Daily Manna, Year Two · Day 262 · September 19
Whosoever Will
“And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.”
Who is doing the inviting at the end of the Bible? There are four moves in one verse. And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.
The first Come is spoken by the Spirit and the church together. The second is handed to anybody who hears the first, so the invited becomes an inviter. The third names a condition anyone can meet by being honest, thirst. The fourth removes even that. Isaiah had run the same auction in reverse, calling for buyers with no money: ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat. Jesus shouted it over a crowd at a feast: if any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.
Note what the second clause costs you. Let him that heareth say, Come. The sentence has no category for a person who takes the water and never passes the cup. It was built to travel outward through the people who accepted it, which is the only reason it reached you.
Six lines above that invitation the same page says something else in the same voice. Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand. He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still. Then, further down, for without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters. The book saying whosoever will also says the time is at hand, and describes people who stayed outside. Take the invitation as the same kind of fact as the clock.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 262 is Barns Filled with Plenty (Proverbs 3:10).