“The angel of the Lord found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness and she called the name of the Lord that spake unto her, Thou God seest me” (Gen. xvi. 7-13).
“And God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water, and she went and filled a bottle with water and gave the lad to drink” (Gen. xxi. 19).
OT once but twice did Jehovah meet poor Hagar by a fountain in the desert. On this last occasion she and her child were perishing with thirst and her eyes were so dim with tears that she could not see the waters that were sparkling almost beneath her feet. “She went and sat her down over against the child a good way off, for she said, Let me not see the death of the child and she lifted up her voice and wept. And God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water.” The water had been there all the while and perhaps her tears had almost fallen into the fountain but she was perishing all the same because she had not seen it.
Oh, how many souls are dying because they have not seen the life-giving Saviour. Oh, how many hearts are struggling with sin and sorrow because they have not seen the Great Deliverer who hath brought to us the victory. Oh, how many bodies are aching with pain and going down to untimely graves because they have never learned of the great Physician. Oh, how many promises are being trodden beneath our feet like the precious mines over which Indian savages wandered for centuries and never knew the wealth of our land or the wondrous secrets of science and art which our age has discovered and which former generations never knew. Oh, how much there still is for us to know and enter into. Lord, open our eyes, the eyes of our heart “That we may fully know what is the hope of His calling and the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe.”
Not only are we suffering loss but our loved ones are suffering too. Hagar’s child was dying because she had not seen that hidden well. Your deeper life, your fuller blessing means salvation and blessing to those you hold more dear than your own life. This passage reminds us of the hidden wells that lie along our desert way. The crisis of every great life comes usually through the discovery of some secret unknown before. Perhaps it is a secret drawn from the bosom of nature. Perhaps it is a secret whispered by the Holy Ghost from the living Word. God has such things to show you, “Eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither have entered into the heart of men the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.”
Oh, that this month may bring to you and me new revelations from the heart of God, from the word of life, from Him in whom “are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. He who knew just where to send Peter for the fish that held in its mouth the golden coin that would meet all his embarrassments; He that knew the right side of the ship where they should find the shoals of fish that were waiting for their needs; He who knows the way you take and the better way that He has to lead you if you will let Him; He who holds the seals of the book of destiny, the Lamb with seven eyes of infinite wisdom and light and love, is waiting to lead you into the good land of promise of which He has said “All that thine eyes seeth, to thee will I give it.”
God bring us to the well of vision, the well of light, the well whose waters will open our eyes until we shall “see the King in His beauty and the land of far distances.”
“The joy of the Lord is the strength of His people,
The sunshine that scatters their sadness and gloom;
The fountain that bursts in the desert of sorrow,
And sheds o’er the wilderness gladness and bloom.
“Oh, the joy of the Lord is my strength and my song;
Our sorrow and sighing are o’er;
We’ll rejoice in the Lord, we’ll rejoice in the Lord.
We’ll rejoice in the Lord evermore.”
Texts for the Month
1. “Arise, shine, for thy Light is come” (Isa. lx. 1).
2. “In Thy light shall we see light” (Ps. xxxvi. 9).
3. “He shall show you things to come” (John xvi. 3).
4. “If thou knewest the gift of God, thou wouldst have asked of Him and He would have given thee living water” (John iv. 10).
5. “Call unto Me and I will show thee great and mighty things which thou knewest not” (Jer. xxxiii. 3).
6. “Every man, therefore, that hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto Me” (John vi. 45).
7. “He went his way, therefore, and washed and came seeing” (John ix. 7).
8. “He shall glorify Me, for he shall receive of Mine and shall show it unto you” (John xvi. 13).
9. “At that day ye shall know that I am in the Father and ye in Him and I in you” (John xiv. 20).
10. “Thine eyes shall see the King in His beauty” (Isa. xxxiii. 17).
11. Anoint thine eyes with eye salve, that thou mayest see” (Rev. iii. 18).
12. “Open Thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy law” (Ps. cxix. 18).
13. “I will even make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert” (Isa. xliii. 19).
14. “All the land which thou seest, to thee will 1 give it” (Gen. xiii. 15).
15. “That God may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him” (Eph. i. 17).
16. “Eye hath not seen the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him” (I Cor. ii. 9).
17. “We have received the Spirit which is of God that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God” (I Cor. ii. 12).
18. “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him, and He will show them His covenant” (Ps. xxv. 14).
19. “And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man and he saw the mountain was full of horses and chariots” (II Kings vi. 17).
20. “And the Lord showed him a tree which, when he had cast it into the waters, the waters were made sweet” (Exod. xv. 25).
21. “Lift up now thine eyes and look from the place where thou art” (Gen. xiii. 14).
22. “Blessed are your eyes, for they see” (Matt. xiii. 16).
23. “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them” (I Cor. ii. 14).
24. “I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision” (Acts xxvi. 19).
25. “Now I know in part, but then shall I know even also as I am known” (I Cor. xiii. 12).
26. “Ye have an unction from the Holy One and ye know all things” (I John ii. 20).
27. That the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of His calling” (Eph. i. 18).
28. “Let us walk in the light of the Lord” (Isa. ii. 5).
29. “Let us put on the armour of light” (Rom. xiii. 12).
30. “Now are ye light in the Lord; walk as children of light” (Eph. v. 8).
31. “He shall not see when heat cometh” (Jer. xvii. 8).