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‘In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink.
Joh_7:37
I. Men thirst for pardon and peace with God.—This is a deep and universal desire. It is not felt equally by all. In some it is an intense and almost constant longing; in others the thirst is not so great nor is it as continuous. But in all souls it is found. Sometimes the thirst is excited by startling, distressing circumstances which awaken anxiety and dread; in others it comes they hardly know how, but stealing into heart and mind, giving no rest. This thirst is caused now and again by a sight—fitful and very fragmentary—of God’s love in Christ. However the wish for pardon may spring up, by whomever it is felt, to all and every one burdened with a sense of sin, Jesus says, ‘Come unto Me and drink’ of the free, forgiving love of God made known in Me.
II. Many thirst to be made free from the power of sin.—They not only long for power and peace with God, a longing is felt to be set at liberty from the bondage of evil passion and habits. Every man in whom there is any sense of the true, right, and pure is conscious that more or less he is in bondage to that which is corrupt and destructive. He is not allowed to lose sight of this for long, and sometimes he experiences shame and remorse through a terrible gust of temptation which has swept him into what his conscience condemns. Then he realises a little of the power of sin, it reigns in his mortal body and he obeys it in the lust thereof. But as he obeys he hates the power that enthrals him. There are many around us who thirst for release from the enslaving power of sin. They have tried to free themselves, nor have they quite given up hope of being able to do this. They have failed repeatedly, and sadly failed in all efforts of this kind that they have made. Still, the hope of deliverance from the power of sin by their own efforts is not quite gone. If we could but convince them that this hope is a delusion and that rescue from the power of sin and Satan can only be obtained in Jesus!
III. There is the thirst for love.—All love comes from God: He gives us the capacity and impulse to love. He feeds the desire in us to love. He alone is the object that satisfies our love. No heart can rest in itself as the object of love. When any seek to centre and restrict love to themselves, instead of finding peace, satisfaction, and joy in loving, they are filled with disquietude, they are disappointed and miserable. ‘No man liveth unto himself.’ Nor can we find any other object that fully satisfies the power of love except God Himself. The love of God alone imparts all we need. The yearnings of love are never met until God becomes the supreme object of love. The more you love Him the more you will love others. It is only in Christ that we can love God, as Christ only reveals the fullness and glory of God’s love to us. If you long for an object of love, come to Christ and take Him as God’s highest gift of love, and you will find rest to your souls.
IV. There is the thirst for a worthy aim and pursuit in life.—There are very many in our crowded, wealthy land who have no definite, worthy occupation. Some of them are in possession of wealth sufficient to raise them above the need of toil. And yet they are dissatisfied, rightly so, with the purposeless spending of time and abilities. The rounds of pleasure do not give them all they want, their life appears to be idle and useless, etc. They become restless. Now if such only had rest in Christ, pardon, peace, and life in Him, what a noble aim would at once open up!
Illustration
‘On the last great day of the Feast of Tabernacles, Jesus “was standing” watching the procession of the people from their booths to the Temple, and then, moved by love and compassion, He cried, “If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink.” The image appears to have been occasioned by the pouring out of water brought in a golden vessel from Siloam, which pouring out was made at the time of the morning sacrifice, on each of the days of the feast, when that beautiful psalm Isaiah 12. was sung. The pouring out of the water was a commemoration of one very important event in the wilderness life, when the people drank of the water that followed them from the rock, which rock represented Christ.’