Free Daily Bible Study Podcast

Genesis 33 | Mark 4 | Esther 9–10 | Romans 4

We shouldn’t be surprised to see Jacob falter in his confident faith when he sees Esau coming from far off, even though Jacob had only just finished wrestling with God (Gen. 33:1). Of course, it didn’t help Jacob’s fear to see Esau coming with four hundred men, but even so, Jacob continues his pattern of favoritism by dividing up his entire household, putting the servants and their children up at the front to meet Esau first, then Leah with her children next, then Rachel and Joseph last (Gen. 33:2). To his credit, Jacob goes ahead of everyone to meet his brother and to grovel before him.

If we aren’t surprised to see Jacob faltering in his faith, we should be surprised at Esau’s reaction. Jacob does not find a brother who has been nursing a grudge for the past twenty years, ready to exact his revenge on the trickster Jacob. Instead, Jacob discovers that his brother has forgiven him for everything he has done. Esau extends to Jacob extraordinary grace and mercy, and we read that “Esau ran to meet him and embraced him and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept” (Gen. 33:4).

It’s a touching scene of reunion, but the thing that is really fascinating about this description of the reunion is that Jesus borrows heavily from the details in his parable of the prodigal son. After the prodigal son had asked for his inheritance early—essentially telling his father that he cared more about his father’s money than his father’s life—the son squandered all of his money. When extreme poverty drives him to return to his father begging for forgiveness, we read that the prodigal son’s father does the exact same thing as Esau had done when he reunited with Jacob.

Here’s how Jesus tells the story: “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him” (Luke 15:20). Jesus models the loving father of the prodigal son in his parable after the real-life loving response of Esau toward his prodigal brother, Jacob.

Again in this story, we see grace toward Jacob. We don’t see a man behaving with courage and bravery; in fact, Esau is the one who comes off really well in this story, not Jacob. Jacob is the prodigal, while Esau is the hero of this story.

And if Jacob needed extensive grace, how much more do we? Has the depth of your sin broken you to seek out grace like Jacob the prodigal brother, or are you still at a point where you are scheming and deceiving those around you to get by as Jacob did earlier in his life?

Is the gospel your hope as God’s prodigal son, or are you still seeking your own way apart from him?

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Genesis 32 | Mark 3 | Esther 8 | Romans 3

Up to this point, Jacob’s relationship with God has been fairly one-sided. God has made promises to Jacob, protected Jacob, and faithfully begun to lead Jacob back to the land of Canaan. Jacob, on the other hand, has tricked his brother, Esau, out of a birthright, schemed his father out of a blessing, and provoked rivalry between his two wives—and he never really seems terribly concerned with God except during the times when God appeared to him, once at Bethel (Gen. 28) and once when God told him to return from the house of Laban to the land of Canaan (Gen. 31).

Make no mistake—the story of Jacob is the story of God’s unmerited grace toward a great sinner. But when we read Jacob’s story, we shouldn’t come away from it despising Jacob. Rather, we should take from this story a fresh appreciation of God’s own grace toward sinners like us.

Still, part of God’s grace is that he refuses to leave us in the condition that he found us. Grace is not God’s way of sweeping our sin under the rug, but rather it is God’s way of transforming our lives. We may begin our lives like Jacob, but at some point we must begin to engage with God directly in order to become what God wants us to be: his Israel.

In Genesis 32, we see two major leaps forward in Jacob’s own faith toward God. First, Jacob’s prayer in Genesis 32:9–12 is a model for us to study. In his prayer, Jacob reminds God of the promises that God made to him. He is vulnerable and honest about his fears before God, and he prays, “But you said, ‘I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude’” (Gen. 32:12).

One of the most effective things we can do in prayer is to plead God’s own promises with him. God loves to hear his children praying his word back to him. This is a mature prayer, a sign that Jacob himself is growing beyond his reckless youth.

Second, in a stunning passage, we read that Jacob actually wrestles with God in Genesis 32:22–32. God appears to Jacob as a man and wrestles with him, providing a metaphor for Jacob’s life when God leaves Jacob with a limp after putting his hip out of joint (Gen. 32:25) and changing Jacob’s name to Israel, saying, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed” (Gen. 32:28).

