Jesus Speaks With the Samaritan Woman at the WellBible World
4:7John 4:7
There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink.
Tired, hungry and thirsty from travel, He rests at Jacob's well near Sychar about noon while His disciples are gone for food, and having no rope or jar to reach the deep water He asks a Samaritan woman who comes to draw for a drink. For a Jew to ask even a cup of water from a Samaritan broke custom, for Jews and Samaritans were bitter enemies and Jews despised Samaritans. His courteous request is genuine, yet by asking a favor of a stranger He awakens trust to reach her heart and opens personal talk so He can offer something far greater without reproving her errand. That greater gift is living water, the joy and hope of the gospel from the fountain within Him that satisfies the deepest cravings of mind and heart unto everlasting life. Though a despised outsider living in sin, she believes His word without any miracle, receives plain instruction about the Father, true worship and His Messiahship, and leaving her waterpot carries the light to her city so that many Samaritans believe.
Setting at Jacob's Well
There cometh the meeting at Jacob's well near Sychar in Samaria, around noon, where Jesus rests weary, hungry, thirsty and faint after a long journey through Samaria while His disciples are away seeking food and gone to buy food. He has no rope or jar to reach the deep well, so He waits for someone to come to draw water and makes His request after the woman has drawn.
Jews and Samaritans were bitter enemies, and for a Jew to accept even a cup of water from a Samaritan was contrary to Jewish custom and Pharisaic custom, so His request startled the woman and began controversy because Jews thoroughly despised Samaritans. In sharing ordinary thirst and weariness from travel and labor and need without using a miracle to meet it, He who is the Son of God and Creator shows He has taken human nature, shares the hardships of humanity, and has chosen to live within the human lot He assumed.
He stands close beside the woman while she does not know who He is, though she is thirsting for truth and He as the Truth is beside her able to enlighten her.
Meaning of the Request
His words are a genuine request for water, for He truly wants a drink, a cool draught from the well. The request is ordinary and courteous, made as she comes in her usual way to draw water, and it begins a personal conversation with her. That simple opening becomes the way to speak about living water and to offer the gift of God, the gospel's joy and hope that satisfies the deepest cravings of mind and heart and leads to everlasting life. He does not reprove her for drawing physical water, but uses the encounter to present something far more valuable, the fountain of living water within Himself. She comes seeking physical water without yet understanding the soul's need He is addressing.
By asking a favor rather than offering one, and by asking a stranger for water, He uses trust to awaken trust and seeks a way to reach her heart. He values the encounter if His words of life are accepted, and esteems the tear of penitence as evidence of a contrite heart. The request is one of His positive invitations of mercy and goodness, removing doubt whether God will hear prayer and give mercy, favor, grace and salvation. In the East giving water to a thirsty traveler is a sacred duty. Her apparent withholding pictures the many who withhold from Him the recognition, sympathy, love, thanksgiving and fruit in good works that He hungers and thirsts for in response to His great love and the blood by which He purchased them, which cannot be safely withheld while He withholds His inexhaustible grace and love from no member of the human family.
Living Water Offered
His request for a drink leads directly to His offer of the gift of God, living water. The asking opens the conversation and opens the way to that offer.
That living water is the gospel's joy and hope, the fountain of living water within Him. It satisfies the deepest cravings of mind and heart and leads to everlasting life. She came in her usual way seeking physical water without yet understanding the soul's need He was addressing. Those who recognize their spiritual need should ask Him for what they lack, and He will supply their need.
In proffering the water of life at the well He fulfills the Eden promise that the Seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head, a work He continues until every soul has been tested and tried. The verse pictures thirsting souls today sitting close by the living fountain yet looking far away from the well that holds refreshing water. They refuse to believe when told the water is close by.
Woman Who Believed
The woman was a stranger and an outsider, a Samaritan sinner of despised status and circumstances, humble and living in sin, yet with a heart open to receive truth and a receptive heart and mind. She listened to Him and accepted Him without any miracle because she believed His word, glad for the light that had come to her. Her earnest desire to hear His words made her forget the thirst of the stranger and His request to give Him to drink, and forget her own errand to the well.
