The Gospel of John 4:1-30
John 4:1-30 · Vern Peterman · Mar 17, 2013
Gospel of John (2013), No. 10
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926346117294

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Alright, I hope you have a handout here. You'll likely want it to track with where we're going here. I'd like to start by going through some slides, and some of them you have either on the front, first page, 5th page or 6th page, most of them on the 6th page, and you'll see the number like we usually do. Here's the one you have on the 1st page.

And what we want to point out here is here is Sychar where this is where the Samaritans were located. This is the woman at the well that we'll be looking at here in John chapter 4. And here's Jerusalem. So now what typically would happen, this is a good map because it not only shows these places, but you've also got the roadways. The typical path for Jews from Judea heading up north to Galilee, they would go along the Jordan River. That was also the path that many of the Galilean Jews would take to go to Jerusalem, not all of them. because there was a main highway that didn't require so much climbing from Jerusalem through Sychar and Samaria up to Galilee. So because going down to the Jordan River required quite a drop and then a climb out, it was for a lot of people a whole lot simpler if you just go straight and bear with going through Samaria.

So that's one of them. This is on page six. This is a color handout you have on page six. This goes back to why there are such a thing as Samaritans. The northern kingdom right after the reign of Solomon broke away from the southern kingdom. The Northern Kingdom had 10 tribes. The Southern Kingdom had the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin. So you had these two separate kingdoms, basically a civil war breaking the country apart. And you had during that time the prophets Amos, Hosea, Isaiah with the longest ministry, and Micah also with a long ministry, Hosea and Amos being those prophets that had ministry to the Northern Kingdom, Israel, and Isaiah and Micah being the ones that had the ministry to the Southern Kingdom.

So, it was during this time, about 722 BC, and we'll go into a little bit more detail, when the Assyrians came and snatched away, not all of, but many of the Jews out of the Northern Kingdom. In the years actually before that and right after. Snatched them away and relocated them. And so we'll take a look at that. Here is something you may recognize from the Bible backgrounds class if you were there. This is the divided kingdom breaking apart at the time of the end of Solomon's reign.

And then, so you have the Northern Kingdom and then the Southern Kingdom. The Northern Kingdom had a complete conquering in 722. It actually had a partial conquering before that. And the taking people away out of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, exporting them to other parts of the Assyrian Empire happened both before and after that 722 date. One of the things we also pointed out in our Bible backgrounds class is the different philosophies of empire, of each of the sequential empires.

And a serious approach was relocate portions of captured people randomly. In a word, scramble them. You're going here, and you're going here, and you're going over there, and you're going over there. And so it would be more difficult, so the theory goes, for somebody to start a rebellion because they couldn't even talk to each other. people were disoriented. So the Assyrians took much of the populations of Aram, the nation to the north of Israel, and Israel, the northern kingdom. So 733 to 732, so that's a one year period of time, Assyria began deporting much of the population of Aram, so that's Syria, with his capital in Damascus and some of the tribes of Israel, the northern kingdom, with his capital in Samaria. So that began the relocation. Huge relocation. The deportation of the rest of the tribes of Israel continued from 722 to 715. So two periods of relocation.

Then Assyria relocated other people to the land of Israel who came to be called the Samaritans. So that's the reason for this group called the Samaritans, and it's because they were a mixed people, some Jews, some people from other areas around the empire, that the Jews backed off, also because it was not just a mixture ethnically, but a mixture in terms of different religions being pulled in. Alright, so here's Assyria, and what did they do? They took the people and relocated them in this general vicinity and there's more detail to be gotten from there. So the people of Israel and Aram got moved in several different places in that general vicinity of the Assyrian Empire.

This is on the last part of page 5 and what it shows, we won't go into detail, it shows those deportations, if you will, with the scriptural references to give you more detail. Anybody ever hear of the Lost Tribes? They're not lost. This tells you where they went. That Lost Tribes thing is a mythology. They weren't lost. They were relocated. And we know exactly where they were relocated. So at any rate, so here's Samaria. And then here are some of the places they were relocated. And then we know the places where they imported people from, and so those are shown on this map as well. Okay, several artists' depictions of the woman at the well, and we'll take a look and see how realistic this is.

