2nd Saturday of Advent (December 14). WELLS of SALVATION

Prepare to Listen.  With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.
 
Prayerfully Read Isaiah 12:1-6
You will say on that day:
I will give thanks to you, O LORD,
   for though you were angry with me,
your anger turned away,
   and you comforted me.
2Surely God is my salvation;
   I will trust, and will not be afraid,
for the LORD GOD is my strength and my might;
   he has become my salvation.
3With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.
4And you will say on that day:
Give thanks to the LORD,
   call on his name;
make known his deeds among the nations;
   proclaim that his name is exalted.
5Sing praises to the LORD, for he has done gloriously;
   let this be known in all the earth.
6Shout aloud and sing for joy, O royal Zion,
   for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.
 
Prayerfully Wonder and Reflect
Have you ever experienced a spiritual dry well?  What happened and how did you find your way beyond it?
 
Isaiah’s hymn of praise has two stanzas, each beginning with, You will say on that day.  Symbolically, ‘that day’ refers to “a promise from God that is sure but not yet in hand.”  The singer lives in “confident hope that things in time to come (we know not when) will be happily resolved.”[1]
 
Note the pronoun changes in each stanza.  The first begins with a personal, “I will give thanks.”  The singer expresses gratitude for the LORD’s goodness and generosity.  God was angry, but has “become my salvation,” “my strength and might.”  Therefore, “I will trust, and will not be afraid.”  Where there is fear, there is no trust in God.  In the second stanza, the singer urges others, you, to give thanks to God, who “has done gloriously.”  This is followed by a series of imperatives—call, make known, proclaim, sing praises, let this be known, shout aloud.  Having received God’s unmerited goodness and salvation, the story must be told “among the nations,” and “in all the earth.”
 
In the middle of the two stanzas, each with 9 lines, is the key verse: With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.  When your well runs dry, come to God’s wells, there are many, enough for all who are thirsty.  John Calvin noted, “Everything necessary for supporting life flows to us from the undeserved goodness of God.”  God’s well “satisfies those who are thirsty and dry, refreshes those who are parched with heat, and revives those who are worn out with fatigue.”[2]
 
What caught your attention in these verses and meditation today?
 
Prayerfully Respond
Lord you are blessed for you have done gloriously and have provided for my many times of dryness with your bounty in your wells of salvation.  Amen.
 
Live obediently.  Draw from God’s wells.
[1] Brueggemann, Walter.  Isaiah 1-39.  Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press.  1998, p. 109.
[2] Calvin in Brueggemann, Isaiah 1-39, 1998, p. 110.