Extraordinary Ordinary - Part 7
July 10, 2022Today's message was given by Tabitha Panariso. A video of the message is here. "God makes the ordinary extraordinary." Today's focus was the woman at the well (John 4). Click here for the Conversation Starter for the week that TimberCreek Church provided.
There's no way to overstate how important wells and water were to people of the late bronze age. Wells are still of paramount importance today (well, that is modern systems that deliver water to our homes and businesses). In addition to the obvious need to supply water, wells also were often landmarks (Numbers 21:16, Deuteronomy 10:6), communal gathering spots, rest stops for travelers (Genesis 24:11), and the like. Wells were also pick-up spots; yes, as in finding a spouse. Let's look at some lessons from the Torah that center around water wells...
The story of finding a wife for Isaac is told in Genesis 24. It's an incredible tale of Abraham's instructions to the servant he sends to find Isaac a wife, where he sent the servant, and how the servant executed his task successfully. The well-specific part of the story is in Genesis 24:11-27. Among other things, the servant (non-Jew and obviously not a patriarch) offers the first petitionary prayer of the Bible. And it's not for himself but for his master's son. He plots out things he wants to see in a wife for Isaac: is she kind and good (not beautiful, not wealthy, etc.) and does she treat strangers kindly (offers water to him AND waters his camels, too!). And the Hebrew makes it clear she hurried/ran to do all of this. The well was at the center of this story, where the servant finds the right woman with the right character.
In Genesis 29:1-11, Jacob meets is soon-to-be wife at a well. He kisses her, which is the only kiss in the Bible of a man to anyone other than his wife or sister. During this story, we also learn that speaking up is important. Jacob speaks up to tell the shepherds present that it's not yet time to gather the flocks. When it comes to ethics, it's your business, speak up! All of society suffers with crime. Take care of strangers and animals.
At a well, Moses displays one of the reasons God chooses him, standing up (literally) for others. Zipporah (his future wife) comes to the well to water her sheep but is bullied by other shepherds. This upsets Moses and he stands up for her. Earlier Moses had displayed two other ways to fight evil: fight and speak up. Here, it's "stand up" to evil. When Zipporah gets home, her father (Jethro, aka Reuel ["friend of God"], aka Hobab, a Midianite priest) asks how she got home so early. Apparently she is bullied routinely at the well and has to wait until all the other shepherds have watered their flocks. He/They had gotten used to evil and did nothing about it; very dangerous. When Zipporah explains an Egyptian man helped her, Jethro asks, "where is he?" You can just imagine him thinking to himself, "I have 7 daughters to marry off!" On a side note, Zipporah sees Moses as an Egyptian. Just how Egyptian had Moses become? That's a great discussion for another time. Also for another time, Jethro is a good role model for in-laws. (Exodus 2:16-22)
Here are some other references to wells in the Torah:
Genesis 26:15
Genesis 26:18
Exodus 15:27
Numbers 20:17
Numbers 21:22
Numbers 33:9
Deuteronomy 6:11
Deuteronomy 10:6
One last comment stemming from Tabitha's talk... She mentioned a couple times how women were second-class citizens then, being a patriarchal society and all. I just want to make it clear that this may have been true of the people at the time, but, it was/is not the Torah's attitude. There are just as many female heroines in the Torah as male heros. Females play extremely important roles in many of the Torah stories. The Torah makes it very clear, right from the outset, that man and woman are different but equally valuable. "A helper who is his equal" (Genesis 2:18). Helper, in God talk, is someone with great skill, someone like Himself. This is clear when you review all the uses of "helper" in the Torah.
Likewise, the Torah is not at all chauvanistic about the Jews. There are as many (or more) Hebrew bad guys as non-Hebrew bad guys, and as many non-Hebrew good guys as Hebrew good guys. It would be interesting if someone built a list enumerating this as well as the male/female aspect...
Bonus
Do you remember that a set of two signs/marvels paralleling two of the plagues on Egypt was performed twice BEFORE Moses ever got to Egypt? The set included turning a rod into a snake/crocodile and the scaling and healing of Moses' hand. God did these for Moses at the burning bush (Exodus 4:1-9) and Moses and Aaron repeated this set before the elders when telling them what God wanted Moses et al to do (Exodus 4:30). A third sign was discussed each of those times, turning water to blood, but was not actually performed until Moses was before the Pharoah.