Jacob will continue to make many mistakes, but he has here turned a corner. Rather than scheming and lying to get what he wants, Jacob has become a man who strives with God face-to-face—and a man who has the scars to prove it.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Genesis 31 | Mark 2 | Esther 7 | Romans 2

Jacob’s time living with Laban has been a terrible experience. At every turn, Laban has lied to Jacob and cheated him out of what he promised to Jacob, first by giving Jacob Leah instead of Rachel as a wife and second by stealing Jacob’s wages of the striped, spotted, and mottled animals. Jacob had found a technique to breed more of those animals through peeling sticks in Genesis 30, and now, at the beginning of Genesis 31, we find that Laban’s sons have begun to turn against Jacob and his family because Jacob has become too rich.

It is no small relief, then, that Yahweh’s call for Jacob to leave Laban and return to Canaan finally comes in Genesis 31:3: “Return to the land of your fathers and to your kindred, and I will be with you.” After serving Laban for twenty years (Gen. 31:41), Jacob will at last return to the land that God had promised to Jacob’s grandfather Abraham, to his father, Isaac, to Jacob, and to Jacob’s offspring.

At the outset of Jacob’s return journey home, we gain two glimpses that help us to understand God’s perspective regarding the relationship between Jacob and Laban. First, when Jacob is explaining to his wives the reasons that they need to leave their father’s house to go with him back to the land of Canaan, Jacob tells them about the vision he had from God, which seems to be the fuller account of the vision where Yahweh told Jacob to return to the land of Canaan in Genesis 31:3.

In this vision, God tells Jacob that he himself has made all the goats to be striped, spotted, and mottled—that is, the kind of goats that Jacob could claim as his own, according to the agreement he struck with Laban in Genesis 30:31–34—and God explains that he did this because “I have seen all that Laban is doing to you” (Gen. 31:12). Through this turbulent time, God has been preserving and blessing and flourishing Jacob. God was not compelled to bring forth spotted or speckled sheep by Jacob’s breeding practices; rather, God graciously blessed Jacob to protect him from Laban’s dishonesty.

The second glimpse we get into God’s perspective comes when Laban pursues Jacob to find his stolen household gods and to bid farewell to his daughters and his grandchildren. God comes to Laban in a dream, saying, “Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad” (Gen. 31:24).

In this warning, we are reminded that God swore a covenant with Jacob and that Isaac prophesied that God would bless those who blessed Jacob and curse those who cursed Jacob (Gen. 27:29). The dishonesty and treachery of a man like Laban is nothing in comparison with the power and wisdom of God to bring salvation to the world through the offspring of Jacob.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Genesis 30 | Mark 1 | Esther 6 | Romans 1

Genesis 30 contains two main stories. The first half of the chapter continues the tragic, unhappy narrative of sibling rivalry between Leah and Rachel that began in Genesis 29. In yesterday’s meditation, we noticed similarities between this story and the stories of Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar, and Isaac and Rebekah. In Genesis 30, we see yet another similarity to a previous story. Here, Rachel sends her servant Bilhah into her husband, Jacob, to conceive on her behalf (Gen. 30:3–8), just as Sarah had sent in Hagar to conceive a child with Abraham on her behalf. Later, Leah follows suit, sending in her servant Zilpah to Jacob (Gen. 30:9).

We also read that these women struggle over their husband when Leah “hires” Jacob sexually (at Rachel’s prompting) by selling her son’s mandrakes (Gen. 30:16). Ultimately, the author of Genesis insists that Rachel does not conceive because of mandrakes (an ancient fertility treatment) but because God “remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb” (Gen. 30:22).

Sadly, despite the many children shared by Leah and Rachel, the tensions between them have escalated to outright competition. God has prospered Jacob, giving him the sons who would eventually form the heads of the tribes of Israel, but his family is a wreck, with his sister-wives and their female servants pitted against each other.

