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Jeremiah, a book full of speaking concerning Israel’s sin and God’s wrath, chastisement, and punishment, reveals that God’s intention in His economy is to be the fountain, the source, of living waters to dispense Himself into His chosen people for their satisfaction and enjoyment with the goal of producing the church, God’s counterpart, as God’s increase, God’s enlargement, to be God’s fullness for His expression; the kernel of the divine revelation is that God created us and redeemed us for the purpose of working Himself into us to be our life and our everything—2:13; Psa. 36:8-9; John 3:29-30; 4:10, 14; 7:37-39; Rev. 7:17; Eph. 3:16-19:
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Christ as the living, spiritual rock was smitten by the authority of God’s law so that the water of life in resurrection could flow out of Him and into His redeemed people for them to drink—Exo. 17:6; 1 Cor. 10:4.
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Our drinking of the one Spirit in resurrection makes us members of the Body, builds us up as the Body, and prepares us to be the bride of Christ—12:13; Rev. 22:17.
Morning Nourishment
Jer. 2:13 For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, to hew out for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, which hold no water.Exo. 17:6 I will be standing before you there upon the rock in Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it so that the people may drink. And Moses did so…
The entire Bible, including the book of Jeremiah, was written for God’s economy. My burden in this life-study of Jeremiah is that you would see what the Lord has shown me from the Word concerning God’s economy. If you see this vision, your life will be affected, and the Lord’s recovery will be enriched. In Jeremiah 2:13 we have God’s word to Israel, the elect of Jehovah, concerning two evils which they have committed. God’s intention in His economy is to be the fountain, the source, of living waters to satisfy His chosen people for their enjoyment. (Life-study of Jeremiah, p. 17)
Today’s Reading
God’s economy is to dispense Himself as the living water to produce His increase, His enlargement, to be His expression.This thought is strengthened by Paul’s writings. For example, 1 Corinthians 12:13 says, “In one Spirit we were all baptized into one Body…and were all given to drink one Spirit.” To be baptized in the Spirit is to get into the Spirit and to be lost in Him; to drink the Spirit is to take the Spirit in and to have our being saturated with Him. In 1 Corinthians 10:3 and 4 Paul, using the Old Testament types, speaks not only of drinking but also of eating. “All ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank of a spiritual rock which followed them, and the rock was Christ.” The spiritual food refers to manna (Exo. 16:14-18), typifying Christ as our daily life supply; the spiritual drink refers to the living water that flowed out of the cleft rock (Exo. 17:6), typifying the Spirit, who flowed out of the crucified and resurrected Christ as our all-inclusive drink. Our drinking of God as the living water is for the church as His increase; our drinking is for the producing of His enlargement, His fullness, for His expression. (Life-study of Jeremiah, p. 18)
The water flowing out of the smitten rock typifies the Spirit (John 7:37-39). Through incarnation Christ came to the earth as a rock. On the cross He was smitten by the authority of God’s righteous law to accomplish God’s redemption. His side was pierced, and living water flowed out for God’s people to drink (John 19:34 and footnote). This living water is the water of life in resurrection, the all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit as the ultimate issue of the Triune God (1 Cor. 15:45; see footnote 1 on John 7:39). The source of the water of life is the throne of God and of the Lamb—the redeeming God (Rev. 22:1). Hence, the water of life is the Triune God flowing out to be our life. The flow of the living water began from the throne in eternity, continued through the incarnation, human living, and crucifixion of Christ (John 4:10, 14; 19:34), and now flows on in resurrection to supply God’s people with all the riches of the divine life (Rev. 22:1-2). When we identify ourselves with the smitten Christ, the divine life as the living water flows out of us (John 7:38). The flowing of the water of life in resurrection is for the building up of the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:13) and the preparation of the bride of Christ (Rev. 19:7), both of which will consummate in the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:9-10; cf. Eph. 5:23, 28-30).
To drink of the water of life, we first need to be positioned to drink (1 Cor. 12:13), and we also need to be thirsty (John 7:37; Rev. 21:6). Then we need to come to the Lord (John 7:37; Rev. 22:17), to ask of the Lord (John 4:10), to believe in the Lord (John 7:38), and to call on the name of the Lord (Isa. 12:3-4; Acts 2:21). (Exo. 17:6, footnote 3)
Further Reading: Life-study of Exodus, msg. 40