Quenching a burning longing (and thirst)

(Editor’s note: This is Part Two of a piece posted Oct. 15)

The Lord gets the woman at the well’s attention when, as John 4:15 reports, “The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.”

“She says, ‘I want that stuff! I want what you got! I’ll buy what you’re selling!’ ” explains Jordan. “Then in verse 16, He says right out of the blue, ‘Go, call thy husband, and come hither.’

“Now, that’s a problem because the woman answered, ‘I have no husband.’ Jesus replies, ‘Thou hast well said, I have no husband. For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly.’

“Whoa, mercy! She’s a five-time loser. Now, think about how she’s talking to a guy who says, ‘I’ll give you water that will never let you thirst again.’ She’s realized He’s talking about something that’s going to quench that burning down in her soul, and she’s got the itch—I mean, she’s already had five husbands!

“Barney Google said, ‘Pity the man with a soul so tough to say one wife is not enough,’ but I got to tell you, five husbands would be a lot too! And besides that, the one she’s living with isn’t her husband. In other words, she’s living in a sinful state of immorality.

*****

“You see what Christ is doing? When He talks to her about that, what’s the first thing she’s going to feel? Shame, guilt. Her conscience has to be awakened because there’s more going on here than just Him giving her a gift. There’s a thirst that needs to be quenched, and the truth of her spiritual condition is brought right out on the table with her sins laid bare.

“By the way, He says, ‘Go get your husband and come hither.’ That’s grace. He didn’t say, ‘You can’t have this because you’re a dirty rotten, sinful, filthy . . .’ He doesn’t condemn her; He just says, ‘You need to own where you are and then come.’

“There’s that great old song, ‘Just as I am, without one plea, But that Thy blood was shed for me, And that thou bid’st me come to Thee, O Lamb of God, I come! I come!’ Here’s what this lady’s learning.

“A wonderful verse in Luke 15 is when the Pharisees mock the Lord Jesus Christ to His disciples and say, ‘Your master eats with publicans and sinners; he’s a friend of sinners.’

“I say, ‘Well, I’m so glad He is!’ They that are whole don’t need a physician but they that are sick, Jesus said, ‘I didn’t come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners.’ And that’s where she comes to.

“She says in verse 19, ‘I perceive you’re somebody who talks for God.’ He shakes her out of her lethargy, brings to her the place of some spiritual awareness. By the way, He did it by supernatural means. He told her, ‘You had five and now you got somebody who isn’t your husband.’

“Later on, she’s going to tell the people of Samaria, ‘Come on, I’ll show you a man who told me everything I ever did.’ Now, you know she did more than just have five husbands. The point is, she knew He saw right through her.

“You remember what happened back in chapter 1 when He saw Nathaniel? It says, ‘Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith of him, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!
[48] Nathanael saith unto him, Whence knowest thou me? Jesus answered and said unto him, Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee.
[49] Nathanael answered and saith unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel.’

“That same kind of supernatural knowledge He used to awaken Nathaniel He used to shake this little woman out of her physical sphere into spiritual consciousness that, ‘The one I’m talking to isn’t an ordinary guy!’ So her conscience felt and owned the guilt. The songwriter says, ‘My conscious felt and owned the guilt and plunged me into despair.’

*****

“Now, where do you run when you get plunged into despair and don’t know where to turn? One of the places people run is religion. So watch her do that.

“John 4 goes on, [19] The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.
[20] Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.

“When somebody’s just come along and told you the mind of God; spoken to you and you understand He’s a prophet. She said, ‘I recognize the voice of God and what you’re saying,’ but she’s not saved yet. She’s not there trusting Him yet. She’s getting there but for now she’s going to try to skirt the issue:

‘I realize I’m facing a prophet. Well, our fathers (back in verse 12 it was our father Jacob and now it’s our fathers) worshipped in this mountain. Ye Jews say it’s in Jerusalem where men ought to worship. So let’s talk about this great religious controversy, about where should people worship. I mean, if you’re a prophet maybe you can answer this great religious question of the ages for me.’

“I think, ‘Geemanibidee! Isn’t that just what people do?!’ What relief is she going to get in some place of worship? How’s that going to unburden her heart and salve her conscience? It doesn’t. But it’s that attempt that your conscience makes to try to skirt around the issue of guilt.

“When you talk about the place, the mechanics, notice it’s anything but Christ.

“Jesus answers, ‘Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.
[22] Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.
[23] But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
[24] God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.’

“It’s interesting that Christ answers the question for her. Once and for all, authoritatively, He puts an end to the speculation between the Samaritans and the Jews and He settles the disputed point in one statement: ‘Salvation is of the Jews.’ Boom!

“You see, back in Deuteronomy 27, when God told Israel about where to worship, the Samaritan Pentateuch corrupted that chapter into saying that they should be worshipping in Mt. Gerizim. Now, by corrupting the Word of God to match their religious system, they had a false worship system.

*****

“By the way, when Jesus says in this mountain, go back to Genesis 22. Abraham is going to go into Moriah to a certain mountain that God has already picked out and that’s where he’s going to offer Isaac. Abraham actually named it the Mountain of Jehovah.

“In II Chronicles 3:1 it says that mountain in Moriah where David purchased the threshing floor is the same mountain where Abraham offered Isaac. That’s the mountain where Solomon built the temple—we’re talking about Jerusalem. And when He says in John 4 that you guys say ‘in that mountain up in Gerizim,’ they had corrupted the Scripture to make it go up there because they had tried to make the worship of Jehovah in the northern kingdom, which turned into Baal worship.

“They tried to have a religious system like the one in the southern kingdom, but the real place where worship was going to be done was the place God had selected and that’s where he built the temple and that’s Mt. Moriah.

“So, there’s a lot of (major historical) discussion this woman’s trying to bring up here. And what Christ does when He says in verse 22, ‘Ye worship ye know not what,’ He’s saying, ‘You guys up here, you’ve got an apostate, vain, corrupted religion and you’ve got no idea what you’re doing; salvation’s of the Jews.’

“Now that’s slamming the door hard on the religious discussion by saying, ‘you know what you’ve got? You’ve got a bunch of false doctrine.’ Wham-O. Now what that did was turned her hot water into cold and cut it off to just a drip. While she’s trying to focus on all the religious stuff, Christ just wipes it right out of the way.

*****

"You notice what happens to the woman: ‘The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things.
[26] Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he.’   

“That’s the Lord’s reward for being patient and dealing with this woman this way because she got it.  She said, ‘I know Messiah’s coming and He’s the one I really need,’ and Jesus said unto her, ‘I that speak unto you am He.’

“She got it and she immediately becomes a follower of Christ and a testimony to her people.

“You go down to verse 28 and it says the woman left her water pot and went away to her people, telling them: ‘Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?’ She’s saying, ‘Don’t just look at me, look at Him and let Him speak for Himself.’

“Now, you’ll notice I skipped verse 27: ‘And upon this came his disciples, and marvelled that he talked with the woman: yet no man said, What seekest thou? or, Why talkest thou with her?’

“The disciples came back just at the moment to see the harvest--just at that moment to see the woman respond in faith to the testimony, ‘I am He.’ They came just at the moment to see God’s salvation wasn’t simply going to be restricted to Israel, it was going to gather in Samaria, and obviously they didn’t get it. They were unaware, so there’s going to be some conversation with them about what they need to learn.”