Living Water Signals A New Covenant
When Jesus met the woman at the well, he claimed to be “living water.” That phrase has a nice sound to it, but now I realize that it’s a reference to Genesis 26.
Genesis 26 isn’t too popular, so here are the spark notes:
God reveals himself to Isaac and reminds him of the covenant He was forming with Abraham.
Isaac’s workers discover a well with “living water” in it. (Most English translations don’t use the word “living” though—they usually call it “clean” or “fresh” or “moving”—but the Hebrew word literally means “living.”)
God reveals himself to Isaac AGAIN and reminds him of the covenant a SECOND TIME.
So basically, in that chapter where Isaac finds living water, God really emphasizes His covenant with the Israelites.
So when Jesus shows up on the scene and claims to be “living water,” he is triggering a connection to Genesis 26. The Israelites would have been like, “Hey, wait a minute… living water is what Isaac found when God was establishing His covenant with us!”
The reason why Jesus made that connection was because He wanted to signal to the world that God was busy establishing a NEW covenant.
In the old covenant, the Israelites were God’s chosen people, while in the new covenant, anyone could be a part of God’s chosen people.
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