Esh-av comes from the Hebrew word sha-av. It means to draw (water). Esh-av is the first-person imperfect form of the verb - and it means "I will draw." The idea, when related to the verse in Isaiah 12:3 which speaks of drawing "water from the wells of salvation," is to celebrate the goodness and reliability of God's word by drawing the meaning and significance of a biblical text from the text itself - rather than reading a meaning into it.
The concept sounds simple enough, but it often isn't. Primarily, because our ability to rightly divide (or handle) the word of truth (2Timothy 2:15) is affected by our "world-view" - whatever comprehensive understanding we have of God, the universe and humanity. Our world-view is determined by how we were raised, the relationship that we had (or have) with our parents, the language(s) that we speak, our culture and our values.
This usually determines how we "see" things - that is, how we understand things - and, how we understand God's word. And, if that isn't enough, the people that God used to communicate His word had their own world-view - they perceived things in a particular way too. Therefore, it is very important to know who they were, when they lived, what language they spoke and what they intended by the words they chose. |
