And Peter: Chapter 5 - The Upper and the Nether Springs
By J. Wilbur Chapman
"And he gave her the upper springs and the nether springs" (Joshua 15:19).
Half-way between Hebron and Beersheba there once stood the ancient city of Debir. It was the city of brains and books, and the center of intellectual culture of the olden days. At the same point now may be seen a rude assemblage of stone hovels, many of which are half standing, but the others are entirely broken down.
One of the names given to this city, being translated, means the City of Books, or of learning -- what Athens was to Greece, the city of Debir was to Southern Palestine. It was supposed that all the records of antiquity of the nation were stored there. It was, indeed, a famous place.
Caleb, the son of Hezron, of the tribe of Judah, was very anxious to secure possession of the city. It is this fact which gives rise to the text. His name is very familiar to us. He was one of the twelve spies sent by Moses over into Canaan, and he and Joshua were the only two born in Egypt who were given the privilege of entering Canaan, with the possible exception of the Levites, and that, not only because they had brought a truthful report of the land they had explored, but were also willing to take God at His word; and put all their trust in Him.
Forty-five years after, when the wanderings were over, Caleb applied to Joshua for the share of the land which had been promised him, and among other portions there was granted to him Debir the city of learning. It was still, however, the stronghold of the giants of Canaan, and must be captured to be possessed.
Caleb then made the proposition that he would give his daughter Achsah in marriage to any one who was able to take the city, and one Othniel, who had been much of a warrior, for he had delivered the children of Israel from the King of Mesopotamia, marched against Debir. After a great struggle the gates were broken down, the giants were captured or driven away, and the City of Books lay at the feet of the conqueror. When the victory was won, Caleb was as good as his word, and his daughter was given in marriage to the soldier. With her he also gave as art inheritance, a peculiar piece of property, known as "The South Land," valuable for some reasons, but it was mountainous and sloped southward toward the deserts of Arabia, the hot winds of which again and again swept across it. Before Achsah left her father's house, she besought him for his blessing. The south land was not enough, she would also have springs of water; and Caleb responded at once, and gave her more than she had asked: for we read in the text: "He gave her the upper springs and the nether springs." From an exceedingly fertile territory the land was chosen. It contained no less than fourteen springs. The valley was beautiful, for look which way you would, you could see them gushing forth. Their presence in the field meant not only a blessing for the field in which they were found, but for all the country around them.
I find in this beautiful story a good illustration of all that we receive from our Father.
All that has been bestowed upon us is associated with victory, and that was won by Him whose name was called in the prophets the Conqueror. It was for Him a fierce struggle, but He came off more than conqueror. Then, after that, He was called the bridegroom of the church, which is to be His bride, and with Him we have received not only the gift of salvation, but in Him we are also blessed with all spiritual blessings. Paul gives us this when he writes to the Ephesians, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus."
I. God starts His children in this world as Caleb started his daughter, with an inheritance. No one is so poor but God has given him something.
Some have taken the inheritance and treated it as the man with the five talents, they have gained other five also; others like the man with the one talent, have wrapped it in a napkin, and so they leave the world as poor as when they entered it. God has been very good to us. He has given us this world with all its beauty, its green pastures, its still waters, its rivers and its seas, its starry canopy stretching out above. The world is filled with forces of all kinds, but man has seemed to gain control over them, until today he stands himself like a conqueror in the midst of them all.
But the inheritance is better than that. He has given us all the faculties of mind and all the powers of body. The mind, the heart, the hands, the feet -- no one is sent into the world a pauper. God has thus placed a fortune in the grasp of every child of His. It is such a great thing to have a mind, for with it man is able to search the deep things of God and really take hold of the thought of the Eternal. The science of geometry was worked out from a few simple principles by Euclid and Archimedes, by pure reasoning out of their minds; and on the sands of the floor of the room where they were studying Archimedes traced the curves in which, according to science, the heavenly bodies must move. And long after, when the telescope was invented, the Galileos and the Newtons beheld with reverent wonder that the heavenly bodies were sweeping along in the same curves described so long ago by the great Mathematician. It is indeed a wonderful thing to have a mind.
But if these things which I have mentioned as our natural inheritance are all what we possess, then, with the success that may be gained by means of them, we may still be of all men the most miserable. For they are like the south land of Achsah, they stretch off toward the deserts of sorrow and care and darkness, and the hot winds of despair come sweeping past us again and again. The most miserable people in the world, sooner or later, are those who have just the world and nothing else. Men are born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward, and this south land of the world is a poor portion. It is beautiful; it is the handiwork of God. But we must have more than that if the soul be satisfied. "The stars are beautiful, but they pour no light into the midnight of a troubled soul. The flowers are sweet, but they pour no balm into the wounded heart." There are times when the hungry, thirsty, fevered soul must have what the natural inheritance can not give, and God has made provision for that.
