John Kitto Evening Bible Devotions: August 23

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John Kitto Evening Bible Devotions: August 23

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The Woman of Samaria

Joh_4:5-42

We know that Shechem, which had now become the chief city of the Samaritans, was a flourishing town so early as the time of Jacob, who encamped for some time in the neighborhood on his prosperous return from Padan-Aram. On the site of his encampment he left a well, which was thenceforth called “Jacob’s well,” but whether as having been digged by him for the service of his camp, or from his use of it, having purposely encamped where he found a well existing, is thought uncertain. We apprehend the former to be the case, however. If a well already existed, he had no right to appropriate it; besides, it is somewhat too distant from the town to have been originally made for the use of the inhabitants, although, having been made, they eventually found it useful from its abundant supply of excellent and cool water. It is about a mile from the town; but the site of the town may, however have been formerly nearer to the well than at present, or the town may have been, and probably was, more extensive. The well stands at the commencement of a round vale supposed to be “the parcel of ground” that Jacob bought for a hundred pieces of silver, and which he bequeathed to his son Joseph. There was formerly a church over the well (built by the Empress Helena), but of this no trace but of the foundations now exists, and we only find over the mouth of the well a small arched or vaulted building. “The well is deep,” being now, apart from deposits at the bottom, seventy-five feet in depth, and its diameter is nine feet; and whereas in most other wells of this land the water lies at the surface, in this one must reach to a great depth to get at the water, from which cause it is unusually cool. It is not now used by the inhabitants of Shechem, but is generally visited by travellers; and there is no reason to entertain any doubt that this is the very well by which our Lord, “being faint and wearied with the journey,” rested, about the middle of the second day, while the disciples were sent on to the town to purchase some victuals, probably bread and fruit. He could not have been so weary but that He might have gone on with them to the city, if He had seen fit; but the relations which subsisted between Jews and Samaritans, precluding Him from access to any house there, rendered it better that such food as was needed should be brought thither, where the well furnished water for their drink.

While our Lord tarried thus seated beside the well, a woman of the neighboring town came to draw water. As this was one of the wells too deep for the water to be easily reached, and no bucket was attached for general use, Jesus, although athirst, had not yet tasted of the water. He therefore asked the woman to let Him drink. Perceiving that He was a Jew, the woman, instead of hastening, like the Rebekahs and Rachels of old, to draw water for the stranger, expressed her astonishment at being asked a kindness by a Jew—not, perhaps, that she was indisposed to render it, but that she knew it was a principle among the stricter Jews, such as the Pharisees, that an Israelite ought not to borrow of a Samaritan, or accept any kindness from him, or to eat of his bread or drink of his water, unpurchased. Embracing the occasion which this reply offered to plant in this poor woman’s soul the seeds of Divine truth, and, as was his custom, adapting his teaching to her condition and degree of culture, he used a natural and a very expressive image to awaken in her yet unspiritual mind an interest in Divine things. “If then knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee ‘Give Me to drink,’ thou wouldst have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water.” Living water is water flowing from a perennial spring, as contrasted with dead or still water. This was highly prized, not only from the supply being unfailing, but from being regarded as the purest and most wholesome water. It is, therefore, no wonder that this declaration arrested the woman’s attention and gained her respect; and she stammered out a kind of apology for the little alacrity she had shown, and indeed still showed, in satisfying his simple request. “Sir, Thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep.” What then? If He had possessed anything to draw with, He would not have needed to ask her for water. She had something to draw with, and why not use it for Him! There is much reason to suppose that the Jews and Samaritans naturally regarded as polluted and rendered unclean the vessels which each other had used. We still see this in the East, where the stricter Moslems, regarding a Christian as unclean, will not eat of his food, or drink from his vessel; and if they give him food or water will feel bound to destroy, if of potters’ work, or to subject to laborious purification, if of metal, wood, or leather, the vessels he has used. Nothing is more common than to see one who has given you drink, dash to pieces the vessel that bas touched your lips; and that not with any intention of insult or offence, but as an inevitable necessity from its having been polluted. There was probably something of the kind in operation here; and it may be that the woman’s backwardness arose from her unwillingness to sacrifice her pitcher.

She was, however, unwilling to drop the subject that so much interested her; and in answer to her inquiries, our Lord, in order to quicken her longings for this living water, before He opened to her his inner meaning, told her that whoever drank of that water which He had asked of her, would thirst again; but that whoever drank that water which He could give, would thirst no more. Then the poor woman, no small part of whose daily labor had been to travel that dry and dusty road, heavily laden with her water vessel, cried out with rapturous eagerness, “Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.” But having thus brought the woman of Samaria to a state of intense longing for that which He alone could give, He broke off the subject without any further explanation, and proceeded to lead her to look within. He told her to call her husband. She replied that she had none. He said, that was true; for she already had had five husbands, and the man with whom at present she lived was not her husband. That she had five husbands seems to imply that the same degrading facility of divorce existed among the Samaritans as among the Jews; for it is more probable that she had been divorced by all or some of these five, than that they had all died.

Astonished at the knowledge which this Jewish stranger possessed of her secret history, the woman recognized Him as a prophet; and, beholding Him in that character, was led to conceive that some deeper sense than she had yet apprehended lay in what He had before said to her; and the advantage of conversing with a prophet being so rare, she proceeded with some eagerness to question Him on those religious subjects which were of special interest to her people. The foremost subject was naturally the comparative claims of Jerusalem and Gerizim, and which indeed might be obviously suggested by the fact, that Gerizim itself towered up close by the spot where they stood. So, said she, looking or pointing to it, “Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; but ye say that Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.” Greatly must she have been surprised to hear this question treated with indifference by a Jew, who spoke of a time coming, yea, already come, when it should be of no consequence where men worshipped the Father, so that they worshipped Him “in spirit and in truth” But in regard to the real question the woman had in view, He decided in favor of the Jews. It is true that the Samaritans had a simple worship, and had not encumbered the law of Moses with useless traditions. But still they were inferior to the Jews in real religious knowledge, seeing they had debarred themselves from the light, progressively waxing stronger, which the prophets had given, by refusing to acknowledge the Divine authority of the books of prophecy, and keeping themselves shut up in the older revelations to Moses as embodied in the Pentateuch, which formed all of Scripture that they received or acknowledged as Divine. Here was their weakness, and Jesus assigns to the Jews the superiority, doubtless on the ground that they remained under the influence of a continuous and unbroken chain of revelation, which led on to the “salvation” which the Messiah was to bring.

The woman so far understood this, as to see that He referred to the Messiah; and therefore to express this intelligence of his meaning, as well as to waive a decision in which she cared not to acquiesce, but was unable to discuss, she expressed her persuasion that the Messiah was coming, and would set all things right when He came. How greatly was she astonished when, with quiet emphasis, He told her, “I that speak unto thee am He.” She did not question this for an instant, of one who had so manifestly seen into her whole course of life, whom she had already recognized as a prophet, and whose weighty words returned with tenfold meaning to her mind after this declaration. She forthwith left the water-pot, about which she had before been so solicitous, and hurried back empty-handed to the city, to tell these glad tidings there. The news was received with no languid interest. Many hastened out to Him at the well, and besought Him to go into the city, and tarry for awhile with them. To this earnest desire for instruction and enlightenment, our Lord responded by remaining there two days, after which He departed, leaving behind Him on many minds the conviction that “this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.”