Key Verse: Psalm 81:13
Oh, that My people would listen to Me,
That Israel would walk in My ways!
Psalm 82:5b tells us, “All the foundations of the earth are unstable.” The Bible is not a textbook on natural science, but when a statement is made on the subject, it is correct. The people could not have known about the great tectonic plates that move continents, causing earthquakes and opening up huge chasms such as the Jordan Valley. Geologists have calculated the increase of the salt in the Dead Sea, and a formula has been developed. If the formula is reversed to figure out the decrease of salt, it is possible to guess at the time when no waters flowed down to the lowest place on earth, and no salt was washed into that sea, which has no outward flow. This was not millions of years ago, but in the time from the flood of Noah to the fire and brimstone of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 7:11-24 & Genesis 19:24-29).
Our key verse tells us that God longs for His people to return to Him. If they had maintained their relationship with God consistently, they would have enjoyed the river of constant blessings instead of curses, defeat and death over and over again.
PRAYER FOR TODAY:
Lord God, I pray for consistency every day to draw from Your river of life as Your presence and purpose flows through time. Please grant me sufficient grace that I may not pick up the corrosive death-producing culture of this world. In Jesus’ Name I pray. Amen!!!
100 PERSONAL WORDS:
I love the description of the “pure river of water of life,” which the Apostle John shared with us from his vision of the “Throne of God (Revelation 22:1-2). That river flows through Jesus Himself (John 4:7-14) and also John 7:37-39, where I’ve just read that Jesus cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scriptures have said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” There are several places in the Hebrew Scriptures to which Jesus referred. I’ve just looked up one of those and read Isaiah 43:19-21.
The upper Jordan flows from the pure sources at the base of Mount Herman in the north down to the fresh, life-filled Sea of Galilee. Then the water proceeds to descend down through that deep scar in the earth’s surface, known as the Rift Valley, into a place where no life can exist. I’ve tried to swim in the Dead Sea. It was very awkward, given the water’s unusual buoyancy (10 times more salty than the ocean). When I tried to swim, the tendency was for my head to sink under the surface and my feet to rise as I floated. At another time, after a long horseback ride along the upper Jordan, with my muscles aching and sore, my sons, who assist me in this blog, and I plunged into the waters for the most refreshing swim of our lives. The difference between the pure waters flowing from the mountains toward the Sea of Galilee and the eventual destiny of those waters (the Dead Sea) was enormous! Life and death is in those waters. I must stay constantly in the Living Waters, not picking up the death-producing contamination of this world as I travel through it.
Yours for choosing LIFE!!!
David
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