What do you notice about that picture, aside from the foggy, fuzzy edges? I'll give you a clue. Look at her arms. What's that? Her arms are exposed, and according to the culture, that would be constructive adultery. Constructive adultery. In other words, it isn't that you've committed adultery, although she probably had, but that would not be looked upon as acceptable. Now, however, since she was a woman of low repute, as we'll soon find out, maybe that's what the artist was trying to convey. These other drawings show this woman with covered arms.

Now, however, we don't have evidence that the area around the well was hilly. Matter of fact, we know that it wasn't quite in that way, nor that there were shade trees around the well. We don't have any evidence of that either. Here's another drawing. Again, the arms covered. Similar questions about did the terrain really look like that. Now, here is the general location of the well. And you see that there are hills, but they're off in the distance. The area where the well is is actually fairly flat. And so here's Mount Ebal on the right and Mount Gerizim on the left.

And the modern city name, which you see in front of you, is Nablus. And here's the sequence. Shechem was in that general area, and that's the old name you'll see starting in Genesis. And then it was changed during the Roman Empire days to Flavius Neapolis, and that got changed to Nablus. Napolis got changed to Nablus is the modern name. Now Sychar is actually a nearby town, uses the same well, modern name Eschar. So here is a map of Nablus, I don't expect you to see any detail, but off in the corner here you find Canaanite Shechem, there at one end.

Joseph's tomb, they brought up the bones of Joseph from Egypt and they're reportedly buried there. And then as you see in the lower part, Jacob's well. So those are the locations of this area. So a lot of history. goes back to Jacob, goes back to burying Joseph's bones, goes back to, you know, the time of the New Testament.

Yeah, Tom? Tom, maybe I could ask you to move farther up or something, because the reason is, what we're finding is it has a hard time picking up your comments. And, yeah, well, what's that? Oh yeah, that's good. Here's the deal. One of the things we find is that they use software. If somebody's got a distant voice, it raises the voice level. enough so that it picks them up, but the only problem is it makes me sound like I'm snorting and breathing heavy and just ran a mile. So at any rate, really strange, but sorry about that, but thank you. Okay, I'm wondering, it's interesting that the original name, which is still the common name for Annapolis, Maryland, Well, the slaves called it Nablus.

Yeah. So there's kind of a carry over there. Yeah, yeah. Okay, here we go. Here is an old black and white, and this is on, I think, page two of your handout. Yep. An old black and white of Jacob's well. And of course, by that time, some things had been built around it that may not be original. It does appear, however, that the top of the well is fairly original. Here is a color picture, closer up, of that top of the well. So this is, at some estimates, around 150 feet deep, hand dug well down into limestone. So here is another map showing, here's Jerusalem, here's Mount Gerizim, and then Sychar right nearby. So, alright, with that, let's head into the first page of our handout here.

So the Apostle John, writing about Jesus' travel with his disciples through Samaria, gives a unique account. The other three Gospels do not include this account. So John 4, 1-6, Therefore, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John, although Jesus himself was not baptizing, but his disciples were, he left Judea and went away again into Galilee. And he had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a city of Samaria called Sychar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. And Jacob's well was there. So Jesus, being wearied from his journey, was sitting thus by the well.

It was about the sixth hour. Sixth hour being noon, zero hour six. And so in biblical times, that's good to keep in mind. So, one of the things we learned is actually Jesus wasn't doing the baptizing, but he let his disciples do it. But let's ask a question. Why would Jesus let his disciples do all the baptizing and he wouldn't do it? He commissioned them, so... Well, he commissioned them, good. Yeah? Why else?

