In John 4, Jesus (the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, Lewis’ lion, Aslan) is sitting next to a well (Lewis’ stream) at midday (Lewis’, in the sun). A woman ( Lewis’ Jill) comes from a nearby city (Lewis’ forest) to draw water from the well (Lewis’, drink from the stream).
Jesus engages the woman in a conversation requesting her to give him a drink of water. This startles her because she is a Samaritan woman, and He is a Jew. The social climate between the Samaritans and the Jews is very strained. One issue is that they did not use the same drinking and eating vessels.
The woman says, (vs. 9), “How is it that you being a Jew, ask a drink from me a Samaritan woman? For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.” Jesus answers her but His explanation goes beyond her inquiry.
Jesus answered and said to her, (vs. 10), “If you knew the gift of God, and who it was who says to you, give me a drink, you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”
The woman becomes confused about what Jesus is saying, in the same way that Lewis’s Jill didn’t understand what the Lion was saying about there being only ONE (emphasis mine) stream.
The woman says to Jesus, ( vs 11), ” Sir you have nothing to draw with, and the well is very deep. Where then do you get that living water?
The woman continues. She knows the history behind the existence of the well and she explains it to Jesus; recounting, that this well was given to us by our forefathers, Jacob and his sons, and his livestock drank from it.
I wonder if this woman is thirsty. It is midday. She has walked from a nearby city to the well and she hasn’t had a drink to quench her thirst; but Jesus has piqued her interest in a different kind of water, something He called (vs. 10) living water.
Jesus says to her (vss. 13,14), “Whoever drinks of this well 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.”
What is the woman’s response? Is it similar to Jill’s response to the Lion, ” I suppose I must go and look for another stream then”; no, the woman said (vs. 15) “Sir give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.” In essence, she is asking for directions to the well where she can draw the water that Jesus is talking about.
Like Jill who ‘stepped closer’ to the stream as she conversed with the Lion, this woman is being drawn closer to the ‘water’ that Jesus is offering her.
Jesus is now going to reveal that He knows the ‘well of water’ that she has been drawing from all her life and has never experienced a quenching of her thirst. Like Jill, she is ‘dying of thirst’. I suggest that she is hurting in her heart, soul, mind and strength. Why? because she has history of broken marriages.
The well inside her is not the well that she has come to today to draw water. Her well is a ‘well of broken marital relationships’. Her thirst for life has never been satisfied. Why? because she has been drinking from a well that did not satisfy the longings of her heart; she has not experienced a meaningful loving relationship.
Jesus, looking inside this woman, saw the hurt, and brought it to the surface through conversation (vss. 17,18). Jesus understands that if this woman continues in her current lifestyle she will continue to thirst again. Jesus is offering an alternative, living water, and has told her that she can “never thirst’.
The revelation of her failed marriages elicits an incredible statement from her (vs. 19). “Sir I perceive that You are a prophet.”
This conversation, that began quietly with a seemingly benign request by Jesus of this woman of “Give Me a drink” now becomes a conversation about worship.
The woman continues (vs 20), “Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.” [ Let me interject, there are two streams (places) of worship, you Jew’s have one; and we Samaritan’s have one; which one is the ‘stream’ (place) of true worship?]
In verses 21-24, Jesus explains to her “what matters is not where one worships but the attitude of heart and mind. True worship is not mere form and ceremony but spiritual reality which is in harmony with the nature of God, who is Spirit. Worship must also be in truth, that is, transparent, sincere, and according to biblical mandates.” [New Spirit Filled Life Bible, copyright 2002,, by Thomas Nelson, Inc.; notes page 1449, 4:21-24.]
Jesus’s response to the woman is like the Lion’s response to Jill, there is only ONE stream.
All of this dialogue, going back and forth, results in another astounding statement by the woman. In vs. 25, she says to Jesus, (I assume face to face), “I know that the Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ) “when He comes, He will tell us all things.”
Jesus doesn’t flinch (He never does; I assume that He is speaking to her face to face), and He says, “I who speak to you am He.” There was probably silence. I can envision this woman soaking in the words that she just heard. I wonder what the expression was on her face?
