The Woman at the Well (John 4:6-19)

Topic: The Woman at the Well

Reading: John 4:6-19

6 Jacob’s well was there, and so Jesus, wearied as he was with his journey, sat down beside the well. It was about the sixth hour. 7 There came a woman of Samar’ia to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samar’ia?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep; where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, and his sons, and his cattle?” 13 Jesus said to her, “Every one who drinks of this water will thirst again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst; the water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands, and he whom you now have is not your husband; this you said truly.” 19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.

Introduction and Overview

There are a great many lessons to be learned from the conversation Jesus had with the woman at the well. And in order to understand the lessons we need some insight into the people, places, and times in which these things occurred.

First of all we need to understand that the woman at the well was a Samaritan woman. She came from the town of Sychar near where Jacob’s well was situated. Her interaction with Jesus was important on many levels. It began as a discussion of physical issues, but quickly became a discussion of spiritual matters.

We should also recall that Jesus said that He was sent only to the “lost sheep of the house of Israel.” (See: Matthew 15:24). Jesus made that comment to the Canaanite woman who was seeking a healing for her daughter. Now, some people have thought that the Samaritans were Gentiles like the Canaanites and others. But they were not. The Samaritans were descendants of the tribe of Joseph and his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. They were part of the “lost sheep of the house of Israel,” and therefore the very people that Jesus was sent to preach to, as well as the Jews.

It was an unusual situation because Samaritans and Jews hated one another. There was a long history of enmity between these two parts of the tribes of Israel, and this is noted by the woman at the well. There were many reasons for this shared hatred, but that will be covered in the next or following posts in more detail.

Another strange point to understand is that this woman came to the well alone, and not at the time the women normally would come to draw water. This will be discussed today so we can get a better understanding both of the woman at the well, and her interactions with Jesus, and later with the people in the town of Sychar.

Key points from reading:

• It was unusual for a Jew to speak to a woman of Samaria, but Jesus showed her great compassion
• The start of this conversation was about physical matters, such as the drawing of water
• The conversation with the woman at the well quickly became a spiritual message

Discussion:

Scripture: John 4:6-8 – The Woman at the Well

• The first thing we note from verse 6 is that Jesus arrived at Jacob’s well at about the sixth hour of the day, which is midday. He was weary and would have been hot, dusty, and tired from His travels during the first half of the day.
• The next things we see is that shortly after His arrival, a Samaritan woman approaches the well to draw water. This woman was alone, and it was unusual for a woman to come alone to draw water. Samaria had a reputation for thieves and robbers on the roads. But the woman at the well was no ordinary woman, and there were reasons why she came to draw water at this time. We find out later that the woman at the well had been married five times, and at the that time she was living with a man who was not her husband. This would have been frowned upon by the people of the city and she would have been something of an outcast among her people.
• Normally the women would come together to draw water from the well either early in the morning or early in the evening. At those times they would not have to suffer carrying a heavy load of water in the heat of the day. We see this practice described in the following scripture.
  
  10 Then the servant took ten of his master’s camels and departed, taking all sorts of choice gifts from his master; and he arose, and went to Mesopota′mia, to the city of Nahor. 11 And he made the camels kneel down outside the city by the well of water at the time of evening, the time when women go out to draw water. (Genesis 24:10-11)
  
  But being an outcast she would not have travelled with the rest of the women at the normal times. She may have been derided, mocked, and humiliated by them if she travelled with them. So, she went out at midday when she knew there would be no other people at the well to draw water. She would not have been expecting Jesus to be there, but I am sure He knew she would come and the role He had her play in evangelising the town of Sychar later that day.

Scripture: John 4:9-12 – The Confusion of the Woman at the Well

• In these words we see the beginning of the conversation between Jesus and the woman at the well. Jesus starts by asking the woman to give Him a drink of the water from the well. This surprises and astonishes the woman. She makes the point that it is strange that a Jesus, who was a Jew, would ask her, a Samaritan woman, for a drink. In fact it would have appeared strange to her that Jesus even spoke to the woman at all, given the hatred between the Jews and Samaritans.
• Jesus uses the conversation about water and a drink to quickly change the direction of the conversation. He tells the woman that the water in the well is fine for quenching a thirst, but after a while a person would become thirsty again and need another drink, and if they did not or could not get more water, they would die. Using that premise Jesus opens up the idea of the living water that leads to life eternal. He describes that drinking this living water will cause it to well up in a person producing a never ending spring of water that gives life.
• But the woman at the well was still thinking in human terms. She asked questions about how Jesus could get this living water when He had nothing to draw the water up out of the well. She completely missed the point, although she was certainly beginning to get the idea that something different was going on with this stranger.
• She then asks whether this stranger, Jesus, was someone greater than Jacob who had dug the well in the first place. Perhaps she was being sarcastic or perhaps just inquisitive. Either way it didn’t matter because in the first case, Jesus would not and did not take offence, and secondly, she was about to understand just exactly who this man standing in front of her was.

Scripture: John 4:13-15 – The Living Water

• The conversation quickly moves from drinking water to the promise of living water. Jesus tells the woman that the water from the well will only resolve a physical thirst, and then only for a short time. But the living water He would give would eliminate thirst altogether and grow up to eternal life. Of course Jesus was not talking about eliminating our physical thirst, but overcoming a spiritual thirst for righteousness, truth, and the pathway to life.
• The woman at the well was starting to see something different, but had not yet completely understood the meaning of these words. She asked Jesus to give her this living water, but was still thinking about it as quenching a physical thirst. She was thinking it would alleviate her physical work of having to come and draw water every day. She had not yet realised this was a spiritual teaching.
• But in the next few words she would quickly change her understanding. She would learn that Jesus was not talking about liquid water, but a different and spiritual water.

Scripture: John 4:16-19 – The Woman at the Well Begins to Understand

• In this next section of the conversation, Jesus completely changes direction. He tells the woman to go and bring her husband. The purpose of Jesus asking these words was to show that He was talking about something other than liquid water.
• The woman at the well responds to Jesus by saying that she has no husband. Jesus then gives her an account of her marital status and previous marriages that Jesus could not have known, being a stranger in those parts. He told the woman that she had spoken truly because at that time she did not have a husband, and was living with a man to whom she was not married. Furthermore, Jesus told her that she had previously had five husbands, a fact He could not have reasonably known.
• There is no doubt that the woman at the well was astounded and amazed. Her reaction was clear when she said in verse 19, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet!” Now she understood that Jesus was talking about something deeper than water in a well. She saw that Jesus was speaking of spiritual things. And in the next posts we will see that her mind goes completely off the discussion of water in the well and into matters of the Spirit.
• It is interesting also that Jesus, being aware of her marital status and her living situation, did not reject her. Jesus did not speak down to her, but rather we see later on that she returned to the town of Sychar and basically did a work of evangelism in that town. Much of the town came out to hear the words of Jesus on the grounds of the testimony of the woman. And the whole town came to hear the gospel of salvation because Jesus spoke to and sent this woman to preach and prepare the people to hear. It is an amazing story, and there is still more to look at in the next few weeks.

Prayer Points:

• Pray and ask God to open your mind to receive the living water that Jesus offered the woman at the well.
• Pray for understanding of all of the teachings of Jesus so you can grow up and mature in the words of Jesus Christ to receive a full salvation.