John Kitto Morning Bible Devotions: November 26

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John Kitto Morning Bible Devotions: November 26

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Waters

2Ki_2:19

When the elders of Jericho described to Elisha their distressed condition, they did so in the words—“Behold, the situation of this city is pleasant, but the water is naught, and the ground is barren.” The material facts, thus combined and contrasted, are very suggestive to the mind of spiritual conditions. Let us therefore examine these words more closely. The situation is pleasant; it appears to present everything that might render life happy and prosperous; but it appears that this great advantage is neutralized by the barrenness of the ground, where nothing will grow, where no fruit is brought forth to perfection; and, seeking the cause of this, we find it is because the waters are naught. It is not that there is drought, the usual cause of sterility in the East; it is not that water is even scanty, it is abundant; but that they are bad waters—such waters as, instead of sustaining, destroy the powers of vegetation.

Why, this becomes a very parable to us, touching, with painful force, upon the spiritual condition of many of us. The situation in which we stand is pleasant. What more could the Lord have done for us than he has done? While so many fair regions of the earth lie in spiritual darkness, the full and blessed light of God’s truth shines upon our habitations. We have the written word of truth—we have the uttered word of truth—one of the first sounds that entered our infant ears was that name which is above every name, and in which all our hope is found; and not a day passes in which, under some form or other, we may not see or hear the words of Salvation. What situation could be more pleasant, more favorable to our spiritual prospects? Surely our city stands upon the delectable mountain, whence on any clear day we may have fair prospects of the goody land that lies beyond the swellings of Jordan.

Yet, pleasant as all things seem, it is not well with us. “The ground is barren.” The great Husbandman has plowed it up, with which of his plows He would; for he has many plows for different soils. He has cast in the seed—carefully cast it in; and it is good seed, bursting with ripeness, and he has a right to expect large returns from it—if not sixty-fold, if not thirty-fold, at least ten. But nothing comes from it. The seed will not germinate—nothing will grow. Yet the ground is clean and sweet; for it has been under heavenly tillage, and the Sun of Righteousness has beamed warmly on it. What ails it, then? Something is wrong, or something wanting. It is the waters that are either bad or deficient. Who shall heal them? Only God; it is no use to look to any one else. If they are bad, if they have been poisoned, and our souls rendered barren by bitter doctrine, read or heard—there is no cure till the handful of wholesome salt is cast in. If they are deficient through the starved poverty of our faith and love—there is no help but in the waters He will send, either in streams or showers, and which He will send if earnestly implored; for He is not a husbandman who forgets the soil He has tilled, or the seed He has planted.

“See how this dry and thirsty land,

Mine heart, doth gaping, gasping stand,

And, close below, opens towards heaven and Thee;

Thou fountain of felicity;

Great Lord of living waters, water me.”

If then, He send not his rains, his streams in abundance, He will send enough to refresh, to heal, and fertilize.

“If not full showers of rain, yet Lord,

A little pearly dew afford.

A little, if it come from Thee,

Will be of great avail to me.”

Nothing but this water of Divine grace and doctrine is wanting to make our “situation pleasant” altogether—to render this once barren ground a very land of Beulah.

“O let thy love

Distil in fructifying dews of grace,

And then mine heart will be a pleasant place.’’

Such ideas and images derived from water are entirely scriptural. The remarkable and almost marvellous effects upon the parched lands, produced by the coming of water, whether of rains or streams, in the warm and dry regions of the earth, quickening into sudden verdure, beauty and life, that which lay dead, dreary, and unfruitful, suggests analogies to the influence of Divine doctrine upon the soul, and of heavenly grace upon the heart—the singular beauty and appropriateness of which are scarcely appreciable in our moist climate, where the prime anxiety of our cultivators is not to obtain water, but to get rid of its superabundance. But, to such as know the East, such passages as these speak to the very heart—

“My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew; as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass.” Note: Deu_32:2.

“He shall come down like rain on the mown grass; as showers that water the earth.” Note: Psa_72:6.

“I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring.” Note: Isa_44:3.

“I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.” Note: Isa_41:18.

And then, not to quote more—for there is much—of the same purport are almost the last words of Scripture—“The Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whoso ever will, let him take the water of life freely.” Note: Rev_22:17.