The beast of the field shall honor me, the jackals and the ostriches: because I give waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen.
Read Chapter 43
Ambrose of Milan
AD 397
“Although he took a body, although he became man to redeem humanity and recall it from death, still, being God, he came to earth in an unusual way so that, as he had said, ‘Behold, I make all things new,’ he might thus be born from the womb of an immaculate virgin, and be believed to be, as it is written, ‘God with us.’ ” - "Letter 44"
The Word says, “Look, I am doing something new, which no eye has seen, no ear heard, no human heart felt.” These are to be seen, heard and grasped by a new eye, a new hearing and a new heart when the Lord’s disciples speak, listen and act in the Spirit. - "Stromateis 2.4.15.3"
But as often as water is named alone in the holy Scriptures, baptism is referred to, as we see intimated in Isaiah: “Remember not,” says he, “the former things, and consider not the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing.…” There God foretold by the prophet that among the nations, in places that previously had been dry, rivers should afterwards flow plenteously and should provide water for the elected people of God, that is, for those who were made children of God by the generation of baptism. Moreover, it is again predicted and foretold before, that the Jews, if they should thirst and seek after Christ, should drink with us, that is, should attain the grace of baptism. “If they shall thirst,” he says, “he shall lead them through the deserts, shall bring forth water for them out of the rock. The rock shall be cloven, and the water shall flow, and my people shall drink,” which is fulfilled in the Gospel, when Christ, who is the Rock, is cloven by a stroke of the spear in his passi...
Chosen. We know not that rivers were found in Arabia. But the people were equally favoured. Christ facilitates the road to heaven by his example and graces, while the most savage tempers are changed in baptism.
For of this number I find figurative hints up and down the Creator’s dispensation in the twelve streams of Elim. … Now the same number of apostles was thus portended, as if they were to be fountains and rivers that should water the Gentile world, which was formerly dry and destitute of knowledge, as he says by Isaiah, “I will put streams in the unwatered ground.” - "Against Marcion 4.13"
