In the 4th chapter of John’s gospel we read about an incident in the life of Jesus that has significance for anyone desiring to live eternally with Him in the Kingdom of God.  Jesus and His disciples had left Cana of Galilee where He had performed His first miracle by turning water into wine.  From there they had gone to Jerusalem where He had gotten into trouble for disrupting the exchange business that was being conducted in front of the Temple.  Leaving there they traveled into a part of the Promised Land called Samaria where the 10 tribes of Israel had lived before being defeated by the Assyrians and scattered throughout the world.  Living in Samaria at that time was a heathen people whom the Assyrians had brought in to replace the Israelites.  These people were followers of the Babylonian mystery religions characterized by magic, witchcraft, sorcery and other types of occultic and ritualistic practices.  Jesus and His disciples were passing through Samaria on their way to Galilee.  Arriving at Jacob’s well they had stopped to rest.  Being wearied from the journey, Jesus sent the disciples into the capital city of Samaria to buy food while He remained at the well (vs 6).

In order to draw water from the well one needed a water pot, which Jesus did not have.  As he waited for His disciples to return with food a Samaritan woman came to draw water.  Jesus asked her to draw some for Him.  She was astonished, for the Jews had no dealings with Samaritans– “goiim,” meaning Gentiles/heathen.  Recall that Jesus called Gentiles “dogs” because they did not obey God (Mat. 7:6; 20:6).  Only swine were regarded lower than dogs among the Jews.  The Lord, Who does not change, sees all sinners as “dogs,” including “sinners saved by grace.”  We know this from Revelation 22:14,15 where Jesus told John that upon His return there will be two classes of people on earth.  There are those within His inner circle–His saints who “do His commandments” (keep His Law), who will “partake of the tree of life” and enter into New Jerusalem.  Then there are those on the “outside.”  He lists some of them, beginning with human “dogs” whom He lists with other type of sinners.  But “dogs” do not have to remain “dogs,” which is what this series is about.

Knowing how the Jews viewed Gentiles (as dogs), the woman asked Him why He was asking her for water.  He told her that if she knew who He was, and knew about the “gift of God” (the Holy Spirit), she would have asked Him for “living water” which one must “drink” in order to receive eternal life.  The woman replied with words that make no sense unless one knows the history of the Samaritans.  She asked Him where He, a mere man, could get such “living water.”  Was He greater than “our father Jacob ” who had given them (the Samaritans) the well and where he and his family had drank (vss 7-12).  Note that this heathen woman named the biological ancestor of the Jews (Jacob) as the Samaritans’ spiritual father.  I will explain why she believed this heresy in the next series.

Jesus replied that the “water” (Holy Spirit) He could provide would produce eternal life.  Believing that He was referring to physical water, the woman proclaimed that she wanted some of that water so that she would never again have to return to the well.  Note that Jesus said that the living water He gives would “spring up unto” eternal life, meaning that if she had partook of the Holy Spirit and obeyed that Spirit she would be converted, overcome Satan, walk in holiness and, upon His return to earth, receive salvation.  The key was to obey God’s “voice” spoken through His Holy Spirit.  The Apostle Paul would later confirm this when he wrote that “They who are led by (obey) the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God” (Rom. 8:14).  Sons of God are those who obey Him, who will live inside of New Jerusalem in the Kingdom of God.

At this point Jesus needed to tell the woman that He was referring to spiritual, not physical water.  A miracle was in order.  He told her to go get her husband and bring him to the well.  She replied that she had no husband.  Jesus then told her specific facts about her life that He, a Jewish stranger, had no way of knowing.  Having been used by God in the same way on several occasions, I can attest to the shock people experience when being told specific facts about their lives that the speaker has has no way of knowing.  In this instance Jesus told her about her marriage history.  At that point she realized that the Man in front of her was not like other men.  She replied: “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.”  Nothing grabs people’s attention like a miracle (vss 8-19).

At this point the woman says something else that seems out of place: “Our fathers (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) worshiped on this mountain ….”  Again, she, a heathen “dog,” claimed that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were her spiritual ancestors, that she and her people worshiped the same God they had worshiped, and that they had worshiped Him in the area where the Samaritans worshiped–in the land of Samaria.  She noted that the Jews claimed that one must worship (the same) God at Jerusalem in the Temple.  Jesus told her that the day was coming when one would worship God wherever one happened to be (vss 20,21).  At that future time a true saint would not need to travel to Jerusalem to worship God in His Temple.  Why? Because the saint’s body would be God’s temple in which He would abide in the form of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 3:16,17; 2 Cor. 6:16).  The Holy Spirit is the “gift” God promises those who obey Him (Acts 2:38; 10:45).  His Spirit gives them “power” over Satan to resist his “fiery darts” of temptation (Acts 10:19; 1:8; Eph. 6:16).  The Holy Spirit serves as God’s “armor,” His “light,” His “righteousness” which surrounds the believer (Rom. 13:12/ 2 Cor. 6:7/ Eph. 6:11,13).  Having received the Spirit, one is able to “Resist the devil and he will flee from you” (Jam. 4:7).  The Spirit both leads God’s obedient saints to resist the devil and empowers them to do so.  This makes sin a choice on the part of the believer, a fact which the whole of professing Christendom denies by laying the blame for their sins on Adam.  I lament the fact that so few church people believe the Truths God makes plain in His Holy Bible.  Most church people do not know the Truth concerning the path to salvation.  Having bought into Satan’s “only believe” theology preached by his false prophets, they see no need to follow Paul’s admonition to “Study (God’s Word) to show yourself approved by God” (2 Tim. 2:15).  L.J.