Jar Of Water

Let’s take a look at this little meeting which took place at a well, outside the town of Nahor. The servant of Abraham, along with his pack of ten camels, is near the town’s well and it is evening time. It is the time when women come out to draw water.  This servant has the camels kneel by the empty troughs, while he prays to his master’s God. Before he can finish his prayer, he sees a young maiden with her filled jar of water, on her shoulder. She has already gone down to the well and drawn her water. The servant hurries to meet her and asks her for some water. Please give me a little water from your jar. Genesis 24: 17b.

Pause for a moment, remember these facts. The person requesting water is a stranger. The person being asked has already left the well. The place is not safe to linger and loiter, for it is evening, when women come quickly to get their water and leave at once.

How does she respond to such a request? She says, Drink, my lord. Genesis 24: 18a. Listen to what this meant for the one giving the water.

• She had to forget the time and stop to give what she had - the water. In other words, she had to delay herself and give the time to helping this stranger.

• She had to forget the energy she had already used to get that jar in perfect position on her shoulder and take it down again just to give a stranger a drink. In other words, she had to deny herself and expend twice the energy, in taking down that jarful of water to her hands, in order to give him a drink.

• She had to forget who the person was, this out of town male stranger, knowing absolutely nothing about his intentions, or his mission, and treat him as a brother. In other words, she had to defy herself, all her thoughts, fears and doubts that crowd her mind, as to whether it was wise to stop and give this man a drink of water. Even if she wanted to be kind and give him, it would mean coming close to this stranger to give him water from her jar. What if someone passed and saw her doing that?

  
  

How far does her hospitality extend? Listen to her again.

 I’ll draw water for your camels too, until they have finished drinking.

Is this woman for real? She has already given the stranger water, for that is what he asked for. He never asked for water for his camels. Is she really for real? Has she taken leave of all decency, respectability, time and family? What do I mean by these?

• It is evening remember, and her family will begin to worry if she is later than usual. Yet she seems not to let her family’s worry hinder her from helping this stranger and his animals. She empties the water from her jar in the trough for the animals.

• These are not donkeys or horses even, they are camels, water guzzlers. They hold loads and loads of water. She expects to bring water in her small jar for not one camel, but ten of them? Think about it.

• Apart from the time this will take, with her small jar, it must take her a great deal of effort, pain and strain to make those several trips back and forth to the well and emptying each jarful into a trough. Look at it. She needs to expend energy to let down the jar and fill it up from the spring, energy to lift it to her shoulder, energy to walk across to the water troughs, energy to take the jar down from her shoulder, energy to pour it into the trough. That alone is energy and time, but to have to make quite a number of trips doing this, seems more than the extra mile. She is filling troughs with her jar, for camels to drink. I say no more.  

We are all jars or vessels of different sizes, ages and experiences, but we are all the Lord’s jars. Specifically so, we are His water jars, because He has poured His Living water into us, so that we may not only drink and live, but we may feed to others that they too may receive of God’s riches and come to know Him and the abundant life He gives.

O human vessel, presently thanking the Lord for His blessings and mercy to you, God’s abundance will never run out. He is more than competent to keep you running over and flowing with His goodness, when you offer to those in need. Yes, you are a clay jar, and will feel the ‘pains’ of service, but never the emptying or draining of His resources, for they mount up and are forever full. The more you share, the more you have and to spare. It’s God’s distinct pleasure to show His mighty works in you.