Water is Life!
“Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb.” — Revelation 22:1
Throughout the New Testament, water is often used to illustrate the life-giving nature of Christ. The Old Testament, too, is filled with stories of the patriarchs in which water plays a central role. Water is life—a phrase we have all heard.
From the earliest civilizations, the ingenuity and engineering skill devoted to finding, transporting, storing, and protecting water is truly astonishing. Ancient peoples developed remarkably sophisticated systems of canals, wells, cisterns, tunnels, and aqueducts to bring water where it was needed. Their understanding of gravity, elevation, water flow, and construction is a remarkable testimony to the creativity and intelligence God has given humanity.
The Titus Tunnel - built in antiquity by the Roman’s to manage water flowing out of the city of Selucia Perea down to the Mediterranean Sea (Turkiye)
When traveling through ancient places, it is always awe-inspiring to encounter the remains of elevated aqueducts, with their graceful, beautifully proportioned arches stretching across the landscape. Most aqueducts actually ran underground, but it is the surviving above-ground sections that capture our imagination.
And then there are the great cisterns—massive structures built to collect and preserve precious water. Standing inside one, it is hard not to wonder: How did people so many centuries ago, without modern power tools and computers, understand the mathematics and engineering necessary to accomplish this?
Perhaps one answer is found in Psalm 8: “What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? … You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet.” — Psalm 8:4–5
Next week, we are traveling to eastern Türkiye, where we hope to see one of the most remarkable examples of ancient hydraulic engineering: the Menua Canal, built in the 8th century BC by Menua, king of the Urartian Kingdom around Lake Van.
The Urartians are associated with the biblical Ararat region mentioned in Genesis 8:4, Jeremiah 51:27, and 2 Kings 19:37. The Menua Canal is an extraordinary achievement—constructed more than 2,700 years ago and still carrying water today. Along its course are numerous cuneiform inscriptions commemorating its construction.
There is something deeply fascinating about seeing these ancient systems firsthand. They remind us not only of the ingenuity of the people who built them, but also of how fundamental water has always been to human life—and why Scripture so often uses water as a picture of God's provision and life-giving grace.
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