What is the significance of Jacob's well?

Joseph is a well-known type of Christ; but it is not every reader of the Bible who delights to trace out the application and fulfilment of the type. Take, for example, John 4:6. Why is it mentioned, "Now Jacob's well was there"? Surely to arrest our attention in some special way; and Gen. 49:22 discovers the secret. Joseph, we read, is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a well, whose branches run over the wall. In this wearied Man, therefore, who in that noontide heat sat by the well of Sychar, we see the true Joseph; and even while we gaze upon Him we behold His branches running over the wall of Judaism, and reaching, with their goodly fruit, this poor woman of Samaria. And if not actually, yet morally (for this characterizes this gospel), the archers had sorely grieved Him, and shot at Him, and hated Him; but His bow abode in strength, etc., as is shown by the deliverance He wrought that day for this poor captive of Satan. E. D.

The parcel of ground in verse 5 is referred to in Joshua 24:32, Joseph's burying place purchased by his father Jacob. Joseph's death is typical of that of the Lord Jesus, which is the very basis of the water of life being given to guilty sinners. Jacob's well, a source of living refreshment, is in the same location. Here the Lord, being wearied from His journey (indicating the reality of His Manhood), reclined on the well.

A woman of Samaria comes alone to the well, for it was not the usual time for women to draw water, and she was likely not welcome among others. She is surprised that this solitary Stranger, manifestly Jewish, should ask her for a drink, for she had expected Him to totally ignore her, as Jews did generally. How little she knew His heart of infinite grace! Does not the Lord of glory seek refreshment from all His intelligent creatures? His answer to her puzzled question is lovely. If only she knew God as the giving God He is, and if she knew who was speaking to her in such gentle grace, she would have asked of Him the answer to the need of her lonely, thirsty soul, and He would have given her living water.

Still, her thoughts rise no higher than the well. How could He draw water without rope and container? Or was He greater than Jacob, to accomplish this in some unheard-of way? Did not Jacob use the same means as she? Also, was he not dependent upon the water of the well, and his children also, and his animals?

We find, therefore, the Lord now at Sychar ("purchased") which took its name from the piece of land purchased by Jacob from the sons of Hamor, and given to Joseph, who was buried there. All that Jacob had purchased, therefore, (though he meant it otherwise,) and all that he could give to his best-loved son, was the place of a grave: a good place in which to speak of another gift and another purchase, free to all who desired and sought it, a spring of life instead of a place of death, and of which Jacob's spring could be at once the type, and (what all types must be) the instructive contrast also. To this spring, which as we learn directly was not free-flowing but shut up in a well, the Lord came, a wearied man, and sat Him down there.

"And Isaac's servants digged in the valley, and found there a well of springing water." How in keeping is Isaac with the double character in which he typically stood as the heir of all promise, and the heir in resurrection too (for Abraham received this son from the dead in a figure) as he finds this well of living water! And in truth we may say that it is only as we realise and take the place of union with Christ in resurrection-life and power, that there can be any good well-diggings on our parts, as having received the Holy Ghost, and maintaining our title in redemption to go through the length and breadth of the promised land. All other springs are dry.

At this point shall we not remind one another of Him who once rested upon the patriarchal well (of which Jacob drank, and his children, and his cattle), and, sitting thereon, superseded it, and took the place of it? What a well of living water He presented to the woman of Samaria, as He offered Himself to her faith, and said, "If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water." "The woman then left her water-pot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men, Come, see a man, that told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?" Oh, to have been at this well with the Lord and to have settled everything between the conscience and God with Jesus as she did; to have come thirsty, and found the water which springeth up into everlasting life; to have come with her water-pot, but only to leave it, and be detained at the well by Christ Himself: what an exchange! — what gain!

The Lord sat at the well. A woman of Samaria approached to draw water for herself. "The Jews have no dealings with Samaritans," our Evangelist is careful to tell us. It would not, therefore, be likely that she should accost the stranger, whom she recognised at once as a Jew. Yet intercourse between them must take place in the counsels of God, for the woman to receive Divine blessing. The Lord then broke the silence by the simple request, "Give Me to drink" (7). Those few words at once paved the way for all which followed. Asked by the stranger to minister to His want, she replied by expressing surprise, that He, a Jew, should ask drink of her, who was a woman of Samaria. Of the controversy between the two parties she was well aware, and at once referred to it. How different had been the action of Rebekah, when asked for water by a stranger (Gen. 24:18). But then religious controversy had not embittered minds, nor made them forget the ordinary acts of courtesy.

