Scripture Reading: Jer. 2:13; Lam. 3:22-25; Jer. 23:5-6; 31:33-34
In this message I would like to give a further word on Jeremiah 2:13; Lamentations 3:22-25; Jeremiah 23:5-6; and 31:33-34. The intrinsic content of these verses shows us God's economy.
Jeremiah 2:13 reveals that God is the fountain of living waters. Why does God desire to be the fountain of living waters for His elect people to drink that their thirst may be quenched and that they may be satisfied? God's purpose in wanting to be the fountain of living waters for His elect to drink is that He would be increased and enlarged. Many Christians have not paid attention to this matter. Have you ever heard that God wants to be enlarged? When some hear this, they say, "How can God be enlarged? Is He not already large enough? It is blasphemy to say that God can be enlarged." Concerning this matter of God's enlargement, let us come back to the Bible and see what the Bible says.
In the Bible there is the thought that God is the satisfying water to His elect. Psalm 36:8-9a says, "They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures. For with thee is the fountain of life." Here fatness means food, or the life supply, and the river is the river of life. In typology the fatness of God's house refers to the rich produce of the good land. All the riches that were offered to God became the fatness of His house. As we enjoy this fatness, we drink of the river of life, the river of God's pleasures.
In the Bible there are a number of places where God is signified by a river. The first is in Genesis 2:10-14. God created man in His own image and then placed him in the garden of Eden in front of the tree of life. The tree of life is first mentioned in verse 9. Then verse 10 goes on to say, "A river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads." This river, therefore, is closely related to the tree of life. Another verse which speaks of a river is Psalm 46:4. "There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God." Ezekiel 47 tells of the prophet's vision of a river flowing out of the temple of God. In John 4 the Lord Jesus speaks of living water (v. 10) and of a spring of water gushing up into eternal life (v. 14); and in John 7, He speaks of rivers of living water (v. 38). In 1 Corinthians 10:4 we have Paul's word about spiritual drink. Finally, in Revelation 22:1 we have a word concerning the river of water of life proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. It is through the flow of this river that God's economy is accomplished.
God needs to be the fountain of living waters to us because He has an economy. What is God's economy? God's economy is to have an expression of Himself. God does not want to express Himself by Himself alone; rather, He wants to express Himself through His counterpart. For this reason, God created man and put him in the garden of Eden. Eventually, God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone" (Gen. 2:18a). In typology this signifies that it is not good for God to be alone. This indicates that the first husband mentioned in the Bible was not a human being but God. Who is His counterpart? Adam, who was created in God's image, was to be God's counterpart. In order to be God's counterpart, Adam had to drink of God, to receive God into him that he might have the divine life with the divine nature and the divine element in order to be divine to match God. Because God, the Husband, is divine, the wife, His counterpart, should also be divine that she might match Him. Since it was not good for the man to be alone, God builded from Adam's rib a woman to match him (Gen. 2:21-23).
I would emphasize the fact that God needs to be the fountain of living waters to His elect because He has an economy, and His economy is to produce a counterpart, a bride, for Himself. The purpose of God's economy is that God would no longer be alone but would have a wife to be His increase, His enlargement, and thus to match Him as the Husband. This is the significance of the word increase in John 3:30. In this verse John the Baptist, speaking of Christ, says, "He must increase." In the previous verse John had said, "He who has the bride is the bridegroom." The increase in verse 30 is the bride in verse 29. The Bridegroom is Christ, and the bride is His increase, His enlargement. Just as Eve was the increase of Adam, being built from Adam's rib, so God's elect as the bride are the increase of Christ as the Bridegroom.
God intended to dispense Himself into man as man's satisfaction that God might be enlarged, but man became unfaithful and unchaste and forsook God for idols. This forsaking of God began in the garden of Eden. Eve, the wife of Adam, was not faithful to God but was seduced by the serpent to turn from God to Satan, symbolized by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Through Eve Adam also was seduced and ate of the fruit of the tree of knowledge. In this way man turned away from God to idols. Every branch of the tree of knowledge is an idol. Whatever we possess, and even whatever we are, can be an idol. Israel was evil and unfaithful to God in forsaking God for idols. In the matter of such unfaithfulness to God, we are the same as Israel.
Although we are unfaithful, God is faithful. Lamentations 3:23b says, "Great is Your faithfulness." The chorus of a well-known hymn on God's faithfulness (Hymns, #19) says, "'Great is Thy faithfulness!' 'Great is Thy faithfulness!' / Morning by morning new mercies I see; / All I have needed Thy hand has provided — / 'Great is Thy faithfulness,' Lord, unto me!" We may understand what the Bible says and what this hymn says about God's faithfulness either in a natural way or in a spiritual way. When you sing this hymn, how do you understand the word faithfulness? If you understand God's faithfulness in a natural way, you may think that He is faithful primarily in the matter of material provisions or physical blessings. When some say that God is faithful, they mean that He is faithful to take care of their material needs. However, in 1 Corinthians 1:9 Paul says, "God is faithful, through whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord." God is faithful in this matter, but He may not be faithful to provide you a large house or a well-paying job. I would not deny the fact that God is faithful in caring for our welfare. My point is that God's faithfulness is not according to our natural understanding.
Consider the sufferings of the apostle Paul. He was called, commissioned, burdened, and sent by God, but wherever he went he had troubles. For example, as soon as he began to preach Christ, he began to suffer persecution. He even had to escape from Damascus by being lowered down the wall in a basket. Does this mean that God was not faithful to Paul? No, it means that God's faithfulness is not according to our natural understanding.
