Living Water

Lots of things of great importance in the Bible occur near water, both salt and fresh. Fresh water seems to have more positive connotations. A quick search of the word “rivers” results in  272 hits.  For example, in John 4:7 Jesus conversed with a woman about water.  He said to her,

“Give me a drink.”

Then he explained, He was the Water of life.  If you drink of This fresh water, Jesus told her, you will never be thirsty again.

In Acts 16 there is another account of fresh water.  Paul, Silas, and Timothy made their way to Philippi.  They were not sure what they would do once they arrived, but earlier Paul received a vision to preach the gospel.  On Saturday, the three of them (or four since Luke was with them writing everything down) went outside the city to the riverside. There was supposedly a place of prayer there.  What they found were women who had come together. They shared the good news of Jesus and one woman, Lydia, believed. After, she was baptized in that river.

Jesus commanded his disciples to baptize in Matthew 28:19,

“Baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”

It is interesting, as mentioned, most positive encounters in water take place in fresh bodies of water. Salt water experiences appear to be more negative, e.g., shipwrecks, waves of the sea driven and tossed, a picture of wealth for the wicked, etc.  Isthat whyon the new earth there will be no more sea? (Revelation 21;1).  Will there only be one source of Fresh Water in the new creation?

The book of Revelation mentions fresh water. In Revelation 22:1, it states,

“Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb.”

Where will that Water flow?  Over all the earth?  Who needs salt water when we will have that?