Did the Apostle Paul claim to do a lot of baptizing when he wrote to Corinth? If he jumped in there and did the baptizing too, it would have been out of sync with when John baptized him first. Then he began his ministry on his own. Is there another reason why Jesus would not have baptized and let his disciples do it all? Yes, in other words, looking at it, it would be too much of a tendency for people to say, boy, I got baptized by Jesus, you know, and too much opportunity for emphasis there.

Let's ask one other question. Therefore, when the Lord knew the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John, he left. Why? Why has he had a good time to leave? Well, yeah, that might be a part of it, but why else? This was fairly early in Jesus' ministry, right? Did he want to have big, high-profile run-ins with the Pharisees at that point in time? Not yet. Why? His time was not yet. Now, let's talk about the woman at the well, which he's soon about to encounter here. The woman at the well, whose job is it in the household to get the water? It's the woman's job.

A couple of things that were strongly assumed in the culture, there are others, but this will do for starters. One is the woman gets the water. Two is the woman keeps at least one lamp lit in the household at all times. And so those are things, both of which come out in scripture, and this is one of them there with the woman's going to get the water. That's her role. And interestingly enough, that's the way it is in Uganda too. The woman gets the water. So here's John 4, 7-9, There came a woman of Samaria to draw water.

Jesus said to her, Give me a drink. For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. Therefore the Samaritan woman said to him, How is it that you, being a Jew, ask me for a drink, since I am a Samaritan woman? For the Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Jesus wouldn't be expected to have a rope and something to go get the water out, so that would be fairly typical. So he would be dependent upon somebody who came by to the well. So that's it.

Jesus was acting counter to several customs to speak to her. She was one, a woman. Two, of lower repute. and three, a stranger, and four, a Samaritan, with whom the Jews typically didn't have any dealings. So Jesus was violating at least four customs here. Why would he do such a thing?

Those were overlaying on the original law. Yeah, if you look at it, is there anything about those four customs that is required by law explicitly? As a matter of fact, a lot of prejudice against women was something that was inserted by the rabbis, not in the original law. And we'll see that farther on where the woman is caught in adultery and the law says you will bring the man and the woman. Would you say that?

When the law was given, they didn't even know about the Samaritans. Yeah, there was no such a thing as the Samaritans, so there wasn't any way to get from the law some particular, you know, these guys are bad kind of account, right? And in fact, the Jews were regularly breaking other laws, and so they would add some of their own and go ahead and continuously break other laws, so they weren't consistent. The Pharisees, who considered all Samaritan women to be unclean, even had a prayer that no Samaritan would be raised in the resurrection of the dead to life. All the Jews, of course, would, but we're going to pray that no Samaritans would be raised to life. They're just bad. So the woman was so surprised that she asked how Jesus, being a Jew, could be asking her for a drink.

What she did not bring up was her lesser reputation, made evident by the time of day she came to draw water. The women of better repute would come out during the early part of the day while it was cool. Being there in the middle of the day like that was only for those who were of lower repute. Now, the women were going to get the water. But the women of higher repute would come earlier while it was cool, and the ones of lower repute would come out in the middle of the day. So for Jesus to be there in the middle of the day... It would have been uncool. Yeah, it would not have been cool. However, that's probably about the time he got there, midday, had they walked from the area somewhere around Jerusalem. How did she know Jesus was a Jew?

Very interesting question. Glad you asked it. One of the things that was interesting to talk to Hassan, who comes from an area that's very tribal, we asked Hassan, Hassan, can you tell which tribe people are from just by looking at them and hearing them speak? And he said, oh, yes.

And we can even tell sometimes what village they're from. And so it's little things like the way you carry yourself, the way you dress, and even accent. Somebody listening to me would say, you know, Vern, it's very evident that you're not German, you know, at least by accent. So all he has to do is say, would you draw me some water? And he's told her a lot.

And there was a distinctive, by the way, Galilean accent. The accent in Galilee was different from the accent around Judea. So, as was apparently Jesus' pattern, he did not respond as one might have expected. He did not answer her question directly, nor did he respond to what may have been her sarcasm.

