The Rivers and the Sea

“All the rivers flow into the sea,
Yet the sea is not full.
To the place where the rivers flow,
There they flow again.”  Ecclesiastes 1:7

As the ancients observed the mighty Nile and Euphrates and other great rivers flowing into the ocean, they could not help but wonder why the sea level never rose. They knew that many of the waters in the rivers came from rainfall, especially during the floods, but they had only quaint notions, at best, as to where the rains originated.

Not until the days of modern science did men discover that rainfall actually comes from the oceans via evaporation and atmospheric transportation. But the Bible writers somehow seemed to know about the true nature of the hydrologic cycle thousands of years in advance of modern science. The rivers come from the same place to which they return - that is, the sea.

But how do the waters of the sea ever rise into the sky? “For He draws up the drops of water, they distill rain from the mist, which the clouds pour down, they drip upon man abundantly” (Job 36:27-28). Water droplets are made very small by the process of evaporation so they can be carried aloft by the up-rushing air forces over warm waters - later they “drip upon man abundantly.”

There are other references in Scripture to different phases of this great hydrologic cycle, but one of the most significant is Isaiah 55:10-11: “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there without watering the earth and making it bear and sprout, and furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; it will not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.”

The waters return to the skies only after doing their good work on the lands. Just so, the life-giving Word of God returns to Him, not void, but full of the spiritual fruit for which He sent it.