Read part 1 ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒. Read part 2 ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒.
“Spring up, O well, which the nobles of the people dug”
And from there they journeyed to Beer; that is the well where Jehovah said to Moses, Gather the people together, and I will give them water. Then Israel sang this song: Spring up, O well! Sing to it! The well, which the leaders sank, Which the nobles of the people dug, / With the scepter, with their staffs… (Num. 21:16-18)
After the serpent has been lifted up — after we have been crucified with Christ — there is a confirmation and assurance of our salvation: the water will flow out. Footnote 1 from Numbers 21:16 tells us that “Beer” means “a well,” typifying Christ within us. The digging of the well here in verse 18 “signifies the digging away of the ‘dirt,’ the barriers in our heart…so that the Spirit as the living water may spring up within us and flow freely.” This sequence is reflected throughout the entire Bible and also corresponds with our experience. To get to the water, we must come back to dig; it will not be found on the surface but through digging deep within us for that living water—the Spirit. Today in the church life, digging the well in us is the only way that we can reach this fountainhead—that we can have this gushing out of the water unto eternity.
What is this water to us in daily experience? The moment we see the brass serpent lifted up — confess the Lord’s crucifixion — we are one with the Lord, crucified on the cross, and right away the living water from this death brings to us the love, light, sanctification, and righteousness of this very Person (John 3:14; 1 John 1:5; 9). True believers are saturated by love. And with love comes light. We can never enjoy love, or personify God’s love, without light. Every bit of human life comes from light—even from the very beginning; the Lord says, “Let there be light” (Gen. 1:3), and there is life! This light allows us to realize all of God’s attributes. When we are saved, we don’t sense our sins—we sense God. There’s no need to exercise our moral conscience to try hard to overcome our sins. We simply go into the light and walk with God in the light.
Love also sets us aside and sets us apart. When we say, “I love you,” we set the one we address apart, and we also set ourselves apart for that one. That’s our relationship with the Lord—one of sanctification. When the Lord says, “I sanctify you. I make you holy,” that means this person has been saturated and permeated by this shekinah, glorious love. It’s love, it’s light—it’s also sanctification and holiness. Human beings can never feel right to themselves and right before God without being holy—being set apart unto our true meaning and purpose as human beings unto God. Righteousness comes after we find this destiny, the absolute position in the universe that human beings were designed to hold: vessels to express and represent this Person, this personified Love.
Holding this position in the universe makes us “the nobles of the people.” The Bible defines noble people quite differently than society does: they are “those who seek after the Spirit and take the lead to dig the well” (v.18, footnote 1). Today, as those who dig the well—crucifying the flesh, being washed, bathed and flooded in the living water—the Spirit—and realizing the love, light, sanctification and righteousness of God—we are the noble people. In everything we do, we dig in search of the living water. Whenever we pray, we pray as noble people. Whenever we preach the gospel, we preach the gospel as noble people. When we live day by day, we live as noble people. Actually, these people are quite weak, quite dependent, because they are weak to their flesh and dependent wholly on this source of living water. When we are saved, we immediately become the people always found by the well, by the fountain, by the water, at the baptism. This overcoming, overflowing, powerful condition is the true evidence of our salvation, of our digging and drinking of the living water day by day.
(Above is part 3 of a series compiled from notes of fellowship taken from a gathering on 1/3/2021, not reviewed by the speaker.)