Limitless Word

Living Water

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Follow one image from the first page of the Bible to the last: water that gives life.

Few images run as far through Scripture as living water. It begins as a literal river watering Eden, becomes water struck from a rock to keep a nation alive, turns into a prophet's lament that the people have abandoned "the spring of living waters," swells into Ezekiel's river flowing from the temple to heal a dead sea — and then Jesus stands up and says *he* is the source, the living water being the Spirit he gives. The trail ends where the Bible ends: a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from God's throne. Walk it and you watch a single thread become the gospel.
  1. 1

    A river flows out of Eden

    Genesis 2:10

    And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.

    Creation begins with a river watering a garden where God dwells with humanity.
  2. 2

    Water from the rock at Horeb

    Exodus 17:6

    Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.

    In the wilderness, God brings water from a struck rock to keep Israel alive — Paul later says "that rock was Christ."
  3. 3

    The spring of living waters

    Jeremiah 2:13

    For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.

    Jeremiah's indictment: the people have forsaken God, "the spring of living waters," for broken cisterns.
  4. 4

    The river from the temple

    Ezekiel 47:9

    And it shall come to pass, that every thing that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall live: and there shall be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters shall come thither: for they shall be healed; and every thing shall live whither the river cometh.

    Ezekiel sees a river flowing from the temple, deepening as it goes, bringing life everywhere it touches.
  5. 5

    "Living water" at the well

    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 to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.

    Jesus tells a Samaritan woman he can give "living water" that becomes a spring welling up to eternal life.
  6. 6

    Rivers of living water

    John 7:38

    He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

    At the festival Jesus cries out — and John explains the living water is the Spirit believers would receive.
  7. 7

    The river of the water of life

    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.

    The Bible ends with a crystal river flowing from God's throne through the new creation.