Who was the woman addressing? A proud, self-righteous Jew? A Jew certainly; but One, the like of whom she had never before met, nor could ever find His equal. To her answer, which was calculated to kindle afresh the embers of religious contention, she received a reply so gracious, and so unexpected: "If thou knewest the gift of God [i.e. that He gives freely], and who it is that says to thee, Give Me to drink thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water" (John 4:10). Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Yet He who was one offered her living water. The Lord's answer struck her, and, it would seem, softened any bitter feeling there might have been in being accosted by a Jew. But living water, by which she only understood running, and not stagnant, water, how could that stranger supply it? — for the well was deep, and he had nothing to draw with. Who was He? Who could He be? Was He greater than her father Jacob? she asked, who gave them that well, and drank thereof himself, his children, and his cattle? What tale could He have unfolded, had He told her, that He had seen Jacob, had wrestled with him, had humbled him, had blessed him! Verily, He was greater than her father Jacob. Jacob dug a well in the ground. He could supply a fountain for the heart.

So the Lord proceeded: "Whosoever drinks of this water shall thirst again: but whosoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up to everlasting life" (13, 14). He spake here, surely, of spiritual refreshment through the power of the Holy Ghost, — a fountain in the individual, which should never run dry; living water, ever fresh and flowing. Attracted by such an offer, opposition was dispelled. And she, a woman of Samaria, though still in ignorance of what the stranger, a Jew, was presenting, puts aside all prejudice, and says, "Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw" (15). Relief from daily toil was all that she thought of. Yet, wonderful to say, she was willing now to be indebted to a Jew for that. But He, who knew her need, desiring to minister what she really wanted, and not what she asked, at once replied, "Go, call thy husband, and come hither." Conscience must be dealt with for spiritual blessing to be received. How wisely, how graciously, did He do that!

But this cannot be confined to the Jew, for God loved the world and sent His Son as the witness of that love; and therefore we find Him outside Judea. We find Him at a city of the Samaritans, talking to a poor depraved sinner of the Gentiles. Jacob's well was there, at which, the woman says, Jacob drank and his children and his cattle. Man away from God has little more than the cattle. Jacob, his children and his cattle slaked their thirst at the same fountain. That which lifts man above the beast of the field is his knowledge and enjoyment of God; if he has lost these he has dropped down to the level of the beast.

But the Son of God stands in contrast to Jacob's well. In Him was living water. The fountain of life was in Him for those who were in this arid desert parched and dying without the knowledge of God. He draws the contrast between Himself and the well from which the woman came to draw: "Whosoever drinks of this water shall thirst again: but whosoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." There is no satisfaction to be derived from the creature springs of earth. Men think that there is enough in this world to satisfy every craving of the heart. In this they are mistaken. They think if they could only drink from every earthly well they would allay the terrible soul thirst which devours all their happiness; but like this woman they complain that the well is deep. They are sanguine that there is satisfaction to be found in the pleasures of the world, but they are debarred from the enjoyment of them from want of means. The poor think that happiness is to be found in wealth, but the rich have not found it so. There was a man who tried everything that proposed satisfaction for the heart, and we have his verdict. Solomon tells us that he tried everything that any other man could try. He gathered everything together that his soul lusted after. Nothing was withheld from him. He says he withheld not his heart from any joy. If he was told of anything that might minister enjoyment to the craving of his appetite, he got it. Many a man hears of what he might call good things and has no means of procuring them. The well is too deep and he has nothing to draw with; the rope is too short. However deep the well was Solomon could draw, he had plenty of means. If you read what Solomon gathered around his person you will be surprised. He tried everything that could be had in his day, and there is nothing new under the sun. And he was inspired by God to put his experience upon record, and he virtually says what the Lord says to this woman, "Whosoever drinks of this water shall thirst again." There is neither satisfaction nor profit. All is vanity and pursuit of the wind. If we could only believe all that this wise man was inspired to put upon record it would be well, but most of us prefer to learn by our own experience.

But the blessed Lord seeks this poor slave of sin and proposes to give her perfect satisfaction. What a contrast He was to Jacob's well! He can give living water. This could not be given until He was glorified, because God could not set up the man after the flesh. Living water was in Him when He came into the world, and in Him for all, but man could not have it until righteousness was accomplished and the Son of God glorified. But Jesus was the well from which all might drink. He was accessible to all. Two things only were necessary for the one who was to partake of this water. Jesus says, "If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that says to thee, Give me to drink." It was news to this poor creature that God was a giver. He was not so presented under law. We have to learn that God needs nothing from man, and we have to learn also that man can render nothing. Man must take the place of a receiver; he must be a subject of grace. This is the first thing to be learned. The next is, who it is in whom the blessing of God has been established. Who is this who has brought this living water near to us? Who could bring such a gift to us but a divine Person—the Son of God? If we only knew how freely God gives, and how near He has come to us in Christ, we should ask of Him, and He would give us living water.