Isn’t it interesting that many of the wells which mankind usually drinks from to quench their thirst have gone dry. What are you thirsting for? What is hungering in you to be satisfied? Are you ‘dying of thirst’ like Jill ? Do you have a well that has gone dry that you are longing for it to flow again so that your thirst may be satisfied?
Are there Christians, true believers in Christ, who are experiencing thirst because their well which they have depended upon has gone dry?
Isn’t interesting that many of the wells from which humanity has freely drank from on a daily basis to quench their thirst have gone dry?
Has the Lord dried up our wells, allowing mankind to become thirsty, so that we will turn to Him, the fountain of Living Waters, and be refreshed and satisfied?
Remember what the Lion said to Jill, who wanted to go and find other streams to quench her thirst, there is only ONE stream. Jesus called it Living Water.
{Some, at this time, may want to say to me: you are ignoring what is happening in world. Don’t you understand that we are in a serious situation? I most certainly do. I would encourage you to read my post regarding, Have we Forgotten God, and/or my posts regarding the Sovereignty of God. What we are experiencing is multi-faceted. God is at work in so many ways today in our lives. He is God, and He does not have to explain what He is doing. We need to remember that “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life..” All of what we are experiencing is part of His Redemptive plan that will usher in His Eternal Kingdom, when Christ returns.}
God in His Grace and Mercy is awakening a darkened world to a HOPE that can only be realized in Him. That hope is found in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
Please read Romans 5:1-11.
Back in the 1970’s, I received a teaching about Psalms 42/43. It was entitled the Unsatisfied Life. Many of us know how Psalm 42 begins. We used to sing a chorus using its words. Do you remember: “As the deer panteth for the water, So my soul longeth after Thee, You alone are my heart’s desire, and I long to worship Thee.”
Is that the longing of your heart? Are you thirsty for God? Are you experiencing an unsatisfied life?
Question: has the church been quenching its thirst from wells that have ‘quenched the Spirit’ and affected its worship? Is our worship self-centered or God-centered?
Jesus said, (vs.24), “God is Spirit, and those that worship Him MUST (emphasis mine) worship Him in spirit and truth.”
Psalms 42:2 says, “My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.”
The woman at the well told Jesus, there were two places to worship.
I submit to you that the two places of worship were idolatrous and religious.
Jesus said (vs.23) “But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshiper will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.”
There will be no mixture. There will be a pure altar of worship.
I find it interesting that churches are closed for worship because of the virus. Is it possible that the church has become more interested in the place of worship instead of the Person of worship? Is God making a course correction in His Church? Look back at what Jesus said. What did Jesus say the Father was looking for? I need to ask myself, am I worshipping the Father in spirit and in truth? Are you? Is the Father pleased with the worship that His people if offering up to Him? or is their mixture? Is our worship self-centered or Christ-centered?
Let me close with a bold statement. This is what I believe the Spirit is saying to the Church.
The Lord has allowed the wells from which we drink the waters of worldliness .to dry up People are experiencing a ‘dying of thirst’. Question: What well of water will the Church start drinking from to quench its thirst once the wells are flowing again? Will the Church satisfy their thirst from the wells of the world or will they satisfy their thirst with Living Waters from the well of salvation?
Remember there is only ONE stream. A pure stream of Living Water.
I submit to you that the well you drink from directly affects your worship. If we are to worship Him in spirit and in truth, then you need to drink from His well of salvation and not drink from the wells of worldliness.
Jesus said, Matthew 5:6, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be filled.”
Jesus said in Matthew 6:24, ” No one can serve two masters (drink from two wells, my emphasis); for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve (worship, my emphasis) God and mammon.”
Can the Church drink from the wells of worldliness and worship God in spirit and in truth?
I think NOT!, ask the prophets, especially Isaiah.
I commend to you Isaiah 12 for reading, study, and uplifting.
Be strengthened in Lord, a brother in Christ, deo
Living Words of Encouragement 