Tag: water

Spring Up, O Well!

Posted on by jovial_cynic
“I’ve got a river of life flowing out of me!
Makes the lame to walk and the blind to see!
Opens prison doors, sets the captives free!
I’ve got a river of life flowing out of me!”

You know this song, right?

Spring up, O well, (splish, splash) within my soul!
Spring up, O well, (splish, splash) and make me whole!
Spring up, O well, (splish, splash) and give to me
That life abundantly.

This phrase, “Spring up, O well…” do you know what it’s from?

It’s from Numbers 21:17:

Then Israel sang this song:
“Spring up, O well! Sing to it!”
Numbers 21:17 (NASB)

The children of Israel have just been attacked by the Canaanites, and after that, they got attacked by a bunch of venomous snakes, and God miraculously saved them by way of a bronze snake held high on a pole.

Then God leads them to water, and the children of Israel sing.

“Spring up, O well.”

What does it mean for the well to “spring up?” That would be water rising up from the well so you don’t have to struggle to get it, right? We’re supposed to see this as a miraculous event, that is so exciting it causes the people to sing.

In Genesis 24, when Rebekah first goes to fetch water for Eliezer and his camels, the text does something very odd in the way it describes how she gets the water.

Normally, you have to draw water from a well. And that’s what we see the SECOND time she goes to get water.

So she quickly emptied her jar into the trough, and ran back to the well to draw, and she drew for all his camels.
Genesis 24:20 (NASB)

But the FIRST time she goes to get water, the text omits any mention of her DRAWING it.

The young woman was very beautiful, a virgin; no man had had relations with her. She went down to the spring, filled her jar, and came up.
Genesis 24:16 (NASB)

From this, the rabbis say that the miraculous event that moved Eliezer to run towards her in the next verse was that the water in the well ROSE TO MEET Rebekah.

You might think this is silly, because you’ve forgotten that the account is meant to be full of strange and supernatural things. Consider: Moses will later set a staff in water to have it rise to form walls to allow Israel to pass through the sea.

So here is a teaching and a blessing:

“May the water you need rise to meet you when you need it.”

Water in Wineskins

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So Abraham got up early in the morning and took bread and a skin of water, and gave them to Hagar, putting them on her shoulder, and gave her the boy, and sent her away. And she departed and wandered about in the wilderness of Beersheba.

When the water in the skin was used up, she left the boy under one of the bushes. Then she went and sat down opposite him, about a bowshot away, for she said, “May I not see the boy die!” And she sat opposite him, and raised her voice and wept. God heard the boy crying; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What is the matter with you, Hagar? Do not fear, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. Get up, lift up the boy, and hold him by the hand, for I will make a great nation of him.” Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water; and she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink.
Genesis 21:14-19 (NASB)

There are a number of anomalies and odd statements in Genesis 21 that seem to hint at something, or reinforce a lesson.

Look at this word חֵמֶת (chemet). Some translations say “bottle,” but it’s a wineskin. Here it’s full of water.

You may remember from Genesis 18 how Abraham demonstrated his hospitality to the three angels – he brought them bread and water, which is echoed here. Later, Lot in Genesis 19 offers the angels bread, but in that chapter, no water is mentioned.

This word chemet is only found four times in the scriptures, and three of them are here in this passage about Hagar and Ishmael.

Chemet, chemet, chemet… with water.

The fourth time it’s mentioned, the context is quite different. Also, it seems quite related to Genesis 19.

“Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbor,
Pressing him to your bottle,
Even to make him drunk,
That you may look on his nakedness!
Habakkuk 2:15 (NKJV)

The phrease “look on his nakedness” is a euphamism for sex.

Perhaps Abraham’s water for Hagar and Ishmael is meant to stand in continued contrast against the unkindness and lack of hospitality in Sodom and Gomorrah, where the men wished to force themselves onto other men.

Water and Bread

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Please let a little water be brought and wash your feet, and make yourselves comfortable under the tree; and I will bring a piece of bread, so that you may refresh yourselves; after that you may go on, since you have visited your servant.” And they said, “So do as you have said.”
Genesis 18:4-5 (NASB)

When Abraham first meets the three men (or angels!) in Genesis 18, the Rabbis note every word he speaks and wonder if there is prophetic meaning in them.

We know that the offering of water and bread is hospitality, but note the passive and active verbs used for each.

He says “let water be brought” and he says “I’ll bring bread.”

The rabbis say this is clear: the water is to be brought by way of some unnamed servant or messenger, whereas Abraham is offering to bring the bread himself.

