JACOB'S WELL

As Jesus journeyed from Judea to Galilee, He passed through Samaria.  As He traveled through that country, He came to the city of Sychar, which was part of the parcel of land given by the patriarch Jacob to His son Joseph.  In this location was Jacob’s well, which still exists to this day.  The group stopped at the well, and Jesus sat down to rest from the journey while His disciples went into the town to buy provisions. 

 

As Jesus sat there on the well, there came a Samaritan woman to draw water from the well.  Jesus then looked at her and said, “Give Me to drink.” (John 4:7).  The woman, surprised that a Jew would speak to her, said, “How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria?  For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.” (John 4:9).  Jesus’ response transcended the simple conversation that they were having, and went straight to the spiritual level.  He said, “If thou knewest the gift of God, and Who it is that saith to thee, Give Me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water.” (v. 10).

 

The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus our Lord, but Jesus is suggesting here something that goes far beyond our initial conversion experience.  He is talking about a fountain of living water that flows up from a personal relationship with Jesus, and continues on from conversion.  It is a day-to-day walk with Jesus that satisfies our spiritual thirst, sustains our spiritual life, and transforms us into His likeness as we draw from the depths of His immeasurable resources.  The Samaritan woman, however, was still stuck in the natural and asked how He was going to draw water when He had nothing to draw with.  As I read this, I thought on the spiritual application of these words “nothing to draw with.”  There are those who are so stuck in the traditions of men that they find it hard to believe that a man can be “qualified” to preach the Word of God without having some formal teaching such as Bible College, or seminary.  The early disciples were just simple men with very little to “draw with,” as man might judge things; but they knew Jesus, and walked daily with Him, and learned His ways.  This woman thought that Jesus couldn’t possibly have water to offer – living or otherwise – without the required instrument to draw with.  She didn’t understand yet that He was the Well of Living Water.

 

The woman went on to ask if Jesus were greater than their ancestor Jacob, who gave them the well, and drank from it himself.  It is amazing how careful we are to maintain our traditions – even when we are presented with the Fountain of Living Waters Himself.  Jacob was certainly a man who knew and walked with God.  The Samaritans based their standing with God in what Jacob did, not in what they knew of God from personal experience.  Yes, Jacob built that well, and it quenched the thirst of his family for many generations, but drinking from it was not making anyone more spiritual.  Jesus offers us water that satisfies our inner longings and our thirst to know God. 

 

In this story, Jacob’s well is symbolic of all the things that man bases his religion upon other than a dynamic relationship with Jesus Christ.  Our dogmas, methodologies, and rituals are not a substitute for walking and talking with the Lord moment-by-moment.  God does not want us to worship things, He wants us to worship Him!  Buildings, temples, holy relics, locations – these mean nothing to the Lord, but they can become “wells” that distract us from the true Living Water.

 

Martin Luther dug a “well” in Wittenburg in 1517 when he posted his 39 theses on the door of the church and began to preach justification by faith instead of buying indulgences from the Catholic clergy.  This was an important revelation that the Church needed to understand, but it became a “well” that Lutherans have become stuck at.  Zwingli, Calvin, Knox, the Wesleys – these men and many, many others, all furthered certain truths and began reforms that were good and blessed in their time.  They quenched the Church’s thirst for righteousness with the truth that God revealed to them.  These men didn’t expect that their followers would stop at those truths that were revealed to them, however, and not go on to learn more of Christ.  The Lutherans must reach beyond Luther.  The Methodists need to progress further than the Wesley’s.  Those wells will run dry, but the water that Jesus offers us will satisfy us for eternity.

 

Jesus said, “If ye CONTINUE in My word, then are ye My disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:31, 32).  Jesus wanted the Samaritan woman to realize that there was a source of spiritual renewal that would go far beyond the same old dead religion that she had known her whole life.  That religion had not satisfied her, and it had not changed her.  Jesus wanted her to become a disciple and CONTINUE in her spiritual growth.  He told her, “Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again [referring to the water from Jacob’s well]: but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” (John 4:13, 14).  It is a significant detail in the story that when the woman left to go back to the city to tell them about the Messiah, she left her water pot behind.  What is it that we trust in other than Christ and are unwilling to leave behind?  We must learn that we can let it go – we aren’t going to need it anymore!

