Messiah revealed to Samaritan woman

Messiah revealed to Samaritan woman
Hello, I’m Danny. And I was an active member of the LDS Church for 60 years.
Today, I want to share one of the greatest stories in the New Testament. It was beautifully portrayed in the series “The Chosen” and was one of my favorite scenes. It is the touching story of Yeshua’s encounter with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well. It is found in John chapter 4 and is perhaps one of the most unlikely conversations in the Bible as we will find out.
We begin the story in John 4:3-4. It says of Yeshua “He left Judaea and departed again into Galilee. And he must needs go through Samaria.” Yeshua with His disciples depart from Jerusalem heading north to Galilee – probably to Capernaum which is an 85-mile journey, when He feels the strong need to go THROUGH Samaria. Yeshua may have been unaware at first why He needed to go through Samaria, but the Spirit led Him to do it. Yeshua will soon realize that He is in Samaria on a divine appointment.
Before we get too far along, we must pause here to point out that the land of Samaria was purposely avoided by all Jews in those days as they traveled between Judaea and Galilee. Jews who hated the Samaritans would travel extra miles to circumvent the land of Samaria so as to not come in, contact with any of those “unclean” Samaritans. Thus, Yeshua taking an intentional route directly through Samaria was questionable and problematic for this small band of Jewish men. I’m sure Yeshua’s disciples were wondering, “Master, what are you thinking – what are we doing?” In their minds, this was a huge cultural, religious, and dangerous risk!
For context, let’s talk about who the Samaritans are and why they were so despised. The Samaritans occupied the land formerly belonging to the tribe of Ephraim and Manasseh. The capital was Samaria, formerly a large and splendid city. But the ten tribes of Israel were carried away in captivity by Assyria around 733 B.C. The king of Assyria then later sent the people back to repopulate Samaria. (2 Kings 17:24; Ezra 4:2-11).
These foreigners intermarried with the Israelite population that was still in and around Samaria. The “Samaritans” as they were known – at first worshiped the idols of their own nations, but then a Jewish priest was sent from Assyria to instruct them in the Jewish religion. They were taught from the five books of Moses but still retained many of their idolatrous customs. Because the Israelite inhabitants of Samaria had intermarried with the foreigners and adopted their idolatrous religion, Samaritans were universally despised by the Jews as an unclean mixed race. Samaria became a place of refuge for all the outlaws of Judea (Joshua 20:6-7; 21:21). Samaritans willingly received Jewish criminals and refugees. Violators of the Jewish laws, and those who had been excommunicated, found safety for themselves in Samaria, greatly increasing the hatred which existed between the two nations.
When the Jews, returned from their exile in Babylon around 538 B.C., they began rebuilding their temple in Jerusalem – which the Samaritans vigorously attempted to halt the undertaking (Nehemiah 6:1-14). The Samaritans built their own temple on “Mount Gerizim,” which the Samaritans insisted was designated by Moses as the place where the nation should worship.
The Samaritans had only the five books of Moses including Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, which are called the Torah in Hebrew or the Pentateuch in Greek. And they rejected the writings of the prophets of the Old Testament and all the Jewish traditions. So, they didn’t have the full revelation of scripture – the rest of the Old Testament. Consequently, it was an incomplete, knowledge and understanding of God’s word. They also twisted, scripture and changed the historical narrative they had. They believed it was on Mount Gerizim that Abraham went to sacrifice Isaac – not Mount Moriah.
From all of this, arose an irreconcilable difference between the Jews and the Samaritans so that the Jews regarded the Samaritans as the worst of the entire human race (John 8:48) and had no dealings with them (John 4:9). In spite of the hatred between the Jews and the Samaritans, we find in this passage of scripture Yeshua breaking down the barriers between them, preaching the gospel of peace to the Samaritans (John 4:6-26), and the apostles later following His example (Acts 8:25).
Okay, let’s get back to this intriguing story in John 4. Vs 5-6 “Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar (today it’s Shechem), near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob’s well was there. Yeshua, therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour.” The “sixth hour” meant it was high noon, and Yeshua was tired and thirsty from His 40 mile walk from Jerusalem to Sychar in Samaria.
