Hello and welcome to the Women’s Weekly Bible Challenge! I’m Lisa Ann Spencer.
Last week we left off our study, When Jesus Speaks to
Women, in John chapter 4. I hope you were able to spend some time studying
that chapter for yourself. Like Jacob’s
well, this passage is DEEP and it will require an entire lesson to cover it.
V. 9 Two
questions should arise.
Q: How did the Samaritan woman know Jesus was a Jew?
A: It is possible that
she could discern that He was a Jew by his speech and possibly by his
dress. Peter was known to be a
Galilean by his speech (Matthew 26:73),
and Galilee is populated by Jews, not Samaritans.
Q: Why
do the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans?
A: When northern Israel was carried away into captivity by
the Assyrians (2 Kings 17), the
cities of Samaria were populated by Babylonians and other foreigners who
brought with them their pagan gods.
Q: Who are the “Jews”?
A: Israelites from the
tribe of Judah.
2
Kings 17:18 Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel, and removed them out
of his sight: there was none left but the tribe of Judah only.
The word “Jew” shows up in scripture at this time, when the
tribe of Judah is all that remains in the Promised Land.
JESUS DIALOGUES WITH THE SAMARITAN WOMAN
Click here to read the dialogue in John 4:10-26.
We will look at John
4:10-26 verse-by-verse.
John
4:10 Jesus answered and said unto her, 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.
Q:
What is the gift of God?
A: Ecclesiastes speaks
about “the gift of God” in a physical sense as in wealth, food and drink which
is derived from our labor:
- Ecclesiastes 3:13
- Ecclesiastes 5:19
In context, the “gift of God” is “everlasting
life”, as we will see in verse
14.
Q: What is Living Water?
The Samaritan woman was probably familiar with the Old
Testament references to Living Water:
- Solomon wrote about a well of living waters in Song of Solomon 4:15.
- Jeremiah the prophet wrote about the LORD as the ‘fountain of living waters’ in the book of Jeremiah 2:13 and 17:13.
- Zechariah wrote that ‘living waters shall go out from Jerusalem;’ in Zechariah 14:8.
A: Living Water is
literal, as we see in Revelation 22:1,
and it is also figurative for eternal life.
V. 11 and 12 - The Samaritan woman answers as if she only takes His meaning in a natural sense, but you can tell she is curious because she asks Him from whence hast Thou this living water. And she is bold and challenges Him with the question “Art thou greater than OUR FATHER JACOB, which gave US this well?
📔NOTE: This lets us know that she is a descendant of Jacob
(a.k.a., Israel) through his son, Joseph. This woman is not a Gentile as many
suppose.
JESUS RESPONDS
John
4:13 Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water
shall thirst again: 14 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.
Jesus is clearly speaking of spiritual matters. (John 6:63)
📔NOTE: You might like to note Daniel 12:2 next to this verse; it is the only Old Testament
reference to ‘everlasting life’.
The Old Testament does speak of the dead living again in Job 19:26. Ezekiel prophesied to dead men’s bones so that they lived again (Ezekiel 37:3-5). In Psalm 49:15, David wrote, But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave: For he shall receive me. Selah.
V. 15 Again, the Samaritan woman answers Him, either with sarcasm or with only a shallow, physical understanding, demanding the water so she does not have to come to the well to draw water ever again.
JESUS ARRESTS HER ATTENTION
John
4:16 Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither.
Jesus, WHO IS GOD, knowing ALL the details of her life, is
now challenging her by putting her on the spot in a very awkward way. And how
does she respond?
V.
17 She answers in a half-truth, "I have no husband".
John
4:17b Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband: 18 For
thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in
that saidst thou truly.
I would like to mention here, that this is a real woman,
currently living in fornication. We
could make life application here, as many women’s Bible studies do, about how
Jesus meets you where you are, which is certainly true. But I would like to point out here that, as
with the other women we have encountered in our study, she represents the nation
of Israel. God married the
nation of Israel (Ezekiel 16:8 cf. Ruth
3:9), but she became an adulterous wife, committing idolatry with the false
gods of many nations (Jeremiah 3:2;
Ezekiel 16:17).
V.
19-20 The Samaritan woman is finally
beginning to see that Jesus is not an ordinary Jew. She perceives that He is a
prophet because He told her things that He could not have known otherwise. Once again, She was half-correct. He
is ‘that prophet’ that Moses wrote
about (Deuteronomy 18:15; John 1:21),
but He is much more than a prophet!
Again, we see the Samaritan woman claim to be an
Israelite, descended from Jacob and Joseph, whom she calls ‘our
fathers’. When she says ‘our fathers worshipped’, she means
they worshipped GOD, the Father (as we
will see in v. 21), not the
false idols that had been established by Jeroboam, the first king of the northern
tribes of Israel (1 Kings 12).
Her claim goes back to when the nation of Israel first
entered the Promised Land, set up the tabernacle in Shiloh and brought
offerings to God at His altar.
Q: Where is ‘this mountain’?
A: Remember they are
standing at Jacob’s well on the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to Joseph (vv. 5-6). It is in Mt. Ephraim.
