The Seeking Savior Part I

“The Seeking Savior”-Part I

Introduction:

            I believe in Divine appointments; I live by them. I was the Divine appointment that God had with me that brought about my salvation. God is essentially unchangeable in Him self. Were He otherwise, He would be confessedly imperfect, since whoever changes must change either for the better or for the worse; whatever alteration any being undergoes, that being must, ipso facto, either become more excellent than it was or lose some of the excellency which it had. But neither of these can be the case with the Deity: He cannot change for the better, for that would necessarily imply that He was not perfectly good before; He cannot change for the worse, for then He could not be perfectly good after that change. Ergo, God is unchangeable. And this is the uniform voice of Scripture. “I am the Lord, I change not” (Mal. 3:6). “With Him is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (James 1:17). “Thou art the same, and Thy years shall have no end” (Psalm 102:27).[1]

            God is likewise absolutely unchangeable with regard to His purposes and promises. “God is not a man, that He should lie; neither the son of man, that He should repent: hath He said, and shall He not do it? or, hath He spoken, and shall He not make it good?” (Numb. 23:19). “The Strength of Israel will not lie, nor repent; for He is not a man, that He should repent” (1 Sam. 15:29). “He is in one mind, and who can turn Him?” (Job 23:13). “I, the Lord, have spoken it, it shall come to pass, and I will do it; I will not go back neither will I spare, neither will I repent” (Ezek. 24:14). “The gifts and calling of God are without repentance” (Rom. 11:29). “He abides faithful, and cannot deny Himself” (2 Tim. 2:13).

By the purpose or decree of God, we mean His determinate counsel, whereby He did from all eternity preordain whatever He should do, or would permit to be done, in time.[2]

            “Although,” to use the words of Gregory, “God never swerves from His decree, yet He often varies in His declarations”: that is always sure and immovable; these are sometimes seemingly discordant. So when He gave sentence against the Ninevites by Jonah, saying, “Yet forty days, and Ninevah shall be overthrown,” the meaning of the words is not that God absolutely intended, at the end of that space, to destroy the city, but that, should God deal with those people according to their deserts, they would be totally extirpated from the earth, and should be so extirpated unless they repented speedily.

Likewise, when He told King Hezekiah by the prophet Isaiah, “Set thine house in order, for thou shalt die and not live,” the meaning was that with respect to second causes, and, considering the king’s bad state of health and emaciated constitution, he could not, humanly speaking, live much longer. But still the event showed that God had immutably determined that he should live fifteen years more, and in order to that had put into his heart to pray for the blessing decreed, just as, in the case of Ninevah, lately mentioned, God had resolved not to overthrow that city then; and, in order to the accomplishment of His own purpose in a way worthy of Himself, made the ministry of Jonah the means of leading that people to repentance. All which, as it shows that God’s absolute predestination does not se aside the use of means, so does it likewise prove that, however various the declarations of God may appear (to wit, when they proceed on a regard had to natural causes), His counsels and designs stand firm and immovable, and can neither admit of alteration in themselves, nor of hindrance in their execution. In other words, as I have said, God not only determines the ends but He determines the means to those ends. This is what we see in the events in John 4 a Sovereign God who had a Divine Appointment with a young woman.

I.                    The Sovereign with a Purpose (vs. 3-6a)

Possibly because of the growth threat of some of John’s disciples and the Pharisees also begin to dog the footsteps of Christ, He left Judea and decided to travel north to Galilee. If you remember, Jesus had been here before in a little town called Cana, where He and His disciples attended a wedding and there He performed His first miracle. He left there to head to Jerusalem in Judea to attend Passover week. While there, He cleansed to temple and has His discourse with Nicodemus. Now, after the transfer of ministries between John and Christ had taken place, He left Judea heading north again to Galilee, which is the providence of His home town, Nazareth.

The text tells us in verse 4 that “He must needs go through Samaria”. Now, to understand the significance of this verse, you must understand the history of the Samaritan people.

When the nation of Israel split politically after Solomon’s rule, King Omri named the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel "Samaria" (1 Kin. 16:24). The name eventually referred to the entire district and sometimes to the entire northern kingdom, which had been taken captive (capital, Samaria) by Assyria in 722 b.c. (2 Kin. 17:1–6). While Assyria led most of the populace of the 10 northern tribes away (into the region which today is northern Iraq), it left a sizable population of Jews in the northern Samaritan region and transported many non-Jews into Samaria. These groups intermingled to form a mixed race through intermarriage. Eventually tension developed between the Jews who returned from captivity and the Samaritans. The Samaritans withdrew from the worship of Yahweh at Jerusalem and established their worship at Mt. Gerizim in Samaria (vv. 20–22). Samaritans regarded only the Pentateuch as authoritative. As a result of this history, Jews repudiated Samaritans and considered them heretical. Intense ethnic and cultural tensions raged historically between the two groups so that both avoided contact as much as possible.[3] Unfortunately, we will not look in detail at the parable of the Good Samaritan, but it is no accident that the person who fell among thieves was a Jew and the person that helped this Jew was a man from Samaria. Even after he had been overlooked by two of his own people.

