"GIVE ME TO DRINK"

“GIVE ME TO DRINK”

John 4: 1-15; 1 Kings 17: 8-16; Genesis 24: 10-27

One of the most remarkable and wonderful things that we find in Scripture is that God should seek anything from men. As we consider the greatness of God and remember that everything that is good in the universe has come from His hand, and that He gives life and breath and all things, we are amazed to find that He seeks something — He desires to receive something from the hearts of men. As we know, God is sufficient in Himself. All His creatures have to be supported; no one, and no thing, can live without God — no angel can live without God. Scripture speaks of “angels’ food” showing that they have to be supported, not of course with literal food as we are, but they have to be supported. So it says, “He gives life and breath and all things.”

I want to say a few words to encourage all to devote what is left of the present period, to minister to God. That is the greatest possible object any of us could have in life — to minister to God — to be able to bring to Him something that is acceptable. What is said by the elders is this, “Thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created,” Revelation 4: 11. Elders are men who have learnt by long experience what is suitable to God and here they, tell us that God’s object in creating everything was that it should minister to Himself.

Each of these three scriptures gives us a request made for drink. The Lord was here in keeping with the desires of God — He was personally seeking men. He was rich, supremely rich; but as the apostle says, “Our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor,” 2 Corinthians 8: 9. His heart ever desired something from men that had not yet been yielded to Him. There was a longing in His heart that God might be responded to by men.

God took account of His longing, and such as the repentant thief on the cross was His answer to it. God provided, as it were, refreshment for the heart of Christ even on the cross; and then we hear those wonderful words of the dying thief, “This Man hath done nothing amiss.” He says, “Lord, remember me.” How it must have been as water of refreshment to Christ, to get something at that juncture, that ministered to His own heart.

I want to touch on these scriptures with this in mind. The Lord comes in John 4, to the well of Samaria, and there comes a woman of the city to draw water, and He says, “Give me to drink.” I wonder if I am speaking to any here who have never heard these words,

for they lie behind the gospel. You say, I thought the gospel was to give me something; it will give you something, but it is more than that, it is to give God something. That is really what is behind all.

The Lord approaches this sinful woman, and says, “Give me to drink.” He asks the woman first. She did not say No; she was prepared to face this great question. When the Lord said, “Give me to drink,” she did not understand; none of us understands with the natural mind why the Lord should approach such as we are and say, “Give me to drink.” The Lord desired that that poor woman should be so satisfied that she would never have another unsatisfied longing; instead of wanting everything that she could lay her hands upon, good, bad, or indifferent, her heart would be so satisfied that there would be that springing up within her that would be a living response to God; she would be a worshipper of God. We do not hear much about worship in gospel meetings, yet the Lord actually indicates to her that He wants her to be a worshipper. He wants her to know God so that her heart overflows in delight.

The apostle Paul says, “If we are beside ourselves, it is to God.” The apostle Paul was such a man that when he thought of God as he knew Him through the coming in of Christ, he was lifted outside of himself in an ecstasy of joy. God desires this, He seeks it. “The Father seeketh such to worship him”; and the Lord was there, seeking for another heart to minister to the pleasure of God. He says, “Give me to drink,” and she did. When the disciples came afterwards and said, “Master eat,” He said, “I have meat to eat that ye know not of. My meat is to do the will of him that sent me.”

When we come to the passage in 1 Kings 17, we have the man of God, Elijah — one who represents God and testifies for Him. We have also a day of great distress, poverty and depression; when everything had gone down and down, and there was very little for anybody. For three and a half years there was to be no rain, and everything was drying up; the brook Cherith had dried up and Elijah had to leave it. God sends him to a widow woman, and when he meets this widow he says to her, “Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel that I may drink.” He does not ask a lot, he says, “Fetch me a little water,” and this woman is prepared to consider that. And then he says, “Bring me I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hands.” Then she tells Elijah the true position. She says, “I have not a cake, but an handful of meal in a barrel and a little oil in a cruse, and behold I am gathering two sticks that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it and die.” Then Elijah says to her, “Fear not, go and do as thou hast said, but make me thereof a little cake first,” and she went and did it. That is what the Lord wants — that we should make Him a little cake first; to use the resources we have, but that there should be first, a little cake for the man of God.

Do you know why many of us have lost much during the last few years? I believe it is because we have not first made the little cake. We have said we must look after ourselves and then our children, and see that they are well provided for, but many of us have not first thought of God and what is for Him. But there is the present moment, and what the Lord is saying at the present moment, is “Give me to drink,” and “Make me first a little cake.” Things may get worse — probably they will — but what ministers to the heart of Christ, is that there will be those on earth, who will use the meal and the oil to provide first for Him. If we do, we can leave the rest to Him, in His hands. Elijah says, “thus saith the Lord God of Israel, the barrel of meal shall not waste neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth.” Now look at the blessed conditions that came to this widow as the result of considering first for Elijah, what results from considering first for the pleasure of the Lord, for what will minister to Him. She had all she needed, and her son also for the whole year, and in addition she had the company of Elijah, and that is worth much. The Lord will give His company to those who consider Him first.

But you say, Things are difficult. They are not any worse than they were for this widow. She was entirely dependent on what she could do for herself; she had no husband, she had a son to care for, and there was a famine. But she was prepared to put the Lord first in all that she had. The Lord will take care of such people. The Lord will see those through who put His interests first. You might think it hard — “Make me first a little cake,” but she did not die, and the meal did not fail, and above everything else she had Elijah the man of God. You can understand that was a wonderful year!