The second half of Genesis 30 tells the strange story of Jacob’s efforts to take wages from his uncle Laban before he leaves with his family to return to the land of Canaan. The two men make an arrangement that Jacob would that day pass through Laban’s flock, taking out all the speckled and spotted goats and lambs, along with the black lambs for wages, and that Laban would keep all the remaining livestock (Gen. 30:31–33).

But immediately, Laban conspires to cheat Jacob by removing all spotted, speckled, or black animals in his flock and sending them to become part of his sons’ flocks, who were a three-days’ journey away. Remember, the agreement was for Jacob to take his wages from Laban’s flock that same day (Gen. 30:32). When Laban removed the animals and sent them away, he effectively stole Jacob’s wages from him. Additionally, Laban was preventing any further breeding between the spotted, speckled, or black animals and the rest of the flock.

Once again, Jacob is cheated out of his wages, just as he was cheated out of Rachel after seven years of working for her. Also, don’t overlook the fact that Laban dishonestly gave Leah to Jacob instead of Rachel, forcing Jacob to take two wives instead of one and causing no small amount of trouble.

Oddly, Jacob finds an innovative way to breed spotted, speckled, and black animals by causing stronger animals to breed in front of peeled sticks. What should we make of this?

Let’s pick up that discussion tomorrow.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Genesis 29 | Matthew 28 | Esther 5 | Acts 28

As we discussed during the meditation for Genesis 24, it is a running theme in Scripture for God’s people to meet their future spouses at wells. Abraham’s servant met Isaac’s wife-to-be, Rebekah, at a well, and now Jacob meets his future wife Rachel at a well.

But after Jacob serves Rachel’s father, Laban, for seven years in order to marry Rachel, Laban gives Rachel’s older sister, Leah, to Jacob in marriage. Jacob, the younger brother who had shamelessly tricked his older brother and deceived his father to get what he wanted, is now furious that Laban would give him the older daughter before the younger. Laban sins against Jacob, but there is no doubt that God is providentially bringing Jacob’s own sins back around to him. As Allen Ross writes, “even though God’s people may experience God’s blessing on their endeavors, God will effectively discipline them by making them painfully aware of their unresolved sins.”1

Then, when Jacob finally receives Rachel as his bride, he finds out that she is barren—just like Jacob’s mother, Rebekah, had been (Gen. 25:21), and just like Jacob’s grandmother Sarah had been (Gen. 11:30). Once again, God calls a barren woman to play a role in bringing forth offspring to make Abraham’s family into a great nation.

And once again, there is strife in the family of the patriarch. Sarah and Hagar had despised each other (Gen. 16:4–6), and now Leah and Rachel are locked in a struggle for Jacob’s affections and for his offspring. We will see more of Rachel’s envy tomorrow (Gen. 30:1), but the focus for today falls on Leah’s envy of Jacob’s love for her sister.

The hope of Genesis 29 is that even though Jacob may not have loved Leah, Yahweh certainly did. Through Leah’s son Levi, Yahweh called forth the priests who would minister to him, and through Leah’s son Judah, Yahweh brought forward the direct ancestor of Jesus.

Yahweh never loses sight of his ultimate purpose—to bring his only Son into this world to destroy sin, death, and the devil forever—but he also never loses sight of the people he pulls into his story along the way. No one is treated as a prop or a puppet, but as a creature made in God’s own image, worthy of dignity and respect.

And even today, as God’s plan marches toward eternity, he still cares. He still shows tender compassion to those who are most worn down by the hurtfulness of this world. If you are tired and discouraged by this life’s harshness, remember Leah, who eventually came to terms with her lot in life, so that she stopped naming her sons in such a way as to plead for her husband’s love, but with her final son, she simply named him Judah, saying, “This time I will praise the LORD” (Gen. 29:35).

