I will open rivers on the barren heights, and fountains in the middle of the valleys. I will turn the desert into a pool of water, and the dry land into flowing springs. Sermons
I. SPRINGS IN THE DRY LAND OF SIN. What depth of meaning there is in the promise, "The Seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head"! All seemed lost; and yet at his very feet there sprang up for man "a fountain opened for sin and uncleanness." This is God's revelation fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Often revelations are left to human discovery. There have been hidden beauties in the universe - unknown continents which man must search out and explore. There are hidden adaptations in nature to the need of man, which will reward his enterprise - medicaments for disease, ministrants of alleviation. And there are yet "hidden fountains," which the discovering hand of man will lay bare in the wilderness. But sin must be met by grace at once, that man may be saved - that the child may yet say, "Father." II. SPRINGS IN THE DRY LAND OF SORROW. Hagar flies. Not the first, nor the last, that the east wind of bitter hatred has driven from the protecting doors. The newspapers record crime. We shudder. But blows at the heart, deeds never reported, never known, borne in the silence of suffering, are often the worst. 1. In solitude Hagar finds an angel. In earliest times they were ministering spirits, and we are distinctly told that they not only were, but are. We lose much comfort from forgetting that they are ministers to us! How? That is what the inquisitive mind is always asking. It is the "how?" which makes such piles on piles of useless divinity. The Word of God is inspired! How? The atonement is made! How? The dead shall arise! How? 2. In want she finds refreshment. Weary and worn and sad, God does not allow her to lack refreshment. Sarah dealt hardly with her, and she fled front her face. But another face was looking down upon her. How kind and considerate ought those to be who have others under them! Often far away from home and friends, there should ever be in our relationships all that we mean by kind consideration. 3. In misery she found peace. The mind filled with tumultuous thoughts was calmed! The angel tells her that "the Lord hath heard her affliction." What a sermon in a sentence! Teach and preach this, brethren. No eloquent words! No explanatory sentences! Sorrow itself has a voice, and God hears that. What rest comes to the heart that feels God has seen and knows all! "She called the Name of the Lord that spake unto her, Thou God seest me; for she said, Have I also here looked after him that seeth me? Wherefore the well was called Beer-laha-roi;" that is, "the well of him that liveth and seeth me." III. SPRINGS IN THE DRY LAND OF SOLITUDE. What shall I do? Where shall I go? Am I to leave home? Am I to enter a wilderness that I know not? Yes; anywhere, everywhere; but remember God is there. "Whither shall I go from thy presence?" What will to-morrow bring? A Father. Whence will come my supply? Do not know - the fountain is hidden. But it is there. What is needful for me to do is to drink and live - to taste the living waters. Many analyze them - admit their purity, but do not drink! Our solicitudes are natural. Especially so when life is, like Hagar's, dependent on others. Some here may be driven out into the wilderness at any time. True; but Christ is there! You will, perhaps, never know how precious this fountain is tilt you are away from the old home. IV. SPRINGS IN THE DRY LAND OF SEPARATION. Alas! other fountains dry up. That is to say, they are sealed to us for a time. But in the hours of bereavement and desolation I call on you to witness: 1. What hidden fountains there are in the Bible. How its histories live when we read our own experiences into them! How its psalms pulse with life when we too are panting after the water-brooks! 2. What hidden revelations in Christ. We know him as a Saviour. But how little we know yet! "In him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." We "grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." Some persons we need to know less of to preserve our respect and love. Jesus our Lord is infinite in all beauty, purity, and glory; and the more we know of him the more intense will be our devotion, the more complete our trust, the more fervent our love. Let the hidden fountains be not only rejoiced in by us, but let our voice be heard, "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters!" We think little of water till we are feverish with thirst on shipboard or in an Eastern wilderness. Some of you perchance may have known what thirst is, and how much less precious is the jewelled cup than the water it contains. Yet from the beginning God has sent the rivers through the deserts one day to be peopled, and the springs as at Damascus run through the valleys. Every nation under heaven can bless God for the rain from heaven and for the water-springs! Soon may all tribes and peoples surround "the fountain." We drink of earthly fountains, and thirst again. But whoso drinketh of the water which Christ will give them shall never thirst again. Within, in the wilderness of these poor hearts, he strikes the fountain that is to lift up its pure springs through the immortal ages. - W.M.S.