What are you doing asking me? You're a Jew, and I'm not. So, at any rate, but instead responded as if he had something to offer her. You know, would you draw me some water? And so she comes back with this probably a hint of sarcasm in this question that she has, and he comes back talking as if he has something to offer her. That's his response.

So John 4.10, Jesus answered, said to her, if you knew the gift of God and who it is who says to you, give me a drink, you would not have asked him, excuse me, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water. There were of course many wells in Israel.

This one at one time estimated to be 150 feet deep. Also a flowing spring, which is known as living water. A flowing spring is living water. So a regular well where you have water just dropping into it is not living water. It is not considered a spring.

That's a well. But if you have where the water is moving and rising and coming up and bubbling through, that's a spring. And this one Both languages, I mean both words are used. Both terms are used. It is a well that is also a spring. Living water, it's called. So the picture of God himself, excuse me, the picture of living water being God himself is from the Old Testament.

The scriptures of the Samaritans did not acknowledge were the ones that contain these. They only acknowledge the five books of Moses. So the top of page three, we have a couple quotes from Jeremiah, and those aren't the only ones, but they'll do for starters.

For my people have committed two evils, they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters. To hew for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water. Jeremiah 17, 13 and 14, O Lord, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you will be put to shame. Those who turn away on earth will be written down, because they have forsaken the fountain of living water, even the Lord. And so you have here, here's Jesus making a claim to deity, when he talks about, I have living water, to offer you, right?

It's for me. So while Jesus was speaking spiritually, just as we saw with Nicodemus, there was a strong cultural tendency among Jews and Samaritans alike to see things from a physical perspective. Jesus is speaking spiritually, and he has to work pretty diligently, Nicodemus and this woman, to get him to think spiritually. Because they're always thinking physically, right?

Now, here's John 4, 11-14, Jesus said to him, Sir, she said to him rather, Sir, you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep, where then do you get that living water? So she had this idea of living water, but she didn't connect it up spiritually. You are not greater than our father Jacob, Are you who gave us the well and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?

And Jesus answered and said to her, everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again. Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst, but the water I will give him, bless you, will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.

So as Jesus did with Nicodemus, he's trying to work with this lady to get her to think spiritually. And one of the things he does is he makes a distinction between this water and the spiritual water he's offering. He makes that point there as he speaks to the woman. So John 4, 15 through 18, the woman said to him, Sir, give me this water so I will not be thirsty nor come all the way here to draw. Is she thinking spiritually or physically? She's still thinking physically, right? She still has not got the point that Jesus is trying to make. So, does Jesus try to explain it some more? No. What does he do?

Go call your husband and come here. The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said to her, you have correctly said I have no husband, for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband. This you have said truly.

So what did he do? He switched to asking her a question where he could give a prophetic answer and she would say, oh, we're talking about something miraculous here. That shifted her thinking to something spiritual as opposed to just physical. She kept interpreting physical. Okay, on page four there. So the woman still doesn't get it. She wants to make it easier to get physical water.

Finally, John 4.19, the woman said to him, Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. So now the woman is finally beginning to think in some spiritual sense. She still has an inadequate understanding.

Is calling Jesus a prophet sufficient? No. No it's not. But that was a problem Nicodemus had too. How did Nicodemus come? He called Jesus a teacher. Was he a teacher? Yeah. Is that an adequate statement? No. So, anyway, same problem as Nicodemus. The woman does continue to talk about earthly and ethnic aspects of spiritual things. So, I'm not sure why the woman changed the subject, but I can speculate. You just told me that I've been married five times and the guy I'm with now isn't my husband. So, let's talk about something else.

Our fathers worshipped in this mountain. And you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus said to her, Woman, believe me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know, we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming And now is when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such people the Father seeks to be his worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. The woman said to him, I know that Messiah is coming, he who is called Christ. When that one comes, he will declare all things to us. And Jesus said to her, I who speak to you, am he. Ding! Oh, yes.

