20250302-jesus and well-raph

[Jesus ] Restorer of the Well

If you go out into a desert, it quickly becomes clear why it is one of the most deadly and uninhabitable places on earth. It is dry. And where there is no water, there is no life.

This is the picture found in the opening pages of Genesis. The story begins in a dry and desolate wilderness. However, God provides a spring in the desert, turning it into a source of life for plants and animals. This garden spring then becomes a river, flowing outward to water the entire world. There is enough for everyone—it is a gift from God.

Genesis 2:10 10 A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers.

The first Adam encounters the first woman at the shores of this source of water. God brings together a man and a woman so that His life can flourish and spread from the garden to the rest of creation.

Genesis 2:18 18 Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”

A man and a women on a source of water starting a new creation.

Despite this abundant water, humans find a way to ruin it. Sin led to exile from the source of life, severing humanity’s direct access to God’s living water. Though God has provided all they need, they experience a deep inner drought—a relentless thirst for more. But more of what?

They desire more wisdom, security, and control on their terms. Tragically, this only makes them thirstier, more suspicious of one another, and ultimately estranged from God. Their choices lead them away from Eden, the ideal heaven-on-earth place called the Garden of Delight (“Eden” means “delight” in Hebrew).

We are back in the wilderness, without access to the water of life. Without it, we cannot spread God’s life into the world.

God’s living water not only sustains Eden but also extends life to the world beyond. God’s water of life supplies abundance, food, and sustenance.

Jeremiah 2:13 for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.

The prophet Ezekiel describes Israel in exile as a valley of dry bones scattered across the desert. Yet, he offers hope:

Ezekiel 37:5 Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live.

Ezekiel 37:14 “I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it.”

God promises His Spirit. The Spirit of the Lord will spring up inside of you a new life.

Ezekiel 36:25-26 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

God promises to pour out His life-giving Spirit, restoring the land and creating a new Eden filled with people who can spread His life to others.

God’s covenant, provision, grace and purpose.

However, God’s provision through the water of a well also happened in the Bible. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob find water in unexpected places:

- Abraham:

Genesis 21:30-33 He said, “These seven ewe lambs you will take from my hand, that this may be a witness for me that I dug this well.” 31 Therefore that place was called Beersheba, because there both of them swore an oath. 32 So they made a covenant at Beersheba. Then Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his army rose up and returned to the land of the Philistines. 33 Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba and called there on the name of the LORD, the Everlasting God. [El Olam]

The everlasting God is making an oath for you as your everlasting provider. The tamarisk tree is known for its deep roots and ability to survive in harsh, arid conditions. By planting this tree, Abraham symbolically acknowledges God’s ongoing provision. God’s faithfulness and enduring promises.

- Isaac:

Whenever God’s well flows in our lives, we will be blessed both financially and spiritually. However, this blessing often attracts envy. Envy of blessing led Cain to kill Abel and the Philistines to persecute Issac. and Esau after Jacob. Success always arouses envy.

Genesis 26:18 And Isaac dug again the wells of water that had been dug in the days of Abraham his father, which the Philistines had stopped after the death of Abraham. And he gave them the names that his father had given them.

Esek means contention. When we enter into a move of God, there will always be those who claim that what we experience belongs to them, perhaps because they once drank from that fountain but later abandoned it.

Sitnah means enmity. God’s movement can produce enmity, but this is the reality: if God moves through us, envy can lead to enmity and even persecution.

Rehoboth means broad places or rooms.

Genesis 26:22 And he moved from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it. So he called its name Rehoboth, saying, “For now the LORD has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.”

It became evident that the Lord’s blessing rested upon Isaac. We, too, will have this experience. A time will come when God’s influence in our lives will be so unmistakable that everyone will recognize that God is with us.

- Jacob:

His selfish scheming ruins his family relationships, forcing him to flee into the wilderness. 

Genesis 29:1-3 Then Jacob went on his journey and came to the land of the people of the east. 2 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,

Genesis 29:9-10 9 While he was still speaking with them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep, for she was a shepherdess. 10 Now 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.

Jacob finds a well and meets a woman—a scene reminiscent of Eden.

Despite all Jacob’s deceit and mistakes with no merit or deserving, Jacob finds a well and his wife.

A man and a woman gather near a life-giving well of spring waters to start a life-giving creation, a priestly tribe.

