By: Obed Pineda
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.” (Matthew 5:6)
When a traveler is crossing the scorching, arid sands of the desert, the sudden appearance of a verdant tract of land notifies him of the presence of a perennial source of freshwater. This geographical area surrounded by lush vegetation in the middle of a desert is known as an oasis. Geographical scholars have discovered that the majority of oases in the world are a product of underground water sources (such as springs and wells) that stem from sandstone aquifers that in certain cases can be more than 500 miles away. A curious way of looking at an oasis is like a backward island, where the tiny body of water is the one surrounded by the vast body of sand. Thus, when the emergence of an oasis on a long journey across this grueling landscape manifests, it springs forth an exceeding joy and relief within the adventurer. Relief, primordially, because fresh, potable water is indispensable for the pilgrim and his animals to survive the trek. Although it is true that water is essential to life, unequivocally in these types of scenarios where water is so scarce, water is life. Remember that the average number of days a person can go without drinking water is between three to five days before it can be detrimental to the human body. Therefore, it becomes abundantly clear the precious value an oasis has in the midst of a blistering desert but also unveils the spiritual truth penned by the Hebrew poet as he declares, “As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God” (Psalm 42:1-2, emphasis added)? The profound desire poetically expressed by the psalmist exhibits a soul immersed in turmoil, desperately searching for the God of peace. Internal evidence provided by the sacred Psalm reveals that there is a high probability that the inspired amanuenses found himself as a captive of a foreign nation, far from Jerusalem. His passionate desire to be able to again “come and appear before God,” his pain of constantly being jeered with the question, “Where is your God?” (v. 3), and the reality that he remembers when he “used to go with the multitude…went with them to the house of God” (v. 4) provides ample proof of the likelihood of this sordid possibility. It must be noted, however, that his distress is illustrated “As the deer pants for the water brooks.” The imagery used by the inspired poet seeks to project into the mind’s eye a land suffering from extreme drought where freshwater is dangerously low in supply. The meaning of his figurative speech is at once provided when he elaborates, “My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.” His profound want to return to the house of God and the merciless mockery by his enemies because of his God’s supposed abandonment due to his misfortune is what he equates to a land ravished by severe drought. Certainly, this spiritual lesson of a dire spiritual drought plaguing society is echoed throughout Holy Writ repeatedly. King David, too, heralded “O God, You are my God; Early will I seek You; My soul thirsts for You; My flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water” (Psalm 63:1, emphasis added). Additionally, Jehovah God instructed His prophet to announce, “‘Behold, the days are coming,’ says the Lord God, ‘That I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord, but shall not find it’” (Amos 8:11-12, emphasis added). Fascinatingly, each of the three inspired scribes presents two undeniable truths with the same metaphor. First, that a person’s life without God is the same as a land suffering from drought. Consequently, the longer the land remains without water, the probability of imminent death arises. The same is true for a soul that continues to live without God. The apostle Paul reminded the Ephesians that “He made you alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience…that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:1-2, 12, emphasis added). Once this first truth has been grasped, the second one is made manifest within the first: God is the sole oasis of salvation in this arid world. The prophet Isaiah exhorted the people who were in anguish because of Divine punishment, “Strengthen the weak hands and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who are fearful-hearted, ‘Be strong, do not fear! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God; He will come and save you.’ Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then the lame shall leap like a deer and the tongue of the dumb sing. For waters shall burst forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert” (Isaiah 35:3-6, emphasis added). Verily, it is unavoidable not to bring to memory the promise made by the Master when He “stood and cried out, saying, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water’” (John 7:37-38, emphasis added). The Lord’s joyous cry was enlightening God’s universal path away from the sands of decaying sin toward the saving oasis provided by heaven. Indeed, this astounding announcement had been foreshadowed by God ever since the days that Israel wandered in the wilderness for Paul explains that the Israelites, “all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ” (1st Corinthians 10:2-4, emphasis added). It is wise also to not lose sight that Israel’s travel through the wilderness to reach the promised land is a foreshadow of living our Christian lives in an apathetic world toward God and His word. Hence the apostle Peter’s plea that “as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul” (1st Peter 2:11). Due to this harsh reality, we must learn from and emulate the example of the Samaritan woman who implored after learning about the water that Christ offers, “Sir, give me of this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw” (John 4:13-15, emphasis added). Remember that water refreshes a parched tongue and soothes a scorched throat. Thus, it is imperative to heed the Savior’s magnanimous invitation: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28, emphasis added).