"The Bride at Noon (2): Go, Call Your Husband – Jesus and the Samaritan Woman"

 

Let us continue exploring the profound conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well, as described in John 4. When Jesus told her, “Go, call your husband,” He was not merely addressing her past, but revealing a deep spiritual typology that connects to the Bride of Christ and the redemptive history of Israel. The reference to her "five husbands" and the one who "is not your husband" opens up a symbolic understanding rooted in the Old Testament patriarchs, their wives, and the unfolding of God’s covenant with His people.

 

He said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.”(John4:16-18)

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Let us continue the reflection from Part 1 of this meditation, focusing on the Samaritan woman and her dialogue with Jesus.

Read the Previous Devotion https://idea5936.tistory.com/entry/1He-came-to-find-the-Bride-at-the-time-of-noon-when-there-is-no-shadow

1.He came to find the Bride at the time of noon, when there is no shadow.

 

 

Let’s look closely at what Jesus meant by the five husbands and the one she now has.

1. The first husband: Adam – his wife was Eve.
2. The second husband: Abraham – his wife was Sarah.
3. The third husband: Isaac – his wife was Rebekah.
4. The fourth husband: Jacob – his wife is Rachel.
5. The fifth husband: Joseph – his wife is Asenath.
6. The sixth and current husband: Moses (the Law) – his wife is Oholah.

Previously, I left the fourth and sixth wives blank—did you try to guess who they were?
Did you choose the same names as I did? Probably not.

Let me explain why I chose these particular names.
Jacob technically had four wives, but he referred to only one of them as his wife: Rachel.

“Then your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife bore me two sons. One left me, and I said, “Surely he has been torn to pieces,” and I have never seen him since.’”
(Genesis 44:27–28)

 

Why did I choose Rachel? Not only was she Jacob’s beloved, but she was not buried in the ancestral tomb of Israel.
In this, she represents not the fleshly lineage of Israel, but the spiritual bride of the inner Israel—Jacob, the man of faith.

Rachel bore Joseph and Benjamin, and yet the names “Jacob” and “Joseph” are not part of the tribal list of the Twelve Tribes of Israel.
Still, they are foundational ancestors of Israel.

 

The Jews avoided Samaritans, regarding them as impure due to their mixed blood—this stemmed from the Assyrian policy of intermarriage during occupation, erasing Israel’s national identity.
But this was part of God’s greater plan: to include the Gentiles in His salvation.

The matriarch buried with Abraham and the others was Leah, mother of Judah, ancestor of David—she represents the Jewish line.

That’s why the detail in John 4:5 is important:

“So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.”

 

This location hints at the Samaritan woman’s spiritual lineage.
The first bride Jesus sought out was a Gentile bride.

Thus, Rachel—Jacob’s beloved, buried on the road to Bethlehem—is a prophetic picture of the spiritual bride.

Ephrath (אֶפְרָת), or Ephrathah, means fruitfulness, to bear fruit.
Where the bride is, the Son is born.

“A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth.”
(Revelation 12:1–2)

 

As for Asenath, Joseph’s wife, she was the daughter of an Egyptian priest—a Gentile.
Their sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, were grafted into Israel through Jacob’s blessing.

“Asenath” means “belonging to the sun god,” or symbolically, Baal.
She represents the Gentile Church, once enslaved to foreign gods, now redeemed.

 

Joseph, a picture of Jesus, was sold by his brothers and raised in a foreign land—just as Jesus was rejected and crucified by His own, yet became the Savior of the world.

From Solomon’s time, Israel split in two and was scattered.
But God's redemptive plan was never limited to one nation—it was for the whole world.

So we conclude this section with the fifth husband (Joseph) and his Gentile bride, Asenath.

Now, let’s move on to the sixth husband, Moses (symbol of the Law), and his wife: Oholah.

This may sound strange to some—shouldn’t Moses’ wife be Zipporah?
Why Oholah?

Who is Oholah?

 

I’ll leave you with this question today.
Please ponder and share your answer—and tomorrow, we will continue the meditation.

 

Hallelujah!