The Wells of Salvation

“With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.”

Isaiah 12:3  

I've been surprised to discover that salvation is a theme of Isaiah.  I think of salvation as a New Testament concept, but in the beginning of chapter 12 the word is used three time including the image of the 'wells of salvation.'

The word for wells means a fountain, a spring, a well, or my personal favorite, a source of satisfaction.  The Old Testament if full of imagery related to wells, springs and fountains.    

-springs in the midst of valleys

-fountains of living water

-a fountain shall come forth

-fountain of life

In a desert land water is literally life.  In Bible times, water determined where you lived and how you travelled.  If the spring dried up, you moved because death came quickly without water.  Although I know that I need water to live, I take it for granted.  I rarely if ever feel an urgency about water, or my urgency is based solely on the thirst of the moment.  

These illustrations have lost some potency for us because we haven't experienced the thrill of water in the desert.  I've even lived in the desert where I ALWAYS travelled with water, but I still never had a time I couldn't get my hands on clean water for a few coins.  In this current age, we live disconnected from the spring that keeps us, our family and our livestock alive.  We have never lived with the dependence on a well for our physical salvation.

Do I live with this kind of dependence on the Lord? He IS the source of life, but just as I take for  granted the clean water flowing on command as I turn the faucet, do I also take salvation for granted? Do I go daily to the well to draw? Do I experience joy related to the well of salvation? I can relate to the satisfaction of a cold glass of water when I'm hot, tired and thirsty.  Where is my source of satisfaction when my spirit is tired and thirsty?  Do I remember the well?

A Cloud by Day

Then the Lord will create over the whole area of Mount Zion and over her assemblies a cloud by day, even smoke, and the brightness of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory will be a canopy. (Isaiah 4:5)

I think it’s hard for us to grasp the significance of the cloud and the fire described here.  I think first of the cloud and fire in Exodus, the signs the people had to follow so they always knew where to go.  I’ve sometimes wished for my own cloud or fire.  Could the Lord show me in such a clear, unmistakable way which direction to go?

I believe there’s another aspect to this cloud and fire that I miss because I’ve lived my entire life with immediate access to shelter and even air conditioning or heat as needed.  I’ve camped a couple of times where I’ve been cold for a few hours.  But even then if I was really desperate I could have crawled out of my tent, climbed into the vehicle a few feet away and cranked up the heat.

A couple of weeks ago, my family hiked over 5 miles in Palo Duro Canyon.  It was about 95 degrees that day. 

We cheered EVERY cloud that passed overhead! (There weren’t many.) We were just hiking for a few hours before heading back to our air conditioned car and an unlimited source of water, but we still stopped in every patch of shade and welcomed every shadow.

Israel is primarily a desert land, and for the people in this land a cloud is not just comfort but protection.  At night the temperature in the desert drops sharply, so fire is a necessary source of warmth as well as light to see and provides a measure of safety.  This cloud and fire aren’t just making the people more comfortable, they are a key to survival.

The Lord is reminding the people of something He repeats throughout scripture: I will be your shelter.  I will be your protection.  I will be your refuge from the storm. As true for us in our ‘storms’ and ‘deserts’ as it was for the people of Israel.

Stunted Shrub

“Cursed are those who put their trust in mere humans and turn their hearts away from the Lord. They are like stunted shrubs in the desert, with no hope for the future. They will live in the barren wilderness, on the salty flats where no one lives. But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their home and confidence. They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they go right on producing delicious fruit.” Jeremiah 17:5-8 New Living Translation

Stunted Shrub
Dry twigs snap at subtlest pressure;
Rootless bush tumbles.
MY strength, man’s strength, will suffice;
Disciple stumbles.

Fruitless, growthless, lifeless;
Withered, she shakes.
At the whim of surrounding conditions
Rootless one breaks.

Drought resistant tree;
No anxiety.
Life, growth, fruit;
Solid, deep root.
Steady in the storm;
Trust is in the Lord.

Planted in that trust,
Flourish I must.

Betsy Saroni, June 2003

Almost six years after writing that poem it still resonates in my heart. So many days I feel more like the stunted shrub than a tree planted by streams of water yielding abundant fruit. Why? I lose sight of the importance of being rooted in living water. Here the tree has the advantage over me; once planted it is there to stay. I can wander, follow distractions, and choose to ignore the need to stay deeply rooted. If I took a tree and constantly transplanted it, would it ever take root and really flourish? Would it every consistently yield fruit?

I know the answer to my question and my longings, but knowing is not doing. Knowing does not produce fruit. These verses are full of action verbs: trust, makes the Lord their home, does not walk, meditates, abides. Although hearing and knowing the Word is vitally important, I must prove myself a doer of the Word, not a hearer only. (James 1:22-23) It’s time to take my knowledge and live it.

I pray for a verse to focus on each year, and this year it is Colossians 2:6. “Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, so walk in Him.” The Lord is asking me for more, asking me to take seriously what I read and believe, asking me to make changes in my daily life that will demonstrate I am willing to put action to my beliefs. It’s time to walk the walk, not just in front of my friends and family, but in the secret, hidden places that only Christ sees. It’s time to stop searching for fruit in my life that is visible to all and focus on the hidden, my root system.

“How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. He will be like a tree firmly planted by steams of water, which yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers.” Psalm 1:1-3

“Abide in Me, and I in you. As a branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he will bear much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” John 15:4-5