Amos 8:11

“not a famine for bread or a thirst for water, but rather for hearing the words of the Lord.”  Amos 8:11

Thirst – When I was growing up in the foothills of the Cascades outside Seattle, I often went swimming in the frigid waters of Lake Sammamish.  It’s a good Indian name.  The lake was deep.  Even in the hottest days of summer, only the top three feet of the lake was warm.  Diving into the water was an instant shock to the system.  In those days, you could see the bottom at twenty feet.  Today, homes crowd the shoreline, the lake is much warmer and the water is always murky.  Civilization has despoiled creation, again.

The prophet Amos knew that the spiritual pollution of this world would not be erased by any human efforts.  Bread and water alone will not save men.  He exhorted us to look into the depths of God.  He wanted us to draw from those cold, clean recesses of God’s word and discover that some things have never been polluted by the crowded shorelines of our lives.

The Hebrew word for thirst is tsama, almost like the sound of my childhood lake.  And just like that lake, diving below the surface of God’s word will sometimes be a shock to the system.  We will confront a reality that we didn’t expect.  While the top few feet seem quite comfortable, we can feel the cold current just below.  It is the current of purity.  It is the current where the water is still clear but challenging.  Do you want to know God?  Then you must hold your breath and dive in, past all the warm, comfortable waters that you are used to.  You must seek the depths where the body tingles with the chill and the mind snaps to attention and suddenly, you can see clearly.  The God of the depths is not so far away.  Just down there, below the surface.

Are you floating or diving?