A young teenager in Jerusalem named Jacob Eliahu skipped school one day and wanted to go swimming. He had a specific spot in mind. There was a long tunnel in the city with water flowing through it. He challenged a friend to start at one end of it, and he would start at the other. It would be a long swim in the dark, but they hoped to meet in the middle.

His friend quit after a while and turned around, but Jacob made it through the whole tunnel. To find his way in the dark he felt along the wall and made two discoveries. First, the chisel marks from the making of the tunnel changed direction about halfway through. Even more amazing, toward the end of his journey he felt something different on the wall. These were not random chisel marks, but engraved words.

This was in 1880. It turns out he had stumbled across . . . . a message from over 2500 years before about how the tunnel was constructed. And the tunnel went back to the days of King Hezekiah of Judah!

As for the other events of Hezekiah’s reign, all his achievements and how he made the pool and the tunnel by which he brought water into the city, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah? (2 Kings 20:20)

This was a hugely important event for archaeology and the Bible. It was also a reminder of the importance of wells and springs of water to ancient peoples. Water was refreshing and life-giving. God often used water as a picture of his blessings and salvation, as in Isaiah 41:18: I will make rivers flow on barren heights, and springs within the valleys. I will turn the desert into pools of water, and the parched ground into springs.

It's no surprise, then, that the Lord through his prophet tells us to continually draw from our source of life. With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation (Isaiah 12:3).

If your life with God appears to be a little dry, you need refreshing! If you have allowed bitterness to creep in, if you have followed too much the pull of worldly goals and put the Scriptures on the back burner, or if you have less joy in your spiritual life than in the past, you need refreshing! Draw from the wells of God’s salvation. Immerse yourself in the Word of God to you. Be filled with life in the remembrance of the power of your baptism, and the assurance you are forgiven in the Lord’s Supper. When you draw from those promises of God, you will never be left thirsty. You will know the joy of God’s salvation!