I believe the end is going to be wonderful. When we answer to this, that all we have and are is just held to minister to God and to Christ, there is going to be a wonderful year. Such as do this are going to have in a special way, the company of Christ. I put it to you all, and to my own heart, Am I prepared to make first a little cake for the Lord? To hold what will minister to Him, the water, the meal and the oil as available to Him before anybody else. You dear young people, let the spirit of that come into your heart — that the Lord is to be first. You may say, I shall suffer? No, you will not. I do not mean you might not lose a few shillings, but if you put the Lord first in everything you will find the Lord will be with you, and that is worth everything. That dear woman had the best time of all in her day; she was the happiest woman in that land. She had Elijah with her, meaning for us, the Lord was with her, and where you have the Lord you will never starve. Nobody ever starves where the Lord is. Where He is there is always enough and to spare.

When we come to the third case, it is not about one woman to whom the Lord said, “Give me to drink”; nor a widow woman who considered for God first, but in Genesis 24, we have in Rebekah a figure of the assembly. Abraham’s servant as we all know, sets forth the patient service of the Spirit of God. He is sent out by Abraham to secure a wife for Isaac and the question is raised, What kind of person will he have? He stands at the well of water and prays, and in his prayer he discloses what is in his mind, the kind of person he is looking for. He prays God to grant that the woman whom he asks to let down her pitcher that he might drink and who shall say, “Drink and I will give thy camels drink also,” may be the one whom God had chosen for His servant Isaac. What a wonderful picture!

The Spirit of God is seeking to find those who will spend themselves, their time, their energies, their all in the interests of Christ and for the service of Christ. Such features show the undoing of what sin brought in. What marked Eve in the fall, was that she spent herself for her own gratification; she overlooked what was due to God, and she lost everything through stretching out her hand to grasp something for herself. Abraham’s servant prays that there may be a woman who will say, when he asks her for a drink “Drink; and I will give thy camels drink also.” He is looking for one suitable for Isaac. When he prays, he says, “Thy servant Isaac,” suggesting to us the blessed Lord Jesus Christ, who took a bondman’s form, He came here to serve. “I am among you,” the Lord said, “as one that serves.” He did not come to be ministered to, but to minister.

Now what kind of bride will He have? Only one prepared to be a servant; no other would be suitable. The servant has these features before him, and when Rebekah comes he seeks water from her. The New Translation says, “Let me sip a little water”; he does not make big claims upon her, but says, Are you prepared to consider for me?

If she be the woman suitable for Isaac, she must be prepared to be a servant to others. So she says, “Drink, my lord, and she hasted and let down her pitcher upon her hand” and she “hasted” to draw water for the camels also. What a feature of Christ as prepared to minister to others. She had never met this man, she did not know who he was, but she says, “Drink, my lord”; she is prepared to spend herself in ministering to him.

Then she says, “I will draw water for thy camels also,” — ten of them — we know what camels can drink — and it says, “She hasted” and ran, she spent herself in urgent service till the camels had had enough. How suitable she is for Isaac! The man bows his head and worships; he had found one that was like Isaac, he had found in figure, features of Christ. He had found one who was prepared to lay herself out to serve others; for us, one ready to serve the Lord and to serve His people, to lay down his life for the brethren. He bows down his head and worships, and he claims this woman, and they have to acknowledge it is of God. What the Spirit of God is searching for in the hearts of the saints is features of Christ, living expressions of that which corresponds to Christ, the One who came “not to be ministered unto, but to minister,” for the assembly must take character from Him.

One desired to bring before our hearts the great objective of ministering to the Lord. The apostle Peter speaks of those who run to the sink of corruption and think it strange we do not run with them. That describes many of the books and the pictures of today. They are sinks of vile corruption to which men are running, and they wonder why we do not go with them, they cannot understand it. Then there is Jacob’s well, suggesting earthly mercies. We do not despise them, but they do not satisfy. You might have a bigger house, a bigger farm, better health, and all the mercies of this life, but you would not be satisfied. “Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again, but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst.”

But instead of thirsting, the woman is asked to, “Give me to drink.” From a satisfied heart there is a readiness to minister to Him, and, dear friends, that is what He says to you and to me, “Give me to drink.” Instead of living to ourselves, our life henceforth is to be a ministration to Him. And then, “Make me first a little cake,” what results will flow if this is really accepted. All that we have, and all that we are, or may receive, is to be held first to make a little cake for the Lord, to minister to His pleasure. And you will find He will be with us and there will be no need. The meal and the oil will not fail till the Lord comes, if we first make a little cake for Him, if our objective is to minister to Him. Elijah says, “Give me a little water to drink.” Let us be prepared each in our measure to live a life of service in the interests of Christ; not a life of self-indulgence, self-interest and self-seeking; seeking to be someone or something, even in the local meeting — but a life that is like Rebekah’s. When Abraham’s servant says, “Give me to drink,” she says, “Drink, my lord, and ... I will draw water for thy camels also.” We are to be prepared to be of service to all the people of God.

When the Lord comes to take the assembly away, He will find the bride here, and the bride is a wonderful thought. I know those who are parents have seen it (and perhaps on the natural side it is very testing) the bride is one who prefers her husband to her father, mother, brother, sister, home and all. It does not mean, of course, that she ceases to love her parents, but she says, I prefer my husband to everything I ever had before.

Rebekah was such; “Wilt thou go with this man?” Leave Bethuel, Laban, home, country, everything you have ever lived in? and she says, “I will go.” That is what the Lord is looking for today; hearts that so love Him, that they are prepared morally to leave everything of this life — ready to go and be for His pleasure eternally. May the Lord help us, dear brethren, to give place to this great thought, that the first thing is to minister to God. “Give me to drink” expresses the longing of the heart of Christ, and the Spirit of God, to have an answer to divine love.