Revelation is addressed to the church in a wilderness, a generation-long period between Jesus’ exaltation and the fall of Jerusalem. Like Israel in the wilderness, the church needs to find sources of fresh, life-giving water. Fresh water is promised (7:17) and eventually given (21:5-6; 22:1, 17), but in between unpolluted rivers and springs are hard to come by.
The star Wormwood turns a third of the springs and rivers into wormwood (8:10-11), bitter as the waters of Marah. The serpent spews out a river that threatens to drown the mother church (12:15), and the third bowl turns the rivers and springs to blood (16:4). In the wilderness, it seems that the only water is poison.
It is always so when the church is in the wilderness. As it is today, when many have little to choose besides the muddied waters of legalism, liberalism, and antinomianism. Yet, Jesus remains the Good Shepherd, who leads His sheep to green pastures and still, clear waters; the Good Shepherd who restores and refreshes souls.
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