Woman at the Well Signals A New Covenant
In the OT God formed a covenant with Abraham to create an entire family of people who belonged to God. (A “covenant” can be thought of as an alliance.) But then in the NT, God used Jesus to form a new covenant so that God’s family would become even bigger.
While Isaac was the first person born into God’s OLD family, Jesus was the first person born into God’s NEW family. That’s why there are some parallels between the two stories, and Jesus’s “woman at the well” is one of those parallels. When Jesus met the woman at the well, it was really similar to a story of Isaac in Genesis 24. Genesis 24 marked the beginning of God’s FIRST covenant, so when Jesus relived that story so closely, it signaled that God was initiating a NEW covenant.
Two Different Women at Wells
Issac’s story and Jesus’s story each tell about a women at a well, but the women are described very differently.
In Genesis 24, Abraham tasks his servant to find a wife for his son, Isaac. So the servant goes back to Abraham’s hometown looking for someone to become Isaac’s wife. When Abraham’s servant arrives, he waits by the city well, knowing that women come there to get water. When Abraham’s servant sees Rebekah approaching the well, Genesis describes Rebekah as “exceedingly beautiful.” And when Abraham’s servant asks her for a drink, she gets water for both him and his camels (which was God’s sign that she was the one).
In the New Testament, Jesus also meets a woman at a well, but the passage doesn’t describe her as beautiful. Instead, it describes her as a Samaritan. (The people in Jesus’s circles DESPISED Samaritans.) When Jesus asks her for a drink of water, she is surprised by the fact that he even acknowledged her! Even though this woman was despised instead of beautiful, Jesus still wanted to invite her to be a part of His church which would later become His bride.
The two women were complete opposites of each other. The first was exceeding beautiful while the second was repulsive.
Two Different Pasts
The two women at wells had completely different pasts.
Genesis 24 says that Rebekah was a virgin who had never had relations with a man. She was young, pure, and 100% fit for marriage.
But the woman who Jesus met at the well had gone through SIX husbands. She was probably older, definitely impure, and far from the ideal candidate for marriage.
Again, these two women are complete opposites. The first was young and pure while the second was old and worn.
Two Inclusions into God’s Family
Even though the two women were complete opposites, they were both grafted into God’s family at their respective times.
When Abraham’s servant came looking for a woman to marry into God’s covenant, Rebekah excitedly accepted. Her family wanted her to stay for 10 more days, but she was eager to meet her new husband and left her family the very next day. Genesis 24:61 says she “followed” Abraham’s servant.
When Jesus came looking for people to become part of his bride (church), the Samaritan woman excitedly accepted just like Rebekah did in the OT. Scripture says she went and told everyone she knew about it, and she started following Jesus.
God’s reason for initiating each covenant was to invite more people into his family.
Conclusion
God’s first covenant was exclusively with the Israelites, and they were “exceedingly beautiful” to Him (just like how Rebekah was to Isaac). But when Jesus came, He invited non-Israelites like me to join God’s family, even though I might be more like the old, tattered woman. Jesus loves tattered non-Israelites like me as if we were exceedingly beautiful.
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