Through Jacob, God forms the family of Israel and invites them to share in His own life, becoming partners in spreading that life to others. However, like their ancestors, they struggle with the same inner drought, thirsting for power and control. 

A well that shapes a nation.

Exodus 2:15-22 (ESV)15 When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midian. And he sat down by a well.16 Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came and drew water and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock.

[…]

21 And Moses was content to dwell with the man, and he gave Moses his daughter Zipporah.22 She gave birth to a son, and he called his name Gershom, for he said, “I have been a sojourner in a foreign land.”Sojourner in a foreign land.

A man and a woman by the life-giving waters starting a life-giving creation, a priestly tribe, a holy nation.

This is a foreshadow of us, the nation of priests.

1 Peter 2:9-11 9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

11 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.

The principle here is to keep a heart as a Sojourner in a foreign land.

Israel, seeking security on its own terms, follows a route of violence and self-destruction. Ultimately, it ends up in exile, a new wilderness, held captive by foreign powers nations.

The thirst that becomes a spiritual spring

All this effort to quench their own thirst apart from the grace of God only leads to death. But it is in this place of captivity that we have the promise of God renewed.

Isaiah 43:19 Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.

In that promise, we have a picture of what can happen to you if you accept Jesus’ word in your life today. This hope finds its fulfillment only in the grace of Jesus.

One day, Jesus arrives at a well that once belonged to Jacob. There, he meets a Samaritan woman—just as Jacob met Rachel generations earlier. 

John 4:10-15 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.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but 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.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”

The purpose of God is the same here.

Jesus is the man and the well of living waters. The purpose is the same. 

A man and a woman, by the well, started a new creation, a priestly tribe, a holy nation, and now a kingdom movement.

A man and a woman gather near a life-giving well of spring waters to start a life-giving creation, family, nation and kingdom.

Jesus is offering God’s own life, which alone can satisfy the soul’s deepest thirst.

John 7:37-39 37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” 39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

Jesus is not speaking of ordinary water—He is offering God’s own life, which alone can satisfy the soul’s deepest thirst. He is speaking of the Life of the spirit. He restores what was lost in Eden, bringing a new wellspring of eternal life.

How do you drink this water?

This imagery reaches its most powerful moment at the cross.

John 19:28 28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.”

As Jesus hangs on the Cross, a Roman soldier pierces His side:

John 19:34 (ESV) “But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water.”

At the cross, Jesus’ body becomes the ultimate source of life:

The One who thirsted on the Cross is now the ultimate source of living water.

The well is here again. 

The Man is thirsty again.

The woman is here again. 

That is you. That is me. That is the church.

Jesus’ death becomes the fountain of life, pouring out God’s love for you.

Mark 15:39 “And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, ‘Truly this man was the Son of God!’”

That unbelieving gentile centurion believed, and that quenched his thirst.

The way to drink is to believe in Him. 

To trust His sacrifice.

To accept His finished work.

To embrace His free grace.

Isaiah speaks of God’s people drawing from the well of salvation— joy and restoration that comes from knowing Him:

(Isaiah 12:3) “With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.”

Jesus describes the Holy Spirit as a river of living water, flowing from those who believe in Him.

John 7:38-39 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” 39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

Jesus’ death and resurrection remove the barriers, making every believer a wellspring of life.

The New Creation: The River of Life

The final vision of Scripture brings the story full circle. On the last page of the Bible, a new river of life flows from the throne of God:

Revelation 22:1-2 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

There is a clear connection to the Fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) and Ephesians 5.9

Though Paul lists nine Fruit of the Spirit, some theologians suggest an extended list by breaking them down further, such as:

Galatians 5:22-23 (ESV) “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”

1.Love

2.Joy

3.Peace

4.Patience

5.Kindness

6.Goodness

7.Faithfulness

8.Gentleness

9.Self-control

(Ephesians 5:9) “For the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true.”

10.Righteousness 

11.Truth

Romans 6:22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.

12. Sanctification

Some translations say “fruit of the Spirit” instead of “fruit of light.” This passage emphasizes that righteousness is a result of walking in God’s truth.)

This river brings life to all wherever it flows. 

The garden rebuilding began at the burial and the resurrection of Christ. But is being complete in us by the Holy Spirit.

John 19:41 41 Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid.

John 20:15-16 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher).

John 20:22 – And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”