Prayer Fuel

WATER

The whole of Egypt, particularly the Sinai and Red Sea region, is facing water shortages due to increasing populations, industrialisation and agricultural demands.

“The poor and needy search for water, but there is none;

their tongues are parched with thirst.

But I the LORD will answer them;

I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.

I will make rivers flow on barren heights, and springs within the valleys.

I will turn the desert into pools of water,

and the parched ground into springs.

I will put in the desert the cedar and the acacia, the myrtle and the olive. I will set junipers in the wasteland, the fir and the cypress together,

so that people may see and know, may consider and understand,

that the hand of the LORD has done this,

that the Holy One of Israel has created it.

Isaiah 41:17-20

South Sinai receives up to 25mm from around eight days of rain a year. There are no rivers. The water flows rapidly through wadis draining into rock and small oasis or into the sea. Water from the Nile is pumped to the larger cities in Northern Sinai.

Lower salinity water is used for agriculture and domestic purposes. Brackish water can be used for desalination by reverse osmosis or electrodialysis.

Traditionally people have been using underground, rather than rainwater. Recently a British charity has been working effectively with the Bedouin to build small dams to catch water runoff from the mountains around St. Catherine’s. In the last couple of years, the government has also engineered dams and artificial lakes around, Taba, Neweiba and Sharm El Sheik.

Moses did not have charities or governments to help him find water for the 600,000 men plus the women and children on their trek across the Sinai. Yet the Lord showed Moses how to make the bitter waters sweet at Marah,^[1] provide water from springs at Elim,^[2] and bring water from a rock at Rephidim.^[3] Besides providing physical water in the Sinai desert, Paul reminds the Church at Corinth that the children of Israel ‘drank from the same spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.’^[4]

On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood up and said in a loud voice,

‘’If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.’’

By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believe in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.

Reflection

What might the Palestinians do with the Sinai if they came here?

What might the Israelites do with the Sinai if they managed it?

Prayer

Heavenly Father we thank and praise you for the government and non-government workers who have the motivation and ability to monitor, protect and provide clean fresh water for the communities in the Sinai. No one can live here without water.

Father, we especially thank and praise you with all our hearts for the living waters of the Spirit available for everyone who is thirsty.

We pray today for all who are thirsty for purpose, meaning and hope.

We pray for those who thirst for justice

We pray for those who thirst for drugs and alcohol

We pray for those who thirst for the next fix from their phones

We pray for those who thirst for power

We pray for those who thirst for identity and significance

We pray for those who thirst for peace and rest

May they hear of your glory

May they hear for your suffering and death for the sins of the world

May they hear of your glorious resurrection

May they hear of your assertion to the right hand of the Father

May they hear that you have atoned for their sin

May they hear that they can live in your favour and presence forever

May the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, resonate with their spirits that you are the One and Only sent from the Father, and that they have become children of God in your Name.