Water in the Desert

¹ A Psalm of David, when he was in the Wilderness of Judah. O God, thou art my God, I seek thee, my soul thirsts for thee; my flesh faints for thee, as in a dry and weary land where no water is.
Psalms 63:1

David paints the picture of the Wilderness as an arid, waterless place where one's flesh will die without water. The desert is a symbol of where we meet God. In the desert there is no place to hide and there is no pretension of what one needs to survive. It is a life and death. And, water is the source of life.

In the days of David when he was hiding from Saul he hid in the Judean desert. One of the places he frequented was called the Oasis of En-Gedi. Near the Dead Sea, fresh water gushes forth from the desert floor creating a waterfall. In this lush oasis, there is abundant life and vegetation surrounded by desert. The contrast was used by Psalmists as a description of how our souls thirst for God.

Jesus declared to the woman at the well in the gospel of John that he was able to give her "living water". God's design is to quench our thirst with his love and grace that gives us hope of eternal life. Abraham, Moses and Jesus all discovered their revelation of God in the wilderness. I think that same holds true for every believer this day. The wilderness is not a physical desert; but, it is the place where a believer discovers that only by trusting in the Lord, do we learn to survive.

Teach Your Children Well

And these words which I command you this day shall be upon your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

Deuteronomy 6: 6-7

Little children are like sponges. Their favorite word after "no" is "why?". When Moses told the children of Israel to teach these things he did not want it to be a static set of commands. Instead, these spiritual matters are to be impressed upon the hearts, minds and souls of our children. It is the primary function of a parent to teach one's children. These days that function is so often delegated to others. It might be the nursery school worker, the teacher, the baby sitter or the minister who watches over the child. But, the dialogue begins in the home between the parent and the child.

I fear for the next generation that we have lost our focus on the teaching of the kingdom of God to our children. It is not about us. It is about the Lord. While each child is individually unique and made in the image of God, a child needs to understand the responsibility at the earliest age of the consequences of living life in relationship with a living God. Jesus rebuked his disciples when they tried to hinder the children from coming to him. To such is the given the kingdom of God. In fact, unless we become like children we can't even see the kingdom. The things of a spiritual nature are unseen in the physical world; but, they are far more real than anything we can see, hear, touch, feel or smell. Faith, hope and love are taught in the journey of our lives. We teach far more to our children by the way we act than we can ever tell them. However, the journey presents teachable moments every day. Unless we look for them, those opportunities pass us by forever. We never want to crush the inquisitive spirit of a child who is seeking the answers to life.

The Promise

¹ After these things God tested Abraham, and said to him, "Abraham!" And he said, "Here am I." ² He said, "Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Mori'ah, and offer him there as a burnt offering upon one of the mountains of which I shall tell you." ³ So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac; and he cut the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. ⁴ On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar off. ⁵ Then Abraham said to his young men, "Stay here with the ass; I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you." ⁶ And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it on Isaac his son; and he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together. ⁷ And Isaac said to his father Abraham, "My father!" And he said, "Here am I, my son." He said, "Behold, the fire and the wood; but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?" ⁸ Abraham said, "God will provide himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son." So they went both of them together. ⁹ When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar, upon the wood. ¹⁰ Then Abraham put forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. ¹¹ But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven, and said, "Abraham, Abraham!" And he said, "Here am I." ¹² He said, "Do not lay your hand on the lad or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me." ¹³ And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. ¹⁴ So Abraham called the name of that place The LORD will provide; as it is said to this day, "On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided." ¹⁵ And the angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time from heaven, ¹⁶ and said, "By myself I have sworn, says the LORD, because you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only son, ¹⁷ I will indeed bless you, and I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore. And your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies, ¹⁸ and by your descendants shall all the nations of the earth bless themselves, because you have obeyed my voice." Genesis 22: 1-18.

The story of Abraham's testing is one that all readers of the Bible know well. Yet, as I read and re-read it, I see things that are new to me. Issac's birth had been a miracle. His parents were very old when he was born. Even though the Lord had promised Abraham descendants, Abraham did not become a father until he was ninety-nine years of age. He was a father and a grandfather all wrapped up together. Can you imagine how Abraham must have made Issac as the center of his world? And, yet the Lord comes to Abraham and asks him for the one thing that Abraham built his world and his hope upon. I don't think that God did this for his pleasure. I think he was performing radical surgery on Abraham's heart to help him understand that when one tries to hold onto something as precious as "your only son" that the principle of faith is that if you want to save your life, you first have to be willing to give it over to the Lord.

This land of Moriah was a special place that the Lord wanted him to travel to for this test. I cannot help but believe that the spot of this trial was perhaps the same hill that the New Testament would describe as "Golgotha" i.e. the same place where Jesus would later be crucified and die. The symbolism is to great to make me think that it could be any other place.