To such an open heart He gave direct instruction with no parables, revealing the Father and the service acceptable to God who reads the heart. He taught her about His spiritual kingdom and opened to her His richest instruction, plainly declaring that He is the Messiah. He found in her sinful heart a vessel and a receptive place for the truth of His kingdom.
This stands in contrast to the learned Jews, scribes and Pharisees, for though He came to them with all the power of His majesty and grace in mighty healings and the mighty outpouring of His Spirit, and though some already had evidence of God's work, they would not recognize Him. They were like old dried-up skin bottles that could not hold the new wine of His kingdom, while Samaritans who had not previously heard, though hated by the Jews, received the light. He did not identify Himself as plainly to the learned Jews as He did to this humble Samaritan woman. The difference is the spirit in which Scripture and His teaching are met: those who come with a teachable spirit, ready to learn, with hearts emptied of prejudice, not seeking to bring the Scriptures to their ideas but to bring their ideas to the Scriptures, will know of the doctrine and understand it as she did, while those whose hearts are ruled by prejudice will not be moved even by the mightiest miracles. He made her a new bottle into which He could pour the new wine of His kingdom.
She represents everyone who hears and believes with practical faith, for those who receive the living water become a source of life for others, and the receiver becomes a giver and a missionary. His earnest and eloquent words moved her to leave her waterpot and errand, go into the city, and tell her friends to come see a man who told her all things she ever did and ask if He is the Christ. She promptly carried the light to her countrymen, though the disciples saw no promising work in Samaria. Through her witness and report a whole city came to hear Him, and many Samaritans believed on Him. People who had not previously heard came out to hear Him, and after speaking with her He told His disciples the people were ready like fields already ripe for harvest, and the influence of those words has continued through the years for the saving of souls.
Pattern for Gospel Work
The request for a drink shows deep personal interest in one woman, care for individuals and desire to lead them to salvation. He met her as an individual in an ordinary setting and opened a personal conversation that led to His richest instruction, seeing in her a receptive heart and mind despite her despised status and circumstances. He wanted a cool drink and used that simple request to open the way to offer the water of life. His earnest and eloquent words moved her to leave her waterpot, go into the city, and tell her friends to come see a man who told her all things she ever did and ask if He is the Christ. The result was that many Samaritans of that city believed on Him, and the influence of those words has continued through the years for the saving of souls.
He did not let Jewish prejudice keep Him from mingling with Samaritans, but set at naught Pharisaic customs and acted in the face of Jewish prejudice. He treated them with kindness, courtesy and human sympathy, honoring their human dignity. He accepted the hospitality of this despised people, slept with them under their roofs, ate with them at their tables partaking of food prepared and served by their hands, and taught in their streets. His words brought life to thirsty souls, awakened new impulses, and opened new life and its possibility to outcasts. His work was not to create separating barriers or constantly thrust upon people that they were wrong, but while He drew their hearts to Him by the tie of human sympathy His divine grace brought to them the salvation which the Jews rejected.
His dealings with the people of Sychar taught that salvation was for all people and that those considered unworthy and despised could hunger for the light of truth. His love and gifts of grace were not limited by race or nation, and His preaching there showed He did not share Jewish intolerance toward other peoples. His love extended even to those who had treated Him rudely. His loving treatment began to overcome Samaritan hostility and prepared the disciples to carry the gospel to them. That same encounter taught His disciples to extend the gospel beyond their own people.
The setting illustrates how His followers are to sow and reap. Though faint and weary He rested at the well and saw the woman's arrival as she came to draw water as an opportunity sought out to reach her with spiritual truth and care for her salvation. A worker for Christ should therefore speak earnestly even to one hearer, though she was a stranger, an outsider, living in sin and His only listener, since profound spiritual truths can be shared with a single listener and the message may reach many through that person. Her report brought many Samaritans to hear and believe, and she carried the message to her countrymen and brought a whole city to hear Him. Receiving the living water makes the receiver a giver and a missionary, a source of life for others who shares Christ with people who need the gospel.
