DRAW WATER FROM THE WELLS OF SALVATION
ISAIAH 12: 1—6 MARCH 30, 2003
ISAIAH 12
1In that day you will say: "I will praise you, O LORD. Although you were angry with me, your anger has turned away and you have comforted me.
2Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The LORD, the LORD, is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation."
3With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.
4In that day you will say: "Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done, and proclaim that his name is exalted.
5Sing to the LORD, for he has done glorious things; let this be known to all the world.
6Shout aloud and sing for joy, people of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel among you."
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Dearest Fellow-Redeemed and Saints in the Lord:
When we are thirsty, it’s easy for us to take care of our thirst. We go to the sink and get a glass of water, or to the fridge and get a glass and just like that—we have something to drink! Even as we travel around, we can go into stores and buy water if we are that thirsty. Today, we are going to look at the thirst that you and I have and how the Lord quenches that thirst. Then we will also examine the joy that God’s refreshing Word brings into our life. The Lord gives us the water of life without cost. We’ve heard that in all of our lessons today: that we’re saved by grace, the Lord God sent His Son to be our Savior, even Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness so that people would be saved. To this salvation the Lord invites us with His invitation. In Revelation we are told, "The Spirit and the bride say, ’Come!’ And let him who hears say, ’Come!’ Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life"(REVELATION 22:17). You and I come this morning once again at the Lord’s invitation that we might partake of the free gift of the water of life. Yes, when our soul is parched and dry it will be refreshed with God’s living water. Isaiah in the middle of our text says, 3with joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. That becomes our theme this morning.
DRAW WATER FROM THE WELLS OF SALVATION
I. CONSTANTLY
II. THANKFULLY
I. Constantly
As you heard the words of our text this morning, you probably picked up already how happy Isaiah was. It appears as if Isaiah could hardly contain himself. Why was he so happy? If you look at chapter 11 (it comes before chapter 12) you’ll find that Isaiah talks to the people about the Savior. He says the Redeemer (the Messiah) is going to come. Then Isaiah describes all the things the people are going to benefit from because of the Savior’s redemption and the work that he’s going to do for the people of the world. After listing all of those things in chapter 11, our text begins chapter 12, 1In that day you will say: "I will praise you, O LORD. Isaiah says to the people when they see all of the things the Redeemer will do and all of the things that He means for mankind, there’s nothing left for them to do but to praise God.
Then he tells them why. Although you were angry with me, (referring to the Lord) your anger has turned away and you have comforted me. The children of Israel had seen the anger of the Lord. They had experienced the fact that as they sinned and kept turning against God, finally God would turn His back on them. We saw that in our first lesson…the snakes came after they were grumbling and complaining. They were grumbling and complaining that God had delivered them from the slavery of their Egyptian oppressors. They were grumbling and complaining that God gave them food to eat every day. Here Isaiah says the Lord was angry. But the Lord’s anger has turned away and now the people are comforted because they have forgiveness.
2Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. As they had forgiveness, they see that God is their salvation, no longer to fear but instead trust. Then he goes on, The LORD, the LORD, is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation." The people are beginning to see here hopefully, (as we are too) that Isaiah is referring to the Lord as salvation. That is where they are going to draw their strength. That is where their time of rejoicing and joy is going to come from. That is where they are going to find the well of salvation for their joy. He wants the people to come back to the Lord time and time and time again that they would find in Him their salvation and they would see in Him their forgiveness.
We might ask ourselves, ‘Where do we find our joy in life? What do we find satisfaction in this world around us?’ Sometimes we find joy and satisfaction in our family, in our friends, in our work, but that’s only a part of God’s joy, isn’t it…a part of a satisfaction that the Lord wants to give to us. He reminds us that when we draw from the wells of salvation, we find the true joy of God’s forgiveness in Him and in His word. The book of Deuteronomy says, "It (God’s Word) is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the LORD his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees"(DEUTERONOMY 17:19). He says the word of God is to be a part of our life constantly because then we are going to find the joy of our salvation and then we are going to find true joy for our living.
We are going to be like the children of Israel and realize that yes, the Lord is angry with us because of our sin. Then His anger is turned away and He comforts us instead with His forgiveness. What joy is ours! Then we agree the Lord becomes our strength. It takes practice and it takes time to constantly turn to that word of God and find our joy in what God says. The psalm writer reminds us, "They feast on the abundance of your house; you give them drink from your river of delights. For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light"(PSALM 36:8,9). He not only talks about the water of life, the fountain of life, then he talks about light. We heard that in our gospel today too. As human beings, when the light is in the world, we like darkness because our deeds are evil. John reminds us at the end of the gospel that we, as believers, want to come into the light, the light that God sheds on us.
