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Thoughts which carry this broken pastor to Jesus, and to the Cross:

“The wise men answered the king, saying, “No one on earth can do what the king asks! No great and powerful king has ever asked the fortune-tellers, magicians, or wise men to do this; the king is asking something that is too hard. Only the gods could tell the king this, but the gods do not live among people.”” (Daniel 2:10–11, NCV)

“The man asked me, “Human, do you see this?” Then the man led me back to the bank of the river. As I went back, I saw many trees on both sides of the river. The man said to me, “This water will flow toward the eastern areas and go down into the Jordan Valley. When it enters the Dead Sea, it will become fresh. Everywhere the river goes, there will be many fish. Wherever this water goes the Dead Sea will become fresh, and so where the river goes there will be many living things. Fishermen will stand by the Dead Sea. From En Gedi all the way to En Eglaim there will be places to spread fishing nets. There will be many kinds of fish in the Dead Sea, as many as in the Mediterranean Sea. But its swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they will be left for salt. All kinds of fruit trees will grow on both banks of the river, and their leaves will not dry and die. The trees will have fruit every month, because the water for them comes from the Temple. The fruit from the trees will be used for food, and their leaves for medicine.”” (Ezekiel 47:6–12, NCV)

“Then King Nebuchadnezzar was so surprised that he jumped to his feet. He asked the men who advised him, “Didn’t we tie up only three men and throw them into the fire?” They answered, “Yes, O king.” The king said, “Look! I see four men walking around in the fire. They are not tied up, and they are not burned. The fourth man looks like a son of the gods.”” (Daniel 3:24–25, NCV)

“He who gives life was shown to us. We saw him and can give proof about it. And now we announce to you that he has life that continues forever. He was with God the Father and was shown to us. We announce to you what we have seen and heard, because we want you also to have fellowship with us. Our fellowship is with God the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to you so we may be full of joy.” (1 John 1:2–4, NCV)

As I caught up on my devotional reading this morning, I noticed an incredible summary of the gospel, spread across three books of scripture, and two of them—Old Testament prophetic books. It continually amazes me to see God’s plan revealed, not just in the 4 gospels, but it described with such passion in the Old Testament.

I could have described it with just the two readings from Daniel, but the Ezekiel parable adds so much to it! I could have just done it from John’s epistle, but there is something to say about Daniel setting up this incredible picture of the powerful, intimate relationship we have with Jesus and the Father, which the spirit nurtures!

So let’s start with the first Daniel reading…

The back story is that the King has threatened his wise men with their death, if they cannot do the impossible—a task that requires in it a supernatural quality that they say they do not have. Their entire defense is that God (or in their case gods) would never live with people. They say this knowing their lives are on the line. What despair they must have felt, what emptiness, what a traumatic sinking feeling to know you are about to die—and there is nothing you can do

Which leads us to Ezekiel, and this wonderful parable of the water of life, flowing from the sacrifice in the Temple, turns the deadest water in the world into living, refreshing water! That Sea is so polluted from salt and other mineral that no amoeba, never mind plants or fish, can survive in it. It is literally dead, and it is deadly to any who end up in it, or hope to find life around it. Yet this water of life changes it, purifies it, makes it capable of life, of sustaining the life and it will thrive. When Jesus talks of being the living water to the women at the well, who knew the scriptures, this may have been a thought in the back of her mind—for what kind of water brings this life….only that which flows from the Holy of Holies – the place of forgiveness and mercy!

But if this water is a picture of Jesus, it also describes the relationship He has with us, as the water that flows into our death, into our broken-nonfunctioning life—into that place where the wise men were in despair, where we are riddled with guilt and shame and anxiety. But as He comes into our life, as He purifies and heals it, he shares in it as close as a molecule of water is to the other molecules of water. The intimacy is that you cannot tell the difference where one starts and the other begins—which is how the purity is created as it is shared, as all impure is removed.

The intimacy that the wise men said couldn’t exist, proves to be the standard of life! The attempts of man to extinguish that life in others, simply results in the king’s testimony that no other God can, or does, save His people like this—by become not just like them, but by making them one with Him. No other God in any other religion wants this close a relationship with the broken people He loves, that He created to love.

Which brings us to John’s epistle – and this incredible, intimate picture gets reinforced as we find out that we are joined, made one, for that is what koinonia/communion/fellowship means with Jesus and the Father! This is that very same picture of the water cleansing and bring life to where there was no life. A life that nourishes and strengthens all the life on the shoreline. For it transforms it.

This is who we are in Christ Jesus, this is what repentance means – this changing of our soul, heart and mind, from broken and dead, without God and alone, to healed, and restored, and united to God through the blood of Christ.

SO maybe there was a reason to miss devotions on Monday, and put all these readings, each re-enforcing the idea, together.  This is what the Old Testament Prophecies are supposed to do, to point to this relationship between God and His people, a relationship we can point to with hope.

This is what we need – this water of life, this Son of God, who dances with us, even amidst the hottest, fieriest trauma.

Gor we have been made one with Him, as His blood covers our sin, and brings life to us.

AMEN!