The Woman at the Well (4)

We are going to unpack one of my favorite stories of the Bible this morning. It is full of historical background information as well as spiritual significance. We will be in John chapter 4 this morning, and beginning in verse 1 we will read about Jesus’s encounter with a woman at a well. We will break this story up throughout the sermon so leave your bibles open, but starting in verse 1 it says

John 4:1–6 “Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. And he had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.”

God called Abraham out of Ur and He promised Him a land. “Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.””

God makes Abraham’s family into the nation of Israel. He was their God, their Leader, and they, the Hebrews, were His people.

God never intended on Israel having any other ruler but Himself. The people begged for a king and because of their sinful ways, God allowed them to have their king. This would prove to be a mistake, and God knew that. Though God used the line of King David for good, it was God’s intention that He be their ruler.

Israel unified under David and Solomon: After Saul, David and then Solomon reigned over the nation of Israel. Israel divides under Solomon’s son, Rehoboam. Northern 10 tribes became the tribes of Israel and created their own line of kings. Most of which were wicked. The southern 2 tribes were known as Judah. The Davidic line remained on the throne there.

Israel did what was evil in the eyes of the Lord (idol worship/turned their backs on God) and because of that Assyria comes in and conquers Israel. Assyria then forces assimilation on the Jews, they intermarry and become “half breeds.”

A strict Jew saw this mixed race of men and woman as less than dogs. God prohibited intermarriage between the Hebrews and other religions. If did so for spiritual purity, and for no other reason but that.

Deuteronomy 7:3–5 “You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods.

God knew that if the Hebrews intermarried with other cultural religions then His children would turn from true worship, and pursue other gods. You know what? In every case He was right. Some might be tempted to say, well can people not marry who they want and be in charge of their own faith? No. They cannot be. Your faith will always be affected by the ones you join your life with. I am not saying that you will lose salvation or anything like that, but marrying someone who is not of your same faith AND beliefs will always put a strain on your relationship with God.

2 Corinthians 6:14–18 “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”

Jews hated Samaritans, and they would avoid them at all cost. Strict Jews went as far as to completely avoid traveling through Samaria as they thought it would make them ceremonially unclean. There were 2 routes that they would take to go around Samaria. One went up the sea coast following closer to the Mediterranean Sea, this was the longest route. The other route would have been up the east side of the country across the Jordan and up through to Galilee. Both routes added multiple days to a Jews travel, but it was the most desired route for a strict Jews

So why does this story begins by telling us that Jesus “had” to go through Samaria. Listen, you always have a choice. There is always other options. The other options might be horrible and highly undesirable, but they are options. Jesus could have gone from Judea to Galilee other ways. Why would a Jew as perfect as Jesus worry with going through Samaria? He had someone He had to meet, and she was in Samaria.

In the previous chapter of John, Jesus told Nicodemus that the wind blows and you do not know where it is going nor where it came from. The same is the way with the Holy Spirit. The people of a Samaria had a great need, and Jesus was about to use one of the most unworthy and downcast vessels to meet that need.

John 4:5–15 “So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour. A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

Jesus meets us where we are at:

Jesus did not own a truck as they were not invented at this point, and he did not spend much time riding on a donkey or a horse because they were thought to be modes of transportation for those who could afford the luxury. So Jesus grew tired and hungry. Jesus is God, but at the time He was also man. Jesus came to the point

John 4:15–18 “The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.” Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.””

Judah is taken captive by Babylon, then Persia conquers Babylon, and King Cyrus allows the Jews to return to Judah and rebuild their temple. You can read about this in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. The Samaritans offer their monetary assistance to rebuild the temple so all could worship, but because of their inability to follow God’s word and keep their line pure, the Jews turned their nose up at the Samaritans and snubbed the offer.

Furthermore, the some of the priests to Judah had also mixed with other races, and this caused the spiritual leaders of Judah to purge the priesthood. One of the priests were married to the daughter of the governor of Samaria. Upon his removal from the priesthood, he and his wife moved to Samaria where the governor built a temple on mount Gerizim so that the priest could carry out priestly duties.

This infuriated the Samaritans so they built their own temple on Mount Gerizim to perform worship.

There is only one true temple, and that was in Jerusalem. The