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

    A river flowed from the land of Eden, watering the garden and then dividing into four branches.

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

    Water from the rock at Horeb

    Exodus 17:6

    I will stand before you on the rock at Mount Sinai. Strike the rock, and water will come gushing out. Then the people will be able to drink.” So Moses struck the rock as he was told, and water gushed out as the elders looked on.

    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 done two evil things: They have abandoned me— the fountain of living water. And they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all!

    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

    There will be swarms of living things wherever the water of this river flows. Fish will abound in the Dead Sea, for its waters will become fresh. Life will flourish wherever this water flows.

    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 replied, “If you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me, and I would give you 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

    Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.’”

    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

    Then the angel showed me a river with the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb.

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

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.