Man sighs with groanings which can not be uttered, for the Infinite. If you put a seashell to your ear, you will find in it reminiscences of its original home, the roar of the sea, the wail of the wind, the groan of the dying wave, all discernible therein. It has the witness in itself that it belongs to the mighty deep. And if you listen attentively to your own heart, you will find constant proofs of its destined abode. The sighs, the yearnings, the dreams, the tears, the sadness, the music, all testify that we are made for God, and that only God can satisfy our wants. And God knew this, and so, as well as giving us the south land, He has also given us the springs of water from which we may drink and be satisfied. God pity the marl who has failed to accept the proffered gift.
II. The springs of water were given to Achsah because of her marriage with Othniel, and they are a perfect illustration of that which comes to us because of our union with the Son of God. The springs were a free gift, and so is the nether spring of the gospel, which has come to us. "For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God." And never a spring bursting from the plains of Gerar, or from the mountains of Lebanon, or from the valleys of Canaan, perform such a mission as this nether spring of the gospel which is the gift of our God.
We have seen the fields in the time of a drought looking parched and apparently dead and worthless, and then suddenly, almost in the night, the meadows were clothed with green, and the grain lifted up its head rejoicing, all because the rain had fallen. But in this nether spring of the gospel there is a more marvelous power than that he who comes to drink of its waters goes away with new life, and his whole nature is changed. The ancients believed in the existence of a spring in which, if a person bathed, he would renew his youth and live forever. We have found that spring today in the text, for "The gift of God is eternal life." "The Bible is all a-sparkle with wells and springs, rivers and seas. They toss up their brightness from almost every chapter. And water is many times the type or figure of that which enlivens, beautifies, and gives new life." Solomon, refreshed by the story of heaven, exclaims, "As cold water to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country." Isaiah, speaking of the blessedness of the children of God, writes, "They shall spring as willows from the watercourses." The prophet, glowing with the thought of the millennium, says, "Streams shall break forth from the desert."
The mission of water in this world is to bless and satisfy, refresh and help. "But all the waters that ever leaped in the torrents, or foamed in the cascade, or fell in the summer shower, or hung in the morning dew, have given no such comfort to the troubled heart, no such rest and refreshment to the sin-sick soul, as that which may be drawn by you and by me from the nether spring of the gospel."
It is a good type or illustration of the gospel because of its brightness. Yet here it fails of giving us perfect description or idea, for where can you find such brightness as gleams in this nether spring?
"David, unable to put it into words, plays it on his harp. Christopher Wren, unable to put it into language, springs it in the arches of St. Paul's. Bunyan, failing to present it in ordinary story, put it in the form of allegory, which lives on today with constantly increasing power. Handel, with ordinary music unable to reach the height and sound the depth of the theme, thrills us with his oratorio." O, the gladness, the brightness, the joy unutterable in that life which is hid with Christ in God! And this I may drink in as I come to the nether springs.
There is no life on earth so happy as the Christian's. Take the humblest child of God you know, and why shouldn't he be happy? According to the Bible, he is all the time under the shadow of God's wings. If he walks, the angels bear him up; if he sleeps they let down ladders from the skies, up and down which the angels go to and fro, bringing down blessings of God, and bearing away his heavy burdens. Why, to get within the door of the kingdom, to have a place, not the nearest, but on the very outer circle, to bear the lowest title of all the redeemed, to be the weakest child of all the family of God, to be the dimmest jewel in His crown of rejoicing, to be the least, yea, less than least of all the saints is a hope which sets the heart a-singing. All this I find and more, a thousand times more, as I stoop and drink at the nether springs.
Water is also like the gospel in its power to refresh. I remember the River Jordan the day when Naaman came to its banks with his leprosy. I see him going down into its waters, once, twice, three times, and then on until he had, according to the instructions of the servant of God, bathed seven times, and then, marvelous change! his flesh became as it were the flesh of a little child.
But here is a greater change for the sinful soul who will come to the nether spring. Here came Newton, and left behind him his sins which were as scarlet. Here came Bunyan, cursing with every step until lewd people rebuked him, and he went away, so changed that he gave to the world the book that stands in the estimation of some, next to the Bible for sweetness and power. Here came Magdalen and the Philippian jailor, Zacchaeus, and the poor trembling thief on the cross, and they drank of the waters and stand today in the company of the redeemed.
I stand by the side of the waters today, and with all the tenderness of a saved sinner, with all the assurance of a pardoned child of God, with all the alarm of a friend who sees his friends and neighbors going down to death, away from the Living Waters, I bid you come, come, come; "Whosoever will, let him come."
It is a marvelous spring of which I speak. I recall the fact that when the Master met the man who was blind from his birth, He anointed his eyes with clay and spittle and then told him to go wash in the pool of Siloam; and when he had washed, he came seeing. I imagine that first of all he saw the face of the Master Himself. This is the power of the nether spring of the gospel. The touch of its waters will cause the scales to drop from our eyes, and we shall be able to see the wondrous things written in the Book of God, and not only so, but we shall have given unto us the vision of the face of the Master Himself. It is not strange that we are unable, in our sinful condition, to see things as they are in the kingdom of God, for we are blind. But if you will only come with your blindness to the nether spring, you shall go away rejoicing. It is like the pool of Bethesda. it has healing power, and we are not only saved from the guilt of sin, but we may likewise be saved from its power.
