From Hidden Nights To Open Daylight Testimony – The Samaritan Woman – Characters Of John’s Gospel Series

FROM HIDDEN NIGHTS TO OPEN DAYLIGHT TESTIMONY – THE SAMARITAN WOMAN – CHARACTERS OF JOHN’S GOSPEL

Message - The Woman of Samaria – John Chapter 4

John 4 v 1 Therefore when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptising more disciples than John John 4:2 (although Jesus Himself was not baptising, but His disciples were), John 4:3 He left Judea, and departed again into Galilee. John 4:4 He had to pass through Samaria John 4:5 so He came to a city of Samaria called Sychar near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph, John 4:6 and Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, was sitting by the well. It was about the sixth hour. John 4:7 A woman of Samaria came there to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink,” John 4:8 for His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.

This event in the life of the Samaritan woman reads like a story, a novel some author might write, that contains coincidences. That is what the essence of stories is composed of. However, this account given by John has nothing to do with coincidences. Scholars say that the Lord went there at that particular time knowing that the woman was to come at that particular time, and that all this was ordained by God, and we must remember that Jesus was the omniscient One. He WAS God manifest in flesh. It would be a denial of the divinity of the Lord to suggest that He was unaware that the woman was to come to the well. Once you take away His divinity, Jesus can not be God and would fit the Jehovah Witness teaching that He was merely a created being.

I think we need to look at verse 1 more carefully. It says, “Therefore when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard . . .”. This fact would suggest, on face value, that there came a point when the Lord found out that information, but did not know it beforehand. When He heard it, then He departed from that place for Galilee. To accept that notion, would be to deny His divinity again. John is the gospel that is full of the divinity of Christ, so it would not be found in this book that Christ is not divine, that is, does not have omniscience. Therefore, how do we understand verse 1? Simply, the Lord understood all that was to happen, but He waited in that place until He heard that news which He was already well aware of. The One who saw Nathaniel sitting under his fig tree, and knew all about Him, not having met him before, is the same divine Lord.

The most wonderful thing about this account so far is that Jesus knew the woman’s need and had come here to meet her need. It was no accident that He had to pass through Samaria, and that He went by the route that took Him to Sychar, and that there was a well there, and that He was weary and thirsty, and that food had run out so the disciples went off to buy food which would leave Jesus at the well alone. All of those things were not accidental. It was as the Lord designed. When you came to accept the Lord as your Saviour, and received Him into your life, it was no accident. It was not just some collision with time and place. It was all ordained by God before the foundation of the world. As He sought the woman of Samaria, so the Lord also sought you.

John tends to use Roman time whereas the other three gospels use Jewish time. John says it was the 6th hour, but here he uses Jewish time. That is noon, the hot part of the day, especially if this was in summer. Nothing in God’s word is superfluous, and repetition must be especially noted, but the mention of the sixth hour here is highly significant. No one, if he or she could possibly help it, would walk that distance to the well in the middle of the day. Naturally, we wonder why that woman was at the well at that hour, and in the details which follow, it becomes clear why she was there at that time. When she arrived, Jesus asked for a drink. The request seems almost too abrupt. People these days would want you to say “please” or “may I” or “could I trouble you for a drink?” The Lord’s demand, I think, was really designed to catch her attention, and to focus it on the Lord Jesus Himself.

John 4 v 9 The Samaritan woman therefore said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)