase for His expression! Amen, Lord Jesus, we forsake anything that replaces You and we return to You to drink of You as the living water! Praise the Lord, we have been positioned to drink of the Spirit, and now we can exercise to be filled in spirit by drinking the living water! Hallelujah, in one Spirit we were all baptized in one Body, and we all were given to drink one Spirit! Amen, Lord, we come to drink of You as the Spirit, the living water, to be produced as Your increase, Your enlargement, for Your expression!
As Thirsty ones we Come to the Lord as the Smitten Rock and Drink the Spirit as the Living Water flowing from Him
What is the living water which we drink from the Lord?
Some may think that this is a supernatural thing, a feeling of flowing and flooding that takes over us, something that is out of this world…but if we look in the Bible, this is not what it indicates.
The living water flowing out for us to drink comes from the smitten rock, and this rock is Christ while the water is the Spirit (John 7:37-39).
Christ came through incarnation to the earth to be a rock; on the cross He was smitten by the authority of God’s righteous law to accomplish God’s redemption.
This is seen in type in Exo. 17, where Moses was commanded to strike this big rock, so that water would come out of the people to drink.
This is a picture of what happened on the cross; the law – having full requirements on all the sinners – struck Christ as the sinless one crucified for the sinful ones.
Christ received the full onslaught, power, and extent of the law of God, and with that smiting, the opening of the wounds, the piercing of His side, not only blood came out for our redemption but also the living water came out, which is God Himself flowing for us to drink.
In John 19:34 it says that while on the cross, His side was pierced, and blood and water flowed from Him; the blood is for redemption and the water is for the impartation of life.
Now there is the living water, the water of life in resurrection, which flows as the all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit, the ultimate issue of the Triune God (1 Cor. 15:45).
The source of the water of life – as seen in Rev. 22:1 – is the throne of God and of the Lamb; the water of life is the Triune God flowing out to be our life.
Our God is a flowing God; He flows from eternity into time. God flowed as the living water through the incarnation, human living, and crucifixion of Christ (John 4:10, 14; 19:34), and now He flows in resurrection to supply us as the people of God with all the riches of the divine life.
Since the resurrection of Christ and until now, God has been flowing as the living water to quench the thirst of all those who come to Him and are open to drink of Him.
On the cross Christ was smitten, living water is flowing, and we simply need to drink of Him!
We need to identify ourselves with the smitten Christ and we will drink the divine life as the living water!
As we drink the living water, we are satisfied and nourished, and we are built up as the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:13) and are prepared as the bride of Christ (Rev. 19:7), consummating in the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:9-10). Hallelujah!
So for us to drink the water of life we need to first be positioned to drink – which is through our repentance and believing into the Lord; then, we need to be thirsty (John 7:37; Rev. 21:6), for only the ones who are thirsty will come to the Lord to get the water of life.
Seeing that we have been positioned to drink and realizing we are thirsty, we need to come to the Lord and ask Him to give us to drink, believing into Him and calling on His name (Isa. 12:3-4; Acts 2:21).
Christ as the spiritual rock follows us wherever we are, and out of Him flows living water; may we speak to the rock, apply His death and resurrection, and just drink of Him!
Today we are here to drink from the rock flowing out with living water so that we may be satisfied with the Triune God and be produced to be His increase, His enlargement, for His expression!
Thank You Lord for being smitten by the authority of God’s law on the cross so that the water of life in resurrection could flow out of You and into us to drink! Thank You we can repent and believe into You to be positioned to drink of the living water. We are thirsty, Lord, and we open to You to drink the living water, the Spirit who gives life. Amen, we believe into You, Lord, and we call on Your name, opening our whole being to You to drink deeply of the water of life. Cause us to drink, Lord, so that we may be satisfied with the Triune God who fills us and we would become Your enlargement, Your increase, for Your corporate expression!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Minoru Chen for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Exodus, msg. 40 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization Study of Jeremiah and Lamentations, week 3, The Two Evils of God’s People and God’s Faithfulness in Fulfilling His Economy.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Thou art the smitten rock, / Whence living waters burst; / At all times I may drink, / And fully quench my thirst. / Now, hungry and athirst, / I come, dear Lord, to Thee; / Feed me Thy very self, / Life water flow to me. (Song on, Lord, Thou art manna true)
– My Christ, He is the smitten Rock / Whence living waters burst; / He is the fountain in my heart / Which quenches all my thirst. (Hymns #510)
– Thou from the heavens as food camest down, / Thou to be drink hast been smitten for me; / Thou as the food, my exhaustless supply, / Thou as the water, a stream unto me. (Hymns #811)
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