The Jewish people would not have understood this move by Jesus here. Because for most of the Jews, if they were traveling from Judea to Galilee, would rather travel out of their way NE and go through the providence of Perea and Decapolis in order to keep from going through Samaria. Even the disciples would not have understood this. If you remember our character sketch of the disciples, some of the disciples; Peter in particular, had some problems with prejudice and certainly the prejudice included the people from Samaria.

The word “must” is the Greek word “δεῖ” literally means that it was necessary that Jesus go through Samaria. Now, this was not just to make the trip between the two providences shorter, it was because he had made a divine appointment with a young woman would be arriving where He was.

Now, He arrived in a town know as Sychar. Not a lot is known about the little town of Sychar, but John gives us an indication of what major town this is near when he says, “….near the ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.” This is the town of Shechem. An ancient fortified city in central Canaan and the first capital of the northern kingdom of Israel (see Map 4, B–3). Its name means “shoulder,” probably because the city was built mainly on the slope, or shoulder, of Mount Ebal. Situated where main highways and ancient trade routes converged, Shechem was an important city long before the Israelites occupied Canaan. The city has been destroyed and rebuilt several times through the centuries.

Shechem is first mentioned in connection with Abraham’s journey into the land of Canaan. When Abraham eventually came to Shechem, the Lord appeared to him and announced that this was the land He would give to Abraham’s descendants (Gen. 12:6; Sichem, KJV). This fulfilled God’s promise to Abraham at the time of his call (Gen. 12:1–3). In response, Abraham built his first altar to the Lord in Canaan at Shechem (Gen. 12:7). Because of this incident, Shechem is an important place in the religious history of the Hebrew people.

Upon his return from Padan Aram, Jacob, a grandson of Abraham, also built an altar to the Lord at Shechem (Gen. 33:18–20). This marked Jacob’s safe return to the Promised Land from the land of self-imposed exile. According to Jewish tradition, Jacob dug a deep well here (John 4:12). Jacob’s Well is one of the few sites visited by Jesus that is identifiable today.

After the Israelites conquered Canaan under the leadership of Joshua, an altar was built at Shechem. Its building was accompanied by a covenant ceremony in which offerings were given and the blessings and curses of the Law were recited (Josh. 8:30–35). This was done in obedience to the command of Moses, given earlier in Deuteronomy 27:12–13. Because She-chem was situated between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, this covenant ceremony took on a symbolic meaning. To this day Mount Gerizim is forested while Mount Ebal is barren. Thus the blessings of faithfully keeping the covenant were proclaimed from Mount Gerizim, while the curses of breaking the covenant were proclaimed from Mount Ebal.

At the close of his life, Joshua gathered the tribes of Israel at Shechem. Here he reviewed God’s gracious dealings with Israel and performed a covenant-renewing ceremony on behalf of the nation. He closed his speech with his famous statement, “Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve . . . but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Josh. 24:15).

The significance of Shechem in Israel’s history continued into the period of the Divided Kingdom. Rehoboam, successor to King Solomon, went to Shechem to be crowned king over all Israel (1 Kin. 12:1). Later, when the nation divided into two kingdoms, Shechem became the first capital of the northern kingdom of Israel (1 Kin. 12:25). Samaria eventually became the permanent political capital of the Northern Kingdom, but Shechem retained its religious importance. It apparently was a sanctuary for worship of God in Hosea’s time in the eighth century b.c. (Hos. 6:9).[4] We know that Christ was in Shechem because that is where Jacob dug a deep well. So that is some background as to where our Lord is and why it would have made for confusion among the Jews why He would have gone there in the first place. Jesus is the God of Divine appointments and He had an appointment in the City of Shechem where Jacob dug his well.

John gives us an indication into the humanity of Christ, remember 100% God, 100% man. “κοπιάω” literally “having labored” perfect tense in the Greek referring to the past action of traveling to the present result of being wearied. The main verb of this clause is “καθέζομαι” or “he was sitting” and is being modified by the Adjunct clause, literally translated “having labored by the walking travel”. John gives us the fact of His humanity that Jesus was wearied from His journey thus had to rest, he sat on the well. Listen, not only to rest, which is an obvious indication from the text, but also so wait for the main reason for his coming to arrive, the woman of Samaria.

