For desert dwelling people, such as the ancient Hebrews, water in the wilderness was often a miraculous event. Life was not easy for God's chosen... Life is not easy for any of us, if we look at external conditions only; but when we learn the divine secret, rivers flow from bare heights, fountains arise in sterile valleys, and the desert blooms like the forest-glade.
Have you ever been really thirsty, so thirsty that you would willingly pay $$ for a glass of crystal clear cool water? Has you tongue been parched, cracked and swollen? Then you will know the feelings of absolute relief that only the sound of a running, cascading stream can bring.
While the promise in this verse (Isaiah 41:18) historically refers to the time of the Babylonian captivity (circa 597 B.C.) when the Israelites dwelt literally in the desert, without relief in sight. The promises espoused in that verse are ours to avail.
As The Complete Pulpit Commentary tell us... "The soul that longs for him, that thirsts after him, feeling that it dwells "in a barren and dry land, where no water is" (Psalm 63:1), shall be relieved and satisfied by a revelation of God's presence, and an outpouring of his grace unusually copious and abundant. God's grace is shadowed out under the two similitudes of water and verdure, (fresh green lush vegetation) as in Isaiah 35:7.
C.H Spurgeon said: "He does not measure His gifts of water by the pint and by the gallon; but here you have pools, and springs, and rivers. When He has given waters, He will give trees to grow by the waters. When God gives blessing, He makes other blessings to spring out of it."
The water that our God supplies is not a dribble, but rather a river gushing forth. It may not come today, but when it does it will be enough for us swim in! Pools of living, deeply refreshing water, an overflowing abundance, that when having refreshed us, can pour forth to refresh and sustain others.
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