In a season of drought

It is important to know what season we are in. King David penned in Psalm 63 that his soul thirsts for God; his flesh longs for Him, “in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water,” (Psalm 63:1).

We are living in a dry and thirsty land; a spiritually parched land. There seems to be a lack of water. Hardened hearts, unbelief, and rebellion against God have inevitably led to spiritual dryness across our land. Our nation has turned away from the God of Israel and is in desperate need of water. Jeremiah (chapter 17) warned Judah of idolatry, and this should be a warning to the United Kingdom and all nations. It says that the children will remember altars and images “by the green trees on the high hills,” he will give the nation’s wealth and treasures over to be plundered; and the people are told they will “let go of their heritage” and will end up serving enemies in the land. Jeremiah describes him who trusts man and makes flesh his strength as being “like a shrub in the desert” who inhabits “the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land which is not inhabited.”

But Jeremiah then pens, “blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is the Lord. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes; but its leaf will be green, and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit,” (Jeremiah 17:8).

Christians, root yourselves in the water of the Word. Do not fear the season we are in; yield fruit and fulfil the calling of the season we are in.

Pray for the United Kingdom, that we will return to the God of Israel and fear Him. Pray for this barren land to be revived with the Living Water. May it flow and heal our land. May the Word of God that has be sent out from this land, not return void (Isaiah 55:11).

God’s promises still stand: He “gives waters in the wilderness and rivers in the desert”¹ | “He turns a wilderness into pools of water, and dry land into watersprings”² | He says, “I will pour water on him who is thirsty, and floods on the dry ground”³ | “This land that was desolate has become like the garden of Eden”⁴

If you say that these verses refer to the physical and spiritual restoration of Israel, then you are correct. God has provided us with one of the most vivid pictures of restoration being fulfilled. The Bible reveals a land, a people, a nation, and a language being restored before us in real time. After around 2,000 years of dispersion – after multiple attempts to wipe out all memory of the Jewish people’s existence and inheritance – the return of the children of Israel to their Land of promise is miraculous. In the physical sense, Israel has made the desert bloom. It has turned barren land into an oasis. Israel even takes water from the sea, desalinates it, drinks it, and then shares its technology with the world. The miraculous return of the Jewish people to their ancestral homeland is unprecedented for any indigenous people group that has been scattered to the four corners of the earth, only to return and re-establish itself as a nation. Today, what was a land of dry bones has been brought back into life in the physical, and the nation of Israel is a testament to this miracle. But one day, the restoration will also be spiritual:

And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written:
“The Deliverer will come out of Zion,
And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob;
For this is My covenant with them,
When I take away their sins.”
Romans 11:26-27

One day, when Messiah reigns, the Bible says, fresh water from the temple in Jerusalem will flow into the salty, lifeless Dead Sea (Ezekiel 47), and what was dead will be made alive. From God’s throne will flow the Rivers of Living Water, and it will bring healing to what was lifeless. And herein is the image for us today. What was dry bones will be resurrected. What was dead has been made alive. What was drought will be turned into Eden.

Rain is coming.

———————-