You'd have to say it was probably an extreme blessing for her to be a Samaritan and not under the influence of the Pharisees, because then she would be loaded up with war, excuse me, about not believing. Yes, and there's another distinction to make here, and that is the Samaritans and the Jews had a different expectation about the Messiah.

The Samaritans claim to be descended from Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh, right? So that was their claim to, hey, we're a part of the right group because of that. Of course they had mixtures of other things, but nonetheless that was their claim. So, now the Messiah is to come from which tribe? From the tribe of Judah through the line of David, right? So that's the biblical picture. But since they don't have anybody in Samaria that even claims to be of the line of Judah and the line of David, their concept of the Messiah was not a reigning Messiah, but a teaching Messiah.

And so therefore, she didn't say when the Messiah comes, he's going to boot out the Romans and he's going to come and save us all. But rather, their concept of the Messiah was such that he's going to come and explain everything, which is what she says. You see the distinction there? That also impacted something we won't see fully until next week, but we'll just start to see it here. It explains one other thing.

It explains why the Samaritans responded to the claim, hey, this guy might be the Messiah, when by and large the Jews rejected Jesus because you're not coming in the clouds and coming out of the sky and booting out the Romans. So the Jews, because Jesus didn't fit the picture, rejected Jesus in great part, whereas the Samaritans, who were expecting a teaching Messiah, were very responsive, as we'll see. Interesting. So it actually, though the Samaritans certainly were lacking some things, it actually put them in a position to better receive Jesus than the right group of Jews.

Okay. So now, the other thing we have here is, you know, we looked at earlier about the mountains. Let's see. Picture there. Mount Gerizim, there, and they had a temple and worship and what not, so that's what this mountain refers to, is that mountain off to the left, where they went through and did the sacrifices and everything else. And by the way, the Samaritans have a very similar first five books of Moses, similar in that it's slightly different in order to accommodate worship here. And also, did they have any Levites? Yeah, they had just about zip, almost nothing.

Okay, the other thing to look at is we have the Gospel of John, the I Am's, the I Am statements, I am the bread of life, I am the light of the world. It doesn't list this one, but this I who speak to you am He, this I Am, is actually a statement that he made to her. Let's take a look at the top of page 5.

The Samaritans, rather than expecting a reigning Messiah from the line of David, were looking for a teaching Messiah who would explain things. When the woman said that the Messiah is coming who will reveal all things, Jesus responded in a very straightforward manner.

I who speak to you am here. Literally, I am that one speaking to you. I am, ego eimi in the Greek there, Christ Joseph, I am in the Greek is the same pair of Greek words that are in the Greek Old Testament where God says I am to Moses out of the burning bush. So you can imagine her stunned response. You know, the Messiah is going to explain, I'm the guy. And not only that, I being in fact God, am the one you're talking about.

At this point his disciples came and they were amazed, and that probably is an understatement, that he had been speaking with a woman who was a Samaritan woman of ill repute, you know, and even thinking about drinking from something that she had to get water with. All of that would have been, oh boy.

So, what do you seek? Why do you speak with her? They were probably stuttering and stumbling and just almost at a lack of words. So the woman left her water pot and went into the city and said to the men, come see a man who told me all the things that I have done.

This is not the Christ, is it? They went out to the city and were coming to him. All they had to do was hint that it was the Christ, and they were flocking. Just hint at it, and they're out there. As opposed to the Jews in Jerusalem, where, not so sure, you know. We'll send a guy at night time, one, to go inquire.

Why did she leave her water pot? She was in a hurry. Yeah, one, she was in a hurry and the water pot would have weighed some, you know, fairly large amount of weight and that would have slowed her down. She also, the typical thing was to balance it and if she wanted to just run, she could do so and she'd, you know, get there more quickly. She wasn't going to her home, she was going to go to the city quickly. Yeah, one is she was going to do it quickly.