When we believed in the Lord Jesus, we might have expected to have peace and blessing. But instead we might have had many troubles and might have lost our security, our health, or our possessions. When some Christians experience such things, they may question God's faithfulness and ask why He did not prevent hardships from happening to them.
We need to realize that in allowing us to have troubles, God is faithful in His purpose to turn us from idols and bring us back to Himself. Our peace, safety, health, and possessions may become idols to us, and God is faithful to take these things away so that we may drink of Him as the fountain of living waters. If our house or our possessions become idols to us, we drink of them and not of God. God's faithfulness is a matter of dealing with these idols and causing us to drink of Him.
God is faithful in leading us into His economy, and His economy is for us to drink Christ, to eat Christ, to enjoy Christ, to absorb Christ, and to assimilate Christ that God may have His increase with us to fulfill His economy. This is God's faithfulness.
Instead of drinking of God as the fountain of living waters, Israel drank of their idols. Therefore, God used the Babylonians to deal with these idols and also to destroy Jerusalem and even the temple, which had become an idol to them. We need to see that we are not better than Israel. Anything can become an idol to us. But God is faithful in fulfilling His economy. In His faithfulness He deals with our idols that we may drink of Him. We all need to drink of God as the fountain of living waters, receiving Christ into us and assimilating Him, so that He may increase for the fulfillment of God's economy to have His expression through His counterpart.
Whereas God is faithful, we are neither faithful nor chaste but go to many other husbands. After failing God, we may receive some mercy and grace and therefore repent and weep, saying, "How pitiful I am! For a long time I have not loved the Lord very much, and I have not attended the meetings." While we are repenting and weeping, God is rejoicing. However, if we repent and weep too much, even our repentance may become an idol. We may testify in a meeting, saying that we have thoroughly repented to God. But this may be a matter of self-boasting and be a self-made idol. Therefore, after repenting, we should begin to drink of the living waters, praising God, giving thanks to Him for everything, and enjoying Him. This is what God wants. God is not interested in anything other than our enjoyment of Christ.
We may think that because of our failure, we are hopeless. Thus, it is profitable to consider Lamentations 3:22-25. "It is Jehovah's lovingkindness that we are not consumed, / For His compassions do not fail; / They are new every morning. / Great is Your faithfulness. / Jehovah is my portion, says my soul; / Therefore I hope in Him. / Jehovah is good to those who wait on Him, / To the soul that seeks Him." These words were written after the Babylonians had destroyed Jerusalem, burned the temple, and carried away many into captivity. According to some historical books, Lamentations was written while Jeremiah was sitting on a small mountain overlooking the destroyed city of Jerusalem. Surely, the people of Israel must have felt that God had given them up and that they were finished. On the one hand, Jeremiah was weeping; on the other hand, he was writing. In his writing he could say that it was of Jehovah's lovingkindness that they were not consumed. He could say that they were still there and that God had not given them up. The princes, the prophets, and the priests had failed, but God's compassions do not fail; rather, they are new every morning. Jeremiah could even declare that Jehovah was his portion and that he hoped in Him, for He is good to those who wait on Him. Why is there hope in Him? There is hope in God because with God there is no disappointment.
At this point we need to see that Israel's failure opened the way for Christ to come in to be their righteousness. The situation is the same with us today. Our failure opens the way for Christ to come in.
Jeremiah 23:5-6 speaks of Christ's coming in. "Behold, days are coming, / Declares Jehovah, / When I will raise up to David a righteous Shoot; / And He will reign as King and act prudently / And will execute judgment and righteousness in the land./...And this is His name by which He will be called, / Jehovah our righteousness." This righteous Shoot is Christ as the descendant of David. The day is coming when all Israel will receive Christ as their righteousness. They forsook Him, but their forsaking of Him has opened the door for Him to come in to be their righteousness. Then they may say, "Lord, we do not have anything that God can recognize as righteousness, but You have come to be our righteousness."
According to the prophecy of Jeremiah, no matter how evil and wicked Israel may be and no matter how often they have forsaken God to hew out broken cisterns for themselves, Israel will be restored. In the restoration of Israel, Christ will be their righteousness, redemption, and life (31:33-34), and Christ will be exalted to be their centrality and universality. God will come in to dispense Himself into His elect as the divine life to be their life and life law with its capacity to know God and to live God. Eventually, they, like Paul and the believers in Christ today, will be a new creation.
If we fail God today, we should not be disappointed. God has a way to deal with us. He has a way to cause us to mature and then to bring us into the New Jerusalem. If we are overcomers, we will enjoy the reward in the millennium. If we are defeated, we will suffer punishment in the millennium, but eventually we will be matured and enter into the New Jerusalem. Some Christians may love the world today, but sooner or later God will come in to take away the "toy" of the world, and they will repent. Then He may say, "Child, you don't need to repent anymore. Simply take Christ in and rejoice with Me."
There is no need for us to worry about our situation. God is patient, sympathetic, and compassionate, and He will take the time to make us mature. Every believer, whether presently weak or strong, will be in the New Jerusalem, and everyone there will be mature. Whether we seek God diligently or only a little, God has a way to make Christ our righteousness, our redemption, our life, our life law, and our life capacity so that we can be matured. Every real believer in Christ will reach maturity and be in the New Jerusalem. Thus, we should not be dismayed or discouraged. Rather, we should be encouraged.
