Title: Slow flowing water (Isaiah 8:5-8)
Contents
It's easy for people to ignore and make fun of things like slowly flowing water. So I like only strong and urgent things, and I am in awe of that only. But being strong and hasty is just as dangerous. The rushing waters and the floods are really hard for human beings to bear.
In today's verse, we are talking about "the water of Shiloah, which flows slowly," but actually there was a spring in the Kidron Valley outside the east gate of Jerusalem. I used a nail to draw water in. Shiloah water, which originates from the Gihon Spring, flows slowly through the waterway and reaches the Pool of Siloam.
1. What would the slowly flowing waters of Shiloah symbolize?
It speaks of God's grace and blessings. God's grace and blessings are usually given slowly, in an orderly manner, rather than suddenly. God's work of life works quietly and slowly. God's voice is small, his emotions are still, and his work progresses slowly.
However, humans want to receive grace suddenly. Humans want to get lucky all of a sudden. Suddenly rich, suddenly gaining power and suddenly trying to gain fame. However, people who want to get something like this suddenly use pyeonbyeop.
To say that the waters of Shiloah flow slowly, although it seems weak to humans, it means that the power of God is at work in it. Although it may seem like nothing to man, the power of God is at work in it.
When God brought the Israelites out of Egypt through Moses, He worked like slow flowing water. He called Moses when he was eighty years old. And even when he surrendered the tough Pharaoh, he did it through ten plagues, not just once.
When God led the Israelites into the wilderness, it was like a slow flowing water. Even though it was a distance that could be reached in just a few days, he gave me a path to go slowly over the past 40 years. However, it was the people of Israel who did not trust God's work like this slowly flowing water and always rebelled and disbelieved.
The movement that Jesus did is the “Kingdom Movement”. However, Jesus did not do it in a revolutionary way while he was campaigning for the kingdom of God. He said that the kingdom of God is a small mustard seed that is sown and gradually grows into a large tree. In other words, you were doing the slow-growing kingdom movement. But neither the disciples nor the Jews liked it. So there were disciples who sold Jesus, and there were crowds shouting to be crucified.
In today's verse, it says, "I rejoice in the son of Rezin and Remaliah." It is that the people of Judah did not respect God's work of life and God's protection like the slowly flowing water of Shiloah, but rejoiced and envied the army and wealth of a powerful nation.
2. What happened to God's people who abandoned the slow flowing waters of Shiloah and rejoiced in the rushing rivers?
He said that something strong and cruel will come to those people who have forsaken God, who rules slowly with mercy, compassion and love. Verses 7-8, “Therefore, the Lord I will cover them with the great river, the king of Assyria, and all his might, a mighty and mighty river, and overflowing from all the hills, and overflowing all the hills, shall come into Judah, and it shall choke and even the neck. I did.
God allowed them to experience how dangerous sudden flowing water can be. There are many cases in which things that are not yet received are different when they are suddenly received even though they are not prepared. I don't know how many times people in a hurry get things wrong.
Once you have planted a tree, you have to wait slowly for it to take root, sprout new branches, and give out leaves. If you try to pull it out again and again while it emits light, the tree will die.
A little boy was squatting in front of the chicken coop. Inside the coop, the hens were incubating the eggs to hatch the chicks. As the days went by, the little boy grew nervous. One day, while waiting for the chick to come out, the little boy stole the egg from the hen. He even broke the egg. The little boy who thought a chick would come out of the egg was startled. It was because the chick who had not yet taken shape was dead inside the egg.
Therefore, you must become a person who knows how to wait for God's grace and blessings that flow slowly. You must have a very sensitive spirituality and deep spirituality to feel the grace and blessings of God flowing slowly.
3. Even if it seems to flow slowly, this is the fastest way to success.
God has chosen to slowly grant most of the grace and blessings that He gives to humans. God uses the method of slowly working out human growth and human salvation. Therefore, if you try to do this in a hurry, you will deviate from God's will and method. So they evade the law, and they practice lawlessness with excessive greed. May you rejoice in God's grace and blessings like the slowly flowing waters of Shiloah. And you have to be patient and wait.
It is said that the first Korean language foreigners learn is “quickly, quickly”. You'll learn this phrase quickly because you shout "quick, go fast" when you go to a restaurant or get into a car. The impatience to do anything hastily is on the board. However, the problem is that we are trying to make our religious life hastily like this.
Like the slow-flowing waters of Shiloah, God protects them in a secret and secret way. He gives grace and blessings very slowly, so slowly that sometimes I can't even feel it. However, if you don't believe in God's help and grace that comes slowly like this, and if you don't believe in what is faster and depend on something else, you end up being eaten up by it.
Although the water of Shiloah seems to flow slowly, to the people in the city of Jerusalem, it was the water of life. God's grace and blessings are like slow flowing waters of Shiloah, but I hope you believe that only God's grace and blessings are true.
(Sunday service sermon on July 11)