1 Allen P. Ross, Creation and Blessing: A Guide to the Study and Exposition of Genesis (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 1996), 503.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Genesis 28 | Matthew 27 | Esther 4 | Acts 27

At the outset of Genesis 28, Jacob has come to an impasse. If he does not flee, he will certainly be murdered by his brother, Esau, from whom he stole their father Isaac’s blessing in Genesis 27. But if he does flee, it is unclear how he will receive the blessing of Abraham. Throughout Genesis there is a concern that if the true offspring of Abraham leaves the land of Canaan, they might in some way invalidate the promise that God had made to give the land to Abraham’s offspring (Gen. 12:10; 24:2–4, 8; 26:2–5). After Abraham’s foolish trip to Egypt in Genesis 12, God’s covenant people had not left Canaan for any reason.

But Rebekah seems unconcerned with this, so she lies to Isaac at the end of Genesis 27, making up an excuse to cause Isaac to send Jacob away from Esau’s vengeance. Rebekah tells Isaac that she does not want Jacob marrying one of the Hittite women (Gen. 27:46), since Esau had married two Hittite women who had “made life bitter for Isaac and Rebekah” (Gen. 26:35). So, Isaac instructs Jacob to leave in order to find a wife among the daughters of Laban, Rebekah’s brother.

As Jacob leaves, Isaac reiterates to Jacob the covenant blessing of Abraham: “May [God Almighty] give the blessing of Abraham to you and to your offspring with you, that you may take possession of the land of your sojournings that God gave to Abraham!” (Gen. 28:4). But would God remain faithful to his promise if the offspring of Abraham and Isaac left the land of Canaan? If not, what would happen to God’s promise from Genesis 3:15 to crush the head of the serpent?

It is not an overstatement to say that the fate of the universe turns on the answer to these questions. If Jacob’s leaving Canaan invalidated God’s promise to Abraham and Isaac, then the ultimate promise to bless the whole world through the offspring of Abraham would never come to fulfillment. And Jacob’s recent behavior certainly wouldn’t merit him any special treatment from God.

But in fact, God does meet Jacob on his way out of Canaan to Haran, and when he meets him, he promises Jacob not only that would he bless him and his offspring (Gen. 28:13) and that his offspring would bless all the families of the earth (Gen. 28:14) but also that God himself would bring Jacob back to the land (Gen. 28:15).

Simply put, God’s plan to bless all the families of the earth is bigger than Jacob, Esau, Rebekah, and Isaac. God’s plan cannot be derailed by family squabbles, geography, or reckless sin.

God will accomplish all that he intends to through Jesus Christ, and he will either do it through us or in spite of us.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Genesis 27 | Matthew 26 | Esther 3 | Acts 26

The blessing that Isaac pronounces on Jacob—the blessing that he does not pronounce on Esau, despite his intentions to do so—was not a vague wish for his son’s well being. In fact, it was a prophesy that bore great weight and significance, so much so that Isaac had no blessing left to give to his son Esau, since Jacob had taken all of the best blessings. Jacob would receive abundance and wealth (Gen. 27:28) and the obedience of the nations (Gen. 27:29), while Esau would only receive infertile land and subservience to Jacob (Gen. 27:39–40).

The critical blessing falls in Genesis 27:29: “Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be everyone who blesses you!” Yahweh had promised this exact thing to Abraham in Genesis 12:3: “I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Yahweh had sworn that he would save or curse all peoples based upon their interaction with one man and his offspring. Next, Yahweh traced that promise through Isaac (rather than Ishmael—Gen. 21:12), and now Yahweh’s promise falls to Jacob (rather than Esau).

But how could God possibly bring anything good out of such a wretched, deceitful, petty family?

In fact, God had already decided that Esau (the older) would serve his younger brother, Jacob (Gen. 25:23). Even from the womb, and even before either boy had done anything good or bad, God’s purposes in election were set. Just as God had passed over Ishmael in favor of Isaac, so God would pass over Esau in favor of Jacob.

Why? How is there justice in this?

In fact, God’s election isn’t about justice, because God’s election is about grace. By grace, God had chosen one man out of all the world to bless, and by grace, God had promised that the blessing he placed on that one man would be the means through which the whole world would be blessed. By grace, God chose Isaac, and by grace, God chose Jacob.

And by grace, God eventually raised up the promised offspring, his own Son Jesus Christ, so that whoever blesses Jesus will be blessed and whoever curses Jesus will be cursed.

