Isaiah 44:3, commentary and pictures

God promises to refresh spiritually thirsty people as water refreshes parched soil, pouring out His Spirit, salvation and blessing upon them and upon their children after them. The thirsty are those who feel their need, hunger and thirst for righteousness, and long for Him with hearts open to be filled. The gift is given freely and abundantly when the way is prepared by removing what blocks the heart, yielding wholly to His working, and living consecrated to His service. Receiving it calls for renewed conversion, oneness, earnest wrestling prayer, humbled hearts, and putting away wrong by confession and repentance, which cures unbelief and restores freshness and strength for service. Those who earnestly seek truth and gladly receive His light are then made channels through whom refreshment, fertility and power flow to every desolate place until the whole earth is lightened with His glory.

Promise in Its Context

Isaiah 44:3 stands within Isaiah 41-45, where God very fully reveals His purpose for His people. Those chapters are to be studied prayerfully, with appreciation for what He has done and confidence in what He will do for those who follow Him. Their teaching directs His people not to turn away from God to look to finite man for wisdom, but to rely on Him rather than finite human wisdom.

The promise is that God will satisfy spiritual thirst as water refreshes dry ground and floods fall on thirsty land. He will pour His Spirit, salvation, and blessing upon His people and upon their seed and offspring. That refreshment is for the thirsty ones all around who need to be restored, including the large number destitute of knowledge of how to care for themselves. It was highly appropriate to advancing the work in Sydney while the Health Home was full and money was needed to invest in buildings, calling for working to the utmost of ability and means and for others to invest themselves and their means in personal service without disappointment. It is part of the encouragement God has given and covenanted to provide, to be trusted and answered with greater missionary work and spirit. To people seeking and gladly receiving light, God's bright rays shine.

The thirsty are those who feel their need of Him, as thirsty people long for water and dry ground needs rain. They are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness and long for God, and they will be filled. The heart must be open to the Spirit's influence in order to receive His blessing.

Christ is the rock of ages and the shadow of a great rock in a weary land, who promises water to the thirsty and floods on dry ground. The promise recalls the living stream that flowed for Israel in the wilderness, with waters breaking out and streams in the desert for the poor and needy whose tongue fails for thirst. It is an invitation for everyone who thirsts to come to the waters. The same gracious call is echoed at the close of Scripture, where the river of the water of life proceeds clear as crystal from the throne of God and the Lamb and all who will may take the water of life freely.

When parents learn from Christ and work for the growth of truth and righteousness, God will pour out His Spirit on their children and bless their descendants. The fruit appears in the following verses: the children will identify themselves as the Lord's people and take the names of Jacob and Israel. The verse bids God's people look to Jesus for spiritual knowledge and not hide the light under a bushel but let it give light to all who are in the house. For God gave His Son for a light to open blind eyes and to bring prisoners out of prison and darkness.

Seeking the Promised Spirit

The outpouring comes in abundance when the way is open, as water poured out and salvation given freely through human channels wholly yielded to divine working. What obstructs the heart must be removed, and those who would receive must consecrate themselves to God and submit entirely to His working. So prepared, they become channels through whom the blessing reaches others, and the promise urges workers to seek the baptism of the Spirit. Humble, disciplined service under that baptism greatly expands usefulness.

The floods upon dry ground are floods of spiritual power, the Holy Spirit coming into every heart that is prepared to receive. Preparation means reconversion and reconsecration to service, oneness in work and in gatherings, wrestling with God in prayer for the Spirit, humbling the proud heart before God, and putting away sin by confession and repentance. That incoming power cures the leprosy of unbelief that makes service weak and inefficient, reclaims backsliders, and enables believers to serve with freshness and strength and to carry light and grace to the world.

The pouring is for those who put self aside, make room for the Holy Spirit upon the heart, live wholly sanctified to God's service, and endure His necessary discipline without complaining or fainting and without hardness or stubbornness under rebuke. To young and old who meet these conditions He teaches hour by hour and day by day and gives unlimited usefulness. Such usefulness requires learning, as Moses learned, meekness and lowliness of heart and distrust of self, for there is no strength in humanity alone. The Spirit of grace falls like showers of rain on thirsty earth upon earnest seekers whose faith brings answers to prayer and looks to the reward. It comes to those expecting soon to stand face to face with their Redeemer, bringing solemn joy too deep for words, and its softening, subduing power melts the heart as wave after wave of the glory of God sweeps over faithful, believing ones.

Carrying Blessing to World

The water poured on the thirsty and the floods on dry ground picture the light and power given to souls who earnestly seek truth and gladly receive every ray of divine illumination from the Word. Those who seek in this way are given further light, and the bright rays of God shine upon them. Through them He reveals light and power that will lighten the whole earth with His glory and fill the earth with His glory.

The promise is part of what He has covenanted to provide, and it calls His people to trust what He will do and to answer with greater missionary work and spirit. That answer means working to the utmost of ability and means, with personal service and with self and means invested without disappointment. It was highly appropriate to advancing the work in Sydney, where thirsty ones all around needed to be refreshed and restored, including the large number destitute of knowledge of how to care for themselves, while the Health Home was full and money was needed to invest in buildings.

The stream is an image of refreshment and fertility that is to reach every desolate place rather than watering only one favored spot, bringing fertility and gladness. This applies to physicians and ministers bound together in medical missionary and gospel work, made into channels through whom light and grace are sent to the world. Receiving the floods of spiritual power in this way cures the unbelief that makes service weak and inefficient, reclaims backsliders, and gives freshness and strength for united service.

The grace of God is to flow like water on thirsty ground to all the parched places of the earth. The great center of the work is to serve as a fountain to supply the dearth of gospel teachers in places where the standard of truth has never been lifted. Costly buildings and heavy drafts of means to build and maintain them sap supplies, hinder that flow, and leave no facilities to go forward and lift the standard in new fields.