Water

Let me start by saying the Heath Ledger died yesterday; an apparent victim of an overdose of sleeping pills. His family is saying that it was accidental; the autopsy was "inconclusive," which I assume means that they have determined that, yes, he died of an overdose of sleeping pills, but there is no compelling evidence that it was accidental or that it was intentional. Forensic medicine really has no definitive way of determining a person's state of mind at the time of death once they are dead. In any case, my condolences to his family, friends, and fans. I have a son very close to Heath Ledger's age; I can't imagine what it would feel like to lose my son, and I won't pretend to know what Heath's family is going through.
That has nothing to so with the rest of this post, I just felt that it was important to say. I don't usually mention deaths in my blog, but this was a young man who had a lot going for him; had a lot of reason to live. Someone whose family had every reason to expect that he would live a long time.

Water is mentioned prominently several times in the Bible. In Genesis, water is one of the first things mentioned (after chaos); in fact, it doesn't specifically mention that water was created, even though it had to have been. Still in Genesis, God used water to seperate Noah and the animals from the corruption that had crept into His creation. Apostle Peter wrote about Noah being saved by the water, although that's a little different perspective: We usually think of the ark saving Noah from the water. Peter is making the point that the water saved Noah from sin. God also used water to save Moses, as a baby, and his name reflects that. When Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt, God used water to destroy Pharaoh's army, and to seperate the Israelites from the Egyptians. In the Law, over and over it makes reference to washing in water as part of a purification process. When the children of Israel finally reached the Promised Land, they had to pass through the waters of the Jordan river to get there; if you look on a map, you will see that it is very easy to get from the Red Sea to Israel without crossing the Jordan (it's really just a question of heading West while still South of the Dead Sea instead of North of the Dead Sea). God purposely led the Israelites that way, which suggests that He had a purpose from them going through the water (even though none of them got wet). Just to further demonstrate His power? Maybe, since only two of the Israelites had personnally observed the parting of the Red Sea, but it seems more likely (IMHO) that it symbolized a seperation between their lives in the wilderness and their lives in the Promised Land. In the book of Judges, God used water, in the form of dew, to show Gideon that He was going to use Gideon to deliver Israel, and He used water to test Gideon's army; only those who passed the test were allowed to fight the Midianites. God used water to revive Samson after he killed the thousand Phillistines. There are, of course, many examples of water being used to cleanse, or purify, or save in the Old Testamant. In many cases, the use of water was largely symbolic: I made reference earlier to God having Israel cross the Jordan river to get into the Promised Land, even though he could have directed them the other way around the Dead Sea and arrived at the same place, also there are references to lepers being cleansed of their disease just by washing in water. Does this mean that the cure for leprosy is simply taking a bath? Of course not, not any more than looking at a brass serpent can replace anti-venom. What we are looking at is examples of faith in operation. God said do this, people did it, and they were healed. It isn't that washing in water cures leprosy, but when people did it, in faith, believing that God would heal them, then they were no longer lepers. Water didn't heal them, but they wouldn't have been healed without the water. As I said, the use of water was symbolic, it was the obedience, through faith, that did the healing. It's easy to rationalize that, since the use of water was symbolic, that the water is then unnecessary. That simply isn't true. God commanded the water, and God does the healing. God could have chosen to heal without a symbol, but He didn't. He could have chosen a different symbol, but He chose water. Water is a good symbol; don't argue with God.