Is there another reason? Because he was Christ and she wasn't worried about him doing anything or taking the water pot or anything, right? And was she coming back? Yeah, she was going to come back anyway. So it made sense on several different accounts for her to just leave it because she had news that was far bigger than I got a pot of water, right? So you find here's the disciples, they're stunned. And then soon thereafter, this gal is taken off and coming back, a whole bunch of people want to see, is this the Christ? The one who explains everything? The one who reveals everything? The teaching Messiah that we've been expecting?

Anyway, that's next week's passage. But I think this is a fascinating passage in terms of how Jesus just cast aside all the cultural norms to talk to the Samaritan woman of low repute. Wow. And to tell her, yeah, I'm the Messiah, and by the way, I'm God, too. I am deity. This is astounding and amazing grace. I think it's one thing that I really am impressed with the Gospel of John. This is one of those instances, and it's not the only one, one of those instances where Jesus sets aside the chauvinistic If you use a modern term, chauvinistic view of women completely.

And here he comes, I mean he could have just gone into town and asked somebody for a drink of water or something like that, but what does he do? He comes in the middle of the day in Samaria to make sure that he's going to be talking to a woman who is a Samaritan woman of ill repute. And tell her first, I being in fact God, I'm also the Messiah. Make sure that she knows first. And guess who God sends to the empty tomb first? Women. The Lord does not care.

We're going to see in John chapter 8, here is this woman caught in adultery. And the chauvinists had figured out, well, we'll just have the woman get stolen for this, right? And what happens to the man? Well, the law says the man and the woman both get wrong. And by the way, you guys are breaking the law by only bringing me harm. So Jesus repeatedly is not only against all their added-on traditions, but is repeatedly anti-chauvinistic.

Really amazing, really amazing stuff. So, oh, by the way, who was the first person that Jesus showed himself to when he was resurrected? Mary Magdalene. Mary from Magdala in the western part of the Sea of Galilee. Very interesting how the Lord very deliberately chose these things. So this is the first of kind of a series of that kind of instance.

OK, comments, questions? Inspirations. I'm amazed we got through this without running out of time here. Thoughts? All these things that Jesus did, you say that we're anti-chauvinistic. Teaching his disciples how they should treat everybody. Nobody has the law of being saved. Now let's ask this.

Do we have any evidence that any of the apostles were female? were female, women. There is no evidence that any of them were women. So in that, he stuck with, I'm picking just males. Now, were there disciples who were women? Yes, not of the 12, but there were certainly women who traveled along with them and were included among those who got called disciples.

So Jesus was not totally an egalitarian. He didn't just say, you know, one is the other and it makes no difference. But on the other hand, he repeatedly rejected the idea that, oh, this woman should not have any say, not have any value, her word should be discounted and mistrusted and all that. We'll just punish the woman for adultery, but not the man. Jesus repeatedly set that aside. So, Jesus didn't make no distinction between male and female.

He did. God created the male and female, he even said. But he specifically and repeatedly, and this is one case in point, set aside the cultural norms as to these are somehow lesser citizens. And very deliberately so, yeah. Yes, yeah. You look at it, he made deliberate choices here that day.

He could have just gone into town with the guys and said, hey somebody's got some water, I'm going to get a drink of water. But no, he chose to go out to this place at the time of day when it would be a woman, because that's whose job it is to get the water. And it would be the middle of the day, So it would be a woman of low repute. It would be in a Samaritan town. In a Samaritan well. And he knew what he was doing.

Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. I always thought Samaria was a region, but on that one map it looked like it was a city. Was it both? Yeah, here's the deal. Samaria was originally a city. in the ancient Old Testament times. And then what happened is after all this mixture and all that, the region got called Samaria. So your point is well taken. It was originally a city, and so that's why you see it as a point on one of those maps. But it became a region over time. Yeah, Tom?