The doctrine of election, then, isn’t really given to us so that we spend our time speculating about who’s in and who’s out but rather so that we recognize that God’s purposes prevail even in the lives of messed up people like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—as well as you and me. Those whom God foreknew, predestined, called, justified, and glorified will receive salvation—not because of their goodness, but because of God’s grace.

We should rejoice today because we aren’t called by being better than Esau; rather, we are called in spite of the fact that we are as bad as Jacob.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Genesis 26 | Matthew 25 | Esther 2 | Acts 25

Like father, like son. Or, to borrow a more Hebrew idiom, a father has eaten sour grapes, so his son’s teeth are set on edge (Jer. 31:29; Ezek. 18:2). What Abraham foolishly did twice in his lifetime—lying about the fact that his wife was, in fact, his wife to protect himself—we now find Isaac doing in Genesis 26:6–11.

Even more, we see the troubles between Isaac’s herdsmen quarreling with the herdsmen of Gerar that look almost identical to the disputes Abraham’s herdsmen had with Lot’s herdsmen back in Genesis 13—a dispute that ended with Lot heading to Sodom and Gomorrah, which ended with Abraham needing to rescue him from the king of Babylon and his allies (Gen. 14), and then with two angels of Yahweh rescuing Lot before pouring out wrath on the city.

But if we notice that Isaac seems to be repeating many of Abraham’s mistakes, we should also notice that Yahweh is repeating similar covenant promises to Isaac that he had made to Isaac’s father, Abraham. First in Genesis 26:1–5, Yahweh intervenes to prevent Isaac from going to Egypt in the middle of the famine, assuring that he would bless Isaac, give to Isaac and his offspring all the lands of Canaan, multiply Isaac’s offspring as many as the stars in the heavens, and bless all the nations of the earth through Isaac’s offspring. These promises are identical to what Yahweh swore to Abraham in Genesis 12:1–3 and Genesis 15:5.

Later, Yahweh appears again to Isaac, assuring him again after the quarrel with the herdsman of Gerar that “I am the God of Abraham your father. Fear not, for I am with you and will bless you and multiply your offspring for my servant Abraham’s sake” (Gen. 26:24). Why is Yahweh extending so much grace to a man who has already begun to fall into the sin patterns of his father?

The first reason is that Yahweh is keeping the promises he had made to Abraham. For as many mistakes as Abraham might have made, Yahweh had sworn a covenant with Abraham, promising to go so far as to be torn in two if Abraham or his offspring should break the terms of the covenant (Gen. 15:17). So, Yahweh is keeping his promises “for my servant Abraham’s sake,” but also because Yahweh has bound up his own glory in his covenant promises to Abraham.

And second, the offspring of Abraham through Isaac was the means through which Yahweh would save the world. As we have seen so many times already, Yahweh is raising up the offspring of the woman who would crush the head of the serpent.

Seen in that light, we should recognize that Yahweh’s graciousness toward Isaac here in Genesis 26 is also his graciousness toward you and me who are blessed in Abraham’s offspring, Jesus Christ.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Genesis 25 | Matthew 24 | Esther 1 | Acts 24

Genesis 25 is a chapter of extreme transition in the unfolding story of God’s salvation in and through his people. In this chapter, we see God’s purposes in election across three generations.

First, we read in Genesis 25 about the death of Abraham at the age of 175. Abraham outlived his wife Sarah, even taking another wife named Keturah who bore him many children. Nevertheless, we read that “Abraham gave all he had to Isaac” (Gen. 25:5) because Abraham never forgot that God had named Isaac as the one through whom his covenantal promises would be fulfilled.

Second, we learn more about Isaac’s story, and specifically about his relationship with Rebekah. Just as Isaac’s mother, Sarah, had been barren, so also Rebekah is barren (Gen. 25:21), and Isaac had to pray that God would open Rebekah’s womb. We discussed the ongoing theme throughout the Scriptures of barren women in our meditation for Genesis 16—Rebekah was not the first infertile woman in the Bible, and she would not be the last. God delights in demonstrating his great love toward—and power through—helpless people.

