The Scripture: (comments from watchman are in bracket)
John 4:7, 9-14 (NLT)
7 Soon a Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Please give me a drink.”
(Jesus took the initiative to approach the woman voicing out her need for her, “Please give me a drink.” He wanted her to ask Him!)
9 The woman was surprised, for Jews refuse to have anything to do with Samaritans.She said to Jesus, “You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan woman. Why are you asking me for a drink?”
(The woman was just like any natural human, absorbed by what she saw in the physical realm, her past experience and traditional culture and religious practice)
10Jesus replied, “If you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me, and I would give you living water.”
(But Jesus was not distracted from what He has intended to give her. He wanted to give her a gift, the Holy Spirit in-filling; He also wanted her to ask for this gift!)
11 “But sir, you don’t have a rope or a bucket,” she said, “and this well is very deep. Where would you get this living water? 12And besides, do you think you’re greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us this well? How can you offer better water than he and his sons and his animals enjoyed?”
(The woman’s response to Him in her physical realm was no surprise. In hind-sight we can all see how she continued plodding away at the wrong track. But don’t we all?)
13 Jesus replied, “Anyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again. 14But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.”
(Jesus, undeterred by this Samaritan-Gentile woman mindset, continued to address her spiritual thirst, and explain patiently what the Holy Spirit is like and how He will meet her unquenchable thirst in her when she is filled! This is further described in the next section of the Gospel of John when Jesus was addressing the multitude of Jewish temple worshippers in Jerusalem)
John 7:37-39 (NIV) 37[ On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” 39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.]
John 4:15-26 (continue the discourse between the Samaritan woman and Jesus)
15“Please, sir,” the woman said, “give me this water! Then I’ll never be thirsty again, and I won’t have to come here to get water.”
(The Samaritan woman’s attention was finally turned to what Jesus could give her and she asked Him for that supernatural Gift!)
16“Go and get your husband,” Jesus told her. 17“I don’t have a husband,” the woman replied. Jesus said, “You’re right! You don’t have a husband—18for you have had five husbands, and you aren’t even married to the man you’re living with now. You certainly spoke the truth!”
(Jesus wanted truthfulness from the spiritually thirsty woman. She was looking for love in the wrong places to quench her thirst which can only be met by God in her!)
19 “Sir,” the woman said, “you must be a prophet. 20 So tell me, why is it that you Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place of worship, while we Samaritans claim it is here at Mount Gerizim,where our ancestors worshiped?”
(The woman’s response and attention turned to that of God, religion and worship. Despite her marital problems and then ‘lawless’ living, she knew about the key Jewish and Samaritan religious physical difference. Now she wanted to know more and how to worship God correctly. What a change!)
21 Jesus replied, “Believe me, dear woman, the time is coming when it will no longer matter whether you worship the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans know very little about the One you worship, while we Jews know all about Him, for salvation comes through the Jews. 23 But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. 24For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”
(Jesus came to the point of true worship: 1. Know the God-Person Whom you worship, not the place or physical church or congregation group; 2. Know God in the Spirit, and therefore could worship-join to Him, in spirit and in Truth-His word.)
(1 Cor.6:17 (AMP) 17 But the person who is united to the Lord becomes one spirit with Him.”)
John 4: 25The woman said, “I know the Messiah is coming—the one who is called Christ. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
26 Then Jesus told her, “I Am the Messiah!”
(The Samaritan woman was thus saved! Her spiritual eyes were opened when she turned to the matter of knowing the true God and true worship, and she recognized and accepted Jesus as the Messiah, her Savior!)
(What a journey Jesus has taken to save just one thirsty soul! Of course, after her salvation, seeing and hearing her testimony, encountering Jesus themselves, many of her countrymen were saved.)
