I Will Follow

John 4:6-7, 9-15

Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour. There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink.

Remember we saw the issue of Beeri, the man with the broken well. His son, Hosea, witnessed in a book bearing his name to the people of a broken nation. Now, he had no wife mentioned, himself likely being alone. So then, we are left with a broken testimony just as the law itself was also broken. Here we see that their forefather Jacob also had a well still available for all who needed it. How good of God to make his blessings sure. See, the promises of God are yes and in him Amen. Why would we expect any less from his blessings. This is how you know it is of God when that thing lasts. See how it withstands the family, the servants, the fighting, and the test of the ages. See, like many of us, Jacob was a man that had a problem. This was a well for which he strove just as it was those wives and babies for which he also strove.

In the hill country of old father-in-law Laban, he toiled seven long years for one and for the other another seven more only to be tricked, denied, and deceived. Then he came to the wells, each one for which his father dug fiercely contested. Genesis 26:18-22 tells it was by family and herdsmen alike. Now, it might be easy to get caught up in the journey and lost along the way. But how many of you know that even there, God can keep you. So also, he understands and knows your frame of Psalm 103:14, being once but dust himself and yet still divinity. It is this history that draws Jesus to the well, to this place to a woman of equally questionable habits. She was of Samaria being so called a Samaritan woman. But Jesus does not call her that. The text refers to her only as a woman of Samaria. Is it not funny how his children are often so quick to label and assume where Jesus would never dare.

Regardless, calling her a Samaritan woman could be almost considered an insult much like they did Jesus in Matthew 13:55, "the carpenter's son." See, he came from the hardest working in the village yet here he is claiming to be divinity. Here, Jesus does not do as man does either for this strange woman or the one caught in adultery. You might think me lost indeed at this time. But it is important to see to fully understand where our Master is going with this. Now Samaria refers to the capital of what would have been the northern tribes before they were carried off. In the absence and their lack some others had moved in. 2 Kings 17:18, 23-24 testifies to this; some came even from as far away as Babylon. So, it would seem that ancient Babylon and Judah were far more connected than any realized even before their taking away. See, when you are unfaithful to God, he does not mind raising up others to stand in your stead. Sure, mercy is always in his nature; yet when it comes right on down to it, the lives of his people are at stake. Remember, we discussed prior that the law and the testimony agree. Now, this is the awfully funny place where ministry and the testimony meet up. See, you can be lost and still have a testimony. It might be one without him, yet it is still a testimony, nonetheless. No matter how fallen or too far gone there is no place that God cannot rescue you from. Nor is there any too high for his love still to reach.

Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.

Notice the gift of God. Before she could say a word, he knew her heart. He knew her past, her story, and from whence she came. Might well you wonder then what father Beeri and this woman so far from home had in common. So also, what had these to do with Jesus. For they are connected only by a well and the promise of living water. You can hear her unbelief reflected in her words: 'Lord, could you really with all this time and space between.' But hold up for a minute; is he not the Lord of that too. From their past the line continues unbroken, filled with generational hopelessness and despair until it ran into Jesus. Now when it ran into Jesus, it ran out. Some of you really ought to stop letting your past, your trauma, your situation, and your circumstances dictate what God can do for you. Nor does he have the view that we so often do. It is important to see that God does not condemn her for her situation. He judges based upon the light you have and how you have responded to it. So, it is also on the basis of what have you done with the Son as in Matthew 7:21-22. Here this woman knows her history and all the right words. She is terribly concerned with the situation even more so than the rest were themselves. The text makes it clear such is strange for someone completely isolated from the situation.

Now then, Jesus has come to a situation of which he likely knows nothing. Except, he is divinity and knows everything of Isaiah 46:10; we are the only ones that need to be told all about it. It was clear this woman knew all the right words and the ins and outs of society. Yet Jesus did not come preaching to society; he came reaching out to her. It is almost like the situation in Matthew 11:18-20 which found Jesus of all places where sinners were found. Not only that but he acts almost like these things he does not know. Here the text explains that Jews and Samaritans had nothing to do with each other. My, it sounds rather like Mark 5:7 where the man under demonic control had naught to do with Jesus. I find it interesting to note that the Babylonians were credited with the people's survival, and some might even say revival. It was very possible that some had even come back with the people of God on their return, in the mixed relationships to which they were so prone, or even in their children.

Herein lies the temptation to call what God has blessed accursed. In plainer terms, you are mad cause someone else is not doing right and you are not even all there yourself. It is so easy to get caught up in the situation while you are going through something; then you miss what God is doing now. Imagine being stuck in the past and mad at God. Behold, is he not trying to bring something out of it even that new thing spoken of in Isaiah 43:19. There are ways in the desert and streams in the dry land which were not before with nothing to credit but the Lord. What then of this strange man that shows up thirsty asking a foreign woman for a drink. These implications are truly startling. You mean Jesus is thirsty, yet he does not want a body. Tell me, what good would that have done when he had one prepared for him already in Hebrews 10:5. Not only that, but he has wandered out as one from the dead with no conceptions of time or place. So too this woman of a particular uh, how shall I put this, occupation seemed rather over prepared for the occasion. We will see such in a minute, so bear with me if you will.