I will open rivers in high places. In this verso the Lord twice says, "I will"; and in that respect this verse is in harmony with the rest of the chapter. When we come to the "I wills" of God, then we get among the precious things, the deep things, the things which minister comfort and strength to the people of God. We sometimes say "I will"; but it is in a feeble fashion compared with the way in which God says it. People say "'Must' is for the king." So "I will" is for the King of kings. It is His prerogative to will1. It is an "I will," uttered with deliberation. James said, "Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world." We say, "I will" in a hurry, and then we take time to repent of it. We are under excitement, persuasion, or compulsion, and we say, "I will," and we are very sorry afterwards, and perhaps we are so unfaithful as not to keep our word; but God never speaks under compulsion; He is almighty. God never speaks in a hurry; He has infinite leisure. Now, when a man speaks a thing prudently and wisely, you believe that he will carry it out, if he can. You may have much more confidence with regard to what the Lord says, for He has not spoken without due deliberation. 2. When God says, "I will," His resolution is supported by omnipotence. You say, "I will," but you cannot do what you have promised. That can never happen with God. 3. When God says, "I will," it is sealed with immutability. We are always changing. Hence, we say to-day, "I will," and we mean it; but to-morrow we wish that we had never said. "I will," and the next day we say, "I will not." But God never changes. 4. When God says, "I will," it will be carried out in faithfulness. ( C. H. Spurgeon.) I. TO THE TRIALS OF SAINTS. 1. Their temporal trials. What though there is nothing at present, perhaps by to-morrow morning the Lord may have opened rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys. 2. The spiritual experience of believers. There are in our text four words relating to water. Everything had been dry before, and there was no water for the thirsty to drink. Now, here you have rivers, fountains, a pool, and springs of water. There is a difference in the four words. The first is "rivers." There shall come directly from God a rush of mighty grace, like the streams of flowing rivers. There shall be "waters to swim in." You shall have abundance where before you had nothing. The next word is "fountains," which may be rendered "wells." Wells are places to which people regularly go for water. They represent the means of grace. Perhaps you have been to the means of grace, and obtained no comfort. But, on a sudden, God appears, and opens wells in the midst of the valley. Now the service is all full of refreshment. There is a third word, "I will make the wilderness a pool of water." Here you have the idea of overflowing abundance. God can give you so much joy that you will not know how to hold it all; you will have to let it be like a pool that overflows its banks. God can give you so much earnestness that you can hardly employ it all in the work that you have to do. He can give you so much nearness to Himself, that your heart shall scarcely be able to contain your delight. The fourth word is "springs." It seems to indicate a perpetual freshness. Where there was a long-continued drought, there shall come perpetual freshness; always something new — new thoughts of Christ, new delights in holy service, new prospects of the world to come, new communion with God. II. To the experience of converts. 1. Who were these people to whom the Lord spoke? They were people who were poor and needy. God will not do much for spiritually rich people; I mean you who say that you are rich in yourselves. 2. When will He do it? When they begin to seek Him. "When the poor and needy seek water." Can you expect God to bless you if you do not seek Him? 3. But the time is noted further still. It is not only when they begin to seek, but when they begin silently to plead. "When their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them." They could not speak. Yet says the Lord, "I will hear them." A glib tongue is bad at praying. When a man prays in his heart, he is often like Moses, slow of speech 4. But the time mentioned is more sorrowful still; these people were in abject distress. "When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none." "My day of grace in past, says one. I wonder whoever told you that he! Ah, well," says one, "I have gone to look for mercy, and there is none." So you think. Now is. the time for Divine interposition. When you seek water, and find none, God will open rivers for you. 5. The promise also relates to those who are in various positions. Some are in very high places. You run up to the very tops of the mountains, and you fancy God cannot reach you there, but He says, "I will open rivers in high places." A river on the top of a mountain is a wonderful thing; but God can make it so. Others are ordinary sinners down in the valleys. "Well," says the Lord, "I will open fountains in the midst of the valleys." Yes, and to vary