When the Way Ahead Seems Impossible - Refreshment!

We all come to a point in our lives when the way ahead seems impossible. This can take the form of a troubled marriage, a broken instrument on which our income depends, a voice problem for the singer-performer, or a difficult relationship between an employer and the employee. Thousands of individual circumstances bare out this truth: Life is often hard. 

I'm not just thinking of Covid-19 as I write this blog post this evening. Front and center, in my mind, is the story of the Jewish people in the desert. They have left their old life behind. Egypt offered nutritious food, evidently, but slavery's whips on the backs made it a miserable place to live. And now, in the middle of the desert, they have no water and no food.

That's what Jewish children are experiencing this evening as they live in makeshift dwellings. Tonight is the second night of Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles. For eight days, they remember the gracious provision of the Lord when things seemed impossible for their forefathers. 

Psalm 78, and other psalms, too, recount those ancient hardships. but they also tell of God's provisions at a moment when things seemed impossible. "He split the rocks in the desert and gave them water as abundant as the seas; he brought streams out of a rocky crag and made water flow down like rivers." Ps. 78 15,16.

In Wadi Rum, Jordan, I saw this happening. Water flowing in the desert! Amazing.

When Jesus went to Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles, he astounded his listeners by talking about water, about refreshment. "If a man is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." By this, he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. 

Welcome to tough times. And welcome to the refreshment God gives his people, comfort through his Holy Spirit!