You might have a little more inside information than I do, but I'd actually read an allegation that Sir Ian Serhan came from that part and was in fact an Arab Christian who decided to take matters into his own hands regarding Robert Kennedy. Well, yeah, that's a rabbit trail I won't chase because that's kind of outside the picture here. But it's not just unconfirmed. It's kind of way outside. At any rate, yeah, there's interesting connections about who's who. But we won't go there. All right, other thoughts, questions, fascinations? It's interesting in the first or second verse, it said he had to go. Yeah. It wasn't an accident.

And I think in the translation in the end, Let's face it, was he compelled and forced and absolutely had no choice but to go through Samaria? That wasn't the case. He could have done like many Judean Jews did and gone down to Jericho and up the Jordan River Valley and avoided going through Samaria. So it wasn't had to in the strongest literal sense, but it meant if you take the regular road that most Galileans did, you would end up going through Samaria.

Because he knew what he was going to repeat. And that's the thing. You think about it, not only from the ways we look at it. We say, OK, look, it's a Samaritan city, this well. Only Samaritans come to this well. And in the middle of the day, he's going to meet a woman who is going to be a Samaritan woman or they'll repeat. And so by those things, you put that together. But did Jesus need that to know that he was going to talk to a Samaritan woman or they'll repeat?

No. So he didn't have to understand the culture to figure that out. Jesus, knowing all things, knowing what was about to take place, he knew exactly what he was doing. And he deliberately chose to take that path. Instead of coming and thinking, I'll go to the elders of the city and tell them. He could have done that, couldn't he? That's not what he chose to do. He knew exactly what he was doing.

Astounding. I'll make one other mention, and that is that as I study the Bible, one of the things that I've come to just about as a rule of thumb, so to speak, is that if I'm not rather stunned and surprised by the passage, I probably don't understand it yet. This one really is rather shocking and stunning.

Why would the creator of the universe choose to do what he did? to meet a woman of low repute in the middle of the day, and after all, he said he was thirsty. I mean, why even bother to get thirsty, right? But to be in a position of, I am just about certain, even if he wasn't God, I am just about certain to meet up with a Samaritan woman of ill repute and ask her for a drink of water, with a Galilean accent. You wonder how the disciples must have reacted. Oh, mind blown. Yes. You know, I realize you're the master and we're the disciple, but what are you doing? Yes.

Well, it's also in the character of God to take the least likeness of anybody from them They didn't have a ministry where they realized it in the foggiest of times. Even to this woman, it happened with David, it happened with others. David was the youngest lead but most despised of all the sons of that claim. It's just a continuation of his respect for all by taking the weak things and magnifying them by his grace. God does things in the most unlikely ways. I mean, think about it.

Here's Jesus' birth. Would you have Jesus, I mean, this guy is like the one shot. You got one shot. of this guy, and he's got to grow up, and he's got to die on the cross, and there are all the right circumstances and everything, and you got one shot, but you have him be born in this little town, not, I mean, it's only like six miles from Jerusalem where Herod is, and it's only about five miles from Herodium.

Herod could have ordered soldiers from either one of those two places, and they would have way overwhelmed Bethlehem. And you're going to rely on a dream that Joseph has to get Mary and Jesus out of there. Just in time. With two sets of soldiers easily able to overpower anyone half dozen or less miles away.

Would you choose to do things that way? I mean, we wouldn't, right? We would say, hey, I'm going to put layers of safety around this thing. God chooses things we would never choose. Hey, I'm going to start a world religion movement, spiritual movement, and I'm going to start with some Galilean fishermen. Guys from the northern most back country kind of stuff. Qualifications? None. But that's what I'm going to work with. It isn't at all what we would pick, is it? Amazing. Amazing. Well, let's pray, okay?

Lord, you have done some astounding, amazing things again and again, and this is one of them. And we're actually next time going to be taking a look at the rest of this account to see what happens. But Lord, we look to you to guide and lead us through this. We look to you to draw out from the passage the lessons that you want us to learn and to teach us. And we thank you for this very precious opportunity to behold you. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.