What does it really mean to thirst and what is the deeper significance of Living Water as spoken of in the Bible?
Last week, my friend Cindy posted about Living Water on her blog. It got me thinking about the deeper meaning of God's Word. A while back my daughter sent me some audio files of Ray Vander Laan who had spent time in Israel learning about the culture of the Jewish people. He talks about how not knowing the culture of the Jewish people and the times the Bible was written in can dull our understanding of the deeper meanings of God's Word, for example, Living Water.
My parents have lived here in the ARIDzona desert for about 12 years. Though I had visited them a few times a year during that time, until I moved here three years ago, I really didn't fully understand the devastation the sun can cause your body and what that felt like. It's just very different from anywhere I've ever lived and that's saying a lot because I've lived in a lot of places. Ray Vander Laan specifically mentions Arizona as he discusses the strength of the heat and sun in the desert of Israel.
Living in the desert of ARIDzona, I know all too well the meaning of living water. I'm normally dehydrated, but living here, I have felt heat exhaustion many times and it is very much like living without God. Without enough fluids in your body, you become confused, and tired. Too much dehydration and you are unable to walk without help. I've passed out several times due to the heat because I didn't have enough fluids. The confusion and symptoms make you choose the wrong things which make your condition worse. You don't feel like drinking and so you drink even less. Living without God or without listening for His guidance, is much the same. You get tired and weak. Confused as to what is good for you, you can choose the wrong things which will cause you to fall deeper into your troubles. If you analyze the words God uses to describe things, you realize just how carefully He chose them. The symbolism is rich, if you look for it.
Part of communication is understanding the context and the background. We may understand being thirsty, but we cannot understand the depths to which real thirst can reach if we don't understand the desert. The same is true for many other concepts the Bible speaks of. I'm going to try to explore and report on more of these in the future. If you have any that you'd like to learn more about, please post them here. If you'd like to be a guest author here explaining one of these concepts, please contact me jojo@artofeloquence.com I'd love to share the deeper meaning of God's Word here on the blog.
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Living Water
What does it really mean to thirst and what is the deeper significance of Living Water as spoken of in the Bible?
Last week, my friend Cindy posted about Living Water on her blog. It got me thinking about the deeper meaning of God's Word. A while back my daughter sent me some audio files of Ray Vander Laan who had spent time in Israel learning about the culture of the Jewish people. He talks about how not knowing the culture of the Jewish people and the times the Bible was written in can dull our understanding of the deeper meanings of God's Word, for example, Living Water.
My parents have lived here in the ARIDzona desert for about 12 years. Though I had visited them a few times a year during that time, until I moved here three years ago, I really didn't fully understand the devastation the sun can cause your body and what that felt like. It's just very different from anywhere I've ever lived and that's saying a lot because I've lived in a lot of places. Ray Vander Laan specifically mentions Arizona as he discusses the strength of the heat and sun in the desert of Israel.
Living in the desert of ARIDzona, I know all too well the meaning of living water. I'm normally dehydrated, but living here, I have felt heat exhaustion many times and it is very much like living without God. Without enough fluids in your body, you become confused, and tired. Too much dehydration and you are unable to walk without help. I've passed out several times due to the heat because I didn't have enough fluids. The confusion and symptoms make you choose the wrong things which make your condition worse. You don't feel like drinking and so you drink even less. Living without God or without listening for His guidance, is much the same. You get tired and weak. Confused as to what is good for you, you can choose the wrong things which will cause you to fall deeper into your troubles. If you analyze the words God uses to describe things, you realize just how carefully He chose them. The symbolism is rich, if you look for it.
Part of communication is understanding the context and the background. We may understand being thirsty, but we cannot understand the depths to which real thirst can reach if we don't understand the desert. The same is true for many other concepts the Bible speaks of. I'm going to try to explore and report on more of these in the future. If you have any that you'd like to learn more about, please post them here. If you'd like to be a guest author here explaining one of these concepts, please contact me jojo@artofeloquence.com I'd love to share the deeper meaning of God's Word here on the blog.
X
If you liked this post, make sure to subscribe to our RSS Feed so you don’t miss one and SUBSCRIBE to our newsletter: for even MORE communication fun, FREE gifts, Book of the Month Club and exclusive excerpts and offers we don’t share with ANYONE else but our subscribers!
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6 comments
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Good one! I, too, have lived in Arizona. I understand what you’re talking about and, indeed, the symbolism is rich. Without God’s Word, confusion reigns supreme.
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I realized that I never did fully understand this until I lived here. It’s like most of us here in the U.S. don’t really know what hunger is. We may know what it’s like to be hungry for lunch, but true hunger is soooo much more.
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I understand what you’re saying. Just yesterday I understood to a deeper level about God’s relationship with Israel. It’s hard for me to explain it, but I know what you mean
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Thanks, Joan. Let me know if you’d like to explain it. I’d love to post more like this here on the blog.
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Thanks for the shout out! I love writing about water – as we seem to have so much moisture here in the Pacific Northwest – especially this year along with the cooler weather. I just LOVE Ray Vander Laan! Years ago we watched his whole series “That the world may know” in our sunday school class – so POWERFUL!