GOD showed the greatness of His power and wisdom when He created the world we live in, some six thousand years ago, and has shown the greatness of His compassion towards perishing sinners by the way He appeals to them in His Word.
The appeals referred to arc contained in the
following portions of Scripture: ―
By means of these God has furnished us with a threefold cord of Scripture testimony, which the power of earth and hell combined can never break. Mortals may make and afterward break their resolutions, and fail to keep their rash and solemn vows, without affecting God’s purposes in the least; and Satan knows the depravity of human nature, and readily lends his aid to those that heed his suggestions, thus ensnaring his victims.
The blessed God has means at His, command by which He breaks the snares of Satan, and sets the sinner free, to which the Apostle Paul refers as follows: “It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe” (1 Cor. 1:2121For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. (1 Corinthians 1:21)). We shall presently see what perfect agreement there is on the part of these remarkable witnesses to the grace of God. Each message borne by them brings with it the warmth of divine love, while waiting for a response on the part of man.
The servant cries, “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters.” The saints say, “Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely,” and the Saviour’s words are, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.”
What could equal the breadth, beauty, and bountifulness of the grace of God, as expressed in the words, “every one,” “whosoever,” and “any man”? They have been divinely selected by God with a view to the salvation of men, and therefore are perfectly adapted to the need of sinners everywhere. Now, could anything be more blind than the unbelief of the human heart which prompts an anxious soul to say―
“Living water, flowing free;
But who’s to prove it flows for me?”
When Moses smote the rock in the wilderness the water flowed forth, and flowed for the whole congregation of Israel, without a single exception, or any conditions whatever on the part of God. The water from the smitten rock flowed for “everyone” in the camp, for “whosoever” and “any man,” and each were responsible to make it their own by dipping it up and drinking it. Also when Christ died, He died for all, and His death has opened the fountain of life in order to quench the thirst which He creates by His spirit in our souls.
There appears to have been no need whatever for Moses and Aaron, or any other servants of God, to enter the tents of the Israelites and invite them to come and drink of the flowing water from the smitten rock. Ah, no. Their sense of need was too deep and real to require anything like an appeal from their leaders.
And though so sadly strange, it is surely true that when it is a question of eternal life in Christ and eternal gain and glory, man’s indifference with respect to the gift of God could not be greater. God often has to add the pressure of His hand (by means of trial and affliction) to the power of His Word, as a means of giving us possession of that which His love delights to bestow on His creatures.
The little word of one syllable already quoted, and which forms the preface of Isaiah’s appeal, only occurs twice in the Scriptures. It is a word of immense importance, though so small. “Ho, ho, come forth, and flee from the land of the north,” is the anxious cry of the prophet Zechariah (Zech. 2:66Ho, ho, come forth, and flee from the land of the north, saith the Lord: for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the heaven, saith the Lord. (Zechariah 2:6)).
“Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters,” is the earnest appeal of Isaiah. One was just as anxious to free the captives from Babylon as the other was to bring them to the fountain of living waters after they had made their escape.
The word “ho,” then, is a choice one, and beautifully in keeping with the Scriptures, which declares the freeness of salvation to “every one,” “whosoever,” and “any man.” It is a word which was never intended to be trifled with, or taken upon the unclean lips of unconverted prophets or preachers. It was formed in the hearts of those we have referred to by the Holy Spirit before it flowed from their lips, and was used by them as a means of showing how deeply they desired the welfare of others, proving their sincerity as the Lord’s servants, not only by what they said, but by the way they said it.
Eternal life as well as the Holy Spirit is the gift of God in Jesus Christ. And many enjoy it, when they possess it, but none save one, can impart it to others; therefore the last appeal is all the more remarkable, and the gift and Giver are identified when Jesus Christ cried, “If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink.” On another occasion He said, “Him that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst” (John 6:3535And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. (John 6:35)).
The opposite will be fulfilled in those that not only pass on, regardless of the earnest pleadings of the prophet, and the beseeching’s of ten thousands of God’s people, but refuse to lend an ear to the Saviour’s voice, and therefore when the saints are drinking evermore of the fullness of God’s pleasure, never to thirst again, these, we read, will ever thirst, for want of that which was freely offered them on earth, and which they stoutly refused to receive.
“Ho, ye thirsty, Jesus calls you;
Jesus came to give
Wine and milk of free salvation;
Come to Him and live.
Whosoever will may take it!
Hear the gospel cry,
Without price and without money,
Come to Him and buy.”
H. H.