The Salvation Well

Isaiah 12:3 says, “Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.”

We live in a day when hand-dug wells are a thing of the past—at least in most countries. Mr. Flannigan, my neighbor, dug a well by hand. It was about 20 feet deep when he asked me to help him. He paid a dollar an hour. As a teenager I did a lot of digging for him. As I looked down the hole (about 4 feet wide), I didn’t want to go down. He had lined the walls with rocks as he dug downward. I don’t know how they stayed up building from the bottom. He had built a ladder that he continued to add on to the bottom as needed. Don’t ask me how. I got down into the well, where there was a shovel, a pick, and a bucket with a rope on it. I was to fill the bucket. He then would pull it out and dump it. From the bottom of the hole, I could look up at the sky and see the stars as if it were night. That was it for me. I climbed out half-panicked, without shoveling one more spadeful.

Abraham and Isaac dug their share of wells. Genesis 26:18 says, “And Isaac digged again the wells of water, which they had digged in the days of Abraham his father: for the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham: and he called their names after the names by which his father had called them.” Jacob also dug a well, though not recorded in the Old Testament. In John 4:6, Jacob’s well is mentioned. It is there that Jesus met the woman of Samaria and told her of the Living Water. This could be called the “Salvation Well.” However, this well was dug by Jacob. Jesus did not say the living water was in Jacob’s well.

Let’s look for a moment at another well. This well is in Genesis 21:19. “And God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water; and she went, and filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad drink.” The woman is Hagar. The lad is Ishmael. The place is the wilderness of Beersheba. Hagar and the lad had been sent away from Abraham and Sarah with a little bread and a bottle of water. When the water was spent, she put the child under a shrub, or broom bush. This was a common method of survival. To lay down and put one’s head under a broom bush would provide enough shade to sustain life a little longer.

Sometimes we may find ourselves at the end of the line. Life becomes mere survival. There seems to be no answers. Our family may be at risk. We may be crushed financially. Our reputation may be destroyed. Our health may be gone. Hagar said, “Let me not see the death of the child” (Genesis 21:16). There was no hope without water. Another bottle of water would only prolong death. In this state, God heard the voice of the lad. He had Hagar arise and lift up the child. He promised to make of the lad a great nation. At that moment, God opened Hagar’s eyes and she saw the well of water—the Salvation Well. If it had been there before, she did not see it. I believe it was dug by God. 

The Salvation Well cost God a great deal. There is no other way of salvation. It has the life-giving water. It not only saves us from death, but gives us abundant life now. No wonder the Psalmist said, “Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.” In the day that we draw, we shall praise the Lord, sing unto the Lord, and cry out and shout! Though this was written for the inhahitants of Zion, it is offered to the whole world. Revelation 22:17 states, “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.”

Oh Lord, open our eyes that we may see the Salvation Well!