The November 23, 2003 edition of the Denver Post had as its front page headline story a report on the growing global problem of finding safe drinking water. The article, which was titled, "Dying for clean water" went onto cover two more full pages of the paper. In the report it was stated that an estimated 1.1 billion people, nearly a fifth of humanity, lack safe water. Two million children a year die from diseases linked to bad water.
Quoting further from this article we read, "We could have water wars - not riots, I mean wars - between countries over control of river systems," said Andrew Natsios, chief of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)...In Iraq this year, a sudden collapse of water-supply networks enraged Iraqis as U.S. troops, who had bottled water, occupied their communities. In India, a dispute over water allocations had led to interstate rioting. In China, an estimated 100 million peasants unable to irrigate crops converge on ill-equipped cities. In the Middle East, a behind-the-scenes struggle for water strains efforts to broker Israeli-Palestinian peace.
Water shortages also are expected to spur migration from water-poor regions to Europe and the United States, where jobs and water are plentiful.
Many experts believe that a concerted effort to address global water supply and sanitation should be a priority for the United States and other wealthy countries...Yet the governments and corporations that could help...are withdrawing from the challenge instead.
Government water aid from 21 of the richest countries to poor countries decreased by 18 percent between 1997 and 2001, according to data compiled by the Organization of economic Cooperation and Development, an international group based in Paris...Engineering, construction and utility firms aren't motivated. As the poor world gets poorer, the potential for profit diminishes...The United Nations, which declared the 1980s "The Decade of Water," again has put water at the top of its global agenda. After last year's U.N. World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa, U.N. leaders set a goal to halve the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water and sanitation by 2015.
Yet"the water situation worldwide is distressing and not improving noticeably," said Jack Hoffbuhr, president of the Denver-based American Water Works association, a leading group of water professionals."
Soon the world will be vacated of all believers in Jesus Christ at the event commonly referred to as the Rapture of the Church. One can read of this glorious moment in such Bible passages as I Corinthians 15:50-55, I Thessalonians 4:13-18 & Chapter 14:1-2 of the Gospel of John.
At some point after this departure of the Church to Heaven and the prophesied rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem, two mighty prophets of God will be sent forth to prophesy in Israel for 3 ½ years. They will be given miraculous authority by the sovereign will of Almighty God.
Two unique demonstrations of God's favor upon their ministries will bring the Old Testament Prophets, Moses and Elijah to the minds of the Jews. Two prophets whom they expect to return to the earth before the arrival of their Messiah. These two prophets will turn the waters to blood and shut up the heavens from raining during their 3 ½ years of ministry. Much in the same fashion that Moses turned the water to blood in Exodus and Elijah stopped the rain in Kings.
The ministry of the two prophets can be found in Chapter 11 of the Book of Revelation. Verse 10 of this chapter reveals that the effects of the judgments they call forth from God will not be limited to the middle East, but will have an impact over the entire earth. But be assured, God will not allow Israel to go without water. Israel will be provided with life-giving water in its time of need from fountains in the valleys to pools in the wilderness according to the Lord's words found in Isaiah 41:17-18.
Quoting we read, "When the poor and needy seek water and there is none, and their tongues fail for thirst, I the Lord, will hear them; I , the God of Israel, will not forsake them. I will open rivers in desolate heights, and fountains in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water and the dry land springs of water."
Books could be written about the elemental, miraculous and spiritual references to water found in the Bible. In these last days all 3 of these biblical assuages will come together in an awesome convergence and climax.
At the same time that Jesus Christ is preparing to remove the indwelling, living water of His Spirit-filled Church (see Jn. 7:37-39 & I Thess. 2:6-7), so too is He preparing the removal of the physical water. In the place of water men will be given blood to drink (see Rev. 16:4-6). The consequence for the world's rejection of the Lord's living water and the unrestrained shedding of the blood of the saints during the Tribulation will be horrific beyond words.
The Word of God has much to say abut the future of the world's water supply and it goes far beyond the devastating outlook of the scientists who back in 1977 foresaw a worldwide desert in the not too distant future.
