WATER FROM BETHLEHEM.

 BOOK OF 2 SAMUEL. 

2 Samuel 23:13-17.

WATER FROM BETHLEHEM. 

This passage speaks volumes about the devotion and bravery of David's mighty men. 

David and his men were lodged in the cave of Adullam, a place of refuge while fleeing from Saul. 

The Philistines were encamped in and around Bethlehem, the hometown of David. 

The water in the caves and cisterns of Adullam would have turned brackish, in the dry season. 

David longed for fresh, cool water from the well near the gate of his hometown. 

Three of his mighty men broke through the camp of the Philistines and drew water from the well in Bethlehem and brought it back for David. 

David's men loved him enough to risk their lives to serve him and get him something he longed for. 

David was equally devoted to his mighty men as he instinctively grasped that water brought at such risk could not be treated as an ordinary thirst quencher. 

2 Samuel 23:16-17........ 

Nevertheless, he would not drink it, but poured it out to the Lord. 

And he said, "Far be it from me, O Lord, that I should do this! 

Is this not the blood of the men who went in jeopardy of their lives?" 

Therefore he would not drink it....... 

When David poured out the water, it was more like an offering to God, equivalent to the blood of his warriors, so valuable, that it can be poured out to God, in gratitude. 

Henry Francis Lyte, the man who wrote the hymn, 'Abide with me', ended another poem this way:

 

There is a well in Bethlehem still, 

A fountain at whose brink, 

The weary soul may rest at will, 

The thirsty stoop and drink, 

And unrepelled by foe or fence, 

Draw living waters freely thence. 

Oh, did we thirst as David then, 

For this divine spring! 

Had we the zeal of David's men, 

To please a higher King! 

What precious draughts we thence might drain, 

What holy triumphs daily gain! 

Happy are those whose soul thirsts for God! 

John 4:14;

But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. 

But the water that I shall give him, will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life. 

Revelation 21:6;

And He said to me, 

" It is done! 

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. 

I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts". 

Compiled by Shanti Jayanth, Madurai.