Another Look At The Samaritan Woman At The Well

Reading John 4:1-24 Text 4:24.

Introduction

Good evening to you all it is a privilege to be sharing the word of God together,

For where there is unity their God commands the blessing.

I would like us to take a journey through these scriptures together, even though these are well known passages, I trust that the Lord will speak to us where ever we find ourselves.

The Journey that is laid out in scripture is one of significant importance. when we consider that just the distance alone would be around 65 – 70 Miles add to this the baking heat and we are looking at an overall journey of between 2-3 days on the most direct route (through Samaria)

No we are told in scripture about the animosity that exist between the Jews and the Samaritans so much so that most of the Pharisees and Jews would rather walk a longer route than pass through that territory also it was fraught with danger.

Jesus having been in Judea, speaking with nicodemus announces to the disciples that he JESUS had to go through Samaria. HAD TO, there was an imperative (work to be done) that needed to be completed, the disciples didn’t know the plan, the woman didn’t know, The Alpha & Omega

can you imagine the private discussion that may have taken place between the disciples (O No its bad enough we have to walk to Galilee but he wants us to go through Samaria, can’t we go the same way as we normally go as at least we can be safe?

What is the point what possible good can come of it?? Do we ever find ourselves with this frame of mind that we are questioning the directives of the almighty? If we do we find we are in good company Jonah, 1 Kings 9:13 Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, but GOD was with him,

We may have a Samaria that we need to journey through where we need to be met by Jesus. So we pick up the journey about mid-day, Jesus has arrived before the disciples

Mount Gerizim on the one side and mount Ebal on the other This place is first mentioned in Gen 12 :6 it was at this place that Jacob meet with his estranged brother Esau.

Shechem was named after a person

It was in Shechem that Jacob buried his foreign Gods and committed himself fully to the true and living God It Was here in Shechem That Joseph was sold in to slavery

It was between the two mountains that Moses commanded the Israelites once they had entered the promise land to pronounce the blessings of God for Obedience and the

curses for disobedience

Joshua Gathered the tribes together here, Josephs bones are buried here,

This was a central gathering place for the nation

Jesus passing through to galilee

For the father is seeking such people (worshipers in spirit and truth)

In the life of this lady, whose reputation was well known and not in a good way, had little left to loose, she was at possibly the lowest ebb of her life, life itself had lost its joy, she was shunned by all those around and possibly deserved !! but this had become an established pattern, & as far as she knew it would continue to be, she may have been at this well a thousand times before and left with only the rudiments of her thirst quenched.

The anxiety of her journey to the well I Hope that I am a lone

There was no expectation for her, there was no way out, she was a prisoner of her past and would continue to be one till her death. (but Jesus had other plans)

So often in the word of God we see the Lord breaking in to the lives of people in the strangest and weirdest of ways which is totally unexpected. (usually before a commissioning)

Judges 6:12

11Then the angel of the LORD came and sat under the oak that was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite as his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press in order to save it from the Midianites. 12The angel of the LORD appeared to him and said to him, "The LORD is with you, O valiant warrior." 13Then Gideon said to him, "O my lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, 'Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?' But now the LORD has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian."…

Exodus 3:2 the account of the Lord appearing to Moses in the burning bush and the commissioning for the deliverance of Israel. (the burning bush would have been a common sight however a bush that burned yet was not consumed!)