The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water?Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?

Now I know that I have skipped the part about Jesus being the living water. It almost seems to be done on purpose. That is because those of the modern church believe rather falsely that the focus of the text should be on the woman of Samaria rather than that of the Lord. So, it appears these too know not the gift of God at all. See how he tells the end from the beginning; oh, my friends, do you not know he is never wrong. It is his gift because of his place, his position, and his authority. Now had she like so many others gotten caught up on that, she would have missed out on what God was doing altogether. Here the talk of the village is worried about Father Jacob. Now I am not saying such things cannot be. Rather, it seems the furthest thing from her mind. For you see, this woman had been very busy indeed.

At the end, she will give testimony of her five husbands and the current one who is not. See Jesus rebuke. How polite he is. I can hear him now 'you mean to tell me you're worried about God and his glory right now; really?' How often we may not know what the matter is; but trust me, he does. See, man may not recognize you. But God knows who you are. Herein lies the danger of being known by man but unknown to God. So also, you can be known to God as Beeri was and forgotten by man. She got it right though, for the well of time was deep; indeed, it took God alone to plumb the depths of it.

He laid the foundation of the earth in Psalm 104:5 before even time began and hung the stars in place. What makes you think that your life is too insignificant for him to save. See him now drawing his people unto himself. Why then would he need buckets and a rope, a ladder, or even a wizard that peeps and mutters after the dead when he is God. He needs not anything to draw with; he has only himself. How many of you know that is all he needs. He is doing something that is not according to human wisdom. You can come at him with all the intellectuals of the world, with the sages of the ages and they would not come close to his place. So also, is he greater even than Father Jacob which served him. It appears that this woman and all her wisdom had not yet met the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For then she too would have known of his unchanging nature. My, what nonsense is this to worship the ancestors but not of the Lord. How some would do better to seek the way, the will, and the work of the Lord. See, it is possible to be educated in nonsense and still miss what God is doing. Here, she speaks much of how will he get anything out of the well which she never could. Sure, Father Jacob was good to even give them the well; how it blessed his whole family which was much. But how many know God had given him those blessings in the first place.

Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.

At the very last could she not be considered a sign of Jonah as in Matthew 12:38-48. She was willing to go anywhere else but to the God of all creation. For he who made and knew all would have given her peace of mind and a place to call home. See, her family might not have been restored. But when God is in the house how many of you know that nothing will be the same ever again. Notice the words "shall be in him a well springing up into" eternal life. It is from out of his belly that this well flows. Remember the belly as the seat of desire. Literally he is saying that from your desire and appetite shall flow rivers of living water. It springs up inside you because it changes your desires. My, that is a good Word indeed. Imagine not being a people led about on their belly no more, not enslaved no more, not broke no more, not without purpose no more. See, the no more of God.

What a contrast to the desire of Jesus to call all unto himself that none should perish. As 2 Peter 3:9 says, it is so that all should come to repentance. So also, Isaiah 59:1 sees his hand stretched out continually; nor is it shortened that he cannot save. Well might she thirst again coming to this well day after day. Then she goes back to her five husbands and one else. It seems this woman was quite thirsty indeed, as some cultures would say; she needed whatever help the Master could provide. How many of you know the wells of this world that make one exceedingly dry. You know of what I speak. These are as wells of bitterness, hatred, generational bondage, dependence on man, and your own self-reliance from which you and your children also have drank. But when they ran into the Lord, they have run out.

See it here as a transactional relationship. In essence he is saying, 'woman, I am the living water, the way, the truth, the life, and if you believe in me, you will never die.' Well, not in those few words; still, it is much the same thing. Whether you live forever or never die, is just the same when God is Lord of all. So, he gave his life a ransom for many of Mark 10:45, himself the living water. See his life reflected in Paul's in 2 Timothy 4:6 poured out as a drink offering upon the altar of God. From there it transfers into the people's life as something eternal that never runneth out. This is how you can be like the tree planted by rivers of water in Psalm 1:3 that wavers not when the storms of life come. I can almost hear her now, 'Lord, you tell me how and I'm never coming back.' The situation has run into the Lord and when it met him, it has run out. Notice, the situation ran out, but the life of God did not. Always and forever his sacrifice done, to end all else, the law fulfilled and in him done away. I can hear some of you now 'what about in Heaven; is there not something kept there against the end.' In Revelation 8:3-5 the altar still stands. Beside it waits the angel ministering unto the Lord. The only thing missing are the prayers of the saints offered thereupon poured out before the world. Let God keep your life, your water, and your situation today.