The woman at the well – John 4: 1-30
God is Almighty, Powerful and Omnipresent. He is in control
of every detail of our lives. There is nothing that He does not know, nothing
He did not plan, nothing that can shock Him and nothing that will take Him by
surprise. We only have to live our daily lives to the best of our ability and
walk the path that He laid before us in faith. We are required to love the Lord
our God with our whole heart, with all our soul and with our whole mind; and
our neighbor as our-self. Our obedience is better than burnt offerings and our
faith is all we need to manifest the Kingdom of God in our lives. LORD our God
and Father thank You for the revelation You give. May Your Message be revealed
in It’s purest form through Your Word and Your Holy name honored.
The most powerful message of the gospels is surely John 4 –
Jesus and the woman from Samaria. To value the importance and significance of
the message we need to understand Samaria, the Samarians and their origin.
The province of Samaria included the land of Ephraim and
Manasseh. The land was divided as per God’s ordinance when the children of
Israel entered Canaan. In the book of Judges 17 we read how Micah a member of the
tribe of Ephraim, built his own temple and appointed a Levite as priest who
served in his temple. The offers the priest, who belonged to God because he was
a Levite by birth, brought was not offered to God, the God of Abraham, Isaac
and Jacob. The Levite brought strange fire, offering to a graven image and not
God and therefore it can only be seen as idol worship; Exodus 20:4. Israel was
not in the Promised Land for very long before strange fire went up for idols
from the mountain of Ephraim. The idol worship breached the covenant that
Israel made with God in Deuteronomy 28 and resulted in curses coming over all
the children of Israel.
After king Solomon’s death the kingdom was split into two: Judah
and Israel 1 Kings 12. God anointed Jeroboam as king over Israel. Jeroboam
built golden calves and placed one in Beth –el and another in Dan. He ordered
the children of Israel to worship the golden calves and claimed that they were
the gods that brought them from Egypt. Jeroboam was afraid that Israel would
return to the house of David, the king of Judah if they went to Jerusalem to
sacrifice to God, for the temple was in Jerusalem. Samaria is mentioned for the
first time in 1 Kings 13:32. God sent a prophet to speak against Jeroboam and
the altar that he was busy sacrificing on. The prophet disobeyed Gods command and
therefore God sent a lion to kill him.
The next time Samaria is mentioned is in 1 Kings 16:24. King
Omri bought the hill of Samaria of Shemer for two talents of silver and built a
city on the hill and called it Samaria after it’s owner Semer. The king built
his palace on the same hill where sacrifices were made to idols and other gods
in the land of Ephraim. The king tied his kingdom spiritually to idol worship
and thereby gave Satan and his demons power and authority over the land. It is
therefore not surprising that every king and generation repeated the sins of
Jeroboam. It is also not surprising that Omri’s son Ahab married Jezebel the
daughter of Ethbaal. Jezebel was a priestess of Baal the god for which children
was sacrificed. 1 Kings 16:33 clearly states that Ahab provoked God more that
all the other kings and sinned against God. The spiritual power Satan gained
through disobedience of Israel led to Jericho being rebuilt.
God compared His relationship with Israel to a marriage.
Every time Israel worshiped other gods, they were described as an adulteress.
Ahab did not just leave God he married Satan. Ahab’s earthly marriage to
Jezebel opened spiritual doors to a spiritual covenant with Satan. This gave
Satan power and authority in Israel. It is important to realize that God brings
blessings but Satan due to his fallen nature brings curses. (Satan left Gods presence
and therefore finds himself in a state of deterioration, deteriorating further
and further on a daily basis. God is life and when you leave Him you die of
part by part on a daily basis). Where
Satan and his demons are at work you will always find curses, strife, hate, rebellion
and unfairness.
Through Israel’s disobedience Samaria became a place of
curses and devil worship. In 2 Kings 17: 7 -23 the Bible makes it very clear
that Israel’s idol worship, disobedience, child sacrifice and rejection of God
and His commandments provoked God to
anger and therefore God rejected Israel and removed them from the land. The
king of Assyria carried Israel away. Israel was exiled to Assyria never to
return to their homeland. Israel was placed in bondage through God’s Righteous
Judgement. God is in control of every situation and will always deliver a fair
judgement visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the
children’s children unto the third and fourth generation but shows mercy upon
thousands of those that love Him and keep His commandments. You can’t serve God
and other gods. Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:24 that you will love the one and
hate the other.
The Assyrian king brought men from Babylon, Cuthah, Ava,
Hamath and Sepharvaim and placed them in the cities of Samaria. The different nations
better known as the Samarians did not serve nor feared God and were attacked
by lions. The Samaritans consulted the Assyrian King and it came to light that
they did not fear the God of the land nor knew His Ordinances. A priest of
Israel were sent to teach the Samarians the ordinances of God. Each of the different
nations in Samaria made their own god, in total six different gods. They feared
the LORD God of Israel but continued to worship their own gods as well. Verse
35 made it clear that God made a covenant with the Samarians and commanded them
not to worship other gods, nor bow to them, nor serve them nor sacrifice to
them; the very same covenant that He made with Israel.
John 4:4 reads that Jesus must (had to go) through Samaria, thus
it was ordained or better still part of God’s bigger plan. What is man, that
thou are mindful of him? And the son of man that thou visitest him? For thou
has made him a litter lower than the angels, and has crowned him with glory and
honour. With God nothing is mere
coincidence, everything is perfectly planned. Outside this city in Samaria is
the well of Jacob. When prophesies refer to Jacob, it refers to people seeking
God Psalm 24:6. The Samarians could only drink from God’s water through the
grace of God. They could only drink a little bit at a time and understood very
little – they drank from Jacob’s well (because they seek God). Jesus being the living
water and offering the living water to the Samarians made the Samarians partakers
of the promises that Judah and Israel received. The Samarians became the
spiritual principal of every gentile drinking from the well of Jacob. By
drinking from Jacob’s well we receive the cleansing living water of Jesus
quenching our thirst for God’s Word and giving us eternal life.
Jesus reveals to the Samarian woman that her “husbands” hindered
her to receive living water. The woman and her “husbands” were the physical
portrait of Samaria’s spiritual problems; her “husbands” hindered her to
receive salvation and eternal life. Samaria worshiped God and other idols but
remained thirsty and seeking. Jesus gave the woman (Samaria) the chance to
leave her husbands (idols / gods) and enter into a new covenant, a better covenant
where she (they) can receive eternal life. The physical conversation, the
physical event opened the spiritual doors for EVERY Gentile to receive God’s
promises and become part of His Kingdom. The Word, Jesus Christ removed every hindrance
in His victory over Satan and his dark forces becoming a fountain of living
water for those that baptize in and drink from Him. Jesus led her to the truth –
the true worshipers will worship God the father in spirit and truth for God is a
Spirit and seek such to worship Him. The condition remains that we as true
worshippers must leave our earthly ”gods” and worship God through Jesus Christ
who cleanse us and became a sacrifice for our sins.
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