Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither.
Jesus turns His talk with the Samaritan woman at the well to her own life by telling her to call her husband and come back to Him. He speaks to lay her past open before her, showing He knows she has had five husbands and the man she now has is not her husband, to awaken her conscience to sin and to judgment. He does this so she will feel her need of a Saviour before He gives her the gift He offers, condemning her sinful life while showing Himself her loving and pitying friend who points her to divine grace as its sure remedy. His searching knowledge joined with His pitying love convinces her heart, so she listens and believes His word without any miracle and in joy goes to call her neighbors to come and see Him. Those who receive the water of life thus become givers of life to others, proving His message is for all without ethnic or social boundary.
Setting at Jacob's Well
The command belongs to the noontide talk with the woman of Samaria at Jacob's well after a long morning journey, when He was faint from hunger and thirst with the deep well before Him but no rope or jar, sharing the lot of humanity and dependent on a stranger's kindness for even a drink, the Maker of the ocean and controller of the deep waters and opener of the springs of the earth, the King of heaven, resting weary and asking service at her hands.
Jews and Samaritans were bitter enemies who avoided all social dealing, and even His disciples thought only of buying food without seeking to benefit Samaritans, yet He deliberately asked the outcast woman for a favor instead of offering one, with tact born of divine love seeking the key to her heart, because trust awakens trust. In that asking He crossed Jewish barriers with kindness and brought to the Samaritans the salvation many Jews rejected. The encounter at Sychar shows He did not share Jewish intolerance and that His love and grace were not limited to one race or nation. His visit showed that rejection by the Samaritans had not changed His love for them, and it helped teach His disciples to carry the gospel to them.
In disregard of Pharisaic custom and Jewish prejudice His work was not to build separating barriers or constantly thrust upon the people that they were wrong, but He freely mingled with this despised people. Though a Jew, He accepted their hospitality, slept under their roofs, ate at their tables food prepared and served by their hands, taught in their streets, and treated them with utmost kindness and courtesy. He drew their hearts by the tie of human sympathy and recognized the dignity of humanity, and His sympathy and divine grace fell on thirsty souls with blessed life-giving power, awakening new impulses and making men long to become worthy of His confidence and opening to outcasts of society the possibility of a new life.
The conversation began when He asked her for drink, where His mission work commenced. The command stands among His positive words spoken as one having authority, and among His many invitations of mercy and goodness that cut away doubt and questioning whether sinners can find mercy and grace and salvation in God and whether the Lord will hear prayer and have mercy and give favor.
Exposing Sin with Love
Jesus abruptly changed the subject to bid the woman call her husband, directing the conversation toward her personal life and spreading the past of her life out before her to awaken conviction of sin so that she trembles. Her frank answer that she has no husband led Him to reveal His knowledge of her history, that she has had five husbands and the man she now has is not her husband. That exposure laid bare the sin in her manner of life and her breaking of God's commandments, and showed that He can read what human eyes cannot know. It awakened her conscience to the coming judgment in which what is hidden will be revealed.
He turned the conversation to her husband so she would recognize her sin and her need of a Saviour before receiving the gift He wished to give her. While condemning her sinful life He directed her to divine grace as its sure and perfect remedy. The command exposed her sin yet also showed that He was her friend who loved and pitied her, with the promise that if she was willing to forsake her sins God would receive her as His child.
His knowledge of her past was not the only reason she trusted Him, for His look and solemn words reached her soul and convinced her He was more than an ordinary person. She also recognized His pitying love and friendship, a pitying love not limited by religious group or party. The exposure made her confess that He is a prophet and then try to turn the conversation to religious controversy and questions about worship.
Believing and Sharing Truth
Jesus did not pass her by as a stranger and an alien from Israel living in open sin, but spoke with her earnestly and freely as with a single listener in private, patient, personal converse to draw her to hear and accept His message. Though weary from the journey He discerned an opportunity to reach her, and in that encounter He opened rich spiritual truths and taught of His spiritual kingdom. He did so because He saw a receptive heart and mind, one in whom He could make room for the truth of His kingdom though others would have rejected her.
