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I know many of you know your Bible very well. For those faithful followers of the Home Bible Study, you hopefully will have learned a great deal about the Bible these last six years. The Biblical well is deep and it is wide, and the words of Holy Scripture help to satisfy "fully" the hunger and thirst that lies deep within.
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Wells in Old Testament culture were of the highest importance. Without your own well, you got not live there. Water, precious water, was needed not only for human need, drinking, washing, etc., but for sheep, cattle, camels, oxen or any other kinds of domesticated animals one might happen to have around.
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Bishop Hockin, in one of his Lenten talks, once described the local well in Old Testament times as having the same purpose in a community as Tim Horten’s or the Irving Big Stop might have in our culture today. Wells then were places where people gathered - a sort of community meeting place - as they drew water.
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Now an Old Testament well was not how we might view a well today. Then it was just a hole in the ground. One was considered ‘blessed’ if they had a well that flowed with water - but again it was just a hole in the ground, usually with a great stone over the entrance to stop animals from falling in and polluting the precious water in the well. A well that had a steady source, flowing from an underground aquifer was always a popular place for people to meet.
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When Abraham sent his servant ‘back home" to find a wife for his son Isaac, the servant went with instructions to go to the local well. There God would show him a woman who would be a wife for Isaac. It is a wonderful story - even though it is about an arranged marriage - it is about love at first sight, It also seeks to show God’s hand in such a small thing like match-making and marriage.
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Then there is the complicated story of the even more complicated Jacob, who because of his deceiving ways is estranged from his twin brother and his father. It seems that Jacob got very little right. He had a gift for alienating people - especially his family. However his parents must take responsibility for this trait.
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Again, the community well is the place for people to meet, and it is here that Jacob meets the love of his life - but not before a bit of a soap opera unfolds. If you wish to read this great story again - you’ll find it in Genesis, chapters 25 - 35. When we understand the importance of these wells as community gathering places, then we can more appreciate the story of the woman at the well in a much clearer way and why she came to the well when so few people would be there. There was also many conflicts over and around these wells, as well.
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M. GENESIS 21
THE TRAGIC STORY OF HAGAR AND ISHMAEL
T. GENESIS 24
THE LOVE STORY OF ISAAC & REBEKAH
W. GENESIS 26
ISAAC & ABIMELECH - WELL CONFLICT
T. GENESIS 29
COMPLICATED JACOB & THE BEAUTIFUL RACHAEL
F. 2 KINGS 10
AHAB'S FAMILY KILLED BY THE WELL OF BETH -EKED
S. JOHN 4
JESUS AND THE NOTORIOUS WOMAN AT THE WELL.