The Wells of Salvation

Isaiah xii. 3

With joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salratioa.

TWO events, separated from each other by fifteen hundred years, bear upon these words. One was the origin of the peculiar form of this prophecy, the othei contains its interpretation and claims to be its fulfilment

The wandering march of the children of Israel had brought them to Rephidim, where there was no water. Their parched lips opened to murmur and rebel against their unseen Leader and his visible lieutenant At his wits’ end, Moses cried to God, and the answer is the command to take with him the elders of Israel, and with his rod in his hand to go up to Horeb; and then come grand words, “Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock, and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it” It is not the rock, nor the rod, nor the uplifted hand, but it is the presence of God which makes the sparkling streams pour out. How the thirsty men would drink, how gladly they would fling themselvetserii. NILL THE WELLS OF SAL VA TION. 113

on the ground and glue their lips to the glancing blessing or dip their cups and skins into it, as it flashed along!

Many a psalm and prophecy refer to this old story, and clearly Isaiah has it in his mind here, for the whole context is full of allusions to the history of the Exodus, as a symbol of the better deliverance from a worse bondage, which the “Root of Jesse “was to effect The lyric burst of praise, of which the text is part, carries on the same allusion. The joyful band of pilgrims returning from this captivity sing the” Song of Moses,” chanted first by the banks of the Red Sea, “The Lord is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation.19 This distinct quotation, which immediately precedes our text, makes the reference in it which we have pointed out, most probable and natural.

The connection of these words with the story in the Exodus was recognised by the Jews at a very early period, as is plain from their use in the remarkable ritual of the Feast of Tabernacles. That festival was originally appointed to preserve the remembrance of Israel’s nomad life in the wilderness. In the later days of the nation, a number of symbolical observances were added to those of the original institution. Daily, amidst loud jubilations, the priests wound in long procession down the slope from the Temple to the fountain of Siloam in the valley beneath, and there drew water in golden urns. They bore it back, the crowd surging around them, and then amidst the blast of trumpets and a tumult of rejoicing, they poured it on the altar, while thousands of voices chanted

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Isaiah’s words, “With joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.”

So much for the occasion of the prophecy, now far its meaning and fulfilment Nearly eight hundred years have passed Again the festival has come round* For seven days the glad ceremonial had been performed. For the last time the priestly procession has gone down the rocky road; for the last time the vases have been filled at the cool fountain below; for the last time the bright water has been poured out sparkling in the sunlight; for the last time the shout of joy has risen and fallen, and as the words of the ancient chant were dying on the ear, a sudden stir began among the crowd, and from the midst of them, as they parted for his passage, came a young man, rustic in appearance, and there, before all the silence-stricken multitude, and priests with their empty urns, “In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, If any man thirst, let him come unto me,” and drink. Surely such words, in such a connection, at such a time, from such lips, are meant to point the path to the true understanding of the text

So then, consider what we have to understand by the wells of salvation.

We are not to be content with any shallow and narrow interpretation of either idea in that phrase. No doubt “salvation” in the Old Testament often means merely outward deliverance from material peril. But there is surely a perceptible deepening of the meaning of the word in the mouth of this prophet, to whom was granted

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a nearer approximation to the light of the gospel both in respect of the Saviour and of His salvation, than had previously been given. We shall not strain his meaning here, if we take salvation almost in the fully developed New Testament sense, as including negatively the deliverance from all evil, both evil of sin and evil of sorrow, and positively the endowment with all good, good both of holiness and happiness, which God can bestow or man receive.

