Jacob Meets Rachel 

He said, “Behold, it is still high day; it is not time for the livestock to be gathered together. Water the sheep and go, pasture them.”  But they said, “We cannot until all the flocks are gathered together and the stone is rolled from the mouth of the well; then we water the sheep.” 

While he was still speaking with them, Rachel came with her father's sheep, for she was a shepherdess.  Now as soon as Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban his mother's brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother's brother, Jacob came near and rolled the stone from the well's mouth and watered the flock of Laban his mother's brother.  Then Jacob kissed Rachel and wept aloud.  And Jacob told Rachel that he was her father's kinsman, and that he was Rebekah's son, and she ran and told her father. (Genesis 29: 7 to 12) 

After a long journey, Jacob finally reached Haran, the land his mother Rebekah came from, also being the land of his grandfather Abraham.   Then he met Rachel, his future wife, by the well.  Moses also met his future in-laws by the well in Midian during his escape from Egypt (Exodus 2: 16 to 21).  Then by Jacob's well in Sychar, Jesus met the woman of Samaria as described below. 

The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)  Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”  The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water?  Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.”  Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”  The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.” (John 4: 9 to 15) 

Bethel used to be called Luz which means crookedness or deviation.  Since God revealed Himself in Jacob's dream, Luz is now named Bethel by Jacob which means house of God.  This is just like Jacob himself.  He used to be crooked and good at schemes.  After meeting with God at Luz in his dream, he could now stop pursuing his ambition and let his guard down.  So, when he met with Rachel, he kissed Rachel and wept aloud.   

Like Jacob, Moses and the Samaritan woman, to go to the well, we need to leave our comfort zone.  To find what we really need, we need to be humble and deny ourselves as Jesus described below. 

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.  For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.  For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?  For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. (Matthew 16: 24 to 27) 

When we truly could see the vision of Jesus as our ladder to heaven then we could be like Jacob to convert from crookedness and deviation to be resting in the house of God, like Moses from relying on his own intelligence and strength to gain wisdom and faith internally, and like the woman of Samaria from bearing her own shame to enjoy the free spirit of the living water.  Emmanuel. 

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