Ever since the creation of the world water has been of the utmost importance. As a matter of fact, it has been determined that human beings are made up to about 60% water. So, it makes sense that God would use water as a way to address the sin problem man made when he sinned in the Garden of Eden. No, I’m not referring specifically to Noah’s flood here, although it had its desired effect.
What this article wants to do is show how water was used in the redemptive message God gave to man through time. This message culminates by delivering the truth of what Jesus did and who He was. How this message relates to water is Jesus and God giving mankind the call to accept the Living Water offered to us.
We can go back to (NASB) Genesis 35: 1,2 “1Then God said to Jacob, ‘Arise, go up to Bethel and live there, and make an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.’ 2 So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, ‘Put away the foreign gods which are among you, and purify yourselves and change your garments;’”. Note that various Bible versions use different terms to speak of the same thing. Some say to be clean others say to wash, while others say to be cleansed. Regardless, water is the essential purifying ingredient.
The Old Testament provides everyone with plenty of evidence for the way God used water to make predictions of the coming Christ and the atonement only He can offer. A great place to start is with the writing and events surrounding Moses and the Law. The book of Leviticus beginning in chapter 14 and continuing through chapter 22 all deal with instructions about bathing and making oneself clean. For example in Leviticus 14: 8 “The one to be cleansed shall then wash his clothes and shave off all his hair and bathe in water and be clean. Now afterward, he may enter the camp, but he shall stay outside his tent for seven days.” Then going to the book of Numbers there is a continuation of instructions for cleansing oneself. In Numbers 8: 7 it states, “Thus you shall do to them, for their cleansing: sprinkle purifying water on them, and let them use a razor over their whole body and wash their clothes, and they will be clean.” In Numbers19: 12, two effects are recorded. It says, “That one shall purify himself from uncleanness with the water on the third day and on the seventh day, and then he will be clean; but if he does not purify himself on the third day and on the seventh day, he will not be clean.”
We then see more regarding the priestly line of the Levites being given specific regulations regarding ritual bathes and cleansing for purification. In Nehemiah 13:22 we read, “And I commanded the Levites that they should purify themselves and come as gatekeepers to sanctify the Sabbath day…” Going back to Exodus there are further instructions for Aaron and his sons. We see in Exodus 29: 4 it says “Then you shall bring Aaron and his sons to the doorway of the tent of meeting and wash them with water.”
David himself records the importance of cleansing and purification. In Psalms 51: 7 he wrote, “Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. However, the people soon neglected the way of truth and the instructions from their God. God’s warning went unheeded and eventually all Israel and then Judah were sent into exile.
Jeremiah records the destruction and exile of Judah but before that happened he says in Jeremiah 17:13, “O Lord, the hope of Israel, All who forsake You will be put to shame. Those who turn away on earth will be written down, because they have forsaken the fountain of living water, even the Lord.” Here in Jeremiah is the first mention of living water in the scriptures and its occurrence in the Old Testament unites both the Old and New Testament with the single goal of redeeming sinful people, to offer and give them living water.
Water, as seen in the Old Testament has a significant role in recording God’s redemptive purpose. In the New Testament we are introduced to a water baptism for the repentance of sins and of being baptized with the Spirit of God through Jesus Christ’s redemptive work by his death, burial, and resurrection leading to our salvation.