Vs 7a “There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water:” Most women would come early in the morning or late in the evening when it was cooler to collect water. However, because of this woman’s troubled reputation, she was there at high noon to purposely avoid other people from her village. But to her surprise there was a Jewish man sitting on the edge of the well from which she was to draw water.
Vs 7b “Yeshua saith unto her, Give me to drink.” It starts a polite conversation. But we will see, Yeshua talking about spiritual things while the woman is talking about natural worldly things.
Then John, who is telling this story parenthetically writes, Vs 8 (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat – food.) While the twelve were buying supplies in the village, Yeshua was left alone at the well when the Samaritan woman showed up.
Vs 9 “Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, 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.” She was taken back that Yeshua, a Jew, would have any dealings with a Samaritan – let alone, a Samaritan woman.
But Yeshua was neither a racist nor a sexist. Watch as the Savior masterfully arouses her curiosity. John 4:10 “Yeshua 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.” In other words, if she knew who she was speaking to, she’d be asking Yeshua for the kind of water He can give. His living water springs from eternity. Yeshua is speaking of the Holy Spirit as I will demonstrate in a moment.
Vs 11 “The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water?”
Vs 12 “Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?” What makes Him think His water is better than Jacob’s water – that has sustained the people and their animals for centuries? Of course, she is thinking literal H2O.
Vs 13-14 “Yeshua answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: 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.” Yeshua tells her the well of water He gives a person will be in them, springing up into eternal life. Wow! So profound! But she wasn’t comprehending what He was telling her.
In a few more chapters in this Gospel, we find Yeshua in Jerusalem at the Feast of Tabernacles. It says in John 7:37-39 “In the last day, that great day of the feast, Yeshua stood and cried, saying, 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 shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Yeshua was not yet glorified.)” To clarify – it was the “Holy Spirit” that was the “living water.” Yeshua was not “glorified” until His resurrection and accension. It says in Isaiah 44:3 “For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring.” This prophesy took place at Pentecost in Acts chapter 2.
Yeshua’s Spirit alone is the Living Water that fills our void. The living water that is given to us so freely in Christ becomes the well-spring of our life.
She has nothing to lose, so she cautiously calls His bluff. Vs 15 “The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.”
Yeshua is giving away more and more of who He is in this engaging conversation. Vs 16-18 “Yeshua saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither. The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Yeshua said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband: For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that says thou truly.” At this point Yeshua reveals to the woman that He knows about all the husbands she’d had and who she’s living with now.
Vs 19 “The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.” How else could He, a stranger to the area, know about her complicated private life?
Yeshua is not fazed by her sin or our sin. He gently refers to her sin and tells her everything she ever did. Yeshua sees the sin within our hearts. Yet He still pursues us and loves us. It says in Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” Romans 5:8 “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
She went on to say, Vs 20 “Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.” She now brings up the point that Samaritans have their temple place of worship that’s on Mount Gerizim, and the Jews have their temple to worship in Jerusalem. Who is right?
Then, Yeshua makes a very important prophetic statement. Vs. 21 “Yeshua saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.” What was He talking about? It would have been appropriate for Yeshua to say here, what He said in Matthew 12:6 “But I say unto you, That in this place is one greater than the temple.”
Earlier in John 2:18-22 it reads, “Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things? Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? But he spake of the temple of his body. When therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this unto them; and they believed the scripture, and the word which Jesus had said.”
At the hour Yeshua is crucified, the temple veil will be torn in two from top to bottom as recorded in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. The era of animal sacrifice for sin will be done away with in the final sacrifice of the Lamb of God. The temple in 70 A.D., will be destroyed by the Roman army. From that point forward the spiritual temple will be each, and every believer in Yeshua the Christ – where the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in their heart.
Yeshua speaking of Himself says to the woman, Vs 22 “Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.”
This next passage is extremely important. Vs 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.” It doesn’t matter where we worship Him. Worship is the enjoyment of our relationship with Christ wherever we are at any moment. That’s because God lives within each one of those who believe in Him. And He seeks those who want that intimate relationship.
Listen to this, Vs 24 “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” Because Greek has no indefinite articles such as “a,” as in “a Spirit” the King James translators decided to include one here – but that is why “a” is italicized. Mormonism claims that this verse is not translated correctly. That’s because Joseph Smith taught in Doctrine and Covenants 130:22 that “the Father has a body of flesh and bones.” But, according to the King James Version of the Bible and even in the Book of Mormon, Alma 18 – God doesn’t not have a body – He is Spirit.