The woman, it is true, made it palpable that as yet she was wholly unprepared for the inestimable gift. Wonder not at this. I do not think that any one, fairly reading John 3 with the fourth chapter, could boast of the learned Nicodemus any more than of the ignorant woman of Samaria. In the former scene the truth insisted on was, if possible, still more incumbent on man to know. How much had the teacher of Israel known of it? How far did he take it in then? In the later incident, the gift of living water was a truth that no one antecedently could have known. So far from being a matter of common need and urgently responsible knowledge, how could it be conceived? When had ever been given such a revelation of God and of His grace as Jesus had brought before this woman in John 4:10? Where had there ever been such a display of divine grace as God thus giving, the Son thus bowing down in love to one outside all righteousness, and the Holy Ghost this living source of refreshment for the heart? The woman however falls back upon that which is the constant resource of nature in this world, that is, tradition — "the well of our father Jacob." It was an effort to escape from that which was too vast and deep and divine for her to take in. Jesus had left the place where His people dwelt under the shadow of God-imposed ordinance. Higher purposes were in accomplishment. Our gospel does not trace Him as come to bring out what was destined for the land of promise; for, after all, what is the promise? It is measured grace. He was come in immeasurable grace, for all was lost, where there ought not to have been an object to be the hiding-place of the soul. But where will not a sinner find one? She retreats behind this covering of pride, even for a woman of Samaria — "the well of her father Jacob." He had drunk of it, and his cattle, as well as his children: who was it then that Jesus made Himself? Oh, the withering unbelief of the heart, so quick to darken the rich grace of God! Jesus, however, patiently bears with her folly, and says to her, "Whosoever drinketh of this water" — albeit Jacob's well — "Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst." More than this, "the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life."

"The woman saith to Him, Sir, Thou hast no bucket, and the well is deep: whence, then, hast Thou the living water? Art Thou greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?" She comprehends none of the gracious words she had heard; they were not mixed with faith in her heart. She, therefore, reasons against them. If the water was to be drawn from Jacob's well, where was the bucket to let down, for the well was deep? Did He pretend to be greater than Jacob, or was His a better well than that which of old supplied him and his house — a well which was now theirs? Thus the mind argues against the Lord, according to the senses or tradition, so fatal is ignorance of His Person and of the truth. Circumstances are the trial of faith and the swamp of unbelief, which gladly avails itself (with or with out any just title) of a great name and its gifts, alas! to slight a greater — yea, the greatest.

City of Samaria in the vicinity of which was Jacob's well, where the Lord met the woman of Samaria, and where He stayed two days, and many of the Samaritans believed on Him. John 4:5. Identified with Askur, 32 13' N, 35 17 E. Jacob's well is about half a mile from the village.

We here reproduce from the pen of Dean Stanley a graphic description of it: "At the mouth of the valley of Shechem, two slight breaks are visible in the midst of the vast plains of corn — one a white Mussulman chapel, the other a few fragments of stone. The first of these covers the alleged tomb of Joseph, buried there in the 'parcel of ground,' which his father bequeathed especially to him, his favourite son. The second marks the undisputed site of the well, now neglected and choked up by the ruins which have fallen into it; but still with every claim to be considered the original well, sunk deep into the rocky ground by 'our father Jacob,' who had retained enough of the customs of the earlier families of Abraham and Isaac, to mark his first possession by digging a well, 'to give drink thereof to himself, his children, and his cattle.' This at least was the tradition of the place, in the last days of the Jewish people, and its position adds probability to the conclusion; indicating, as has been well observed, that it was there dug by one who could not trust to the fresh springs so near in the adjacent vale, which still belonged to the hostile or strange Canaanites. … By a singular fate, this authentic and expressive memorial of the earliest dawn of Jewish history became the memorial no less authentic and expressive of its sacred close. Of all the special localities of our Lord's life in Palestine, this is almost the only one absolutely undisputed. By the edge of this well, in the touching language of the ancient hymn, 'Quaerens me sedisti lassus.' Here on the great road through which 'He must needs go,' when 'He left Judea, and departed into Galilee,' He halted, as travellers still halt, in the noon or evening of the spring-day by the side of the well, amongst the relics of a former age. Up that passage through the valley, His disciples 'went away into the city,' which He did not enter. Down the same gorge came the woman to draw water, according to the unchanged custom of the East; which still, in the lively concourse of veiled figures round the wayside wells, reproduces the image of Rebekah, Rachel, and Zipporah. Above them as they talked rose 'this mountain' of Gerizim, crowned by the Temple, of which the vestiges still remain, where the fathers of the Samaritan sect said men ought to worship, and to which still, after so many centuries, their descendants turn as to the only sacred spot in the universe — the strongest example of local worship now existing in the world in the very face of the principle there first announced, that the sacredness of local worship was at an end. And round about them, as He and she thus sate or stood by the well, spread far and wide the noble plain of waving corn. It was still winter or early spring, four months yet to the harvest."