Beyond Words: The Silent Testimony of Stones and Wells in the Bible

---

Did you ever notice how many times wells are used in the bible? Did you ever notice how many times we see references to stones and mountains? They’re all over the place. From the woman at the well or Abraham sojourning through the land digging wells to David and Goliath and Steven being stoned. We have all the symbolism throughout the prophets and Psalms mentioning the might of God being as strong as a rock or the glory of God residing on a mountain. We also see how much water brings life and nourishment to the people, vegetation, and animals in the land. It’s no wonder we reference Jesus as the waters of life or God as having the might of mountains.
I was reading through Genesis and picked up on something I’ve glanced over many times before.

Then Jacob went on his journey and came to the land of the people of the east. As he looked, he saw a well in the field, and behold, three flocks of sheep lying beside it, for out of that well the flocks were watered. The stone on the well’s mouth was large, and when all the flocks were gathered there, the shepherds would roll the stone from the mouth of the well and water the sheep, and put the stone back in its place over the mouth of the well.
-Genesis 29:1-3

This jumped out at me because it reminded me of Jesus. A simple story about watering the flocks I had overlooked a hundred times before. Here we see flocks of sheep being cared for and watered by their shepherd. To get to the water they had to roll away stones which were kept on top of wells to keep things from falling in or contaminating the waters within.
I know we can read things into texts but as Paul said the mystery of the Gospel has been revealed through Jesus and His ministry so we can now look to the Old Testament and see how prevalent Jesus was throughout the scriptures.

how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly. When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.
-Ephesians 3:3-5

Here we have a picture of Jesus as a shepherd watering His flocks of sheep after He had to roll away a stone. The only difference is Christ doesn’t put the stone back over the well anymore. We get to walk in the abundance of His spirit and grace every moment of our lives. We can squelch it by trying to cover the water with ignorance, business, and sin but God allows us to drink of the living waters as much as we thirst.

They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.
-Revelation 7:16-17

So how badly do we thirst for God? How much do we really want to know Him, His thoughts, His will, His ways? How much do we thirst for righteousness and glory? Do we really want His kingdom here on earth as it is in Heaven? If we thirst for these things God has rolled away the stone of our graves so we can drink of His spirit and be filled with glory. So let us drink of God’s word and spirit and let us celebrate the life He has given us through His death.