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Jesus Seeks the Woman at the Well, Part II - John 4:7-12
Continuing our study of our Lord’s meeting with the woman at the well, we see Jesus leaving Judaea, thereby removing himself from the deceitful maneuvers of the Pharisees who are attempting to bring a split between himself and John the Baptist.
For Jesus had much more important things to do as he desired to always be about His Father’s business and that business was to seek and to save that which was lost.
Jesus was moved by what John calls “must needs.”
And those must needs were to be at Jacob’s well by noon in order to meet a particular woman, a woman of Samaria, a thirsty woman.
A woman who thought her thirst would be satisfied by the water from Jacob’s well but in truth her thirst went far deeper than that well could supply.
So Jesus arrives early for this appointment, a lesson for us by the way, and of course is weary having had traveled by foot to Jacob’s well to be there in time to ask of this woman for a drink of cold water for we read of this in John 4:7,8 where we are told:
7 There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink. 8 (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.) Now we all have a daily need for water.
So how much fluid does the average, healthy adult living in a temperate climate need? The Institute of Medicine determined that an adequate intake (AI) for men is roughly about 13 cups (3 liters) of total beverages a day. The AI for women is about 9 cups (2.2 liters) of total beverages a day.
We see here even Jesus, the Son of God had a daily need for water.
God gives us the ability to thirst (a need for liquids) for thirst tells us to get water.
The body knows its needs and knows how to move us to satisfy those needs.
We thirst and we quickly obey our body and get water.
If we don't obey our body we would die of de-hydration.
This woman of Samaria, as every woman of every nation has a need for water.
She is thirsty, her clothes need washing, her house needs cleaning.
Her need for water is a daily need which she must try to satisfy by coming to Jacob's well every day for a new supply.
Little does she know that the true Well awaits her to satisfy her thirst in a way of which she never dreamed.
For Jesus was at the well first, that from this day forward she would never thirst again.
He came to the well to do the thing that he had been sent to do.
He came to seek and to save that which was lost and he found coming to the well such a woman who fit that description.
Jesus puts the thirst in a soul to come to the well.
We do not naturally seek the water of the true Well.
In Isaiah 65:1, you will find, I am found of them that sought me not.
And in John 15:16, Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you.
Scripture tells us the Lord found Moses with the burning bush, he told Zacchaeus to make haste and come down, he blinded Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus, and he opened up the heart of Lydia as she attended to the things spoken of by Paul.
If we love him, it is only because he first loved us.
Jesus said, No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him.
There has to be a force to move a dead object.
There has to be a thirst inserted in the soul.
Jesus, the true Well, came to Jacob's well with a purpose.
The Father was drawing this woman of Samaria to himself.
The woman knew that her thirst had to be satisfied by coming to a well but all she knew of wells was at the well of Jacob.
She only knew physical wells, wells that you can see and touch and from which you can draw water.
Little did the woman know that this would be the day of salvation in her life.
Little did she know that this was the day when she would meet the living well out of which she would draw living water.
But only because of the Father's drawing her, would she come to Jesus.
The woman comes at the sixth hour.
Six is the number of man in the flesh.
Flesh that is not complete.
She needs to become number seven, complete in Jesus.
The well would satisfy her flesh but the flesh is never satisfied once for all from Jacob’s well.
She would have to come to the well tomorrow and the next day and the next!
She came at noon because she knew by habit that the well would be deserted.
Any decent woman got her water the first thing in the morning.
What is the matter with this woman?
Well, this woman was not part of the decent crowd.
Her reputation was ill and she knew it.
That is a great revelation for a sinner to know that they are ill.
Of ill repute with God.
How near one is to the kingdom of God when you know the depravity of your own heart.
When you know that you have a fatal illness and that there is nothing in you to cure your sick soul.
When you know that God is right when he says that all your righteousnesses are as filthy rags and that you come short of the glory of God.
She knew her condition.
This was the time for her to meet God.
This was not a chance meeting of two people.
This was no accident that she came to the well when Jesus was sitting there alone and no other distractions were present to steal away the seed of the Word of God.
She came to the well expecting to meet no one.
She came to the well to draw water and get back to her home without drawing attention to herself.
She came to the well trying to avoid ridicule and mockery for her life style and her past.
How many husbands had she robbed from other women?
But Jesus was there, a Jew asking a favor of a Samaritan woman.
Unheard of!
But he knew her heart. He knew her deep need.
He was there to invite himself into her heart.
Jesus said to her, Give me to drink.
Do you think he was asking the woman for physical water?
Or was he asking her if she had anything to satisfy his hunger for souls?
Remember that Jesus in later verses tells his disciples that he had meat to eat they knew not of.
He received refreshment far greater than Jacob's water when the woman received him as her Savior.
This was the drink that Jesus was looking for.