the promise still more the Lord says, "I will make the wilderness a pool of water." Have you ever seen a large extent of flat country covered with sand and stones? God pictures you as being like that barren, dried-up land, and He says that He will turn you into a pool of water. In a word, no condition can be so bad but God can change it. III. TO THE LABOURS OF WORKERS FOR GOD. God can soon change the condition of the plot of ground on which you are at work. 1. I may be speaking to one who says, "Mine is a very bad place to work in, for I cannot get the people to come and hear the Gospel; there seems to be no spirit of hearing." Do not give up preaching; do not give up working, you who long for souls to be saved, for God can suddenly give a love for His house, and an eagerness to hear the Gospel. 2. Another says, "I get the people to hear, but there is no feeling." When the old St. Paul's Cathedral had to be taken down for the present one to be built, Sir Christopher Wren had to remove some massive walls that had stood for hundreds of years; so he had a battering-ram, with a great mass of people, working away to break down the walls. I think that for four-and-twenty hours they kept right on, and there seemed to be no sign of giving way, the walls were so well built, very different from our modern walls. The structure was like a rock, it could not be stirred; but the battering-ram kept on and on and on, blow after blow, stroke after stroke, and at last the whole mass began to quiver, like a jelly, and by and by over went the massive walls. You have only to keep on long enough, and the same thing will happen in your work. The first blows upon the wall were not wasted; they were preparing for the others, and getting the whole structure into a condition of disintegration; and when that was done, down it came, and great was the fall thereof. 3. "Well," says one, "what we want in our place is for the ministry itself to be supplied." If the minister himself is dry, what is to be done? Find fault with him, and leave him? No! if he is a man of God, pray for him, and never rest till the Lord makes the dry land springs of water. 4. But what is wanted, too, is the same blessing upon the helpers. What is the preacher to do, what is the Church to do, if the workers are half asleep? One sleepy Christian in a Church may do much mischief. In some businesses the whole thing is so arranged, that if one person goes to sleep, all the machinery goes wrong; and I believe that it is very much so in the Church of God. 5. Then we may look for a change throughout the whole congregation. Men and women will cry out, "What must we do to be saved?" There will be plenty of people to be talked to about their souls. We shall have no difficulty in increasing the Church, month by month, with such as shall be saved. 6. Then all the neighbour-hood will be transformed. ( C. H. Spurgeon.) ( C. H. Spurgeon.) People Isaiah, JacobPlaces Jerusalem, ZionTopics Bare, Barren, Desert, Dry, Flow, Fountains, Ground, Heights, Hills, Midst, Mountain-tops, Open, Parched, Places, Pond, Pool, Pools, Rivers, Springs, Turn, Valleys, Waste, Water-springs, Wilderness, WithinOutline 1. God expostulates with his people, about his mercies to the church.10. About his promises 21. And about the vanity of idols. Dictionary of Bible Themes Isaiah 41:18 4260 rivers and streams 2378 kingdom of God, characteristics 4424 cedar 4402 plants Library February 20. "Fear Thou Not, for I am with Thee" (Isa. Xli. 10). "Fear thou not, for I am with thee" (Isa. xli. 10). Satan is always trying to weaken our faith by fear. He is a great metaphysician and knows the paralyzing effect of fear, that it is the great enemy of faith, and that faith is the great secret of help. If he can get us fearing he will stop our trusting and hinder the very blessing we need. Job found the peril of fear and gives us the sorrowful testimony, "I feared a fear and it came upon me." Fear is born of Satan, and if we would only take time … Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth February 21. "Be not Dismayed, for I am Thy God" (Isa. Xli. 10). November 7. "I Will Strengthen Thee; Yea, I Will Help Thee; Yea, I Will Uphold Thee" (Isa. Xli. 10). August 22. "I the Lord, the First and with the Last" (Isa. Xli. 4). February the Seventh Leaving Its Mark November the Twentieth the Real Aristocracy Fear Not Thy Redeemer The Chase The Fulfilled Prophecies of the Bible Bespeak the Omniscience of Its Author The Millennium in Relation to Creation. The Servant's Triumph How to Make Use of Christ for Steadfastness, in a Time when Truth is Oppressed and Borne Down. The Church Before and after Christ. Election Confirmed by the Calling of God. The Reprobate Bring Upon Themselves the Righteous Destruction to which they are Doomed. The Apostles Chosen Never! Never! Never! Never! Never! The Water of Life; How to Make Use of Christ as the Life when the Soul is Dead as to Duty. The Knowledge of God The Being of God The Eternity and Unchangeableness of God. Christ all and in All. 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