“With joy you shall draw water from the wells of salvation.” Isaiah 12:3
It takes effort to care for pets! We need to feed them, bathe them, and clean up after them. If you have a cat or a dog, a hamster or a parakeet, you know how important it is to see that your pet always has food and fresh water to drink. Animals need food and water for them to survive.
If you were a shepherd with many sheep you would need to be certain that they had plenty of water to keep them healthy. That was often difficult work for the shepherd, because when a shepherd traveled to different grazing areas, he had to be certain that at the end of the day there was a river, an oasis with water, or a nearby well for the sheep to get a refreshing drink.
The wells in the Bible were public wells that someone dug to provide water for animals. The top of the well was surrounded by a low wall of flat stones on which the shepherd would stand as he lowered a bucket on a rope to retrieve the water. Many times they would place a large stone over the top of the well to keep the well water clean.
If the flock was pastured near the shepherd’s home or tent, it was often the task of the young ladies to help draw the well water. In Genesis 29:9,10 it says: “Rachel came with her father’s sheep, for she was a shepherd. When Jacob saw Rachel, he went over and rolled the stone away from the mouth of the well and watered his uncle’s sheep.” And in Exodus 2:16,17 we read: “Now a priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father’s flock. Some shepherds came along and drove them away, but Moses got up and came to their rescue and watered their flock.”
Isaiah wrote about a different well. He said: “With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation” (Isaiah 12:3). Can we also go to a well to drink the water? Isaiah was saying that at a certain well, we can find very special water that will save us. He was telling us that Jesus and his Word offer special water that we should drink every day. Once when Jesus was sitting beside a well he said: “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I will 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 4:13,14). Revelation 22:17 says: “Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life.”
Rich are the moments of blessing,
Jesus my Savior bestows;
Pure is the well of salvation;
Fresh from His mercy that flows.
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