“ISRAEL sang this song, Spring up, O well; sing ye unto it.” In the springing well here it is not so much God satisfying the thirst of the people as in the smiting of the rock; but it is more His own joy in blessing abundantly those who had found life in looking at the serpent of brass lifted up for them in the wilderness. God longs to bless His people now and it is when we know the full and finished work of Christ as typified in the brazen serpent, that divine love is free to fill and overflow our hearts.
The blessed Spirit, the Comforter, has come to indwell our hearts and by His power we can sing praise to God our Father and to His Son our Lord Jesus Christ.
We are told in Romans 6:1111Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:11): “Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Victory over the flesh — sin in us — through death lifts the believer above his natural condition and puts a song of gladness in his heart.
But this is not reckoning the flesh dead, for if we do we will soon realize our mistake. How often have we found to our disappointment that the flesh is very much alive. “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” 1 John 1:88If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. (1 John 1:8). We are told to reckon ourselves dead to sin, that we have died to it through the death of Christ, and this is God’s way of giving us victory over it.
Of course it is only by faith that we can do this, but it is the privilege of every believer in Christ.
“The princes digged the well, the nobles of the people digged it, by the direction of the lawgiver, with their staves.” At the Red Sea the children of Israel did nothing, and it was so when the rock was smitten; the waters gushed out. The Lord did it all. But here it is the energy of faith laying hold of the blessings which God in His grace puts within our reach. The princes and nobles digged with their staves.
Evidently they were those who knew little or nothing about digging, and not much digging was required. But pure blessing, so near at hand, flowed forth abundantly in the wilderness.
Now that Christ has been lifted up upon the cross, God would have us in the energy of faith to take hold of the blessings His grace has provided for us in Christ. “He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” Rom 8:3232He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? (Romans 8:32).
ML-03/17/1974