And then they point to the Exodus.

In the Exodus, we read that when God provided water for Israel, He did it through Moses, first at Marah in Genesis 15, and later when Moses strikes the rock. God provides the water through… a messenger.

And the people complained against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” So he cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree. When he cast it into the waters, the waters were made sweet.
Exodus 15:24-25a (NKJV)

But of bread, God does it directly in the next chapter. It’s set up exactly like Abraham’s hospitality to the three men: A messenger will get the water, but I’ll get the bread for you.

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in My law or not.
Exodus 16:4 (NKJV)

Now, notice back in Genesis 18:4, Abraham used the phrase “a little water.”

We just read past this and don’t pay much attention to it, but oddly, this word “little” first appears three times in Genesis in exactly this same way: “A little water.”

Each time, a messenger is involved:

Please let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree.
Genesis 18:4 (NKJV)

And the servant ran to meet her and said, “Please let me drink a little water from your pitcher.”
Genesis 24:17 (NKJV)

Behold, I stand by the well of water; and it shall come to pass that when the virgin comes out to draw water, and I say to her, “Please give me a little water from your pitcher to drink,”
Genesis 18:4 (NKJV)

In the second two instances, this same messenger’s name is Eliazar, who has the task of seeking out and inviting the future bride of Isaac.

This hebrew word מְעַט (meh-aht) means little. Small. Fewness.

Water. Messenger. Smallness.

For the believer who sees a messenger in the wilderness, standing in the water and baptizing the Messiah, the words “he must increase, but I must DECREASE” suddenly ring.

And for the Christian who sees the Holy Spirit like a messenger of God, speaking precisely the words of God and revealing precisely the heart of God, the connection to this messenger and water gets clearer.

For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.
1 Corinthians 12:13 (NKJV)

And of the bread? The Christian will see the breaking of bread at communion as a symbol of the broken body of the Messiah, made available for us for salvation. Given freely, not through a messenger, but by God himself.

If the Christian is looking for a Trinune God, perhaps it’s not the three angels in Genesis 18 themselves that give it to us, but perhaps they function as three sign posts to tell us that it is near.

The Vault

Posted on by jovial_cynic
I just had this epiphany today. I’ve always wondered about day #2 of creation in Genesis 1, because it’s the only day God doesn’t say is “good.”

I think I have an answer. The focus isn’t the separation of the waters (chaos above, chaos below)… but about the “vault.”

Some bibles say “firmament,” and some say “vault,” but the image is this space created between the waters that separates the waters above from the waters below. And it’s inside this separation where God separates water from land. Inside this special place.

I often think about working against the curses of Genesis 3 & 4, and how we’re meant to shine as lights in the darkness. A part of our Christian prayer is “on earth, as it is in heaven.” And it’s a prayer to create a protected space in this life where God can be seen clearly…

This protected space is like a vault that holds back the waters of chaos & darkness. It’s space where water is gathered away from land, which represents humanity. And life flourishes on that land.

When we pray “on earth, as it is in heaven,” we’re praying for the firmament.

So why does God not say “it is good?”

Perhaps it’s because it isn’t good *yet.* It represents the good we MUST DO later, after the curse of sin. It WILL be good.

No “God-forsaken” places

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Genesis 1:2 introduces us to a word that we translate as “darkness.” The Hebrew word hints at misery, destruction, death.

The book in the Bible that uses this word more than any other is Job. Job uses this word twenty three times.

He knows darkness.

But Genesis 1:2 introduces us to another word. The “ruah” of God. The “Spirit” of God. The “Breath of God” that hovers over the same dark waters.

In the darkness, God is there, too. There are no God-forsaken places. No God-forsaken people.

Let there be Light.

Firmament

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Separations:

Light/Darkness: Good/Evil.
Water below/above: ???
Land/Water: Humanity; God’s work of removing wickedness & chaos from us.

I’m wrestling with the firmament: a vault God put in the water to shove half the sea into the sky. This is what the Hebrews understood. Why?

The ancient people believed that earth had a dome over it, where an uncrossable sky-sea existed, beyond which was God’s realm. The flood waters involved the dome opening and allowing water to fall.

That’s the mythology.

But what is the symbolism? And why is it not “good?”

The dividing of the sea into the “waters below” and “waters above” is on day 2 of the creation story, and it’s the only day where God does not say that He “saw that it was good.”

Is it not good? Is it bad? Does it point to the grief of the Flood story? I don’t know.