Cisterns of Living Water
“Drink water from your own cistern, running water from your own well. Should your springs overflow in the streets, your streams of water in the public squares? Let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers. May your fountain be blessed . . .” (Prov. 5:15-18a)
Does this passage puzzle you as much as it did me when I read it? After all, what could possibly be wrong with drinking water that someone else has given to you? And certainly there is nothing wrong with sharing a glass of water with someone else!
Of course, if you read it in context, Solomon is
advising against the evils of adultery, a vital lesson to be
learned!
But as I contemplated these verses, a second potential meaning was
impressed upon me. Reference to springs of water, streams of water,
cisterns of water, etc are not uncommon in the Bible, and these
terms have often been used in Scripture to represent the
Holy Spirit: “. . . the Lord, the spring of living water.” (Jer.
17:13), “Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it
is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would
have given you living water.” (John 4:10), and “Whoever believes in
Me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow
from within him. By this He meant the Spirit, whom those who
believed in Him would later receive” (John 7:38,39)
Could this passage be subtly teaching us an important lesson about a
friendship with Jesus? Could this be suggesting that we cannot
experience the Holy Spirit without a personal relationship with
Jesus? That we can’t experience the Holy Spirit through someone
else? Likewise, could this be saying that we can’t be the source of
the Holy Spirit for someone else, and therefore, we shouldn’t even
try?
Yet how many sincere Christians try to get all of their spiritual
drink from outside sources? From churches, pastors, sermons, etc.,
always taking the interpretation of someone else without bothering
to take it back to God for verification?
Some time ago I was studying with sincere lady who had expressed a
sincere desire to have a personal friendship with God. We met
together, at this lady’s request, once a week, and she listened
hungrily to what I had to say. However, when she heard something
that didn’t “jive” with what she had learned in the past, she simply
dismissed it. When she was encouraged to take the time to study on
her own, she always found some excuse not to do so. She was trying
to drink water from other sources! I don’t wish to sound too harsh,
for much of this was my own doing. You see, I was trying to “force”
my own understanding of the Bible on her, fully expecting her to
accept it because I said it was gospel truth! And guess what? It
didn’t work! The poor lady ended up more and more frustrated, and
even worse, she moved farther and farther away from her own personal
friendship with Jesus! Why? Because I was allowing my “springs” to
“overflow in the streets”! I was trying to “share” my water with
her, when what I should have been doing was trying to direct her to
have her own personal “cistern, running water from [her] own well”!
We cannot be, nor should we try to be, the source of “water” for
anyone. Instead, our God-given role is to guide others into a
personal relationship with God so that they will find their “own
cistern, running water from [their] own well”. Neither can we accept
another human being as a source of “water” for ourselves! We must
have that personal friendship with Jesus in order to be able to
“Drink water from your own cistern”, as Solomon advises us to do! We
must take everything we read or hear—in Bible school, in church, in
inspirational books, from Christian friends, from our pastors—back
to God for verification through Bible Study and Prayer.
Lord, I want You to be my only source of water! Give me wisdom to be
able to guide others to their own sources of that wonderful water
that each of us needs!
Lyn Chaffart
Moderator, The Nugget, Scriptural Nuggets ( www.sermonillustrator.org/minisermons/ ), Answers2Prayer Ministries, www.Answers2Prayer.org ,