The fountain

“Should your springs be scattered abroad, streams of water in the streets?”
-Proverbs 5:16

I’ve met a lot of people in my time that say that Christianity is stifling, that it’s oppressive. “The rules of the Bible just ruin our fun,” they might say. Others have told me that they will think about God when they are older, but now they just want to have fun.

And let’s be honest, this is one of the main reasons people avoid God. They see Him as sort of this cosmic principal just waiting to call you into His office to punish you for some minor infraction.

But that’s not really true. And this is exactly why I love this image so much. If you take a look at the surrounding verses here, you’ll see that Solomon is advising his sons to not stray from their wives, to not chase after sex outside that relationship. Sex is metaphorically seen in this section as water, and Solomon tells us to get water from our own well.

Now we’re going to see the other option, and he has in mind here a spring that flows from the ground. Think of a fountain. What happens if the water from that fountain just hits the dirty ground and flowed off whichever way gravity took it? It wouldn’t be very clean. You definitely wouldn’t want to drink any of it. But what if the waters were contained into a pool?

Sometimes it is better to be constrained. Sometimes it is better to have boundaries. Sometimes freedom isn’t all its cracked up to be. Sex is one of those areas. Sex was designed as a joining of two people, of love and sacrifice, under the blessing and care of our Lord. When we turn it into just something to do on Saturday night (with whomever is willing), we’ve lost that. The water from the spring is just muddying up the area. But in the confines of a godly marriage, it becomes something deeper and more satisfying.

Maybe we lose some of that image in the way we go about marriage. We go into a marriage expecting the other person to satisfy is in every way, but not really willing to change at all for the other person. It so often becomes a selfish act rather than a loving one. When the other person fails to satisfy, we go looking for that satisfaction elsewhere – the internet, a club, another woman. The borders of the fountain become cracked, and the water starts spilling out. It sounds like a good idea at first. After all, that little pool was so confining!

But a marriage is supposed to be a picture of Christ’s love for his Church. It is something we do not deserve, but is a mercy – a gift that is so wonderful, that it could only have come from God. Jesus so loved us that He came to earth to die for us, even while we were still in sin and rebelling against Him. Such giving love and devotion is that. It is He who purifies us in His Blood and then clothes us in His righteousness. He keeps us for eternity and never betrays us.

It is only through Him that we could ever hope to be like that. It’s not something we can force ourselves to do, because it is a divine love that comes from God. Repent and believe in His sacrifice, and by His Spirit He will begin to work on you.

Has your spring been spilling out into the streets? Repent and believe, and let Him build that fountain for you.