[This reflection was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, May 2019]
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God (Psalm 46:4)
Wading through cold water in a narrow tunnel 60 feet underground in single file with only torchlight to lighten the darkness does not seem like an enjoyable holiday activity. This happened to me on a holiday in Israel, but it helped that the young lady behind me was laughing and joking most of the time. The real enjoyment was knowing that I was in a place built over 2,500 years ago which we can read about in the Bible.
The tunnel was built by King Hezekiah to bring a secure water supply into the city of Jerusalem, which was about to be besieged by the king of Assyria. “As for the other events of Hezekiah’s reign, all his achievements and how he made the pool and the tunnel by which he brought water into the city, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah?” (2 Kings 20:20) It was built by men starting at opposite ends as they cut through solid rock until they met in the middle. An inscription commemorating this event was found where they met and is now in a museum. The water was collected in the Pool of Siloam where we came out of the tunnel and where, hundreds of years after it was built, Jesus sent the blind man to wash his eyes so that he could see. It is so encouraging to see the truths of the Bible, and even today the water forms part of the supply for the city of Jerusalem.
Water is so necessary for life, but living water is even more necessary for eternal life and it is why Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.” (John 7:37) When we come to Jesus to cleanse us from all we have done wrong in our lives we drink of His living water, the Holy Spirit, and this gives us a new and unending life with Him. But the Holy Spirit living in us and through us also gives us the gifts and the power to serve Him in our daily and church life. As Jesus went on to say as we read in John 7:38, “Whoever believes in me, as scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”
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Contributed by Michael Goble; © the Author