From the Denver Post article of Feb. 22, ‘87 titled, "Bid to end ‘harvest of dust' fails' we read the following: "A 10-year United Nations; effort to halt the spread of the world's deserts has failed to achieve its goals...Noel Brown, a director of the U.N. Environment Program, says that...deserts actually cover a larger area today than they did in 1977, when 94 nations unanimously declared war on the world's deserts. Brown told the American association for the advancement of Science that lack of progress over the past decade...makes the U.N. goal of halting worldwide desertification by the year 2000 "unrealistic."
From the Dec. 3, ‘98 Colorado Springs Gazette in an article which headlined, "Millions at risk of starvation from expanding deserts" we were given this sobering update, "More than 250 million people face hunger and poverty as a result of expanding deserts around the world according to U.N. figures...For years, scientists have warned of the drying of arable lands on the edge of existing deserts, including Africa's Sahara and China's Gobi. Deforestation, over cultivation and drought mean each year deserts expand and engulf once arable land. Leading scientists...say evidence of the Sahara's expansion confirms their earlier predictions."
Human beings can live only a matter of days without water. The only element deprivation which would provoke a quicker reaction of desperation from a nation would be to cut off its air.
Jesus Christ promised believers of faith in Luke 12:28-30 that God will provide water to them in their hour of need.
Political analysts have maintained that the most violent wars in history will soon be fought, not over oil, but for water. As the world is now witnessing the disputes between Israel and her neighbors are not only over land, but more importantly, water.
The Sea of Galilee, the lake where Jesus walked on water, has become so depleted by pumping that it is in danger of becoming salinated. Aquifers, Israel's only other main source of water, are being tapped at a far greater rate than is recommended by geologists and engineers. Further tensions have arisen between Israel and its neighbors because water authorities ration only a small fraction of the country's reserves to the Palestinian territories. Sharp cuts in water supplies from Israel to the Palestinian Authority during times of drought are said to be causing even further difficulties in the nearly halted peace efforts.
The water situation in the Middle East was emphasized in a May 25, ‘01 Jerusalem Post article titled, "The waters of Jordan."
We quote, "Israel continues to provide 50 million cubic meters of water a year to Jordan, despite the fact that its obligation according to the 1997 Akaba Agreement expired in May 1999, and despite its own desperate deficit of 400 million cu.m. of water a year. Jordan has been drawing millions of cubic meters of water beyond the permitted allotment."
The Holy Bible warns in Ch. 16:3-4 of the Book of Revelation what will transpire with the earth's water supply during the coming days when kingdoms will arise against kingdoms."
Quoting we read, "Then the second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it became blood as of a dead man; and every living creature in the sea died. Then the third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and springs of water, and they became blood."
The human mind is easily overwhelmed when attempting to comprehend the magnitude of this judgement. Some day men will stand on the banks of the seas and lakes and for as far as the eye can behold, they will find the shores covered with the rotting remains of the creatures of the sea. Creatures from the breath and the depths of the deep will be found floating in tides of blood as swarms of flies darken the sky.
God's Word continues on to tell us that the sun will be so hot during those days that men will curse God because of the intense heat (Rev. 16:9). The stench from these combined judgments of death, heat and putrid waters will mercilessly drift across the lands. A stench so foul that it will surpass the wretched smell of an unkempt slaughter house in the tropics.
So then, why has God told us about these things to come? First we should ask, "Why do the scientists tell us their terrible predictions?" Scientists urgently present dire facts with the hope of being able to avoid or remedy a situation or else to prepare for the consequences.
There is a major difference though between God's Word and the scientists'. The scientists can only take educated guesses about the dreadful outlook for the future and confess that they are helpless. While God knows the future and offers true hope now and forever for those who trust in His salvation.
What is the substance of this hope should be the question most burning in every person's heart. It is the living water that is offered freely to all this day, to all who will believe that Jesus Christ is the Lord and Savior who shed His blood on the cross for sinners.
If you choose eternal life through the Son of God then we encourage you to read in Revelation 21 & 22 what is in store for you as you drink of the water from the River of Life. Those who drink of this water will never thirst again.
The truth is that God loves us and sent His Son to die on the cross as an atoning blood sacrifice for our sins so that we should not perish but have eternal life. Motives of fear or greed have no place when you have truly opened your heart to Him and received the peace of His love by His Spirit.