If you ever watch any old Billy Graham Crusades, you’ll discover something startling. Even back in the 1950s, an era we now view through the lens of nostalgia, Graham was declaring how corrupt and in danger of God’s judgment the culture was.

But another thing you would see in those Crusades was that no matter the level of sin and opposition to the Gospel, no matter how dire things seemed, one thing never changed — there was always a hunger and thirst for God’s Good News.

Despite the corruption Graham saw, his stadiums were constantly filled with people desiring to hear words of hope.

Thousands of years before, Isaiah spoke in a similar context to a corrupt people who would be exiled from their God, but he prophesied of a day when the dry ground of spiritual emptiness would be watered, when those who were dying from thirst would be satisfied.

Perhaps it is comforting to know that some things never change. We live in a culture that is sinful and corrupt. But we also live in hope that, through Jesus Christ, God is even now restoring us to return to Him, that His Spirit can quench our thirsty souls.