The Place We First Met
I'll never forget where I started falling in love with my wife. It was at a summer camp we both were working at. That was over 25 years ago. Today, we can't visit this place without thinking about that summer. Interestingly, not only did Brittney and I begin our relationship at this camp, but so did my two sisters and their spouses (there really must be something in the water). This place is, and will always be, a special place for us. It's special because it is where our love for each other began. Most people can remember where they first met their significant other (at least I hope so). When meeting a couple for the first time, it is one of the first questions people ask, "So, where did you two meet?" It is an essential detail of any love story. This is why it's in the Bible, the most remarkable love story ever written.
In his book, “The Art of Biblical Narrative” author Robert Alter points out a pattern in the Old Testament of couples meeting for the first time. He points out that wells symbolized fertility and that drawing water represented the bond between a man and a woman. In each case, the groom finds his future bride by traveling to a distant land and meeting them at a well. Every scene has some slight variation, but the essential ingredients are all there (1). This is how the bible writers, inspired by the Holy Spirit, would bring out important, unique lessons from each scene while connecting them to the single, overarching thread of the biblical narrative.
Robert Alter gives three examples in his book: 1. Isaac and Rebekah (Gen. 24). 2. Jacob and Rachel (Gen. 29). 3. Moses and Zipporah (Ex. 2). I would like to add one more: Jesus and the Samaritan woman (John 4). Because according to Luke 24:27, "Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he [Jesus] interpreted to them in ALL the Scriptures the things concerning himself," and John 5:39, "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me," The whole Bible is about Jesus. The central, overarching narrative of scripture (not just the New Testament) is the gospel of Jesus Christ. He is the thesis and everything else supporting points. With this in mind let's dive let's explore these four scenes.
In Genesis 24, we have the story of Isaac and Rebekah. Abraham sends his servant to find Isaac, a wife. As Isaac's representative, this servant travels to a distant and ends up at a well. "And he said, "O LORD, God of my master Abraham, please grant me success today and show steadfast love to my master Abraham. Behold, I am standing by the spring of water, and the daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water. Let the young woman to whom I shall say, 'Please let down your jar that I may drink,' and who shall say, 'Drink, and I will water your camels'—let her be the one whom you have appointed for your servant Isaac. By this, I shall know that you have shown steadfast love to my master" (Genesis 24:12–14). Before he stops praying Rebekah enters the scene to draw water from the well. The servant requests a drink from Rebekah, and not only does she draw water for him so that he may drink, but all of his camels. The servant doesn't know what to say. She must be the one.
In John 4, Jesus travels to a distant land, Samaria. Samaria wasn't distant logistically but racially and spiritually, which by the way, is far more distant than physically. In fact, Jewish people would take the long route just to avoid going through Samaria. "A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, 'Give me a drink,'" (John 4:7) The woman can't believe Jesus, a Jew, would ask her, a Samaritan, for a drink. "Jesus answered her, 'If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.'" And just as Rebekah exceeds the servant's request, Jesus says," 'Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life" (John 4:10, 14).
After Rebekah gives water to Abraham's servant and he begins praising God for the divine encounter, "the young woman ran and told her mother's household about these things." (Gen. 24:28). After the Samaritan woman's divine encounter with Jesus, "the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, 'Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done" (John 4:28-29). In Rebekah's family's blessing over her, they say, "Our sister, may you become thousands of ten thousand, and may your offspring possess the gate of those who hate him!" (Genesis 24:60). And ironically, Jesus gives his bride almost the exact same blessing, "I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." (Matthew 16:18).
In Exodus 2, Moses is fleeing to a distant land, running for his life, and ends up in Midian at a well. The daughters of the priest of Midian are watering their sheep when some hostile shepherds show up and try to drive them away like "wolves scattering them" (John 10:12). "But Moses stood up and saved them, watering their flock, (Ex. 2:17). Robert Alter notes that "the verb Joshua, to save, for Moses's rescue of the seven girls, a lexical clue to his future role of moshia', national redeemer. The water drawn from the well has special resonance in Moses's career—who, as an infant, was saved on the water, given a name that means 'to draw from the water,' will miraculously deliver his people through water and will finally draw water from a rock" (1). However, this scene not only foreshadows Moses's role as deliverer and shepherd of Israel but Jesus the deliverer and shepherd of the world. "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep." (John 10:11) John 4:4 says Jesus "had to pass through Samaria." Except Jesus isn't running to save his life, but to give his life for the salvation of others, even Samaritans. Moses marries Zipporah, one of the seven daughters of the Midian priest.
When the disciples see Jesus, "they were amazed that He had been speaking with a woman, yet no one said, 'What do You seek?' or, 'Why do You speak with her?'" (John 4:27). The disciples are surprised for several reasons. First, in this time and in this place, men were forbidden to be alone with a woman that wasn't their wife (although I would suggest this was Jesus's wife/the church). Secondly, and more significantly, they had a problem with Jesus talking to a Samaritan, and as already mentioned, there was great hatred between Jews and Samaritans. But God has only ever had one goal for his church: ALL people. Christ's bride is of every nation, kindred, and tongue. "I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd, (John 10:16). As the apostle Paul wrote "there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise" (Galatians 3:28–29).
Finally, in Genesis 29, Jacob travels to a distant land, and "as he looked, he saw a well in the field, and behold, three flocks of sheep lying beside it, for out of that well the flocks were watered. The stone on the well's mouth was large, and when all the flocks were gathered there, the shepherds would roll the stone from the mouth of the well and water the sheep, and put the stone back in its place over the mouth of the well," (2-3). "While he was speaking with them, Rachel came with her father's sheep, for she was a shepherdess. As soon as Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of Laban, his mother's brother, and the sheep of Laban, his mother's brother, Jacob came near and rolled the stone from the well's mouth and watered the flock of Laban, his mother's brother. Then Jacob kissed Rachel and wept aloud" (9–11).
Like the stone in front of the well when Jesus was crucified, a stone was rolled in front of his tomb. Mark 16:4 notes it was a "huge stone," and Matthew 27:60 calls it "a great stone." But as the women (Jesus's bride) approach the tomb Sunday morning, "saying to one another, "Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?" When they get there, "looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back" (Mark 16:4). Like Jacob, Jesus rolled the stone back for his bride/the church so that she (we) might experience the wellspring of his life. Through his death and resurrection, the Good Shepherd, the true and better "Jacob's well," says, "whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." (John 4:14). Naturally, in each of these scenes, there is a great celebration and banquet that takes place afterward. Revelation 19:7 says, "Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come." And just like Isaac when he sees Rebekah wearing the ring and bracelets adorned for him, her husband (Gen 24:47). In Revelation 21:2, John says, "I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband."
Jesus is the ultimate groom who left the comforts of heaven and traveled to a distant, broken land to meet and marry his bride. Celebrate that reality today. Where was the place you first met Christ? Maybe right now? He extends the same invitation to you as he did to the woman at the well. Let him pour living water into your life today.
(1.) Alter, Robert “The Art of Biblical Narrative” Basic Books, New York 2011