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| © Elizabeth DeBarros 2012 - "Womb of the Morning" |
Dear Pilgrim, is your thirst desperate?
In His grace has He made your thirst for Him so desperate that you would spend a precious night before Him, panting
for Him, your eyes staying open through the watches of the night, rising before dawn, crying out for help from Him? For darkness covers the earth, thick darkness is over the peoples. Our need of Him has never been so desperate.
Let me take you to the Cave of Adullam, the cave of Refuge,
which points to the One who is our Rock, our fortress, and our deliverer, our
Rock in whom we take refuge. See here David, sheltering in his Rock as he seeks
to defeat the enemy in the Valley of Rephaim, or giants. See how he becomes
aware that he is thirsty, how he longs for some water to drink.
Listen! “Oh that someone would get me a drink of water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem!”
Listen! “Oh that someone would get me a drink of water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem!”
Do you see - even sheltering in the cave of Refuge, it is possible to still be thirsty. For it is His desire that we come to Him as children and ask Him to quench our thirst! It is His desire that our eyes be opened to the greatness of our need, that we might cling to Him, that we might see Him and behold His power and glory! But dear Pilgrim, we need to ask! Oh, how we need to ask!
Watch! Three mighty warriors are stealthily breaking through enemy lines, seeking out water from the well of which David spoke. How they are risking their lives! How they must love David, to be ready to lay down their lives for him to satisfy his thirst in this way! See their success as they bring the water back to the one they love.
Watch! Three mighty warriors are stealthily breaking through enemy lines, seeking out water from the well of which David spoke. How they are risking their lives! How they must love David, to be ready to lay down their lives for him to satisfy his thirst in this way! See their success as they bring the water back to the one they love.
Look! David is chastened. He sees the love of his friends,
their willingness to lay down their lives for him to quench his thirst. He
cannot drink of this water. He pours it out as an offering before the Lord,
seeing the water for which he longed as their life-blood which they were
willing to sacrifice for him.
Dear Pilgrim…has your gaze been shifted towards Calvary, to
the cross on which One willingly gave His life for His friends? To the Roman
soldier now coming to thrust a spear into His side…that blood and water might
pour out? Do you see how He willingly poured out His blood that He might quench
our thirst? But this is not water drawn from a well, my friend. Now that He is risen, ascended and glorified, He can send rivers of living water to us. Oh, Pilgrim, do you see - not even just the water from one river, but the water from many rivers! What abundance He has to offer us! Oh, Pilgrim, He has made us thirsty that we might drink of the abundance of the rivers of living water that are available in Him!
Come, Pilgrim. David could not drink of the water, for that
water would only satisfy his physical thirst. His pouring out of the water before the Lord speaks to how he was looking for water to satisfy his spiritual thirst. How desperate we are for this spiritual water! Oh Pilgrim, how
desperate we are! How we need to wait for Him more than watchmen wait for the morning. But Pilgrim, take note of this blessed picture, that when He comes knocking during the night, His head is drenched with dew - He brings with Him the blessing of the early morning dew that speaks of Him quenching our thirst.
Precious Pilgrim, will you help me? Will you remind me of my desperate thirst? Can we encourage one another to seek Him with all of our being, so that if in His grace He should come calling during the night to meet our thirst, He will not find us asleep? As we shelter in the Cave of Refuge, can we seek Him together? For just as the three mighty warriors point us to the Quencher of our Thirst, so too they give a beautiful picture of the blessedness that comes from seeking for water from Him in unity. The dew of Mount Zion will fall upon God's people seeking Him in unity.
Precious Pilgrim, will you help me? Will you remind me of my desperate thirst? Can we encourage one another to seek Him with all of our being, so that if in His grace He should come calling during the night to meet our thirst, He will not find us asleep? As we shelter in the Cave of Refuge, can we seek Him together? For just as the three mighty warriors point us to the Quencher of our Thirst, so too they give a beautiful picture of the blessedness that comes from seeking for water from Him in unity. The dew of Mount Zion will fall upon God's people seeking Him in unity.
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