Water from Bethlehem's Well

A tired man sits at the mouth of a cave in the hot hills. His lips are dry. And he says, almost to himself: oh, if only someone would give me a drink of water from the well by the gate of Bethlehem.

This story is tucked into the end of Second Samuel, in a list of David's mighty warriors. It comes from a time of harvest, when David was in the stronghold at the cave of Adullam, in the low hills of Judah. A band of Philistine soldiers was camped in the valley of Rephaim, near Jerusalem. Worse still, the Philistines had a garrison in Bethlehem itself, David's hometown. The town where he grew up, where he had been anointed, where his family's fields lay, was occupied by the enemy. And with David were his fiercest fighters, including three champions whose courage was famous.

Perhaps it was the heat. Perhaps it was homesickness. David had drunk from that well by the gate since he was a boy. Its water tasted of home. And he said out loud, with a long sigh, “Oh that one would give me drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate!” He did not give an order. He did not ask anyone to go. It was the kind of thing you say when you are weary and far from home. But three of his mighty men heard him. And they looked at each other.

The three warriors set off toward Bethlehem. The road ran through enemy country. The Philistines held the town. And the three of them broke through the camp of the Philistines, right through the enemy lines, to the well by the gate. Picture them hauling up the water, filling a jar, every moment expecting to be seen. Then they fought or slipped their way back out, across the miles of dangerous ground, all the way to the cave of Adullam. And they set the water down in front of David. Here, my lord. Water from Bethlehem's well.

And David does something no one expects. He will not drink it. Instead, he pours it out on the ground, as an offering to the Lord. Be it far from me, O Lord, that I should do this, he says. “Is not this the blood of the men that went in jeopardy of their lives?” These men had put their lives on the line for a sip of water. To David, it was too precious to drink, as if it had been bought with their blood. Only God was worthy of a gift that cost so much. So David gave it to God. And the book says simply: these things did these three mighty men.

Pouring liquid out before God was a known act of worship in Israel, called a drink offering. The law of Moses describes wine being poured out with the daily sacrifices. Israel's law also taught that the life of a creature is in its blood, and that blood belonged to God alone. So when David calls the water the blood of the men, and pours it out instead of drinking it, he is saying their lives were holy, and their gift could only be offered to the Lord.

You'll find this story in Second Samuel chapter twenty-three, verses thirteen to seventeen. Long after David, another son of Bethlehem would be born in that town, the one who offered people living water and gave his own life for them. So here is a question to carry with you. What is the most costly gift anyone has given you, and what could you give back to God with the same kind of love?