Scripture tells us about the land that was given to Joseph’s
children, and where Joseph’s bones were buried when they were delivered out of
Egypt.
Joshua
24:32 And the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel brought up out of
Egypt, buried they in Shechem, in a parcel of ground which Jacob bought of the
sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for an hundred pieces of silver: and it
became the inheritance of the children of Joseph.
And we read that Shechem is in mount Ephraim.
Joshua
20:7 … Shechem in mount
Ephraim… (A list of the cities of refuge)
When Israel first entered the Promised Land, the tabernacle
(the tent where they worshipped God) was set up in Shiloh, which was also in Mount
Ephraim (Joshua 18:1). So Shiloh,
Shechem and Samaria are all located in the inheritance of Ephraim, the son of
Joseph.
📔EXTRA NOTES: Reuben was Jacob’s firstborn and should have received all the rights of the
firstborn son, but because Reuben sinned against his father, Jacob gave the
birthright to Joseph (1 Chronicles 5:1). Joseph’s firstborn was Manasseh, but Jacob gave
the blessing of the firstborn to Ephraim (Genesis 48:18-20) in one of many substitutions of the second-born
for the first-born that occurs in the book of Genesis (Isaac for Ishmael; Jacob
for Esau; Rachel for Leah; Ephraim for Manasseh; Pharez for Zarah). When the nation is delivered out of Egypt and
enters the Promised Land, Ephraim holds all the rights and privileges of the
Firstborn, which is why the tabernacle was set up in his inheritance. However, over the period of the book of
Judges, Ephraim loses his high position and the tribe of Judah is ultimately
chosen to hold the position of Firstborn (Genesis 49:8-10, Numbers 2:9; Judges 20:18). This is why the last Judge, Samuel, anoints David, from the tribe
of Judah, to be king over His nation. It
is David that brings the ark and the tabernacle to Jerusalem, the inheritance
of the tribe of Judah (2 Samuel 6:12).
Q: IS JERUSALEM
THE PLACE TO WORSHIP?
Let’s read Jesus’s answer.
John
4:21 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, Believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall
neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worhip the Father. 22 Ye
worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the
Jews. 23 But 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. 24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in
spirit and in truth.
A: Jerusalem, historically, WAS the place where
men ought to worship! Jerusalem WAS the place where God chose to put His name,
build His temple and His altar (1 Kings11:36); and Jerusalem is to be the city of the great king when Jesus
returns to set up His kingdom (Matthew
5:35).
BUT, When Jesus speaks of the hour that now is, He
is speaking dispensationally. Presently
in Jerusalem, the temple was ruled by men who did not worship the true
God. The Pharisees, The Saducees, The
Sanhedrein - These rulers of the Temple and the nation would ultimately reject
and kill Jesus. The hour that cometh refers
to the time of the tribulation that would soon come upon the nation and the
world. The true worshippers would be
cast out of the synagogues and the Temple, no longer having access to the altar
of God.
The true believers in Israel lost access to the synagogues and the Temple, being cast out by the rulers of the nation. They no longer had access to the altar of God, so they can only offer the sacrifices of their praise.
Which is why it says in Hebrews
10:25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some
is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day [of
wrath] approaching.
📔NOTE: This has nothing to do with Gentiles today in the Body of
Christ attending a local church.
This has to do with Israel during the tribulation
period. HEBREWS is a letter to the
HEBREWS during the TRIBULATION when it matters that one is a HEBREW. (Revelation 2:9; 3:9)
Jesus did not mean that Jerusalem will never be the place of
worship, because we know that the New
Jerusalem will descend out of heaven and will be the city of the great King
where God will be worshipped on earth (Revelation21:2).
V.
25 The Samaritan woman is beginning to get the idea! She IS NOT IGNORANT
of what the Old Testament says about Messiah.
She has heard the doctrine that Messiah is coming to the nation Israel,
as said the prophet Isaiah (9:6) and
He will be a Counsellor, who will
tell Israel all things (John 6:45; Isaiah 54:13; Jeremiah 31:31-34).
***John
4:26 Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he.***
This is remarkable, for Jesus rarely told anyone who He was, yet here He is, speaking to a Samaritan woman, and plainly stating that He is the Messiah!
📔NOTE: Consider these passages where He charged His disciples to tell no man He was the Christ:
- Matthew 16:20
- Matthew 17:9
SUMMARY: God gives such great honor to women in Scripture, even this
fornicating Samaritan. He is our Creator
and He does not teach that women are of less value than men. Feminism is a lie!
God established an order of authority:
1
Corinthians 11:3 But I would have you know, that the head of every man is
Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.
Is Christ of lesser value than God? No, nor is the woman of lesser value than the
man.
True Christianity, a real relationship with Jesus Christ, is
the most honoring place for a woman to rest.
We will end today’s study here. I encourage you to Read John 4:27-42 to hear the rest of the account. We will pick up next week in John chapter 8, and we should complete the series next week.
I hope you will join me in our final study, When Jesus
Speaks to Women.
The material covered in this Blog can be viewed here:
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