Dying Of Thirst In An Ocean Of Water

“Dying Of Thirst In An Ocean Of Water”

We have all heard the saying, “Dying of thirst in an ocean of water.”  There is a lot of truth to that old cliche and we completely understand how that can literally happen.  But today lets look at that in a spiritual nature.  Recently in our study of Amos, we noted in Amos 8:11, 12 that the prophet told Israel of a time to come that there would be a “famine of hearing the words of the Lord.” That famine was to be so bad that when Israel realized their transgression and sought to find God’s word, they would not be able to even find or recover it because they had removed themselves so far from it.  That is a scary situation, but it happened to Israel so it can happen to us too.  Lets make an application today of these two phrases.

Today, many are dying of spiritual thirst in an ocean or country where God’s word is everywhere and literally at our fingertips.  We don’t have to fear the persecution of man to possess it, study it, or assemble together for the sake of reading or studying that word.  Christ told the women at the well in John 4:14, “but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst.  But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”  Christ describes a great source of spiritual water to those who were dying of spiritual thirst.  He goes on to make the point that this soul saving water was available to all.  In those days, we see that much of the world was dying of spiritual thirst too with a sea of spiritual water all about them.  The source of that fountain was Christ, and His word was that fountain just described by Him in John 4:14.  Sadly, many in that day still died of thirst wading through that great fountain Christ provided to all who would believe it. 

Secondly, the continued rejection of God’s word can render one in a similar condition as was prophesied of in Amos 8:11, 12.  Today, as in the time of Amos, man has rejected truth to the point that “hearing the words of the Lord” is not an easy task.  This is because it is not spoken in its pure form or entirety everywhere.  Some in the world today truly seek truth, but truth is lost or concealed from their sight in a mountain of denominational doctrines proclaimed as truth.  Unless you have a firm grasp on God’s word and seek truth exclusively from that word alone, you can clearly see that it is not easy to determine truth amid all the doctrine added to it today.  This really wakes us up to the importance of proclaiming God’s word in truth and spirit to a thirsty world.  So we see the need that is before us to help a world “find the book” as in the days of Josiah (2 Kings 22:8-10; 2 Chr. 34:15-18) and do as Josiah did when he found God’s word.  Tear down and remove the idols or things in our lives that stand between us and God and make those changes so we can truly serve God in spirit and in truth (Jn. 4:24), according to “His book.”

- Marc Hopkins