What does it mean to be a worshipper of God “in spirit and in truth”? The Samaritan woman was making it about geography – Mount Gerizim or Mount Zion? My temple or your temple? My church or your church? But Yeshua said geography or location is irrelevant. What’s important is that you worship God “in spirit and in truth”. Worshipping in spirit doesn’t mean an emotional experience but it must be real from the heart. Then, it must be credible – based on truth. Real worship can’t be based on sincerity alone. This woman worshipping at a different temple with a different belief system was sincere, but she was sincerely wrong. It has, to be based on true knowledge – Yeshua said, you worship what you do not know. We KNOW what we worship for salvation if of the Jews. Worship has, to be based on the objective truth of Scripture. If not, we can have sincere ideas about all sorts of wrong information.
It’s not about a city, a temple, or a location. I learned from personal experience that we don’t have to make pilgrimages to places to be more in the presence of God.
When I was in Israel for two weeks traveling around all the amazing biblical sites and locations, including drinking water from this Jacob’s well, I looked forward mostly to the day we would end up in Jerusalem and visit the garden of Gethsemane. As I did, I was touched by the fact that it was the place where Yeshua plead with His Father to remove the bitter Cup. But I don’t think I ever felt closer to God than when I sat in the front room of my home with my Bible and read the account of our Lord’s prayer. It was a more intimate experience than being in Gethsemane, amongst the ancient olive trees. I made the mistake, thinking that if I made that visit, I’d be closer to Yeshua. But Yeshua in this passage is saying it doesn’t matter where you worship. What really matters is in whom and how – “in spirit and in truth”.
Vs 25 “The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things.” The woman doesn’t want to argue with Him, so she says it doesn’t matter – when the Messiah comes – He will sort this mess out. Why were the Samaritans expecting a Messiah? Wasn’t that a Jewish thing? Recall they believed only in the first five books of Moses. Well, in Deuteronomy 18 it says that God will send another prophet like Moses that the people will hear. And the Samaritans understood that other, prophet to be the Messiah.
Well guess what? That day had come! Vs 26 “Yeshua saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he.” Boom! That is the first time Yeshua has revealed to anyone that He is the Messiah. Ultimately, He reveals His identity as the Messiah. The very reason she came to the well with her pot was to get water. But she ended up drinking the water that was greater than the water she came to fetch.
Vs 27 “And upon this came his disciples, and marvelled that he talked with the woman: yet no man said, What seekest thou? or, Why talkest thou with her?”
Vs 28 “The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men,”
Vs 29 “Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?” Yeshua revealed Himself to the Samaritan woman as the Living Water, a Prophet, and ultimately the Messiah. Now she’s on a mission. Despite her sorted reputation, she doesn’t hesitate to run into the village to tell the men about her conversation with Yeshua, who calls Himself the Messiah. We should never underestimate the conversations we have with a person. Never underestimate the seeds you are sowing and the truth you are sharing. We read that many would believe because of her testimony.
Vs 30 “Then they went out of the city and came unto him.” Trusting her sincerity and witness, the men of the village came seeking Him.
39 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.
40 So when the Samaritans were come unto him, they besought him that he would tarry with them: and he abode there two days.
41 And many more believed because of his own word;
42 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.” They listened to her and then were driven to Him. The Samaritans are the first group to call Yeshua “the Savior of the world”.
What a beautiful story. His profound message was that the time would come when people wouldn’t need to go to a temple building to worship, because true believers will worship the Father “in spirit and in truth”.
In conclusion: I leave you with these verses as a reminder of what was emphasized under the New Covenant in Christ. Steven taught in, Acts 7:48 “Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet.” Paul wrote in, Acts 17:24 “God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands.” We read in, Hebrews 9:11 “But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building.” And in, Hebrews 9:24 “For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.”
As the Savior of the world prophesied in addition to His disciples – we won’t find God dwelling in elaborate modern-day temples. We should only seek to find and worship Him “in Spirit and truth”.
Thanks for watching. You can find more videos like this one on YouTube or at TalkingtoMormons.com.
Until next time, God Bless!