Then if so, God himself is, in the deepest truth, the Well of Salvation. We need only remind you that the figure of our text does not point to a well so much as to a spring. It is a source, not a reservoir. So we have but to recall the deep and wonderful words of the psalmist: “With thee is the fountain of life,” and others not less profound, of the prophet, “They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters,” in order to be led up to the essential meaning of this text All the springs from which salvation, in any measure and in any form, flows to the thirsty lips of men are in God Himself. What grand truths that thought involves! It declares that salvation has its origin in the depths of God’s own nature. It wells up as of itself, not drawn forth by anything in us, but pouring out as from an inner impulse in His own deep heart God is His own motive, as His own end. As His Being, so His Love (which is His Being) is determined by nothing beyond Himself, but ever streams out by an energy from within, like the sunlight whose beams reach the limits of the system and travel on through dim dark distances, not because they are drawn by the planet, but because they ai6 THE WELLS OF SALVATION. [serm.

arc urged from the central light Surely, too, if God be the fountain of salvation, the essence of salvation must be His communication of Himself. The water is the same in the fountain as in the pitcher. So, while salvation includes and gives rise to many another blessing both in this life and in the next, the very core and heart of it is, the possession of God Himself, filling our spirits and changing our whole nature into His own image.

But, God being the true fountain of salvation, notice that Jesus Christ plainly and decisively puts Himself in the place that belongs to God: “If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.” Think of the extraordinary claims involved in that invitation. Here is & man who plants Himself over against the whole of the human race, and professes that He can satisfy every thirst of every soul through all the ages. Every craving of heart and mind, all longings for love and wisdom, for purity and joy, for strength and guidance, He assumes to be able to slake by the gift of Himselfc

Moses sinned when he said, “Must we fetch water out of this rock?” and expiated that sin tpy death. But his presumption was modesty compared with the unheard-of assumptions of the “meek and lowly” Christ There is but one hypothesis by which the character of Jesus can be saved, if He ever said anything like these words — -and that is that He who speaks them is God manifest in the flesh, the everlasting Son of the Father.

One other remark may be made on this part of our subject The first word of our text carries us back to something preceding, on which the drawing water with xil.] THE WELLS OF SALVATION. 217

joy is founded. That something is expressed immediately before: “The Lord Jehovah is my strength and song: He also is become my salvation.” These words are quoted from Moses* song at the Red Sea, and there point to the one definite act by which God had saved the people from their pursuers. In like manner, we have to look to a definite historical act by which the fountain of salvation has been opened for us, and our glad drawing therefrom has been made possible. The mission and work of Jesus Christ, His incarnation, passion and death, are the means by which the sealed fountain has been opened. In these, or more truly in this, as one great whole, God becomes to us what in the depths of his Being He always was. The living stream is brought near. For men, Jesus Christ is as the river which flows from the closed and land-locked sea of the infinite Divine nature. He is for us the only source, the inexhaustible source, the perennial source — like some spring never hot or muddy, never frozen, never walled in, never sinking one hair’s-breadth in its basin, though armies drink, and ages pass. “They drank of that Rock which followed them, and that Rock was Christ” So all the files of this moving host of men find the same spring beside them, wheresoever they pitch, and the last of all the generations shall draw joy from the eternal fountain, Jesus Christ 1

Consider, again, what is the way of drawing from the well of salvation.

It is not difficult to come to a right understanding of the act which answers to this part of the metaphor.

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People have given many answers to the question, If God be the fountain of salvation, how are we to get the water? If I may say so, pumps of all sorts have been tried, and there has been much weary working of arms at the handles, and much jangling of buckets and nothing brought up. The old word is true, with a new application to all who try in any shape to procure salvation by any work of their own: “Thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep.” But there is no need for all this profitless work. It is as foolish as it would be to spend money and pains in sinking a well in some mountainous country, where every hill-side is seamed with watercourses, and all that is needed is to put one end of any kind of wooden spout into the “burn” and your vessels under the other. The well of salvation is an Artesian well that needs no machinery to raise the water, but only pitchers to receive it as it rises.

