Bonus Study One: Water

Water

Our Lord marks the commencement of fruition and ingathering. An analogy may be taken from the planting cycle: the seed is planted in earth, the plant arises by watering, the fan gathers grain and the wind causes fruit to fall, finally, fields are burned and a new cycle begins.

Let us recall what Jesus said. Matthew 11:11, “Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist.”

Matthew 11:13, “For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John (water).”

Luke 16:16, “The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it.”

John 3:3, “Jesus answered and said unto him, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

John 3:5, “Jesus answered, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water (John and baptism) and of the spirit (Christ and born again) he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.”

John 3:6, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; (ending with John, the greatest of those born of women) and that which is born of the spirit is spirit (beginning with Jesus, greater than John because of the spirit).”

Let’s try this next one without parentheses. John 1:33, “And I knew Him not: but He that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, upon whom thou shalt see the spirit descending, and remaining on Him, the same is He which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost.”

How was he to recognize the spirit, had he seen the spirit previously? Whatever the case may be, this is what went down: Mark 1:10, “And straightway coming up out of the water, He saw the heavens opened, and the spirit like a dove descending upon Him.”

That is what Jesus was shown.

Luke 7:44, “John answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire.”

John 3:8, “The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the spirit.”

Christ makes clear the symbolic use of the word ‘wind’. Clearly, He has moved past the washing of water. Christ is the beginning of the second half of the process, no matter what level that process is applied to.

Acts 11:16, “Then remembered I the word of the Lord, how that He said, John indeed baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost (wind).”

It is evident, therefore, in verses such as Mark 1:8, where it is said, “I indeed have baptized you with water: but He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost”, that a break from the old has occurred, and that the process has graduated to something higher.

I think that among the elemental connections (sets of two), one element affects the other unto change. That is easily seen in Job 14:19, “The waters wear the stones: Thou washest away the things which grow out of the dust of the earth; and Thou destroyest the hope of man.”

Water affects earth; wind affects water.

Read in Matthew 14:25-29 how spirit affects water. Jesus, in the fourth watch, walked from dry land out to the boat where the disciples were. The disciples saw a figure on the water, defying the laws of nature as they knew them. They thought it was a spirit. Jesus identified Himself but Peter put Him to the test, saying, if you really are a solid man walking on water, let me also do the same. And for a while, filled with the spirit, Peter actually did walk on the water: the spirit affected the water.

Genesis 8:1 also shows how the wind affects the water: “And God remembered Noah . . . and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters asswaged.”

Compare that last verse, where wind affected water, to the incident at the red sea.

2 Peter 3:5-7 shows earth affected by water: “. . . whereby the world that was then, being overflowed with water, perished . . .”

Whether physically or spiritually applied, ‘wind’ has a greater effect on water than ‘water’ has on wind. That is the image in Christ stilling the waves of a raging sea, but do not forget that it was the wind that caused the sea to rage. Both water and wind, symbolically, speak of salvation, but the wind is always the higher state, the greater power, while water is more a path to the other side. As with Noah, to be on top of, or above, the water is rather like the wind: Noah is an image of spirituality.

1 Peter 3:20, “. . . when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.” The eight souls, like a wind, passed over the waters to the mount of salvation.

In Exodus 14:21 we are given an image of wind affecting water in such a way as to reveal the way to salvation: “And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.”

I have already addressed ‘dust and ashes’ in the ceremonies of early man; blood, also, had its place in ceremonial activities. Now, I wish to touch on ceremonial water. To the early Hebrews, water was a life symbol. In hostile and inhospitable lands, wells were dug and fiercely protected. Water kept alive the living; water soothed and refreshed; water washed away the dirt that clung to a man; water purified and sanctified a wife. It is no wonder that the physical and social importance of water carried over into religious ceremony. The application of water lifted early man up from the dust that held him in common with the beast.

The symbolism of water grew up out of two main sources: the social use of water and the ceremonial use of water. There is a progression from the social use of water through the ceremonial, and to its use in spiritual cleansing by baptism. The social use I refer to is the washing of feet. An Old Testament custom presents itself to us in Genesis 18:4 and 43:24, “Let a little water, I pray you, be fetched, and wash your feet” and “The man brought the men into Joseph’s house, and gave them water, and they washed their feet.”

The custom was still extant in Jesus’ day, as we see from the reading of Luke 7:44, “And He turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house, thou gavest Me no water for My feet: but she hath washed My feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head.”

Christ also washed feet in John 13:5, “After that He poureth water into a bason, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith He was girded.”