 

The Lord wants us to be like the man described in Psalm 84: “Blessed is the man whose strength is in Thee; in whose heart are the ways of them.  Who passing through the valley of Baca [valley of tears] MAKE IT A WELL; the rain also filleth the pools.  They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appeareth before God.” (Psalm 84:5-7).  Wouldn’t you like to be the one who leaves a well wherever you go, even through the dry valleys and the difficulties of your life?  There are those who dig wells, and there are those who ARE a well!  Their words are full of life, and their actions witness to the love of Jesus. 

 

The Samaritan woman then asked for this living water.  She had been spiritually thirsty for a long time and Jacob’s well wasn’t touching the thirst that was within her.  She was ready to believe that Jesus was the fulfillment of all of her yearning and all of her searching.  Jesus told her things about herself that He had no way of knowing in the natural, and this convinced her that He was indeed sent from God.  She went into the city telling everyone, “Come, see a man which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?” (John 4:29).  Jesus is the One Who can speak directly to our innermost needs.  He knows everything about us, and only He can quench our soul’s hunger and thirst for righteousness.

 

When asked where the correct place to worship God was, Jesus said, “The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him.  God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” (John 4:23, 24).  How we worship the Father is a much more important matter than where we worship Him.  After all, we are His Church, and not a building, or tabernacle, or temple.  We must learn to worship Him in spirit and in truth.  We must be filled with His Spirit so that these living waters will constantly be flowing in and through us.  We should be afraid of substituting religion and doctrinal traditions – mere wells - for a life in the Spirit.  There are many great men and women of God that we can name who furthered gospel truth in their lifetimes.  We cannot, however, base our spiritual life solely on their works, doctrines, or the organizations that they founded (or were founded in their name).  Jacob was a great man, and many quenched their thirst at his well, but that well was never a source of the Living Water that Jesus Christ has come to offer mankind.  

 

Jesus began this whole conversation by asking the woman of Samaria to give him a drink.  Jesus asked her to refresh Him.  In asking myself how I could possibly refresh my Lord, I was reminded of these verses from Matthew 25:

 

“When the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory:  And before Him shall be gathered all nations: and He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: And He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left.  Then shall the King say unto them on His right hand, Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungred, and ye gave Me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave Me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took Me in: naked, and ye clothed Me: I was sick, and ye visited Me: I was in prison, and ye came unto Me.  Then shall the righteous answer Him, saying, Lord, when saw we Thee an hungred, and fed Thee? or thirsty, and gave Thee drink?  When saw we Thee a stranger, and took Thee in? or naked, and clothed Thee?  Or when saw we Thee sick, or in prison, and came unto Thee?  And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me.” (Matthew 25:31-39).

 

This is truly what the Lord is looking for in us: to be wells of living water everywhere we go.  We are to give refreshing, hope, and courage to every life that we touch that is thirsty and seeking more of God.  By ministering to the needs of those around us, we are actually ministering to the Lord Himself.  We are refreshing Him by extending His love to others, and we are refreshing them by directing them to the Source of Life. 

 

If you are feeling thirsty right now, and wanting to know more of the fullness of God’s Spirit in your life, then ask Him to give you this Living Water so that you may thirst no more.  He knows all about the things that we have done in our lives, yet He does not condemn us.  He has come to save us from our guilt and sin, and to release us from our selfish nature.  He is interested in transforming us into His image.  Once saved, He wants us to continue in the truth and in our spiritual growth.  We can then refresh our Lord by refreshing those whom we encounter, and minister to them out of the well of our relationship with Jesus Christ.  Won’t you come and drink from this Fountain of Life and find in Jesus a “well of water springing up into everlasting life?”   

 

By the strength and passion of this Samaritan woman’s simple testimony, many believed on the Lord and went out of the city to hear Him themselves.  Scripture records, “And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on Him for the saying of the woman, which testified, He told me all that ever I did…and many more believed because of His own word; and said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard Him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.” (John 4:39-42).  There was such a thirst for truth among the Samaritans that Jesus stayed two more days teaching and preaching the Gospel message to them. 

 

Let’s learn to abandon our “wells” and our “water pots”, and find in Jesus Christ a perpetual source of Living Water!  When we learn to draw from this Fountain, we will never thirst again!

 

“Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; He also is become my salvation.  Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.” (Isaiah 12:2, 3).

 

“If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink.  He that believeth on Me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly [his innermost being] shall flow rivers of living water.  (But this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive.” (John 7:37-39).