Right now is the Feast of Sukkot, (Tabernacles), when Jews build small booths in their yards to live in (or at least eat their meals in), to celebrate the harvest and to commemorate their desert wandering.
Each year the celebration takes place during September or October, after Israel has experienced at least six months without a drop of rain. During the week it is traditional to pray many prayers pleading for rain, because they will be planting soon and it’s desperately needed.
In the first century, the entire week in Jerusalem included a joyous nightly celebration because of the promise in Isaiah 12:3: “With joy shall you draw water from the wells of salvation.” It reached a crescendo during the final day’s ceremony, called Simchat Beit HaShoavah (Rejoicing at the Place of the Water Drawing). A famous quotation was that “he who has had never witnessed Simchat Beit HaShoavah has never seen true joy in his life!” (Mishnah, Sukkah 51a) According to John, this was the setting of Jesus’ famous outcry:
“If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water!” (John 7:37-38)
For more about the rich imagery and the messianic symbolism of living water, check out this article.
The Song of the Well
Why speak of “wells of salvation,” and why was so much joy associated with drawing water? When you live in an arid land, having access to a water source is necessary for survival. But digging a well is fraught with disappointment. Days or weeks of heavy labor would turn up nothing, or a source that runs dry quickly or yields contaminated water.
When people finally discovered a good water source, their whole reality changed. We talk about “striking oil,” but striking water was an even better guarantee that people would have a life free of want in the ancient world. Their well-watered crops would always grow and their animals would be fed. Opening a new well with fresh, reliable water was an utterly joyous occasion.
Numbers 21 tells about how God led the Israelites to Be’er (which means “well” in Hebrew), where they were able to dig a well, and out of joy they composed a song to celebrate the occasion:
And from there they continued to Be’er; that is the well of which the LORD said to Moses, “Gather the people together, so that I may give them water.” Then Israel sang this song:
Spring up, O well!—Sing to it!—
the well that the princes made,
that the nobles of the people dug,
with the scepter and with their staffs.” (Numbers 21:16-17)
Utter Joy!
Those of us in advanced nations can hardly sense the outpouring of joy here. If you want to taste the emotion of this biblical scene, you can feel it in this video from Kingsway Christian High School in Uganda from this past summer. Years of backbreaking effort of hauling water for hours each day finally ended when they were gifted with a new, clean, deep-water well in 2025. They spent a whole day in worship and celebration, and sang many new songs when the well was commissioned for use:
Even now, months later, students sing the “new well song” when they draw water, because it still brings them such joy.
(If you want to learn more about the remarkable work going on at Kingsway, visit KingswayUganda.com.)
John Witcomb says
Hello Lois,
Isaiah 12:3 was the first scripture, without knowing it, I ever learnt – and in Hebrew. I was a volunteer on a kibbutz, and completely without faith. But we learnt Mayim Mayim the dance. When I was brought to faith I read it in Isaiah and found out what it’s really about – water from the wells of my Yeshua. I also read of Elijah and the prophets of Ba’al, and found he’d had the same experience with clouds.
It was 1969, in Neot Mordechai on the banks of the Jordan in the Upper Galilee. On the morning before Sukkot, we’d polished fruit and made a display on a trailer, with other produce, to put in the dining room for that evening. We had the afternoon off. I lay under the fir trees outside our bungalow with a cloudless sky. After a while, I noticed a small cloud; I thought it was from shellfire or something. I while later, the cloud was larger. Later still, clouds filled the sky.
At some stage, a rabbi had been brought into the secular, irreligious, kibbutz to pray on the banks of the river for rain. That evening we partied; one of the dances would have been Mayim Mayim. After the party, we took the trailer of produce across to a barn. Lightning was flashing across the valley. And then the rain started – monsoon rain. The Golan and the Lebanese heights greened overnight, and water cascade down them. The Jordan overflowed, orchards and fields were flooded, and work ceased. It was the most rain ever. (May it happen again in 2025). It made me think; maybe there is someone in charge.
I thank and praise Jesus for revealing Himself to me and giving me living water, when I didn’t even know I was dry. And I thank and praise Him for the insights He has given you for our edification.