Isaiah 12:2
Surely God is my salvation;
I will trust and not be afraid.
The Lord, the Lord himself, is my strength and my defense;
he has become my salvation. (NIV)
Today’s Reading: Isaiah 12:1-6
Isaiah 12 begins with the phrase “In that day you will say.” In what day? In the day that we read about in Isaiah 11. This isn’t a particular day, it’s a new age. It’s the age of the New Covenant. After Jesus rises from the grave, it will be “that day.” We are currently living in that day. We are living in the day when God’s anger has been turned away and He comforts us.
In verse two, again our English translation really lets us down here. The NIV translates the beginning of this verse to say: “Surely God is my salvation.” The word “is” in that verse is not really there – it has been inferred. This verse really says “Look! God my salvation!” The Hebrew word for salvation is yᵉšûʽâ which does mean “salvation.” But we also know that Yeshua is the name of Jesus. Jesus is our salvation and the reason “that day” is here.
Jesus then appears again later in verse two: “The Lord himself … has become my salvation.” The Lord has become Jesus. And then again Isaiah uses yeshua in verse three: “With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.” With joy we will draw water from the wells of Jesus. Does that even make any sense? It does only because Jesus referred to himself as living water.
“Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water’” (John 4:10).
“Then Jesus declared, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty’” (John 6:35).
“On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, ‘Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.’” (John 7:37-38).
Being that this chapter is a song of praise, Isaiah is calling us to respond to Jesus with praise. He says:
“In that day you will say …
- I will praise you, Lord.
- Give praise to the Lord, proclaim his name.
- Proclaim that his name is exalted.
- Sing to the Lord.
- Shout aloud and sing for joy.”
“God has done glorious things” so our response is to “sing to the Lord” so that Jesus can be “known to all the world” (Isa 12:5). We are living in that day! Isaiah saw us drawing from the wells of salvation. So “shout aloud and sing for joy!”
Christ in the Old Testament 
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