John 4:10 & 14: “Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saitheth to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.” “But whosoever drinketh 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.”
The best water that I have ever tasted came from a little mountain spring. Someone had driven a pipe into the ground and connected it to that spring. I could always count on fresh cold water to drink. In Hebrew, that water would be called “mayim chaim,” or living water—water God put there, flowing, pure and life-giving.
Let’s look for a moment not at a well, requiring a bucket and rope, but at water springing up—mayim chaim—God’s water. In Joshua 15 we see Caleb giving his daughter the “upper springs, and the nether springs” (V. 19). You might say these springs were a wedding present to Achsah and her husband Othniel. Achsah actually asked for these springs. She said to her dad, “Give me a blessing.” Jesus said to the woman at the well, “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.” We have only to ask for the living water that springs up into everlasting life. Jesus is able to give everlasting life.
How was Caleb able to give his daughter these springs? Caleb wholly followed the Lord his God (Joshua 14:8). With God’s help he was a giant killer. He was the one who spoke up against the ten spies that feared the giants (Numbers 13:33). Verse 30 says, “And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.” That was Joshua at 40. Now at 85 we see that same giant killer finally getting his opportunity to get his hands on them. He says, “give me this mountain.” (Joshua 14:12). Caleb then proceeded to drive three giants off of the mountain.
At that time, Caleb’s daughter Achsah needed a husband. Caleb wanted her to have a real man, a man’s man. He proclaimed, “He that smitten Kirjath-sepher, and taketh it, to him will I give Achsah my daughter to wife.” (Joshua 15:16). I think he knew his nephew Othniel would do the job. Later, Achsah persuaded her husband Othniel to ask her dad for a field. Then she asked for the springs.
The blessing of the springs is repeated in Judges 1:15. In the next chapter we see Joshua and his generation, including Caleb, die (V. 8-10). Finally we see the fruit of Caleb, the giant-killer, in choosing a strong man for his daughter. Othniel becomes the first judge who God raised up to deliver Israel (Judges 3:9-10). Later, David, a shepherd boy, killed a giant.
Jesus, the giant-killer at Mt. Calvary, earned the right to offer springs of LIVING WATER!