Christ has taught us what “drawing n is. To the Samaritan woman He said, u Tnou wouldst have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.” So, then, Drawing is Asking. To the crowds in the Tempi* courts He said, “Let him come unto me and drink.” So, then, Drawing is Coming. To the listeners by the Sea of Galilee He said, “He that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst” So Coming, Asking, Drawing, are all explained by Believing. To trust Christ is to come to Him. To trust Christ is to draw, and to trust Christ is to drink. Simple faith draws all God’s goodness into the souL

Now that faith which ifl thus powerful, must fix xil] THE WELLS OF SALVATION. 219

and fasten on a definite historical act The faith which draws from the fountain of salvation is not a vague faith in generalities about God’s goodness and the like, but it grasps God as revealed and becoming our salvation in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Nor is it a vague faith which has regard to Christ in his lovely character and perfect purity only, but one which lays hold on that great miracle of love perfected on the Cross where He bore our sins. In that wonderful discourse in which Christ proclaims Himself the Bread of Life, it is very instructive to note that He advances from the more general statement that life comes from eating of that bread which is Himself, to the more special and defined one, “Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life.” Not merely Christ, but Christ crucified, is the food of our souls, the water of life. So then the drawing is faith, and that a faith which grasps the great sacrifice which Christ has made, as the channel whereby God’s salvation comes near to each thirsty lip and drooping souL

The words preceding our text suggest another characteristic of the faith which really draws water from the fountain: “He is become my salvation.” That is to say, this believing grasp of Christ manifested in a definite historical act is an intensely personal thing. We are not merely to say “He is the Saviour of the world,” but “He is my Saviour, He loved tnct and gave Himself for me” We must lay hold of that love as embracing ourselves, and make our very own the treasure which belongs to all No general faith ia Christ’s mercy# or ia uo THE WELLS OF SALVATION. [serm

the atoning power of His Cross, will suffice to make us glad and to bow our souls in quick and quickening love. It must be something a great deal more personal than that: even the faith that His heart has love in it for me, that I am not lost in the crowd, nor forgotten in that abstraction, “the world,” but that I had a place in His thought when He died, that I have a place in His heart while He lives. Thus making our own “the common salvation,” and filling our own vessel at the great fountain. we shall have our own joy in the common gladness.

Onsider too, thejey of the water drawers.

The well is die meeting-place in these hot lands, where the solitary shepherds from the pastures and the maidens from the black camels’ hair tents meet in the cool evening, and ringing laughter and cheery talk go round Or the allusion may be rather to the joy, as of escape from death, with which some exhausted travellers press towards the palm trees on the horizon that tell of a spring in the desert, and when they have reached it, crowd to the fountain and drink greedily; no matter how hot and muddy it may be.

So jubilant is the heart of the man whose soul is filled and feasted with the God of his salvation, and the salvation of his God. True Christianity is a joyful thing, not indeed with foolish laughter like the crackling of thorns under a pot, but with a joy too deep to be loud, too pure to be transient Such a man has all the sources and motives for joy which the heart can ask. Salvation xiij THE WELLS OF SALVATION. 221

unfolds into manifold gladnesses — rare and profound There is in it forgiveness, which makes us “hear joy and gladness, that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. w There is companionship with God and Christ, and such society makes “our hearts burn within us.” There is obedience to His will, and then His statutes become the “joy of our hearts.” There is a bright hope beyond, and “in that hope of the glory of God we can ejoice.” We are independent of externals, possessing Jut which no change can affect and of which nothing can bereave us. So we can sing the old song: “Though the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.” How different the false and fleeting joys of earth, when men resort to their broken cisterns that can hold no water. The grim words of the prophet are only too true about all other springs of gladness: “They came to the pits, and found no water; they xeturned with their vessels empty. They were ashamed and confounded, and covered their heads.”

That Teat Lord and Lover of all our souls calls to each of vw now, as He did to the men of His generation, when He aras on earth. To them He stretched out His hospitable arms as He stood in the Temple court and cried, “If any mm thirst, let him come unto me and drink.” To us He speaks from heaven, in the great words which all but clo.*e the volume of revelation: “Let him that is athirst cume, and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” May each of us answer, “Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come to earth’s broken cisterns to draw.”