Tired, hungry and thirsty from travel, He rests at Jacob's well near Sychar about noon while His disciples are gone for food, and having no rope or jar to reach the deep water He asks a Samaritan woman who comes to draw for a drink. For a Jew to ask even a cup of water from a Samaritan broke custom, for Jews and Samaritans were bitter enemies and Jews despised Samaritans. His courteous request is genuine, yet by asking a favor of a stranger He awakens trust to reach her heart and opens personal talk so He can offer something far greater without reproving her errand. That greater gift is living water, the joy and hope of the gospel from the fountain within Him that satisfies the deepest cravings of mind and heart unto everlasting life. Though a despised outsider living in sin, she believes His word without any miracle, receives plain instruction about the Father, true worship and His Messiahship, and leaving her waterpot carries the light to her city so that many Samaritans believe.
Setting at Jacob's Well
There cometh the meeting at Jacob's well near Sychar in Samaria, around noon, where Jesus rests weary, hungry, thirsty and faint after a long journey through Samaria while His disciples are away seeking food and gone to buy food. He has no rope or jar to reach the deep well, so He waits for someone to come to draw water and makes His request after the woman has drawn.
Jews and Samaritans were bitter enemies, and for a Jew to accept even a cup of water from a Samaritan was contrary to Jewish custom and Pharisaic custom, so His request startled the woman and began controversy because Jews thoroughly despised Samaritans. In sharing ordinary thirst and weariness from travel and labor and need without using a miracle to meet it, He who is the Son of God and Creator shows He has taken human nature, shares the hardships of humanity, and has chosen to live within the human lot He assumed.
He stands close beside the woman while she does not know who He is, though she is thirsting for truth and He as the Truth is beside her able to enlighten her.
Meaning of the Request
His words are a genuine request for water, for He truly wants a drink, a cool draught from the well. The request is ordinary and courteous, made as she comes in her usual way to draw water, and it begins a personal conversation with her. That simple opening becomes the way to speak about living water and to offer the gift of God, the gospel's joy and hope that satisfies the deepest cravings of mind and heart and leads to everlasting life. He does not reprove her for drawing physical water, but uses the encounter to present something far more valuable, the fountain of living water within Himself. She comes seeking physical water without yet understanding the soul's need He is addressing.
By asking a favor rather than offering one, and by asking a stranger for water, He uses trust to awaken trust and seeks a way to reach her heart. He values the encounter if His words of life are accepted, and esteems the tear of penitence as evidence of a contrite heart. The request is one of His positive invitations of mercy and goodness, removing doubt whether God will hear prayer and give mercy, favor, grace and salvation. In the East giving water to a thirsty traveler is a sacred duty. Her apparent withholding pictures the many who withhold from Him the recognition, sympathy, love, thanksgiving and fruit in good works that He hungers and thirsts for in response to His great love and the blood by which He purchased them, which cannot be safely withheld while He withholds His inexhaustible grace and love from no member of the human family.
Living Water Offered
His request for a drink leads directly to His offer of the gift of God, living water. The asking opens the conversation and opens the way to that offer.
That living water is the gospel's joy and hope, the fountain of living water within Him. It satisfies the deepest cravings of mind and heart and leads to everlasting life. She came in her usual way seeking physical water without yet understanding the soul's need He was addressing. Those who recognize their spiritual need should ask Him for what they lack, and He will supply their need.
In proffering the water of life at the well He fulfills the Eden promise that the Seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head, a work He continues until every soul has been tested and tried. The verse pictures thirsting souls today sitting close by the living fountain yet looking far away from the well that holds refreshing water. They refuse to believe when told the water is close by.
Woman Who Believed
The woman was a stranger and an outsider, a Samaritan sinner of despised status and circumstances, humble and living in sin, yet with a heart open to receive truth and a receptive heart and mind. She listened to Him and accepted Him without any miracle because she believed His word, glad for the light that had come to her. Her earnest desire to hear His words made her forget the thirst of the stranger and His request to give Him to drink, and forget her own errand to the well.
