Don't you say, 'There are yet four months until the harvest?' Behold, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and look at the fields, that they are white for harvest already.

 But the Jews had another way of using the word water. They often spoke of the thirst of the soul for God; and they often spoke of quenching that thirst with living water. Jesus was not using terms that were bound to be misunderstood; he was using terms that anyone with spiritual insight should have understood. In the Revelation that promise is: "To the thirsty I will give water without price from the fountain of the water of life" ( Revelation 21:6). The Lamb is to lead them to springs of living waters ( Revelation 7:17). The promise was that the chosen people would draw water with joy from the wells of salvation ( Isaiah 12:3). The Psalmist spoke of his soul being thirsty for the living God ( Psalms 42:1). God's promise was: "I will pour water on the thirsty land" ( Isaiah 44:3). The summons was that every one who was thirsty should come to the waters and freely drink ( Isaiah 55:1). Jeremiah's complaint was that the people had forsaken God who was the fountain of living waters and had hewed themselves out broken cisterns which could hold no water ( Jeremiah 2:13). Ezekiel had had his vision of the river of life ( Ezekiel 47:1-12). In the new world there would be a cleansing fountain opened ( Zechariah 13:1). The waters would go forth from Jerusalem ( Zechariah 14:8). 