On the last day, the climax of the festival, Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, “Anyone who is thirsty may come to me! Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.’” When he said “living water,” he was speaking of the Spirit, who would be given to everyone believing in him…(John 7:37-39 NLT)
I was rereading the story of Joseph and his brothers in Genesis 37. You probably remember Joseph was the favored son of his father Jacob, told his father and brothers about his wild dreams, and was generally hated by the brothers. One day Jacob sent him out to find his brothers, they decided to get rid of him, and he found himself at the bottom of a cistern. Genesis 37:24 (NIV) tells us, “And they took him and threw him into the cistern. The cistern was empty; there was no water in it.”
A cistern is a pit used to store water. It’s different from a well, which is dug deeply to reach groundwater. Instead, a cistern collects rainwater and is carefully designed so the water does not leak out. In dry regions like the Promised Land, storing water was extremely important for people, livestock, and crops. So it makes sense that there would be a pit dug for water near Joseph and his brothers.
But, why would the biblical writer tell us the cistern was empty, and then tell us there was no water in it? Isn’t that just unnecessarily redundant? After the brothers threw him into the pit, if there had been water, Joseph might have drowned. If there was no water, he would probably have became very thirsty. Either way, he couldn’t have climbed out on his own, which made it easy for his brothers to pull him up later and sell him to some passing nomadic traders for a few coins.
I didn’t find an answer to my question. So, I kept researching cisterns.
The prophet Jeremiah was dumped into a muddy cistern (Jeremiah 38). When the Israelites in King Hezekiah’s day were being sieged by the Assyrian king, he taunted them with defeat but, if they surrendered, promised them their own cisterns. Jeremiah 2:13 warned that the people had forsaken God’s Living Water in order to build their own broken cisterns. And Leviticus 11:36 tells us that a cistern can’t be clean if a dead carcass touches it. Sounds reasonable to me.
Water is a powerful metaphor throughout the Bible. We read of rivers, springs, and Living Water—each pointing to something deeper. Just as physical water is essential for our bodies, the Living Water of God is essential for our spiritual life.
If you have additional insight about cisterns, I’d love to hear it. Otherwise, may we each drink deeply from the rivers of spiritual water, fill our lives with the Living Water, and become vessels that store and share the Water of Life with others.
Spirit, fill us with the Living Water of the Holy Spirit. May we be people who know Jesus, and overflow with the river of life he offers. In his name we pray, AMEN.
Anything that one of their carcasses falls on becomes unclean; an oven or cooking pot must be broken up. They are unclean, and you are to regard them as unclean. A spring, however, or a cistern for collecting water remains clean, but anyone who touches one of these carcasses is unclean. (Leviticus 11:35-36 NIV)
“Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in the Lord when he says, ‘The Lord will surely deliver us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.’ Do not listen to Hezekiah. This is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me and come out to me. Then each of you will eat fruit from your own vine and fig tree and drink water from your own cistern, until I come and take you to a land like your own—a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey. Choose life and not death! (2 Kings 18:30-32 NIV)
For My people have committed two evils:
They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters,
And hewn themselves cisterns—broken cisterns that can hold no water. (Jeremiah 2:13 NKJV)
Jesus replied, “If you only knew who I am and the gift that God wants to give you, you’d ask me for a drink, and I would give you living water.” (John 4:10 TPT)
“Come,” says the Holy Spirit and the Bride in divine duet . Let everyone who hears this duet join them in saying, “Come.” Let everyone gripped with spiritual thirst say, “Come.” And let everyone who craves the gift of living water come and drink it freely. “Come.” (Revelation 22:17 TPT)