“On that day there shall be a fountain opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness.”
- Zechariah 13:1
Water is an essential element of life. Though I definitely do not drink enough of it, water is a staple for well-being and one of the most versatile substances we use. With water, we cool off in the pool and warm up with a cup of coffee. With water, we have moved vehicles and with it, we have cut through stone.
It’s incredibly essential for survival too. A couple of weeks ago I went camping along lake Michigan and spent some undivided time with God. While there though I knew I needed water, so I grabbed my filter system and went out to scoop up water from the lake. There was a big problem though.
Along the shore were thousands, literally thousands of dead fish. From the distance, the water appeared to just reflect the sun in a beautifully shiny way, but up close there were millions of 3-inch silvery fish washed ashore and in the tide. And I needed water… The water that all these fish were in. So I walked the shore hoping for one clearer spot. A half-mile later there wasn’t, and I began to wonder why they died. Thankfully I had phone service and could look it up. These fish were greatly distressed by the sudden rise in water temperature and just died. Good thing we don’t just die when suddenly distressed, but this allowed me to be more comfortable drinking this water. So I scooped some up, trying to avoid the bodies that lay around me, and went back to camp.
Having pure water is critical to our health, not only physically, but as we look into scripture pure water serves another spiritual purpose.
Cleansing:
The water that gets talked about in the prophets, from Jesus, and the other New Testament writers is more often about the cleansing qualities of water than about the water itself. The same remains true for our verse above.
“On that day,” is often understood as Judgement day, but it can also refer to simply a future day where a critical event will happen. In either case, there was a future day (might be in our past, could be in our future), where a fountain will spring up from the midst of Jerusalem. This fountain will cleanse the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from their sins and uncleanness.
The reason I say our past, is because they may be about Jesus, on His crucifixion day. Where from Jerusalem, the sins of many were cleansed and would allow for the cleansing of both Jews and Gentiles. However, this can also refer to the future day of Judgement, where all of God’s chosen people will be inhabitants of Jerusalem (Jew and Gentile) and then we will be cleansed.
Once again, in either case, cleansing is occurring because of this water, this fountain of the Lord, if you want to call it that. There was nothing we did to get this, nor did we just stumble upon this fountain, but the Lord sprung it up so we might be cleansed.
Sin makes us crummy. I have typically defined sin as rebellion, that our hearts have started a revolution against God. I still hold that as true but there is a factor of sin that the revolution imagery misses, that we are crummy, destitute, dirty, covered in the filth of all this is evil. Remember back to chapter 3, Jeshua was filthy and ashen covered before his sins were removed and cleansed.
Life right now for us is to be like a continual bath. While yes, Jesus’ death has blanketed us in His righteousness in the eyes of God, we also still struggle with the filth of sin and the desires of our crummy-ness that linger. We almost look more like dalmatians with blotches that have been washed clean and other spots coated with grit that we struggle to get off. When we struggle like this though, we need to go to the source of our cleansing.
Flowing from the Source:
Symbolically, the fount burst forth from the Temple Mount. In other books they describe it flowing specifically from the throne of God and dispersing outward from there. One stream is even to go all the way to the Dead Sea and turn it into fresh water! Talk about from Crummy to Clean!
If we too are to go from crummy to clean, we need to know the source of all the “waters” we are drinking and bathing in. If it’s not from the throne of God, then we need to tread lightly with those waters, our standard should be to drink primly and mostly from the living fount that is Jesus.
The cleaner we are, the richer our relationship with Christ is, and the greater our witness can be. It’s not that we are elevated above others, lest we walk around stuck up and pharisaical. Instead, we walk knowing how crummy we have been and still are, and sit with those who are still crummy that maybe they could smell the cleansing qualities of Christ and the life He offers to us. Our purity has a purpose, to be a fragrance of evangelism, bottled at the source, Christ.
Final Blessing:
As we seek to be clean, take care to bring the crummy that remains to Jesus who provides all needs and is the source of true cleansing. He does not merely rinse us off, He chisels away at the sin until none remains. He is a cleansing fountain for all who come to Him in their crummy-ness. Hold that out to Him so He may do what brings Him joy, caring for us sinners until we are sinners no more. How we should look forward to that future day, where all we know is cleanness because of the fountain that has burst from Jerusalem.
Now may the Lord of Life and Redemption be with you in every step, every breath, and every heartbeat of your journey!
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