Third, Genesis 25 stretches us into the third generation, telling the story of how Rebekah did eventually conceive. In fact, Rebekah conceived twins who struggled fiercely in her womb. But from the very beginning Yahweh had chosen that the “older [Esau] shall serve the younger [Jacob]” (Gen. 25:23).

Jacob and Esau share many similarities to the children of the previous generation, Ishmael and Isaac. Both sets of brothers find themselves in fierce opposition even from birth, and in both sets of brothers Yahweh singles out one son through whom his covenant promises will run. Earlier Yahweh had told Abraham that “through Isaac shall your offspring be named” (Gen. 21:12), and now Yahweh tells Rebekah that Esau shall serve Jacob (Gen. 25:23).

The Apostle Paul points to those two verses (Gen. 21:12, 25:23) in Romans 9:6–13 to explain God’s purposes in election. It wasn’t that Ishmael or Esau had done something wrong, or that Isaac and Jacob had done something right—in fact, Paul insists that God’s purposes of election were accomplished specifically before these children were born, and before any of them had done anything good or bad.

Instead, God’s purposes were to bring forth the offspring that he had promised who would crush the head of the serpent (Gen. 3:15), and so God chose specific people with whom he established his covenant, and through whom he would raise up that offspring. As Paul writes, “So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy” (Rom. 9:16).

Does your theology place a greater emphasis on what you do to receive God’s salvation or on what the God who has mercy has done before you were even born, before you had done anything good or bad?

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Genesis 24 | Matthew 23 | Nehemiah 13 | Acts 23

Yesterday, in Genesis 23, we read about the death of Sarah, Abraham’s wife. Today, in Genesis 24, we see Abraham himself approaching death. He too will not live to see God’s promises fulfilled. So, Abraham makes plans to help his son Isaac continue to serve Yahweh faithfully after he dies.

First, Abraham refuses to allow his son Isaac to marry one of the daughters of the Canaanites (Gen. 24:3). Instead, he asks his servant to go back to his old country to find Isaac a wife from there. It isn’t that Abraham’s old country is filled with devout worshipers of Yahweh—we know from Joshua 24:2 that Abraham and his family were idol worshipers before Yahweh specifically called Abraham to follow him.

But at the same time, we also know that the Canaanites were particularly wicked. In Genesis 15, when Yahweh cut a covenant with Abraham, he explained the reason that Abraham and his offspring would not immediately inherit the land of Canaan: “the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete” (Gen. 15:16). The Amorites (Canaanites) were so wicked that Yahweh would eventually expel them from the land; however, Yahweh was also mercifully delaying their judgment until their iniquity was so heinous that justice demanded their annihilation. Abraham refuses to let his son marry such a woman.

Second, Abraham insists that his son not be allowed to return to Abraham’s old country (Gen. 24:6). Abraham had disobeyed God by leaving the Promised Land and going to Egypt in Genesis 12, and the consequences had been disastrous. As Isaac continues to wait for the fulfillment of Yahweh’s promises, Abraham insists that his son remain in the land of Canaan.

And so, Abraham’s servant meets Isaac’s wife, Rebekah, at a well. This is the first time in the Bible that one of God’s servants finds their wife at a well, but it is not the last. Later, Isaac’s son Jacob would meet his future wife Rachel at a well (Gen. 29:1–12), and Moses would meet his wife, Zipporah, at a well (Ex. 2:16–22).

It is of no small significance, then, that Jesus ultimately met and spoke with a Samaritan woman at a well in John 4, asking her about her husband. Jesus had come as the great bridegroom to take for himself a people as his bride, and he demonstrated his deep love by singling out a woman to meet at a well, just as Isaac, Jacob, and Moses had done before him. It wasn’t that Jesus was only seeking that one woman, but he sought out this one undeserving woman to show us that he is seeking other miserable sinners like you and me along with her.

So, Abraham preserves his son’s faithfulness to Yahweh in Canaan by bringing him a bride. In the same way, Jesus preserves our faithfulness by seeking us out to become his bride.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.