The writer in Hebews says in chapter 11 verses 17-19 that:

By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was ready to offer up his only son, ¹⁸ of whom it was said, "Through Isaac shall your descendants be named." ¹⁹ He considered that God was able to raise men even from the dead; hence, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.


Abraham somehow figured out that resurrection had to be part of God's plan of salvation. Issac is a foreshadowing of the sacrifice that God would have to make to allow the world to be reconciled by the shedding of the blood of his only son. We can only see the kingdom when we are willing to put the Lord first in our lives above anything else, including family and possessions. Abraham's faith was rewarded because he loved God with all his heart, soul, strength and might. He was willing to entrust God with that which was the precious thing in his life.

I have had some near death experiences with each of my three children over the years. The older I become the more I realize that children are gifts from God and that they do not belong to me. They are on loan from the Creator. Realizing that everything I have and possess is a gift from God and that nothing is mine is the most liberating, energizing thought I have ever experienced. When we learn to trust God and to walk in His ways, we will discover the true meaning of faith. It is not about getting all the answers right. It is about a trusting relationship with the one who made you. If you have want to save your life, you first have to learn how to give it away.

The Ethiopian Eunuch

²⁶ But an angel of the Lord said to Philip, "Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza." This is a desert road. ²⁷ And he rose and went. And behold, an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a minister of the Can'dace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of all her treasure, had come to Jerusalem to worship ²⁸ and was returning; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. ²⁹ And the Spirit said to Philip, "Go up and join this chariot." ³⁰ So Philip ran to him, and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and asked, "Do you understand what you are reading?" ³¹ And he said, "How can I, unless some one guides me?" And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. ³² Now the passage of the scripture which he was reading was this: "As a sheep led to the slaughter or a lamb before its shearer is dumb, so he opens not his mouth. ³³ In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken up from the earth." ³⁴ And the eunuch said to Philip, "About whom, pray, does the prophet say this, about himself or about some one else?" ³⁵ Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this scripture he told him the good news of Jesus. ³⁶ And as they went along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, "See, here is water! What is to prevent my being baptized?" ³⁷ 38 ³⁹ And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught up Philip; and the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing.

Acts 8:26-39


How was it an Ethiopian Eunuch was in Jerusalem to worship? Going back to the days of King Solomon and his interaction with the Queen of Sheba, there was a group of people who converted to Judaism that lived in what we now call the Sudan. In 1 Kings 10:13 we read:

¹³ And King Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all that she desired, whatever she asked besides what was given her by the bounty of King Solomon. So she turned and went back to her own land, with her servants.

Today, the Beta Israel in Ethiopia traces its roots back to this origin. See link. What amazes me was the faith of one who traveled all the way to Jerusalem to worship; but, whom was excluded from participating in the worship in the temple. First, he would have been deemed to be a foreigner and excluded from temple worship. Secondly, under the Mosaic law, he was also excluded by his status as a eunuch. Deuteronomy 23:1 - "He whose testicles are crushed or whose male member is cut off shall not enter the assembly of the LORD." Yet, we find a man who is searching the scriptures diligently looking for God's revelation. The Lord must have heard his prayers and thought of him highly enough to send an angel to Philip to direct him to this man as specific time and place. Does the Word of God act in the same manner today? I believe that the Holy Spirit can certainly act in a believer's life to direct one to an opportunity to witness one's faith. I do not see this as miraculous but a normal part of the leanings of the Spirit. The promise to every believer who wishes to be saved is:

"Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Acts 2:38

I visited a church where the minister brought up the family with a small infant and sprinkled water on the child's head proclaiming to "baptize" her. While I can certainly identify with the desire of a family to bring one's child up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and asking the church, as a community, to help in the process, I find no such example of such baptism in the New Testament. In fact, historically, we know that infant baptism was not introduced well into the third century after the coming of Jesus. In the above story, as in each and every other example in Acts, the believer was immersed in water baptism after a profession of faith in Jesus as Messiah. In fact, it was the coming up out of the water of verse 38 that shows this immersion. The reason for this was explained by the apostle Paul in Romans, Chapter 6: 3-5:

³ Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴ We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. ⁵ For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a Resurrection like his.

As much as a parent may wish for one's child to be saved, it is the individual believer's faith that is a prerequisite for baptism. For without faith, the sprinkling of water on a baby's head is meaningless and without precedent in scripture. It comes from an errant belief that original sin condemns all of humanity. Yet, in every legal system there is a requirement that before one can punished for a crime that the person must have "capacity" to understand the nature of one's action. Until one reaches the age when one has the capacity to understand the nature of his or her own actions, there cannot be judgment. What is that age? I dare say that it comes differently at various times for most believers. I am content to leave the judging to a holy and just God who has all the facts and knowledge to make righteous decisions. Seeing the conversion of the eunuch who went on his way "rejoicing" is the result of faith and a new birth.