God’s encouragement for us today is to draw from the wells of salvation…to turn to the Lord and His word and find in it our joy and our satisfaction. A description that Peter gives us, "Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good"(1 PETER 2:2,3). Every one of us here has already done that haven’t we…we have all tasted that the Lord is good. He gives us heaven instead of hell. He gives us forgiveness instead of punishment. Because of that we want to crave to learn even more about the Lord.
We want to draw water from the wells of salvation. As we do that constantly, then we will do it thankfully.
II. Thankfully
That’s what Isaiah continues with in our text. 3With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. That probably sounded pretty strange to the children of Israel. Getting water was quite a task. Not only did they have to dig a well, they would have to go out to that well every day: draw the water out of the well, put the water in the jugs and carry them back to the house. Sometimes, that well was outside the city gates. The women would have to travel out there day in, day out, hopefully once a day, maybe sometimes twice a day, no matter if the weather was cold or hot, quiet or windy, everyday. They didn’t find much joy in going out to do that task, but now the Lord says to them ‘with joy you will do that.’ Isaiah refers not to just earthly water, but water from the wells of salvation.
4In that day you will say: "Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name. When they see and understand the Lord’s deliverance, they will thank Him. More than that, others around them will thank the Lord. He says, ‘make known among the nations what he has done, and proclaim that his name is exalted.’ And so it was that the children of Israel traveled and as the Lord defeated their enemies, the name of the Lord was exalted by the obedience of the children of Israel. He goes on saying, 5sing to the LORD, for he has done glorious things; let this be known to all the world. Again, time and again, the children of Israel saw the glorious things that the Lord had done. Even though they grumbled and complained in our first lesson, the glorious thing that God had done WAS to deliver them from the hands of the Egyptians. The glorious thing that God had done WAS to provide them with manna everyday. They had enough to eat so they didn’t even have to worry about planting or harvesting, but just gathering and eating. Because of that, they could sing to the Lord, they could give thanks to Him.
Isaiah sums it all up in our last verse by saying, 6Shout aloud and sing for joy, people of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel among you." God was with them. He was in their midst. He had not forsaken them and He would not forsake them.
The Lord reminds us that He is among us, in our midst, everyday. Today we do not see the Lord like the children of Israel did in a pillar of smoke or a cloud of fire at night. But we do see our Lord in the day-to-day blessings that He provides for us. We see Him in His word, which is the well of our salvation. The Lord says don’t be far from God’s word and you will not be far from God Himself. In Colossians we read, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God" (COLOSSIANS 3:16). When we honestly look at our lives, we realize there is a lot to be thankful for. There are a lot of reasons to sing he says…songs and hymns and have thankfulness in our hearts.
First and foremost is that God’s word is still preached and taught and listened to by us. God’s word remains important to us when all around us it seems to have been forgotten or abused, misused or even discarded. We are to be like the prophet Jeremiah who says, "When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart’s delight, for I bear your name, O LORD God Almighty"(JEREMIAH 15:16). As we draw water from the wells of salvation, we realize that the word of God becomes our joy and our delight. First, we are to realize that all this happens by God’s grace. We realize it because God has called us His children. Our lives are to be different in this world. The world would have us believe that there is nothing we can learn anymore from the Bible, that it is irrelevant in today’s modern, technologically advanced society.
You and I know better. You and I know that it is our very source of life. It is our foundation of faith and because of that, our lives are changed. We don’t walk around in this world with doom and gloom. We walk around with an attitude of gratitude. We live thankful lives because of what Christ has done for us. We live comforted lives knowing that the Lord is always in control. That is vitally important today as many in this world are wondering just what is going to happen. It is vitally important for us as believers to be comforted and then live joyful, thankful, happy lives. The Lord tells us in Matthew, "In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven"(MATTHEW 5:16). We could say ‘so that they may see your good act attitude and praise your Father in heaven.’ That is also the key here—not praising us, but praising God. We get thirsty in this world and we satisfy our thirst very easily compared to Biblical times. We thirst physically and we need to remind ourselves that we also thirst spiritually. The Lord would encourage us to come back and draw water from the wells of salvation…not just on Sunday morning, not just in Bible study, not just in a special Lenten service, but constantly day after day, search the scriptures. As we search the scriptures day after day, we become thankful and joyful that God has given us His word, which He has provided us with the knowledge of salvation.
We remember Jesus as He took time out, sat down at a well and a woman of Samaria came. She came out to draw water, and remember not a very joyful task. When the Lord said He could help her, she was excited. She didn’t want to draw water anymore but He needed to remind her that there is more to life than just water; there’s the water of life. Sometimes we need to remind ourselves there’s more to this life than just eating and drinking. There is the water of life.
Jesus said in JOHN 4:14: "Whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life"(JOHN 4:14). With joy, you and I draw water from the wells of salvation, day after day and with thankfulness because that water wells up to eternal life for each and every one of us. Amen.
Pastor Timm O. Meyer