She listened and believed His word without any miracle, and was glad for the light. She was a humble woman waiting for light, with a teachable spirit and a heart emptied of prejudice and ready to bring her ideas to the Scriptures, and in this is seen how doctrine is known and understood. By contrast the Jews beheld Christ coming with majesty and grace in mighty healings and would not recognize Him, because prejudice reigned in their hearts so that even the mightiest miracles had no effect upon them. He came to the world to give precious lessons to those who would receive them, and when the scribes and Pharisees were like old dried-up skin bottles that could not hold the new wine of His kingdom, He made new bottles from humble and sinful outsiders willing to receive Him. Nor did He reveal Himself as plainly to the learned Jews as He did to her.
Knowing His love made her glad and sent her in joy to publish the light to her neighbors and to call the people of the nearby town to come and see Jesus. His words stirred her and helped lead her to become a missionary who brought her countrymen to hear Him, so that through her witness many in the city came to Jesus. The Samaritans, though hated by the Jews, thus received the light, and after He stayed two days and taught them many repented of their sins and believed on Him as their Saviour.
She stands for everyone who hears and believes with practical faith, for those who receive the water of life become sources of life to others, receivers becoming givers and missionaries. In this His followers are taught how to sow and reap by carrying the gospel to people beyond a select few. His dealing with her at Sychar, in spite of Jewish customs that rejected Samaritans, shows His message was for all people without ethnic or social boundaries, and that those regarded as unworthy of salvation could hunger for truth. It proves that those counted as unbelieving who have never heard the truth have hearts more susceptible to receive it than those who have been in the truth and have had evidences of God's work yet remain in unbelief.
His work at the well in offering the water of life to the woman fulfills the promise made in Eden that the Seed of the woman would bruise the serpent's head, a work He continues until every soul has been tested and tried.
Jesus turns His talk with the Samaritan woman at the well to her own life by telling her to call her husband and come back to Him. He speaks to lay her past open before her, showing He knows she has had five husbands and the man she now has is not her husband, to awaken her conscience to sin and to judgment. He does this so she will feel her need of a Saviour before He gives her the gift He offers, condemning her sinful life while showing Himself her loving and pitying friend who points her to divine grace as its sure remedy. His searching knowledge joined with His pitying love convinces her heart, so she listens and believes His word without any miracle and in joy goes to call her neighbors to come and see Him. Those who receive the water of life thus become givers of life to others, proving His message is for all without ethnic or social boundary.
Setting at Jacob's Well
The command belongs to the noontide talk with the woman of Samaria at Jacob's well after a long morning journey, when He was faint from hunger and thirst with the deep well before Him but no rope or jar, sharing the lot of humanity and dependent on a stranger's kindness for even a drink, the Maker of the ocean and controller of the deep waters and opener of the springs of the earth, the King of heaven, resting weary and asking service at her hands.
Jews and Samaritans were bitter enemies who avoided all social dealing, and even His disciples thought only of buying food without seeking to benefit Samaritans, yet He deliberately asked the outcast woman for a favor instead of offering one, with tact born of divine love seeking the key to her heart, because trust awakens trust. In that asking He crossed Jewish barriers with kindness and brought to the Samaritans the salvation many Jews rejected. The encounter at Sychar shows He did not share Jewish intolerance and that His love and grace were not limited to one race or nation. His visit showed that rejection by the Samaritans had not changed His love for them, and it helped teach His disciples to carry the gospel to them.
In disregard of Pharisaic custom and Jewish prejudice His work was not to build separating barriers or constantly thrust upon the people that they were wrong, but He freely mingled with this despised people. Though a Jew, He accepted their hospitality, slept under their roofs, ate at their tables food prepared and served by their hands, taught in their streets, and treated them with utmost kindness and courtesy. He drew their hearts by the tie of human sympathy and recognized the dignity of humanity, and His sympathy and divine grace fell on thirsty souls with blessed life-giving power, awakening new impulses and making men long to become worthy of His confidence and opening to outcasts of society the possibility of a new life.
