CRUCIAL ASPECTS OF GOD’S ECONOMY
In this record of Jeremiah’s speaking to Jehovah and Jehovah’s speaking to Jeremiah, we see some crucial aspects of God’s economy.
Nourished with the Divine Supply
In 15:16 Jeremiah says to Jehovah, "Your words were found and I ate them, / And Your word became to me / The joy and rejoicing of my heart, / For I am called by Your name, O Jehovah, God of hosts." This indicates that the word of God is good for us to enjoy. God’s word makes our heart joyful.
What is crucial here is the revelation that God’s word is the divine supply as food to nourish us. Every kind of food has a nourishing element. God’s word, the divine supply, surely contains the element of nourishment. This nourishment is related to the divine dispensing, to God’s dispensing Himself into us. Through the word as our food, God is dispensing His riches into our inner being to nourish us that we may be constituted with His element.
Trees Planted by Water
Another aspect of God’s economy is revealed in 17:7 and 8. "Blessed is the man who trusts in Jehovah / And whose trust Jehovah is. / And he will be like a tree planted by water, / Which sends out its roots by a stream, / And will not be afraid when heat comes; / For its leaves remain flourishing, / And it will not be anxious in the year of drought / And will not cease to bear fruit." These verses indicate that we, the believers in Christ, are God’s planted trees. These verses also indicate that God is likened to water. God has planted us by Himself as the river of water. God is not only our food; He is also our drink, the water that goes along with the food. Our drinking of God as water is also a matter of His dispensing. As He dispenses Himself into us as water, God is supplying us with the rich element of His being that we may be constituted with His divinity. In this way, we human beings are constituted with the divine nature.
Enjoying the Fountain of Living Waters
Jeremiah 17:13 speaks of Jehovah as the fountain of living waters. God’s intention in His economy is to be the fountain, the source, of living waters to His chosen people for their enjoyment. Stubborn Israel offended God to the uttermost, even forsaking Him as such a fountain of living waters (2:13). God desires to be the fountain of living waters for us to drink that our thirst may be quenched and that we may be satisfied. According to chapter seventeen, eventually the one who trusts in the very God who nourishes us and who waters us will enjoy Him as the fountain of living waters.
The food, the water, the very God, and the fountain of living waters—all these are one. Moreover, these are basic points of the divine thought concerning the carrying out of God’s economy by His dispensing. As God accomplishes His economy by dispensing Himself into us, He is our food, our water, and our fountain of living waters. How marvelous it is that in a portion of the Word concerned with God’s chastisement of His sinful and evil people, we have such a full picture of God’s economy by His dispensing!
(Life-Study of Jeremiah and Lamentations, Chapter 17, by Witness Lee)
