The Big Picture - Steve

The Bible begins in a Paradise garden with a woman brought to a man, and a hostile serpent lurking and causing trouble (Gen 1-3).
The Bible ends in a Paradise garden-city with a Bride brought to the Second Adam, and the lurking serpent defeated (Rev 20-22).

In between these two Paradises, the "woman" is in the desert:
- Adam and Eve are exiled to the wilderness
- Abraham travels in the desert
- Hagar flees to the desert (Gen 16)
- Moses shepherds in the desert
- Israel wanders in the desert for 40 years
- Jesus is tempted in the desert
- The voice cries out in the wilderness
- The woman flees to the desert from the dragon (Rev 12)

Not only that, but in the desert, women keep meeting men by wells and marrying them:
- Rebekah waters Abraham's servant's camels and marries Isaac
- Jacob sees Rachel at the well, rolls the stone away for her and marries her.
- Moses meets Zipporah at the well, drives away her oppressors, waters her sheep and marries her.
- The LORD comes to Hagar by a spring in the desert, with covenant promises (Gen 16).
- Jesus meets a Samaritan woman at Jacob's well, and many Samaritans become the Bridegroom of the Savior.

The Bible begins with a marriage between Adam and Eve, and ends with a marriage between Jesus, our second Adam, and His Church and Bride. The engagement happens at various oases, springs and wells in the wilderness, where God speaks promises to us (John 4:14, 26), washes us clean (Ezek 16:9; 36:25-27, and gives us bread for the journey (1 Kings 19:1-8).