The conversation began when He asked her for drink, where His mission work commenced. The command stands among His positive words spoken as one having authority, and among His many invitations of mercy and goodness that cut away doubt and questioning whether sinners can find mercy and grace and salvation in God and whether the Lord will hear prayer and have mercy and give favor.
Exposing Sin with Love
Jesus abruptly changed the subject to bid the woman call her husband, directing the conversation toward her personal life and spreading the past of her life out before her to awaken conviction of sin so that she trembles. Her frank answer that she has no husband led Him to reveal His knowledge of her history, that she has had five husbands and the man she now has is not her husband. That exposure laid bare the sin in her manner of life and her breaking of God's commandments, and showed that He can read what human eyes cannot know. It awakened her conscience to the coming judgment in which what is hidden will be revealed.
He turned the conversation to her husband so she would recognize her sin and her need of a Saviour before receiving the gift He wished to give her. While condemning her sinful life He directed her to divine grace as its sure and perfect remedy. The command exposed her sin yet also showed that He was her friend who loved and pitied her, with the promise that if she was willing to forsake her sins God would receive her as His child.
His knowledge of her past was not the only reason she trusted Him, for His look and solemn words reached her soul and convinced her He was more than an ordinary person. She also recognized His pitying love and friendship, a pitying love not limited by religious group or party. The exposure made her confess that He is a prophet and then try to turn the conversation to religious controversy and questions about worship.
Believing and Sharing Truth
Jesus did not pass her by as a stranger and an alien from Israel living in open sin, but spoke with her earnestly and freely as with a single listener in private, patient, personal converse to draw her to hear and accept His message. Though weary from the journey He discerned an opportunity to reach her, and in that encounter He opened rich spiritual truths and taught of His spiritual kingdom. He did so because He saw a receptive heart and mind, one in whom He could make room for the truth of His kingdom though others would have rejected her.
She listened and believed His word without any miracle, and was glad for the light. She was a humble woman waiting for light, with a teachable spirit and a heart emptied of prejudice and ready to bring her ideas to the Scriptures, and in this is seen how doctrine is known and understood. By contrast the Jews beheld Christ coming with majesty and grace in mighty healings and would not recognize Him, because prejudice reigned in their hearts so that even the mightiest miracles had no effect upon them. He came to the world to give precious lessons to those who would receive them, and when the scribes and Pharisees were like old dried-up skin bottles that could not hold the new wine of His kingdom, He made new bottles from humble and sinful outsiders willing to receive Him. Nor did He reveal Himself as plainly to the learned Jews as He did to her.
Knowing His love made her glad and sent her in joy to publish the light to her neighbors and to call the people of the nearby town to come and see Jesus. His words stirred her and helped lead her to become a missionary who brought her countrymen to hear Him, so that through her witness many in the city came to Jesus. The Samaritans, though hated by the Jews, thus received the light, and after He stayed two days and taught them many repented of their sins and believed on Him as their Saviour.
She stands for everyone who hears and believes with practical faith, for those who receive the water of life become sources of life to others, receivers becoming givers and missionaries. In this His followers are taught how to sow and reap by carrying the gospel to people beyond a select few. His dealing with her at Sychar, in spite of Jewish customs that rejected Samaritans, shows His message was for all people without ethnic or social boundaries, and that those regarded as unworthy of salvation could hunger for truth. It proves that those counted as unbelieving who have never heard the truth have hearts more susceptible to receive it than those who have been in the truth and have had evidences of God's work yet remain in unbelief.
His work at the well in offering the water of life to the woman fulfills the promise made in Eden that the Seed of the woman would bruise the serpent's head, a work He continues until every soul has been tested and tried.