Here is Water!

The past week has been the culmination of about two months of plumbing problems which started out not as a big deal and slowly became worse until something had to be done. Ignoring it was my first line of action, and that didn't work. Our well, drilled into an underground stream and with over 40 years of providing fantastic service, was losing water due to fractures caused by explosions in a nearby quarry. A local company came to the rescue and our well is once again filled. I can now say with Candace's treasurer, " Look! Here is water!"

There are a number of things about life in the 21st century that don't go like they're supposed to when there is no water in the house, also when there is no water outside the house. I've discovered that I use water much more than I realized and that it's hard to be truly happy if you have to do without it. It's also hard to keep God happy without it. God has used water to achieve His own purposes.

One of the best known accounts in the entire Bible is that of Noah and the flood which begins in Genesis 6. Noah was a righteous man, who was "trying to walk" with God. Genesis 6:5-13 relates God's displeasure over the wickedness and corruption of all the rest of mankind. God's plan was to end the wickedness of man and spare righteous Noah and his family by sending a flood for mankind and having Noah build a boat, the ark.

There are many facets to this narrative , but our focus, as was the focus of God, is the relationship the flood had to the condition of mankind. Since Noah and his family were the only people in the ark, all the righteous people survived the flood and all the wicked people perished. It might seem to us earthlings that the ark saved Noah from the flood. God sees it differently.

Peter writes the following in 1 Peter 3:20, ". . . the long suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water." Did you notice what he said? Eight souls (Noah and his family) were saved by water. It is not wrong to say that the ark saved eight souls from the flood, but God is operating on a much deeper level (no pun intended.) We see the ark saving physical humans from drowning in water. God sees the water as saving eight souls from a wicked world. Noah and his family left a sinful world behind and came forth from the ark (and the whole flood episode) to walk a new life. God used water to separate His people from the world of sin.

Many years later, the descendants of Noah through his son, Shem (and later, Jacob) were enslaved by a pagan nation who had no respect for God or His precepts. God saw their affliction, heard their cries, knew their sorrows, and sent Moses to them as a deliverer. After the ordeal of the ten plagues, Pharaoh relented and sent the Israelites away, and the Egyptians even gave them gold, silver and other gifts.

Pharaoh soon reneged, gathered his army and overtook the Israelites at the Red Sea. While an angel of the Lord kept the Egyptians separated from the Israelites from behind, God created a passage for the Israelites to walk across the sea as if on dry land. With the Israelites safely across and the Egyptians having charged into the seabed after them, God allowed the water to come back together and the pagan Egyptians were drowned in the sea.

As it was with Noah, so it was with the Exodus. While we see that physical humans were spared destruction by the path God provided through the water, at the same time, God's people were saved from the evil pagan Egyptians by the water in which the Egyptians drowned. They came out of the water to walk a new life in service to the one true God. Soon they would camp at Mt. Sinai where Moses would receive the Ten Commandments. God used water to redeem His people from sinful Egypt.

Many years later the kingdom of Israel had split into a northern kingdom, Israel, and a southern kingdom, Judah. Elisha was a prophet in Israel and lived in the region of Samaria. The nation to the north of Israel was Syria and the captain of the Syrian army was Naaman. In 2 Kings 5 we read that Naaman had leprosy. A servant girl that Naaman had captured in Israel told Naaman of a prophet in Israel that could cure him of his leprosy.

Naaman sought out and found Elisha and asked for this healing. Elisha told Naaman to go to the Jordan River and dip seven times and he would be healed. Naaman was at first enraged that he had been told to dip in a low-rate Samaritan river, but was convinced by his servants to try it anyway. He dipped one time, the second time, a third time, etc, until he had dipped seven times. The sixth time he was still a leper. But the seventh time he had skin like a little child and he was clean.

This seems to be different. This is one man instead of several of God's people, and he is a Syrian, not one of God's people. But because of this event he became one of God's people. In 2 Kings 5:17, Naaman, the Syrian warrior, says to Elisha, the prophet of God, "thy servant [Naaman] will henceforth offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice unto other gods, but unto the Lord." Naaman went down into the water a leper and he came up out of the water to "walk a new life" free of leprosy, with child-like skin. He went down into the water a pagan, and he came up out of the water a worshipper of the one true God. God used water to cleanse Naaman of his leprosy, and he was cleansed of his paganism at the same time.

God used water to save Noah's family from a sinful world, Genesis 6-8. God used water to save the Israelites from the pagan Egyptians, Exodus 14-15. God used water to save Naaman from leprosy and the false gods of the Syrians, 2 Kings 5. Each one of these involves a physical act with a spiritual aspect. Was there something magic about the water? There was not.

In fact, in the first two examples the people did not actually come in contact with the water, even though God used the water to save them. In the case of Naaman, he was completely covered with water seven different times, but many lepers have no doubt been immersed in water without being cured. In every case, people did what God told them to do and it was their obedience that provided the "magic" needed for them to be saved from their situation.

Peter makes this clear in 1 Peter 3:21. In verse 20 he mentions Noah and his family being saved by water (being saved by water,) the Holy Spirit's words through Peter, not mine. Then he says in verse 21, "the like figure whereunto baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ." Peter is saying, just like water saved Noah's family long ago, baptism saves us now. No, it doesn't have anything to do with the physical water (cleaning the physical skin.) It's about your conscience being clean, or clear, before God. Your conscience is clear because you obeyed what God told you to do.

Submitting to God to do His will is why the Ethiopian treasurer asked Philip in Acts 8:36,, "Look, here is water. What doth hinder me from being baptized?" He was baptized and he went on his way rejoicing because he now had a clear conscience before God. It is instructive that the only thing Philip preached to him was Jesus, and his response was to desire the baptism that Peter says "now saves us."

Submitting to God to do His will is what Jesus did in Matthew 3 when he went to be baptized by John. But John at first refused telling Jesus that he, John, needed to be baptized by Jesus instead. But Jesus told John in Matthew 3:14, "Suffer it to [Let it] be so, for thus it becomes us to fulfill all righteousness." In other words, the baptism of Jesus was God's will and that made it necessary for John to baptize Jesus in order for the righteous requirement to be fulfilled.

Just like the waters of the flood saved Noah and his family many years ago, the waters of baptism now save us, not because of any physical occurrence that may be involved but because we have a clear conscience before God since we have submitted ourselves to His will. God using water as a salvation tool goes back thousands of years.

The water has no special powers. It's not a physical thing. It's a spiritual thing. The power is in the righteousness of God bestowed on those who are obedient to His will.