“HE feedeth on ashes” (and there are many kinds of ashes, but all of them are unsuitable able for food); “a deceived heart hath turned him aside” (and there are many bypaths, both religious and irreligious, into which the feet may be turned by a deceived heart); “that he cannot deliver his soul” (Isa. 44:2020He feedeth on ashes: a deceived heart hath turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand? (Isaiah 44:20)). Ashes, a deceived heart, and an undelivered soul describe, in the graphic words of the prophet, the condition of the man who does not know the truth. Dissatisfaction, deception, and drudgery are his real estate before God, whether he may have apprehended it or not.
The world in any of its myriad forms of attraction never yet satisfied the heart of man, nor can it do so. It can but supply ashes. These may be religious ashes, or scientific, or political, or social ashes, but they are ashes still. Pleasurable they may be for the moment, even as Scripture wisely speaks of “the pleasures of sin,” adding, with equal wisdom, “for a season”— pleasures which, after all, leave but a scar, as I call upon every worldling to witness. They are veritable ashes.
The “woman of Samaria” (John 4) had eaten to the full of such ashes. Her life had been one of pleasure, but not of satisfaction. Her conscience was ill at ease, and her heart as burdened as it was empty. She had come, as we all remember, to draw water from the only well she knew, a well deep indeed, but one at which the cattle on the hills likewise quenched their thirst. She was but little removed from these—morally on a lower plane than they. Hither she came for water.
But, before her, sitting a weary on the well, was One whom she knew not, He who, in Psalms 104, is spoken of as “very great,” and who watereth the hills from His chambers, and who satisfieth the earth with the fruit of His works; but here in John 4 seen in humility, and solitude, and weariness, soliciting for His thirst a draft of the water which He had Himself created.
Why was this?
Ah! He cared but little for the slaking of His thirst, or for the satisfying of His hunger. He had indeed “meat to eat,” for He had come to do the work of Him who sent Him. This was His meat.
Sent of the Father, He had come in lowly grace to accomplish the work of redemption, and to give, as its wondrous result, that which can not only deliver but delight the heart of man.
Hence He told this woman of the living water, a thing of which she had never heard before, adding—“Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up to everlasting life.”
“Never thirst”— satisfaction, and that forever, by virtue of a well or fountain within that should spring up to life everlasting!
Marvelous boon for “whosoever drinketh”! Samaritan, Jew, or Gentile, wheresoever in the wide world of sin can be found a soul in spiritual need and wretchedness, that soul may come to Jesus and receive at His generous hand that which fills the heart with absolute satisfaction. This living water is the Spirit of God in life-giving and life-sustaining power, and, precious beyond description though it be, it is free to all as the gift of the Son of God. The enjoyment of it is more that deliverance, it is really heart-delight. And that is the reason why Christianity is essentially joyful. The heart is filled; it has found in the Lord Jesus Christ an object of perfect satisfaction, and it has, in the indwelling Spirit, a spring of unfailing power.
The Christian may, alas, fail in realization and enjoyment, but the glorious object of his heart, and the blessed and holy spring within him, abide and last forever. Look, for an example, at Stephen in Acts 7; see how, as full of the Holy Ghost, his eye was directed to Jesus in the glory of God, and how he passed away in true martyr triumph and Spirit-given victory to the presence of his Lord on high. Or, again, look at Paul, a prisoner in Rome, anticipating martyrdom at any time, but sustained in perfect superiority to all fear, and writing to the saints at Philippi that they should “rejoice in the Lord alway.” This delight is not confined to apostles and martyrs, it is ours! “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance,” and these are nine graces and beatitudes which declare, beyond question, the true moral value of Christianity. They indicate a condition of true heart-delight.
It is the exhibition of these graces that goes far to prove the truth of Christianity—of Christ being in glory, and the Spirit of God in operation on earth; and the Christian who really loves his Lord will certainly seek, with growing desire, to be in the power of all this. The life of Jesus seen in His people is by far the best witness to the truth. Without that life our service is poor; having it in power, the clever infidelity of the day, the love of the world, and the empty pleasures of sin are practically annulled. There is a life which satisfies, one in which the heart finds true and constant delight; and this necessarily beggars all beside it.
What a wonderful opportunity is thus granted the Christian to delight in the Lord, to serve, to worship, to adore Him; to declare by lip and life the infinite treasure he has found, to announce in every way its worthiness, its charm, its blessedness! Thus shall fellow-Christians be stimulated, sinners attracted to Jesus, and God greatly glorified; and the heart, once deceived, then by grace delivered, now becomes the delighted vessel of joy to God and blessing to man.
“Our hearts are full of Christ, and long
Their glorious matter to declare!
Of Him we make our loftier song, —
We cannot from His praise forbear:
Our ready tongues make haste to sing
The glories of the heavenly King.”