RELAX. YOU’RE IN A TYPE SCENE.
TYPE SCENE RECAP.
The way we would set out to tell a story today is different from the way ancient Near Eastern scribes compiled content. If you or I sat down to write a novel, we would think of characters and a decent plot line and write it a chapter at a time. One thing is for sure— we would never have the exact same thing happen to multiple characters. It would seem suspect, formulaic, and kind of lazy. Ancient writers are from a vastly different literary culture. In the ancient world, scribes were compilers or editors of traditions more than writers of new stories. They took older oral and written traditions and stitched them together.
In the case of type scenes, they used well tread stories with predictable steps to communicate culturally understood ideas. We saw last time that sitting at a well at least appears to be the best way to find your true love in the Bible. This is because of type scene. Three characters in the Bible, and more in comparative literature, find love at a well.
THE WOMAN AT THE WELL.
The type scene of the woman at the well, if you will recall, looks like this:
Young man sits down at a well.
A young girl comes to get water.
A stranger threatens the girl.
The young man rescues her.
She takes him to her father.
The father takes the young man as a son. They are married.
The Moses version of the story found in Exodus 2.15-22 maps almost perfectly onto the type-scene of the woman at the well:
1. Young man sits down at a well.
15 When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian, where he sat down by a well.
In the larger story of Moses we have two scenes of his youth, and he is a protector in each one. Once he defends a Hebrew slave against an Egyptian ruler and the second scene is the one we are reading— he is going to protect some girls from men who drive them away from water. This is called foreshadowing— Moses is going to save his people from oppression. And so this is the story of how he ends up working as a shepherd, watching over the flocks, in the wild near the mountain of Yahweh.
Notice how choppy the transition is though. We have a decent story unit before and after verse 15. The story of Moses defending the Hebrew slave is a contained tradition, and the type scene of meeting your wife at a well, also a clear story. The middle verse is terse: Pharaoh hears of Moses’ slaying of the the Egyptian ruler, tries to kill Moses but Moses runs and goes to live in Midian… and “sits down by a well.”
The last line is the important transition. It moves us from the last story into the next one, and this is a perfect example of how ancient scribes weave stories together. In one verse we transfered between two stories and moved the plot along. Moreover, the line “he sat down by a well” triggers the type scene. Close readers know what story they have found themselves in.
2. A young girl comes to get water.
16 Now a priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father’s flock.
It worked. Here comes the girl and the destiny. If we are an ancient listening to a story, we now know we have a young man at a well and the girl just showed up. Now we are looking for the threat. Here it comes.
3. A stranger threatens the girl.
17 Some shepherds came along and drove them away,
There is this fantastic scene in Lawrence of Arabia, where weary travelers come across a strangers well. Survival dictates that they must drink. As they dip the bucket into the well and take in water for the first time in days, we hear course hoofs in the distance. We hear the man coming long before his figure emerges from the desert horizon. But when the man on the horse does appear, he promptly rides over to the travelers and shoots the one who took a drink point blank. Then he yells at the other, “This is my well.” This is world of the Bible. Water is a big deal. And so this is the threat. Strange shepherds driving them away from the well of their father.
4. The young man rescues her.
but Moses got up and came to their rescue and watered their flock.
If you are going to sit down by a well in the desert and get the girl, you have to be ready to do something heroic. You have to be ready to chase off the jackel, scare off the shepherds, or provide water just in the knick of time. Moses shows himself to be a protector once again, except this time it pays off. Instead of having to flee for his life, he finds out that his life is not over.
5. She takes him to her father.
18 When the girls returned to Reuel their father, he asked them, “Why have you returned so early today?”
19 They answered, “An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock.”
20 “And where is he?” Reuel asked his daughters. “Why did you leave him? Invite him to have something to eat.”
The small twist on the type scene is that the girl and the boy do not fall in love over the ordeal. They leave him at the well and her father inquires about him. This may be so that the report of Moses makes him look pretty good, but more likely, it is because the patriarch of the family is the one to arrange marriage. The bet av or “house of the father” is the way of living in the Iron Age near East. The father runs the house, arranges the marriages, takes care of a multi-generation family. This is why Moses will go to work for his father-in-law automatically. Moses has moved from the house of Pharaoh into the house of the father.
6. The father takes the young man as a son. They are married.
21 Moses agreed to stay with the man, who gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage. 22 Zipporah gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom, saying, “I have become a foreigner in a foreign land.”
Type scene complete, Moses gets the girl and gains a new place in a new household. He will work for the priest of Midian watching his flocks, signifying his exemplary virtue of shepherding God’s people.
WHEN YOU FIND YOURSELF IN THE WILD.
So a couple of things for peace of mind and virtue.
When you are in the wild you might be in a divine type scence.
There are points in every life of faith where circumstances testify against God’s goodness or a divine plan. These are plot points where as far as the eye can see or the mind can imagine…your story is headed nowhere good. Here’s the thing. For the type scene to work our hero has to end up at a random well in the wild. And that is where you are. The most random place, the one that does not map, the one that fails all of your expectations— this is the place where you find your true destiny. When you are in the wild, you just might be in a type scene. Look for the injustice and do the next right thing. You may find a far larger story was being woven together and that every hero must walk into the mithbar alone.
Some people are protectors in no matter what story they find themselves.
Many times the very reason we end up in the wilderness is for doing the right thing. We do not live in a world where most people live with virtue, honor, and wonder. And so when you defend these you may find yourself walking alone. That is not only okay, it is right where you should be. Moses is a shepherd even before he is a shepherd. He was born to be a protector. And so he saves a slave being beaten. And so he drives dangerous men away from the daughters of the priest. And so he is right at home watching the flocks of his father. And so he is the one for the destiny of leading God’s people through the wild. He meets God on the mountain first, and his sign of God’s faithfulness will be that he brings Israel to the mountain to meet their God. In the story of the exodus, Moses was born to be a leader, a protector, a shepherd. And he was never really lost— he was just in a type scene.