The social courtesy of washing from the feet the dust of one’s sojourn, by Jesus’ day, had gained the symbolic significance of lifting a man from the world, of separating him from the earth, and from worldliness. It is this perception of separation that is the core meaning in the washing of baptism. If, as the contemporary Christian is led to believe, baptism was intended to represent resurrection after death, then the element of earth would be more appropriate than the element of water. Water points to the removal of dust, whereas dust points to the corporeal existence between creation and the grave. I think that, rather than death and resurrection, the full intent of what water had evolved into, symbolically, is summed up in the next two verses.

Hebrews 10:22 and Ephesians 5:26, “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled (washed, baptized) from an evil conscience (the dust of worldliness), and our bodies washed with pure water” and “That He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word (the Holy Ghost).”

In the ceremonial sense, everything and everyone that approached the Holiness of God had to be washed. Exodus 29:4 and 40:12 show us the washing of persons, “And Aaron and his sons thou shalt bring unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and shalt wash them with water,” also “And thou shalt bring Aaron and his sons unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and wash them with water.”

Exodus 30:20 shows a little more of the reason why, “When they go into the tabernacle of the congregation, they shall wash with water, that they die not; or when they come near the altar to minister, to burn offering made by fire unto the Lord.”

God told them to wash with water; Leviticus 8:6 shows obedience, “And Moses brought Aaron and his sons, and washed them with water.”

The washing by water had early on taken upon itself the spiritual significance of separation from lesser and unwanted matters. See Ezekiel 36:25, “Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.”

Even Rome, in the hour of Christ’s trial, used the washing of water to suggest separation. Matthew 27:24, “When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it.”

Symbolically, water was used in broadcast application. Water has been used to differentiate between good and evil. James 3:11, “Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?”

Water has been used to illustrate the fullness or completeness of an action: Hosea 5:10, “The princes of Judah were like them that remove the bound: therefore I will pour out My wrath upon them like water.” Here, the pouring out of water has several attributes: it runs out full throttle; it spatters, reaching far; and it is fully absorbed, nothing being lost or wasted.

Water has been used to describe that upon which there is no constraint or control. Genesis 49:4, “Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel.”

Water has been used to speak of the flood, but in a higher sense, water’s power over earth to deprive it of the breath (wind or spirit) of life. Genesis 6:17, “And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die.”

Water has been used to speak of the general multitudes of people: Revelation 12:15 and 16, “And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. And the earth helped the woman, and the earth open her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.” A similar event occurred in the camp of Moses when the earth opened up and swallowed many people (refer to Numbers 16:32).

Now, why would I suggest that the serpent would spew ‘people’ out of his mouth rather than words?

Do I refer to the enemy’s prowess in communicated deceptions and snares? No, I refer to something

really wild. In order for me to explain my thoughts, I must turn back, and speak again of ‘dust’.

Firstly, there was a curse on the serpent in the story of Adam and Eve: Genesis 3:14, “And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.” Never mind that all cattle and beasts of the field were cursed to walk on all fours and eat things growing out of the dust; never mind that the serpent was, by that reference, also a kind

of grazing animal, but the thing to see is that the serpent lost all his arms and legs (didn’t have a leg

to stand on), had to crawl on his belly, and eat dust. I don’t know about you, but that sounds like a

worm to me.

Somewhere in the subconscious, the worm is just as relatable to the forbidden fruit as Eve is. But wait, you say! We were talking about a serpent. If memory serves, the word ‘worm’ comes from a spelling for dragon or serpent in some older European or nomadic cultures. But, does scripture make a connection between the worm and the serpent? Let’s take a look.

Micah 7:17, “They shall lick the dust like a serpent; they shall move out of their holes like worms of the earth.”

Now, I realize that primitive man, upon seeing the tongue action of a snake or large lizard, would have considered, in his scientific ignorance, that dust was being licked. But there are levels to everything. As I have probably written in another study, I believe that our understanding has come down to us in terms and words that are right for our time, that is regardless of the intent of original writers, or missing text. We have what God has brought to us. A connection between the serpent and the worm is viable. The serpent was cursed to eat dust.

Isaiah 65:25, “And dust shall be the serpent’s meat.”

So let’s talk a moment about dust. Who returns to and becomes a part of dust? Man Does.

Daniel 12:2, “And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth . . .”

Isaiah 26:19, “Ye that dwell in dust.”

So then, the thought goes: man turns to dust; the worm eats the dust (but don’t forget about levels) - the clouds are the dust under God’s feet, and the original serpent is thought by some to be a spiritual being. These are sideline thoughts to the present study: we were looking at water.

