In the Psalms, David says that God satisfies him like eating
a good meal satisfies his appetite. He also says that he thirsts for God. Is that
how God is to you? Does God satisfy your thirst? Think about that as you read these
passages.
From the Torah: Exodus 17:1-8
From the Former Prophets: Judges 15:1-20
From the Latter Prophets: Ezekiel 47:1-12
From the Books of Wisdom and Poetry: Psalm
63:1-11
From the Late Books: Nehemiah
9:9-21
From the Gospels: Matthew
5:1-12
From the Epistles/Revelation: Revelation 22:1-21
From the Torah
The whole Israelite
community set out from the Desert of Sin, traveling from
place to place as the Lord commanded. They camped
at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to
drink. So
they quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.”
Moses replied, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you
put the Lord to the test?”
But the people were thirsty for water there,
and they grumbled against Moses. They
said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and
livestock die of thirst?”
Then Moses cried out to the Lord, “What am I to do with these people? They are almost
ready to stone me.”
The Lord answered Moses, “Go
out in front of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take
in your hand the staff with which you
struck the Nile, and go. I
will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it
for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of
Israel. And
he called the place Massah and Meribah because the
Israelites quarreled and because they tested the Lord saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”
Exodus
17:1-8
From the Former
Prophets
Later on, at the
time of wheat harvest, Samson took a young goat and went to visit
his wife. He said, “I’m going to my wife’s room.” But her father
would not let him go in.
“I was so sure you hated her,” he
said, “that I gave her to your companion. Isn’t her younger
sister more attractive? Take her instead.”
Samson said to them, “This time I
have a right to get even with the Philistines; I will really harm them.” So
he went out and caught three hundred foxes and tied them tail
to tail in pairs. He then fastened a torch to every pair of
tails, lit
the torches and let the foxes
loose in the standing grain of the Philistines. He burned up the shocks and standing grain,
together with the vineyards and olive groves.
When the Philistines asked, “Who did
this?” they were told, “Samson, the Timnite’s son-in-law, because his wife was
given to his companion.”
So the Philistines went up and burned her and her father to
death. Samson said to them, “Since you’ve acted like this, I swear
that I won’t stop until I get my revenge on you.” He
attacked them viciously and slaughtered many of them.
Then he went down and
stayed in a cave in the rock of Etam.
The Philistines went up and camped
in Judah, spreading out near Lehi. The people of Judah asked,
“Why have you come to fight us?”
“We have come to take Samson prisoner,” they answered,
“to do to him as he did to us.”
Then three thousand men from Judah
went down to the cave in the rock of Etam and said to Samson, “Don’t you
realize that the Philistines are rulers over us? What have you done
to us?”
He answered, “I merely did to them what they did to me.”
They said to him, “We’ve come to tie
you up and hand you over to the Philistines.”
Samson said, “Swear to me that you won’t kill
me yourselves.”
“Agreed,” they answered. “We will
only tie you up and hand you over to them. We will not kill you.” So they bound
him with two new ropes and led him up from
the rock. As
he approached Lehi, the Philistines
came toward him shouting.
The Spirit of the Lord came powerfully
upon him. The ropes on his arms became like charred flax, and the bindings
dropped from his hands. Finding
a fresh jawbone of a donkey, he grabbed it and struck down a thousand men.
Then Samson said,
“With a donkey’s
jawbone
I have made donkeys
of them.
With
a donkey’s jawbone
I have killed a
thousand men.”
When
he finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone; and the place was called
Ramath Lehi.
Because he was very thirsty, he
cried out to the Lord, “You have given
your servant this great victory. Must I now die of
thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?” Then
God opened up the hollow place in Lehi, and water came out of it. When Samson
drank, his strength returned and he revived. So the spring was called En
Hakkore, and it is still there in Lehi.
Samson led Israel for twenty
years in the days of the Philistines.
Judges
15:1-20
From The Latter
Prophets
The man brought me
back to the entrance to the temple, and I saw water coming out from
under the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east).
The water was coming down from under the south side of the temple, south of the
altar. He
then brought me out through the north gate and led me around
the outside to the outer gate facing east, and the water was trickling from the
south side.
As the man went eastward with a
measuring line in his hand, he
measured off a thousand cubits and then led me
through water that was ankle-deep. He
measured off another thousand cubits and led me through water that was
knee-deep. He measured off another thousand and led me through water that was
up to the waist. He
measured off another thousand, but now it was a river that I could not
cross, because the water had risen and was deep enough to swim in—a river that
no one could cross. He
asked me, “Son of man, do you see this?”
Then he led me back to the bank of the river. When
I arrived there, I saw a great number of trees on each side of the river. He
said to me, “This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the
Arabah, where it enters the Dead Sea. When
it empties into the sea, the salty water there becomes fresh. Swarms
of living creatures will live wherever the river flows. There will be large
numbers of fish, because this water flows there and makes the salt water fresh;
so where the river flows everything will live. Fishermen will stand along
the shore; from En Gedi to En Eglaim there
will be places for spreading nets. The fish will be of
many kinds—like the fish of the Mediterranean Sea. But
the swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they will be left for salt. Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will
not wither, nor will their fruit fail. Every month
they will bear fruit, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them.
Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing.”
Ezekiel
47:1-12
From the
Books of Wisdom and Poetry
A psalm of David. When he was in the
Desert of Judah.
You,
God, are my God,
earnestly I seek you;
I thirst for you,
my whole being longs
for you,
in a dry and parched land
where there is no
water.
I
have seen you in the sanctuary
and beheld your power
and your glory.
Because your love is better than life,
my lips will glorify
you.
I will praise you as long as I live,
and in your name I
will lift up my hands.
I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods;
with singing lips my
mouth will praise you.
On
my bed I remember you;
I think of you
through the watches of the night.
Because you are my help,
I sing in the shadow
of your wings.
I cling to you;
your right hand
upholds me.
Those
who want to kill me will be destroyed;
they will go down to
the depths of the earth.
They will be given over to the sword
and become food for
jackals.
But
the king will rejoice in God;
all who swear by God
will glory in him,
while the mouths of
liars will be silenced.
Psalm
63:1-11
From the Late Books
“You saw the suffering of our
ancestors in Egypt; you heard their cry
at the Red Sea. You
sent signs and wonders against Pharaoh,
against all his officials and all the people of his land, for you knew how
arrogantly the Egyptians treated them. You made a name for yourself, which
remains to this day. You
divided the sea before them, so that they passed
through it on dry ground, but you hurled their pursuers into the depths, like a stone into
mighty waters. By
day you led them with a pillar
of cloud, and by night with a
pillar of fire to give them light on the way they were to take.
“You came down on Mount Sinai; you spoke to them from heaven. You gave them
regulations and laws that are just and right, and
decrees and commands that are good. You
made known to them your holy Sabbath and gave them
commands, decrees and laws through your servant Moses. In
their hunger you gave them bread from heaven and in their thirst
you brought them water from the rock; you told them to go
in and take possession of the land you had sworn with uplifted hand to give them.
“But they, our ancestors, became
arrogant and stiff-necked, and they did not
obey your commands. They
refused to listen and failed to remember the miracles you performed among
them. They became stiff-necked and in their
rebellion appointed a leader in order to return to their slavery. But you are a
forgiving God, gracious and
compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in
love. Therefore you did not desert them, even
when they cast for themselves an image of a calf and said, ‘This is
your god, who brought you up out of Egypt,’ or when they committed awful
blasphemies.
“Because of your great compassion
you did not abandon them in the
wilderness. By day the pillar of cloud did not fail to
guide them on their path, nor the pillar of fire by night to shine on the way
they were to take. You
gave your good Spirit to instruct them. You did not
withhold your manna from their mouths,
and you gave them water for their thirst. For
forty years you sustained them
in the wilderness; they lacked nothing, their clothes did
not wear out nor did their feet become swollen.
Nehemiah 9:9-21
From the Gospels
Now when Jesus saw
the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to
him, and
he began to teach them.
He said:
“Blessed are the
poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of
God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are you
when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all
kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is
your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who
were before you.
Matthew
5:1-12
From the
Epistle/Revelation
Then the angel
showed me the river of the water of
life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of
God and of the Lamb down
the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the
tree of life, bearing twelve
crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are
for the healing of the nations. No
longer will there be any curse. The throne of God
and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They
will see his face, and his name will
be on their foreheads. There
will be no more night. They will not need
the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them
light. And they will reign for ever and
ever.
The angel said to me, “These words are
trustworthy and true. The Lord, the God
who inspires the prophets, sent his angel to show his
servants the things that must soon take place.”
“Look, I am coming
soon! Blessed is the one who keeps
the words of the prophecy written in this scroll.”
I,
John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I had
heard and seen them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who
had been showing them to me. But
he said to me, “Don’t do that! I am a fellow servant with you and with your
fellow prophets and with all who keep the words of this scroll. Worship God!”
Then he told me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy
of this scroll, because the time is
near. Let
the one who does wrong continue to do wrong; let the vile person continue to be
vile; let the one who does right continue to do right; and let the holy person
continue to be holy.”
“Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to
each person according to what they have done. I am the Alpha and
the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and
the End.
“Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have
the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. Outside are the dogs, those who practice
magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who
loves and practices falsehood.
“I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for
the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of
David, and the bright Morning Star.”
The
Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And
let the one who hears say, “Come!”
Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the
one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life.
I
warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this scroll: If anyone adds
anything to them, God will add to
that person the plagues described in this scroll. And
if anyone takes words away from this scroll of
prophecy, God will take away
from that person any share in the tree of life and in the Holy
City, which are described in this scroll.
He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming
soon.”
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
The grace of the Lord Jesus be with
God’s people. Amen.
Revelation
22:1-21
