With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.
Isaiah 12:3
The Christian life is one of joy. There ought to be no one happier than the man who realizes both the full depths of his sin and the marvelous mercies of God. Our happiness is not based on health, wealth, safety, security, political stability, or any other such thing. We know that everything in this world is temporary and offers at best slight comfort or a distraction from the troubles around us. But Christians have been given something greater than this world.
Our joy is rooted in the source of our salvation. It is the Lord that brings us delight. Thus the Psalmist says in Psalm 32:11, Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!
In the Bible we find several places where water is an image of salvation. Here, the people of God are to find their water in the wells of salvation, an image of God’s lasting salvation of his people. Those waters never go dry and the water is rich and refreshing.
In John 4 we find another metaphor. Jesus, speaking to a woman at a well in Samaria, says to her, whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty forever. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. Jesus teaches us that the well of salvation is not reached through works or rituals or any other such thing. The water is found in Christ and once we have drunk of him he puts living streams in us. There are things we do to better enjoy and make use of that water, things like prayer, time in Scripture, fellowship with believers, and obedience to Christ, but the water remains sure and constant. We do not have to go on pilgrimage to find the well. Drawing water does not require a knowledge of Greek or Hebrew. The spring of God’s saving grace is even now flowing into our hearts.
Rejoice, Christian! The Lord has saved you and made you his own and even now his living water is in your life. So draw water from the well, drink deeply, and find your refreshment in God.
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The metaphor of the well and water is very appropriate for salvation, especially since in Palestine water is the very essence of life, and a precious commodity. Water does, in fact, represent security, health, safety, wealth, etc, so I believe the author makes a somewhat false distinction between spiritual and physical, since in both the OT and NT salvation is both. The key is not God versus physical concerns, but that God is the source of all life, spiritual and physical. As a pastor and NT scholar, I also am concerned about the author’s disdain for ritual, for the act of seeking such as pilgrimmage, and especially his swipe at study of the Bible in the original languages. People may not need to know these languages, but they could not read their Bible without the efforrts of those who do. And finally, the author, obviously a joyous Christian, makes the mistake of confusing joy with happiness. Joy is more than an emotion; it is a state of being. Happiness is ephemeral: even Christians experience unhappiness, due to the sorrows that come upon us all. This does not rob them of the joy of God’s sustaining presence, but that is not the same as happiness. Too often Christians become even more discouraged when they are told that their hurts should not be felt or shown, because it shows a lack of faith or trust in God. God weeps with those who weep: not even God is happy all the time.