Hymns 1149

Scripture Reading:

1 Cor. 12:13    For also in one Spirit we were all baptized into one Body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and were all given to drink one Spirit.

THE WATER FLOWING OUT OF THE ROCK BEING
THE FLOWING OF THE DIVINE LIFE

When the children of Israel were traveling through the wilderness, there was no water. Then God told Moses to smite the rock, and this cleft rock flowed out living water for the people to drink (Exo. 17:6). In 1 Corinthians 10 Paul told us that the rock was Christ who followed the children of Israel in the wilderness (v. 4). That rock was the embodiment of God just like the tree of life. God was embodied in that rock, but how could that rock get into the people? The rock had to flow, so the living water flowed out of the rock for all the people to drink. When they drank of that rock, they drank of God. The water flowing out of the rock was the flowing of the divine life, just like the milk is the flowing of the cow life.

Whenever we drink milk we have to realize that this milk is the cow life flowing. The cow milk is the flow of the cow life. My mother worked for an American pastor. Whenever we children went to our pastor’s home, I smelled a cow. One day I asked my mother why I smelled a cow when I went to the pastor’s home. My mother replied, “Don’t you realize that the Americans drink the cow milk? The more they drink the cow milk, the more they smell like the cow.” If we drink the “milk of Jesus” every day, eventually we will smell like Jesus. The milk of Jesus is the river of the divine life. The milk and the cow are one. The milk and the cow are not two things, but one thing in two stages. When the cow flows out, it becomes the milk. The milk in a glass is the flowing out of the cow. Thus, when we drink milk, we are drinking of the cow. In the garden there was the tree of life as the embodiment of the divine life, but this life has to flow out and into us for God’s dispensing. Along with the tree there is a river flowing, indicating that the divine life is flowing out for us to drink. When we drink of this river, the divine life is dispensed into our being.

THE TREE OF LIFE AND THE RIVER OF LIFE
BEING FOR GOD’S DISPENSING

The tree of life and the river of life are for God’s dispensing. God as the very divine life desires to dispense Himself into us. We have to understand the Bible, not merely according to the letter but according to the divine light, so we can see this marvelous picture of the tree of life with the river of life, which depicts that God is embodied and that God flows out and into us for the dispensing of Himself into our being.

In John 6 the Lord Jesus told people that He was the bread of life for people to eat (vv. 48, 57). Many of the Jews could not understand this. They said that this word was hard (v. 60). Then the Lord Jesus went on to tell the disciples, “It is the Spirit who gives life” (John 6:63). It is not the flesh that gives life, but the Spirit that gives life. This is like saying it is not the big cow that gives us the cow life, but the milk of the cow that does. For a little child to eat a big cow is impossible. For a little baby to enjoy a big cow he needs to drink the milk of the cow. The cow flows milk, and this milk nourishes the baby. The flesh profits nothing; it is the Spirit that gives life. Jesus is the embodiment of God, and the Spirit is the flow of God. Along with the tree is the river, and along with Jesus is the Spirit.

THERE IS A RIVER THAT MAKES GLAD THE CITY OF GOD

In John 7 the Lord Jesus said that those who were thirsty should come to Him and drink. If we drink of Him, rivers of living water will flow out from within us. Verse 39 tells us that He said this “concerning the Spirit.” The Spirit will flow out of Jesus for His believers to drink of. When we drink of this Spirit, we enjoy the river, and rivers of living water will flow out of our innermost being. In Exodus is the cleft rock out of which came the living water (17:6). Then Psalm 46:4 tells us that there is a river that makes glad the city of God. The city of God in the Psalms signifies the church. There is a river that makes the church glad. What makes us happy in the church is the river. The river is Jesus flowing just like the milk is the cow flowing. We all are like the newborn babes drinking of the river of milk (1 Pet. 2:2). This river makes us all glad. Praise the Lord that there is a river that makes the city of God happy. Psalm 65:9a indicates that this river is the river of God. The river in Genesis 2 is the river of God.

WHEREVER THE RIVER CAME, EVERYTHING LIVED

In a positive sense, God is like a great cow. He is the source of life, and the heavenly milk comes out of this great cow to become a river of milk. This is the river of the cow. In the same way, the river of our God is full of the water of life to satisfy us, quench our thirst, and make us glad. When we drink of this river sometimes we get beside ourselves with enjoyment. Psalm 36:8 says that we drink of the river of God’s pleasures. In Ezekiel 47 waters issued out of the temple of God (v. 1), which eventually became a deep river (v. 5). Wherever the river came, everything lived (v. 9). The flow of this river made everything living. When this river comes to a certain country, it makes that country living; it makes city after city in that country living. Praise the Lord for this river that brings life wherever it goes!

In the Gospel of John the Lord Jesus told the Samaritan woman that “whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall by no means thirst forever; but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a spring of water welling up into eternal life” (4:14). Then the Lord Jesus told us that whoever drinks of Him will have rivers of living water flowing out of his innermost being (7:38). “Rivers of living water” are the many flows of the different aspects of life (cf. Rom. 15:30; 1 Thes. 1:6; 2 Thes. 2:13; Gal. 5:22-23) of the one unique “river of water of life” (Rev. 22:1), which is God’s “Spirit of life” (Rom. 8:2).

THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE BEING GOD THE FATHER,
THE SPRING BEING THE SON
AND THE SPIRIT BEING THE FLOW OF LIFE
AS THE RIVER THAT REACHES US

At the end of the New Testament it is revealed that in the New Jerusalem there is a river of water of life (Rev. 22:1). That river is the consummation of all the rivers in the Bible. The river began in Genesis 2 and consummates in Revelation 22. This river is the river of God that flows the divine life. This river is the Spirit. The fountain of life is God the Father, the spring is the Son who is the embodiment of life, the embodiment of the fountain, and the Spirit is the flow of life as the river that reaches us. This is God dispensing Himself into us. When we drink of the divine river, we receive the flow, the spring, and the fountain, the Triune God. In this way the Triune God dispenses Himself as life into our being.

We are drinking of the river that flows out of the spring, and this spring is the very embodiment of the fountain. God the Father is embodied in the Son, the Son is flowing by the Spirit, and the Spirit reaches us as the living water for our enjoyment. This is God dispensing Himself into our being to make us the same as He is. The divine Father has many divine children in one divine family. This is the church life, which is the issue of the Triune God’s dispensing of Himself as life into our being in His divine economy. Praise the Lord for such a divine economy! Praise the Lord for the tree of life! And praise the Lord for the river flowing! (The Divine Economy, pp. 35-38)

Further Reading: The Divine Economy, ch. 5; CWWL, 1963, vol. 1, “The Practical Way to Live in the Mingling of God with Man,” ch. 2; Crystallization-study of the Gospel of John, msg. 3