seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
John 4:1 Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John— 2 although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3 So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.
4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”
17 “I have no husband,” she replied.
Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”
19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”
Jacob's Well is near Shechem, according to the little research I did. Shechem is where Jacob's boys took revenge on boys who raped their sister. Shechem is where the boys said, "if you want to marry my sister, you and yours must all be circumcised." Then while the would-be wedding party was healing, while they could not move their things down below, Jacob's boys came into town and murdered them all. So, this story happened near where that happened.Another story about this area, happened when the Jewish Nation was attacked by the Babylonians. The Babylonians carried off all the men who were worth repatriating. The Jews left were the dregs. The remaining Jews married any woman who would have them. They couldn't afford to be picky. They, and area they were in, became hated. The Pharisees and the rich buggers would avoid that area like the plague. No one taught Sunday School in that area.
So, a "good Jew" wouldn't be caught dead in that area. These were the Jews who fell through the cracks. They were isolated, so they didn't have a clue how to worship God. They combined the religion of Jacob with the religions of those passing through. It was a hybrid that was based on worshipping multiple gods including "the Jewish God". Even they knew the Messiah was coming someday! No one taught Sunday School in that area.
So, Jesus was there without anything to ladle the water out of the well with. A whore came to the well. I know she is a whore because she is living with a man she is not married to, and she is getting her water in the middle of the day alone. The "good girls" in town don't want anything to do with her. Remember, women in those days didn't have a say in anything. They were owned, like cattle or a dog. She had been through five owners and the one she was with now, didn't even bother to get a bill or sale or any ownership papers. She was an example of the dregs where the dregs resided. She's more like a stray abused dog than a "good woman".
She knew the Messiah was coming. No one taught Sunday School in that area. She knew the Messiah was coming. She knew when He got there, He would explain everything to her.
And He did.
If you love God, you can't help but worship Him. You can't help but put Him above any entity that claims to be or is named "god".
Once you meet Jesus, you will never get over it. The woman at the well would never be the same again. Her life was altered that day at the well. She wasn't attacked. She wasn't abused. She wasn't stolen away.
She met the Messiah... she would never be the same again.
She knew the Messiah was coming.... she just didn't know when.
He confessed Himself to her. She believed Him.
We know the Messiah is coming back... we just don't know when.
No one taught Sunday School in that area.... but she knew and Believed!
