Scripture Reading: Jer. 2:13; Psa. 36:8-9; John 4:14; 7:37; Rev. 22:17
Ⅰ
"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"—Jer. 2:13:
A
The principle in the Bible, especially in the New Testament, is that God opens Himself to us so that we may enter into Him, receive Him, and become one with Him; then He will be in us, and we will be in Him, taking Him as everything— Psa. 91:1; John 1:14; 14:6, 20.
B
God's intention in His economy is to be the fountain, the source, of living waters to satisfy His chosen people for their enjoyment—Jer. 2:13:
１
God wants us to take Him as the fountain of living waters, the unique source of our living—Rom. 11:36:
ａ
God does not want His chosen and redeemed people to take anything other than Himself as the source—1 Cor. 8:6.
ｂ
We should take God as our source to be one with Him and to receive whatever issues from Him—Rom. 11:36.
２
God's aim in His economy is to have a group of human beings who have His life and nature inwardly and His image and likeness outwardly; this group of people is a corporate entity, the Body of Christ, to be one with Him and live Him for His corporate expression—Gen. 1:26; Eph. 1:10; 3:9; 4:16.
３
God's goal in being the fountain of living waters is to produce the church as His increase to be His fullness for His expression; this is the heart's desire, the good pleasure, of God in His economy—1:5, 9, 22-23:
ａ
God needs to be the fountain of living waters to His elect because He has an economy, and His economy is to produce a counterpart, a bride, for Himself—John 3:29a; 4:14; Rev. 19:7-8.
ｂ
God's purpose in wanting to be the fountain of living waters for His elect to drink is that He would be increased and enlarged—Jer. 2:13.
ｃ
God's economy is to dispense Himself as the living water to produce His increase, His enlargement, for His expression—Col. 2:19.
ｄ
Our drinking of God as the fountain of living waters is for the church as His increase; our drinking is for the producing of His enlargement, His fullness, for His expression—John 4:14; 3:29a; 1 Cor. 12:12-13.
ｅ
Nothing apart from God as the fountain of living waters can quench our thirst and satisfy us; nothing apart from God dispensed into our being can make us His increase for His expression—Rev. 22:1, 17.
４
God's desire is to be everything to His chosen people so that they may trust in Him and rely on Him for everything; if they do this, they will receive God's dispensing—Jer. 17:7-8.
５
The only way to take God as the fountain of living waters is to drink Him; by drinking Him we take into us the living water that issues from God as the fountain of living waters—John 4:14; 7:37; Jer. 2:13.
C
God's intention is to dispense Himself into man as man's satisfaction so that God might be enlarged, but man became unfaithful and unchaste and forsook God for idols; all sources other than God are idols—2:13:
１
The most evil thing in the eyes of God is to forsake Him as the source, the fountain of living waters—v. 13.
２
Israel forsook God as the fountain of living waters and turned to a source other than God; this source is signified by the cisterns.
３
The word cisterns in Jeremiah 2:13 is a figure of speech portraying Israel's toil in making something to replace God as the fountain of living waters.
D
Sin is to forsake God and to do something by ourselves and for ourselves; this is exactly what the children of Israel did—v. 13:
１
They forsook God as the fountain of living waters for their supply.
２
According to their opinion, they did whatever they could to work out something by themselves for their enjoyment.
Ⅱ
"With You is the fountain of life"—Psa. 36:9a:
A
The Lord's recovery is to recover the Triune God as life to us—1 John 1:1-2.
B
The divine life may be considered the first and the basic attribute of God— Eph. 4:18; John 5:26; 1 John 5:11-12; Rom. 8:2:
１
According to the divine and eternal nature of the life of God, God's life is the unique life; only the life of God can be counted as life—John 1:4; 10:10b; 11:25; 14:6.
２
Life is the content of God and the flowing out of God; God's content is God's being, and God's flowing out is the impartation of Himself as life to us— Eph. 4:18; Rev. 22:1.
３
Life is Christ, and life is Christ living in us and lived out from us—John 14:6; Col. 3:4; Gal. 2:20; Phil. 1:21a.
４
Life is the Holy Spirit—John 14:16-17; 1 Cor. 15:45b; Rom. 8:2; 2 Cor. 3:6.
５
Life is the Triune God dispensed into us and living in us—Rom. 8:10, 6, 11.
C
God desires that we take Him as the source of our life and being; God is the unique source in every way—Psa. 36:9a; cf. Matt. 15:13.
D
The Triune God has been processed and consummated in order to dispense Himself into our tripartite being—John 7:37-39; Rom. 8:11:
１
God's economy is to dispense Himself into our being so that our being can be constituted with His being; this can be accomplished only by God putting Himself into us as the divine life—vv. 2, 6, 10-11.
２
By dispensing Himself into us as life, God is accomplishing His economy, that He may have a corporate expression of Himself for eternity—Rev. 21:9-10; 22:1.
E
We need to drink of God as the fountain of living waters so that He may increase for the fulfillment of His economy to have His expression through His counterpart— Jer. 2:13; 1 Cor. 12:13:
１
When we drink of God as the fountain of living waters, He becomes one with us, and we become one with Him—Psa. 36:8-9.
２
The more we drink of God, the more He is one with us and the more we are one with Him and constituted with Him in His life and nature—John 3:15; 2 Pet.1:4.