His question was pointed at this particular woman to get a certain response so that Jesus Christ could engage her in the most important conversation of her life.
We learn later that this woman has had five husbands.
What sort of a woman has five husbands?
The scripture does not say what happened to her husbands.
But it does infer that she gave up on marriage because now she is living with someone in an illicit arrangement.
In spite of modern thought, living together in an unmarried state is immoral and not pleasing to God.
Marriage is a spiritual union and is not to be ridiculed in such a fashion.
We can infer from this passage that this Samaritan woman is a woman of loose morals.
She moves in her own special circles and these circles are not in the acceptable circles of her town.
She is independent, not afraid to talk to a stranger, even a Jew.
She comes across, bold and brassy and one who, through vast experience, knows how to make her own way.
No doubt she is not thought of as a lady.
She then asks in verse 9 probably indignantly, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? and John inserts commentary here, for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.
(In other words Jews and Samaritans do not use vessels in common, the Jews would not use unclean vessels)
She asks how.
Nicodemus, in his first word in reply to the Lord, asks how.
We are all full of "hows". How can this be? How is this true?
The Truth and Grace of God is set before us and we ask, how.
The human heart is closed against the things of God.
It is opened to the things of Satan, the world and the man of the world.
It gives ready acceptance to these things, but to the truth and grace of God it asks,"how".
All that this woman could think of was the old racial prejudice of the Jews and the Samaritans, the hatred for each other; thou a Jew and me a woman of Samaria.
It was obvious that this Jew had no vessel or cup to drink from.
She knew that the strict Jew would share no vessel with a Samaritan, and a woman at that.
Asking a favor of this type was astonishing and it displayed unexpected goodwill by Jesus Christ.
The Lord was gracious to a woman who was used to scorn but not used to Grace.
How important it is for us to be gracious before all men and women.
Another example of the Lord for us to emulate.
Verse 4:10, Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.
Notice the Lord's grace here with this sassy Samaritan.
He does not give her a lecture on the evils of prejudice or a lecture on her changing her ways and turning over a new leaf and being a better person or one who needs to improve her self-esteem.
He does not rebuke her for her sin but instead creates in her a thirst for water that is not available from Jacob's well.
Now water had been prominent in the wedding at Cana.
Jesus had told Nicodemus that a man must be born of water and of the Holy Spirit in order to see the kingdom of God.
Here he talks about water that lives. Living water.
The kind of water that supplants the water that comes from Jacob's well.
Better water is here and Jesus offers that living water to the woman at the well.
He offers the water that comes from the fountain of living waters to replace the water that had come from broken cisterns that could hold no water.
He is here with the new order of things, the order of Grace and Truth.
He was at Jacob's well, the best that man can give, to offer himself, the eternal well, the best that God can give; the well of living water, the gift of God.
He says to her, if thou knewest who.
That is the need of the sinner; not how but who, not religion but a person.
The need of the sinner is to know Jesus and to know that he is the one that is offering the gift of living water.
If she knew who, then she would have asked for the living water.
That is the role of the Christian witness.
To make known who Jesus is.
She knew that she was a sinner, no doubt about that.
Jesus did not have to deal with that as he did with Nicodemus.
To the woman he offered the gift of God.
The natural result of knowing Jesus Christ is to receive the gift of living waters from the true well.
If I be lifted up I will draw all men unto me.
She had to look, Nicodemus had to look, you and I have to look, if we are to receive the living waters.
Verses 4:11,12, The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hath nothing to draw with and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water? Art thou greater then our father Jacob, which gave us the well and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?
She now calls him, "Sir." But she is confused.
She continues to talk about the water in the well.
She thinks that the living water that Jesus speaks about is the fresh spring water of the well.
She also says the well is deep.
She says that Jesus has no bucket, no means to get water from this well.
He is powerless unless she helps him, when in reality it is she that is powerless unless he helps her. God does not need our help for it is we who totally need his help.
When we serve him it is not to satisfy his needs for God has no needs.
Serving him is to satisfy our needs.
We serve Him for our welfare, for when we serve him we are benefited and others too are benefited.
She thinks that if Jesus cannot get water from Jacob's well then he must be powerless to change Jacob's water into living water.
But Jesus does not use Jacob's water to create living water.
Living water is salvation and God does not use something from Jacob or any man to make salvation.
For salvation is not by Jacob but by Grace and Grace alone.
It is totally God produced, without the benefit or assistance of man or man's water.
She cannot imagine that this stranger could be better than "her father" Jacob.
For one to produce better water than what had sustained her from this well, would indeed have to be better than Jacob, the digger of this well
She was content with the water of this well.
She had looked for no better water.
It had sustained her for many years, through five husbands.
Don't bother me with something better!
How often we settle for the inferior when we can have better.
But here was someone better, who had better water to give her. |