II.                 The Society with a Problem (vs. 6b-7)

The Scriptures tells us it was about the sixth hour. We are not sure whether John would have been using Jewish time or Roman time. Jewish time began at 6:00 a.m. and went to 6:00 p.m., or a 12 hour day. Roman time went from 12 p.m. and went to the next 12 p.m. or a 24 hour day. If John was using the Jewish timetable, which is more likely, it would have been 12 noon; if John was using the Roman time, which is unlikely, it would have been 6 p.m. It was probably the Jewish time of 12 noon because ancient custom was to come in the early morning and in the early evening to get water, this woman purposefully came when no one else was there, probably 12 noon.  Either way, this is significant is telling us something about the society in which this woman lived.

By today’s standards, we would not consider the daily life of the average Israelite mother to have been very stimulating. It was marked by hard work and long hours.

She was up each morning before anyone else, starting a fire in the hearth or oven. The main food in the Jewish diet was bread. In fact, the Hebrew word for bread (lehem) was a synonym for food. One of the jobs that the wife and mother had, then, was to grind grain into flour. This involved several steps. (See “Food and Eating Habits.” ) She obviously had none of the electrical gadgets that are available today, so all of this work had to be done by hand.

She used thorns, stubble, or even animal dung to fuel the oven. The children usually had the job of finding the fuel; but if they were not old enough to leave the house, the woman had to find the fuel herself.[5]

Every household needed water. Sometimes families built their own private cisterns to store rain water; but most often the water came from a spring or well in the middle of the village. A few cities mentioned in the Old Testament were built above underground springs; Megiddo and Hazor were two of these cities. In Hazor a woman would walk through the streets to a deep shaft. Then she descended 9 m. (30 ft.) on five flights of stairs to the water tunnel, along which she proceeded to the water level to fill her large water jug. She needed considerable strength to climb back out of the watershaft with a heavy water jug. But it wasn’t all bad. The trip for water gave her a chance to talk with the other women of the village. The ladies would often gather around the water source in the evening or early morning to exchange news and visit (Gen. 24:11). The woman at the well in Sychar no doubt came at noon because the other women of the town would not have wanted anything to do with her because of her loose living, and so they snubbed her (John 4:5–30).[6]

In fact, we have found a deep well near the pool of Gibeon, located 6 miles NW of Jerusalem. It was discovered between 1956 and 1962, it measured 37 ft. in diameter and 35 ft. deep. This cylindrical cutting had a circular that led to a steeped tunnel that continued downward another 45 ft. below the pools floor to a watering chamber. A woman would have to descend 79 steps and ascend again with filled water pots.

This society had completely cast out this woman. That is why is came at noon. It would make for a lot less hurt feelings and less of a change of confrontation if you just came when no one else was there; at least she thought no one else was there.

III.               The Son with Petition (vs. 7b)

“Give me to drink”. This was the ice-breaker, the starting point for our Lord in the conversation with this woman that went against all the religious feelings of the day. For a Jewish man to speak to a woman in public, let alone to ask from her, a Samaritan, a drink was a definite breach of rigid social custom as well as a marked departure from the social animosity that existed between the two groups. Further, a "rabbi" and religious leader did not hold conversations with women of ill-repute (v. 18).[7]  But our Lord doesn’t concern himself with established religion. He came to “seek and to save” the lost and established religion was not going to get in the way of that. Praise God that the Divine appointment that He had with each of us was not regulated by established religion.

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[1]Zanchi, J. (.). Absolute Predestination (electronic ed.). :: ,.

[2]Zanchi, J. (.). Absolute Predestination (electronic ed.). :: ,.

[3]MacArthur, J. J. (1997, c1997). The MacArthur Study Bible (electronic ed.) (Jn 4:4). Nashville: Word Pub.

[4]Youngblood, R. F., Bruce, F. F., Harrison, R. K., & Thomas Nelson Publishers. (1995). Nelson's new illustrated Bible dictionary. Rev. ed. of: Nelson's illustrated Bible dictionary.; Includes index. Nashville: T. Nelson.

[5]Packer, J., Tenney, M. C., & White, W. (1997, c1995). Nelson's illustrated manners and customs of the Bible (427). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

[6]Packer, J., Tenney, M. C., & White, W. (1997, c1995). Nelson's illustrated manners and customs of the Bible (428). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

[7]MacArthur, J. J. (1997, c1997). The MacArthur Study Bible (electronic ed.) (Jn 4:7). Nashville: Word Pub.