FRIDAY 9th
Numbers 21:10-20
NIV (v17) – ‘Then Israel sang this song: Spring up, O well! Sing about it . . .’
ESV (v17) – ‘Then Israel sang this song: Spring up, O well!—Sing to it!—’
As I was going through the book of Numbers, I came across this verse and immediately thought, ‘I cannot leave this verse out’, then I had to decide what to write! Here goes.
The people of Israel had been busy moving on from one camp to the next – from verse 10 to verse 16 they had camped at 5 different locations arriving at a place called Beer, but there was to be no beer here, just water! For Beer was a well (the name Beer means well) and here God says to Moses, ‘Gather the people together, so that I may give them water’ I guess they were probably thirsty, for at the news of being gathered together for water they broke out into song, ‘Spring up, O well!’
The simple application I want to bring from this is for us as a local Church today. We are on a spiritual journey, there is that which is for each of us our own personal journey, but we are together as a company of God’s people on a journey, we are not moving from one location to the next, but we are moving forward step by step in the plan that God has prepared for us. This year has been completely different from last year and likewise last year was different to the year before as we have sought to move onward and upward. And we need to come to our Beer, to the well, we need to come and to draw water, and this happens as we gather together, we come to draw from the well of living water.
There are three words in this narrative (or I take from the narrative) supply, Spirit and song.
There is a supply readily available for us, the well has not and will never run dry, and the supply is that of the living water, which Jesus talked about in John 7:37-38 and in verse 39 he expounded upon what he meant by the living water – ‘This he said about the Spirit, (our second word) whom the those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.’
The third word is song, now at this moment in time with our present restrictions it almost seems a little unfair to talk about songs or singing, it’s a little like standing a child next to a sweet shop and saying that he / she is not allowed any sweets! But the people of Israel sang a song, ‘Spring up O well!’ And to me it speaks of a people who were so thirsty that they wanted to express their thirst in song, and we the people of God when we gather together can use song to express our thirst, our spiritual hunger, our spiritual desire for God to come and to pour out the living water upon us, to satisfy our thirsty souls.
As the deer pants for the water, so my soul longs after you, you alone are my heart’s desire and I long to worship you.
Oh, let the living waters flow,
Oh, let the living waters flow,
Let the river of your Spirit flow through me,
Flow through me, flow through me.