Scriptures that Speak | Gently Flowing Waters
Most of us have Bible stories we learned as kids or heard so many times that we’re unlikely to forget them easily. Do you also have scriptures that, when you read them or heard them, they came alive for you and spoke to your heart in a way you’re also not likely to forget? The Bible is full of relatable characters and events that are just as true today as they were when they were written. The Holy Spirit uses these stories to teach us in our lives today. The blog team is going to share some of their stories with you. We hope they will remind you of a few of your own.
As we begin a new blog series on “Scriptures that Speak to Us,” I looked back into my Bible-reading history and tried to remember a scripture that struck me in a very personal way. What came up almost at once was a scripture that you’d hardly think could speak to anyone! It was Isaiah 8:6-8, and it goes like this:
Because this people has rejected the gently flowing waters of Shiloah
And rejoices over Rezin and the son of Remaliah,
Therefore the Lord is about to bring against them the mighty floodwaters of the River -
the king of Assyria with all his pomp.
It will overflow all its channels, run over all its banks
And sweep on into Judah, swirling over it, passing through it and reaching up to the neck.
Its outspread wings will cover the breadth of your land, O Immanuel!
Would you agree that this is an unusual scripture to speak to a young man in 20th-century America? So let me explain. First of all, for a little context, “the flowing waters of Shiloah” refers to an area in Judah which the Israelites had settled years before and which was a pleasant land, “flowing with milk and honey” as the Scriptures describe it. “Rezin and the son of Remaliah” refer to two kings of Assyria who conspired to attack and conquer Judah. Assyria was an extremely rich and powerful nation in the Middle East. Some Judeans were rejoicing in becoming aligned with such an impressive empire. So what Isaiah was prophesying was that since these Judeans were rejecting what God had given them and were lusting after the worldly power and pleasures of a rich but ungodly empire, destruction would come upon them.
OK, so back to the 20th century when I read this scripture… I was at the time very much drawn toward what was cool, what was popular, what was exciting and what shined with the razzle-dazzle of the material world. I had become a follower of Jesus some years prior to this, but nonetheless my focus was often drawn away from life in the Spirit and riveted toward what the exciting world had to offer. The “gently flowing waters” that God was giving me became overshadowed by the exciting “mighty floodwaters” of everything around me. The scripture “Man cannot serve both God and money.” Matthew 6:24 became very clear to me with this vivid picture painted for me by Isaiah in his prophecy.
This experience, and many others since then, have confirmed for me the truth found in
Hebrews 4:12
The word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
