Iron Girls ~ Notes on John 4

I have so many thoughts on this chapter, especially as it relates to the Samaritan woman.

John 4, verses 3 and 4 tells us that Jesus is leaving Judea and going again to Galilee but that He needs to go to Samaria. You see He had a divine appointment with a woman at a well. There are moments in our lives that start out for us as typical and routine in our day. We do not yet realize that our names have been written in God’s day planner – day, time, and place.

Jesus needed to go through Samaria because He had a divine appointment with a Samaritan woman. Samaritans were a mixed breed of people and although the Jews and Samaritans did interact and share commerce, the Jews did not share eating or drinking vessels.

A Samaritan woman approaches the well where Jesus sits. Verse 6 tells us it was about the sixth hour which, by Jewish reckoning, is 12 noon. Because of this woman’s lifestyle she fetches water at the hottest time of the day, rather than face the other women who would come in the cool of the early evening.

And what can I say here?

I can tell you that right away, at the beginning of her story, I relate to this woman ~ a woman, who out of fear, avoids the group. I believe that most issues in our lives are rooted in fear. They may display as anxiety, anger or avoidance but I believe if you dig deep enough, the root is fear.

In response to Jesus’ talk of living water that springs from a fountain into everlasting (perpetual, unchanging, of unlimited duration, eternal, age-long, unending) life, the woman responds, “…‘Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.’”

 

I believe at this point her interest lies in a source of water that  

1) satisfies her immediate thirst and 2) allows her to continue avoiding the group at Jacob’s well (verse 12), a group that reminds her of what she does not have and who she has become.

When Jesus tells her to call her husband, she answers honestly. It is at this time Jesus reveals her past and she sees the truth in Him, changing her present and her future.

There is so much more richness in this passage, but what I want to share is this:

1)      Jesus will leave the group to find one soul. (“What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it?” ~ Luke 15:4)

2)      Often times we see where the temporary things of the flesh are used as a tool leading us to the eternal. In chapters 2 and 4 we see thirst (wine & water) leading to a miracle of water to wine and in chapter 4 a miracle of sinner finding her Savior. 

June 16 - 17 ~ Let's REST in John 5.