Thirst No More

John 4: 1-14

Therefore, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John  (though Jesus Himself did not baptize, but His disciples), He left Judea and departed again to Galilee.  But He needed to go through Samaria.  So He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.

 

The city of Sychar (means drunken) is at the base of mount Eber.  See the map at this link:

http://www.bible-history.com/geography/ancient-israel/samaria.html

Jacob gave a well to Joseph; the text is Joshua 24.  See the whole story at this link:

http://www.biblicalsamaria.org/sychar.html

There are differing opinions concerning who the Samaritans were.  From 1 Kings, we can see that Shalmanezer, King of Assyria, populated the area with a mix of peoples from various parts of the Middle East.  This was a common way of ensuring there would be no rebellion—the people were not united and had no national identity from which to draw. 

They worshipped various gods, but a plague in the land caused them to reach out to the “God of the land.”  They combined worship of their gods with the worship found in the Mosaic law, by which they perverted the Jewish form of religion and succeeded in alienating themselves from the Jews. 

This resulted in the racial hatred which Jesus used to answer the question “who is my neighbor” in further in John, the story we know as “the Good Samaritan.”  They built a temple on Mount Gerazim, which the Samaritan woman references in her discussion with Jesus.

Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour. 

Jesus came into town about 11-12 p.m.  Usually women would come to the well to draw water between the 1^st and 2^nd hours of the day while it was still cool (6-8 a.m.)

A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give Me a drink."  For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.  Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, "How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?" For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. 

Not only do Jews not have dealings with Samaritans, but rabbis don’t talk to women in public at all—not even their own wives!  You can understand her shock!

Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water." 

Jesus here offered her the gift of God—eternal life (Romans 6:23.)  But she doesn’t get what He’s offering her. 

The woman said to Him, "Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water?  "Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?"  

David Guzik comments:

Living water: In ancient times, they called spring water living water because it seemed "alive" as it bubbled up from the ground. At first glance, it might seem that Jesus tells this woman about a nearby active spring. But Jesus makes a play on words with the phrase "living water," because He means the spiritual water that quenches our spiritual thirst and gives life.

Jesus is greater than Jacob, than Abraham, Isaac and all the patriarchs, but He didn’t belabor that point.  Instead He said:

"Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life." 

You have to admit this offer is pretty exciting.  Never thirst!  Yet even those of us who know Him still thirst.  We are not immersing ourselves in the Water of Life!

Chuck Smith says “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again,” is a “profound statement.”  He notes:

This statement should be written over every ambition you have.  What is it that you are hoping to attain in life?  What is it that you think will bring you satisfaction and fulfillment?  Whatever it is, write over the top of it, “Drink of this water, but you will thirst again.”  There is nothing in the material realm that will satisfy our spiritual thirst.

Have you come to the thirst-quenching waters of Christ?  Only He can truly satisfy.  What is keeping you from Him?  Would you be completely fulfilled?  He is the answer.

Dear Lord Jesus,

You are my Thirst-Quenching Savior.  In You I am completely satisfied.  Drench me with your Water of Life.  Help me to become a “spring of living water” from which others might draw water from the wells of salvation.

Your thirsty child,

Donna