To such an open heart He gave direct instruction with no parables, revealing the Father and the service acceptable to God who reads the heart. He taught her about His spiritual kingdom and opened to her His richest instruction, plainly declaring that He is the Messiah. He found in her sinful heart a vessel and a receptive place for the truth of His kingdom.
This stands in contrast to the learned Jews, scribes and Pharisees, for though He came to them with all the power of His majesty and grace in mighty healings and the mighty outpouring of His Spirit, and though some already had evidence of God's work, they would not recognize Him. They were like old dried-up skin bottles that could not hold the new wine of His kingdom, while Samaritans who had not previously heard, though hated by the Jews, received the light. He did not identify Himself as plainly to the learned Jews as He did to this humble Samaritan woman. The difference is the spirit in which Scripture and His teaching are met: those who come with a teachable spirit, ready to learn, with hearts emptied of prejudice, not seeking to bring the Scriptures to their ideas but to bring their ideas to the Scriptures, will know of the doctrine and understand it as she did, while those whose hearts are ruled by prejudice will not be moved even by the mightiest miracles. He made her a new bottle into which He could pour the new wine of His kingdom.
She represents everyone who hears and believes with practical faith, for those who receive the living water become a source of life for others, and the receiver becomes a giver and a missionary. His earnest and eloquent words moved her to leave her waterpot and errand, go into the city, and tell her friends to come see a man who told her all things she ever did and ask if He is the Christ. She promptly carried the light to her countrymen, though the disciples saw no promising work in Samaria. Through her witness and report a whole city came to hear Him, and many Samaritans believed on Him. People who had not previously heard came out to hear Him, and after speaking with her He told His disciples the people were ready like fields already ripe for harvest, and the influence of those words has continued through the years for the saving of souls.
Pattern for Gospel Work
The request for a drink shows deep personal interest in one woman, care for individuals and desire to lead them to salvation. He met her as an individual in an ordinary setting and opened a personal conversation that led to His richest instruction, seeing in her a receptive heart and mind despite her despised status and circumstances. He wanted a cool drink and used that simple request to open the way to offer the water of life. His earnest and eloquent words moved her to leave her waterpot, go into the city, and tell her friends to come see a man who told her all things she ever did and ask if He is the Christ. The result was that many Samaritans of that city believed on Him, and the influence of those words has continued through the years for the saving of souls.
He did not let Jewish prejudice keep Him from mingling with Samaritans, but set at naught Pharisaic customs and acted in the face of Jewish prejudice. He treated them with kindness, courtesy and human sympathy, honoring their human dignity. He accepted the hospitality of this despised people, slept with them under their roofs, ate with them at their tables partaking of food prepared and served by their hands, and taught in their streets. His words brought life to thirsty souls, awakened new impulses, and opened new life and its possibility to outcasts. His work was not to create separating barriers or constantly thrust upon people that they were wrong, but while He drew their hearts to Him by the tie of human sympathy His divine grace brought to them the salvation which the Jews rejected.
His dealings with the people of Sychar taught that salvation was for all people and that those considered unworthy and despised could hunger for the light of truth. His love and gifts of grace were not limited by race or nation, and His preaching there showed He did not share Jewish intolerance toward other peoples. His love extended even to those who had treated Him rudely. His loving treatment began to overcome Samaritan hostility and prepared the disciples to carry the gospel to them. That same encounter taught His disciples to extend the gospel beyond their own people.
The setting illustrates how His followers are to sow and reap. Though faint and weary He rested at the well and saw the woman's arrival as she came to draw water as an opportunity sought out to reach her with spiritual truth and care for her salvation. A worker for Christ should therefore speak earnestly even to one hearer, though she was a stranger, an outsider, living in sin and His only listener, since profound spiritual truths can be shared with a single listener and the message may reach many through that person. Her report brought many Samaritans to hear and believe, and she carried the message to her countrymen and brought a whole city to hear Him. Receiving the living water makes the receiver a giver and a missionary, a source of life for others who shares Christ with people who need the gospel.