Water points to the spirit and is in some cases used interchangeably with air. When we speak of the spirit, being on the human plane, we speak of a quality that we may only understand by its effect upon this plane (refer back to Christ’s illustration of the wind in John 3:8). We hear the sound of the wind in the trees, and the trees are greatly affected by the wind; they are bowed down by the wind. They are humbled; sometimes they are uprooted and destroyed. Where the invisible touches the visible, the unseen may be proven by its footprint.

A connection is seen between air and water – that connection varies in how the earth is affected. Using my own comparison of air and water via the wind in the trees, we can see the tree as a representative expression of man. The early writer of scripture saw the same connection.

Job 8:11, “Can the rush grow up without mire? Can the flag grow without water?”

Psalms 1:3, “And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water.”

Isaiah 44:4, “And they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water courses.”

The tree as a symbol of mankind: his roots are in the dust; he draws from the water that is life on this

plane; the blood of the tree (sap), the life within the tree, is drawn upward. I think the early writers understood the spiritual nuances better than most of us do. Their language was rife with an understanding of spirituality housed in common symbolism.

Psalms 107:35, “He turneth the wilderness into a standing water, and dry ground into watersprings.”

Psalms 65:9, “Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it: Thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God, which is full of water.”

Psalms 63:1, “O God, Thou art my God; early will I seek Thee: my soul thirsteth for Thee, my flesh longeth for Thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is.”

Psalms 42:1, “As the hart panteth after the water brooks, (and is it any mystery that the spirit brought us the word hart, which seems so much like the word heart?) so panteth my soul after Thee, O God.”

Proverbs 21:1, “The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water: (twisty, ever-changing: fluid) He turneth it whithersoever He will.”

Proverbs 27:19, “As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man.”

We should learn to see double: there is a lower and a higher in all things. Christ said that He was from above, and we were from beneath; the Tabernacle was designed from spiritual specs. This physical plane is an image, in a dark glass, of a higher plane. Our souls are in earthen vessels, but they long to be new wine in new bottles.

Proverbs 20:5, “Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water; but a man of understanding will draw it out.”

Isaiah 12:3, “Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.”

Our thinking, and thus our writing, from earliest times, is shaped not by earthly, but by spiritual standards. It is no wonder to me that such emphasis was placed on water, that it came to symbolize life itself, that the higher plane of air (Life) has such an effect on the lower plane of water (life).

Exodus 7:17, “Thus saith the Lord, In this thou shalt know that I Am the Lord: behold, I will smite with the rod that is in Mine hand upon the waters which are in the river, and they shall be turned to blood.”

In case any fail to understand, this verse is about the rod that is in God’s hand and the action that God takes. The things which Moses did with his staff were a mirror image of the actions of God - but that’s another study. Suffice it to say that there is a real correlation between the things that occur in Heaven and the things that accrue on earth.

Air affects water.

Isaiah 63:12, “That led them by the right hand of Moses with His glorious arm, dividing the water before them, to make Himself an everlasting name?”

Joshua 2:10, “For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the red sea for you.”

Acts 10:47, “Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have (already) received the Holy Ghost as well as we?”

John 5:4, “For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water.”

Air affects water.

Those same spiritual standards point to the predispositions of God and the Hebrews toward the importance of water unto life.

Deuteronomy 8:7, “For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of the valleys and hills.”

John 4:14, “But the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”

John 7:38, “He that believeth on Me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly (inner man) shall flow rivers of living water.”

John 4:10, “Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me drink; thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water.”

Revelation 21:6, “And He said unto me, It is done. I Am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of Life freely.”

Revelation 22:17, “And the Spirit and the Bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of Life freely.”

Revelation 22:1, “And he shewed me a pure river of water of Life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.”

Jeremiah 2:13, “For My people have committed two evils; they have forsaken Me the fountain of living waters, and hewn them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.”

How should we diagram the four elements? Should we draw a straight line; put earth first and fire last? Should we draw a circle? Christ’s claim is that He is both the beginning and the end; in that regard, a circle might be the better diagram, but if we put earth at the top, fire must go on the side, not the bottom. There are two remedies. First is to take the circle and twist it into a figure 8 (the symbol of eternity); we could place water and air at the top, fire and earth at the bottom. Second is to use the pyramid, making air and water the cradle for earth, and fire the pinnacle. The pinnacle can represent the “beginning and the end”; considerably more than just destruction, it must include the re-molding of a new earth: completing a living circuit. Fire may be both pinnacle and core. It may be difficult to understand such a circuit unless one sees the course running in sets. This pyramid may be but one slice of the cosmic pizza.