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WATER FOR THE THIRSTY

John chapter 4, v. 4 to 26

In the time of Christ, Samaria was one of three Roman provinces, lying between the other two, Judea and Galilee. Originally it was a city, founded by Omri, a king of Israel, who made it the new capital of his kingdom; it was named after Shemer, from whom he bought it (1 Kings 16:24).

The Northern kingdom of Israel then also became known as Samaria; after most of the surviving population was taken into exile, the Assyrians repopulated its territory with foreigners, and sent them a Jewish priest to teach them how to worship the LORD, but they adopted a mixed religion (2 Kings 17:24-41). The intermarriage between those foreigners and the remaining Jews resulted in a mixed race, impure in the opinion of Jews who lived in the southern kingdom.

Thus the pure Jews hated this mixed race called Samaritans because they felt that their fellow Jews who had intermarried had betrayed their people and nation. The Samaritans had set up a temple of their own on Mount Gerizim, and though it had been destroyed 150 years earlier they still worshipped there.

The city of Samaria was rebuilt by Herod the Great, and called Sebaste (Greek form of Augustus) in honour of the emperor who gave it to him. In the New Testament it is only found in Acts 8:5-14, where it is recorded that Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached there.

The Jews avoided travelling through Samaria, and this was only necessary when going directly north from Judea to Galilee. Most would take a longer route along the coast, or through Perea. But the Lord needed to go through Samaria, because He wanted to reach a certain woman and her people.

Jacob's well was on the property originally owned by Jacob (Genesis 33:18, 19). Wells were almost always located outside the city along the main road and twice a day, morning and evening, women came to draw water. The sixth hour was noon according to Jewish time, and, perfectly human as the Lord was, He was weary with His journey and thirsty.

What a contrast this woman was to the religious man, Nicodemus, in the preceding chapter! And how differently our Lord dealt with her: He was harsh and blunt with him, but gentle and humble with her: He asked her a favour, appealing to her sympathy!

His disciples had gone to the city to buy food, and the fact that they were buying it from the Samaritans also revealed His total rejection of the Jewish prejudice which considered Samaritan food unclean.

Being of the despised mixed race, the woman was surprised when this Jew asked her for a drink of water out of her water pot, and said so.
In His answer He referred to:

1. The gift of God, i.e. His mission (chapter 3:16, 2 Corinthians 9: 15).

2. His identity: not only a Jew, for He knew He was the Son of God, the Messiah.

3. Living water is running water, like a river or spring, or a well supplied by springs. This well was a sort of cistern into which water seeped in and collected from rain and dew, not dirty but inferior to a real spring which was always preferred (Genesis 26:19; Leviticus 14:5; Numbers 19:17). He was, of course, referring to His teaching, salvation, and the Holy Spirit (Jeremiah 2:13; Zechariah 13:1; 1 Corinthians 10:4; Revelation 7:17; 22:17).

Jacob's well is 100 feet deep and a bucket of skin was kept at the well to be let down by a goat's hair rope; but the Lord had no rope, so the woman argued how could He get the living water He was talking about? Was He greater than father Jacob? Naturally, she was thinking only of literal water.

The Lord made it clear that He would give better water than that in the well: whoever drinks it shall never, ever, thirst (by implication He is superior to Jacob); but it will become in him a spring (or fountain) of water leaping (bubbling up) unto everlasting life.

Was the woman's curiosity keenly excited about this new kind of water, or did she think He was talking rubbish? She spoke half ironically of this water, and how it could save her the trouble of coming to the well every day. She did not grasp the last words unto life eternal, but was evidently puzzled and yet attracted.

He turned the conversation sharply, commanding Go, call your husband, and come here. In this way He gave the woman a conviction of sin and guilt without which she couldn't understand His use of water as a metaphor for quenching spiritual thirst, or need. She must first recognise that she was a sinner.

She became flippant again, saying I have no husband. The Greek word translated husband means either man or husband. She had her man, but he was not a legal husband. Her language veiled her deceit.

To her great surprise, He saw through the double sense of her language and read her heart as He only can do, a supernatural gift of which John often speaks (chapter 1:48; 2:24; 5:20). For you have had four men, He said, using the same word, and adding and the one whom you now have is not your husband (in the sense of legal husband); in that you spoke truly. She obviously understood that He saw through her deceit (vv. 19,39).

Shocked into reverence, she now admitted that He was a prophet, and changed the subject asking His opinion on an outstanding theological dispute: our fathers (Abraham and Jacob) worshipped on this mountain (Gerizim), but you Jews say … Jerusalem .... Being a prophet, perhaps He would like to discuss religious matters and take His attention away from her.

But the Lord told her the day was coming when the Father would not be worshipped in either place. She hadn't said Who was to be worshipped so He told her.

The Samaritans rejected the prophets and the Psalms, depriving themselves from a fuller knowledge of God, whereas the Jews, as the chosen people, had fuller revelations of God (Psalm 147:19; Romans 9:3-5); but even so the Jews as a whole failed to recognise God in Christ (chapters 1: 11, 26; 7:28).

The salvation is for the whole world (chapter 3:17), but it comes out of the Jews This tremendous fact should never be forgotten, however unworthy the Jews may have proved of their privilege. The Messiah, God's Son, was a Jew.

What matters is not where, but how we worship and it should be in reality, in the spirit of man, in sincerity, and so in truth. All this is according to the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:5) who is the Spirit of truth (chapter 16:13). Here the Lord said the final word on worship: the Father has revealed himself in the Son who is the truth (chapter 14:6, 9) and seeks those who will worship Him, a doctrine running all through the Gospel (chapters 3:16; 6:44; 15:16; 1 John 4: 10).

God is Spirit, like God is Light (1 John 1:5) and God is Love (1 John 4:8) cannot be inverted to read Spirit is God, Light is God, Love is God. The non-corporeality of God is clearly stated and the personality of God also. All this was put in three words for the first time.

Wistfully she turned to the dim hope of the Messiah as a bare possibility about this strange prophet. In plain language Jesus then declared to her that he was the Messiah (Chapter 9:37).

 

R David Jones

 

 

4 But He needed to go through Samaria.

5 So He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.

6 Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

7 A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give Me a drink."

8 For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.

9 Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, "How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?" For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.

10 Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water."

11 The woman said to Him, "Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water?

12 "Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?"

13 Jesus answered and said to her, "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again,

14 "but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life."

15 The woman said to Him, "Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw."

16 Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come here."

17 The woman answered and said, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You have well said, 'I have no husband,'

18 "for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly."

19 The woman said to Him, "Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet.

20 "Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship."

21 Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father.

22 "You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.

23 "But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.

24 "God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."

25 The woman said to Him, "I know that Messiah is coming" (who is called Christ). "When He comes, He will tell us all things."

26 Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am He."