ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
November 8, 2022
As a part of my own study and prayer time, I was reading Isaiah 12. It’s a short chapter, in which there is confession and an acknowledgement of God’s anger that is no longer present. And then in v. 3, we find the words: “With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.”
Though I do not necessarily believe God gets angry like you or I might, humanity seems to know deep within itself when what it is doing goes against the heart of God. We impose upon God our own reaction to such experiences, and there is something about feeling the weight of what undermines God’s dream for creation. I do not see God going around stomping the divine feet, allowing the holy temper to get the best of God. What I do hear in this chapter is an awareness of how one’s actions have not aligned with God, a sense of repentance (a turning around), and then finding the joy of once again living a life that reflects God’s ideals. In that moment, it is an experience of drinking from the well of salvation. The Hebrew word we translate as “salvation” is “yeshuah,” and it carries with it a sense of being saved, but not in the typical religious way (i.e., going to heaven). It means to be delivered from one place to another. When our lives have not represented who God is and what God calls us to be, and then we change, there is a yeshuah — a deliverance from the place of opposition to a place of friendship. I don’t know about you, but I find that to be joyous news, like drinking from a well that is refreshing and life-giving.
Continue to beckon me to your side, Gracious God, for joy is found in a life that honors you and truly represents your ideals of compassion, justice, kindness, and, of course, love. To this end, I seek your encouragement each day. Amen.
