he left Judaea and went away again unto Galilee.
This verse records a movement, not a miracle. The Son of God turns His back on Judea. That short travel note opens the whole chapter: it is how a Samaritan woman at a well came to meet the Messiah of Israel.
The Pharisees had heard that His disciples were baptizing crowds. Their jealousy is what moved Him. One writer asks what that land was worth once He left it:
It was the jealousy of the Pharisees, then, which in reality drove the Lord from Judaea. What was that land any longer? What was it without Him, above all, when it rejected Him and He abandoned it? They might boast of the law, but they had not kept it. They might claim the promises, but He had been there — the promised One, the One who fulfils all the promises. They did not know Him. They did not love Him. More and more they showed how estranged their hearts were from Him, their Messiah. What could the first covenant do for them now? It could only ensure their condemnation; it could work no deliverance. These proud religious men saw in Him only a man. They never suspected that He was the Word become flesh.
He was leaving no ordinary place:
After the introductory chapters, the Gospel of John begins by showing us Jesus leaving Judea. He leaves the Jewish capital, the centre of the throne of God on the earth. It was the ancient seat of Him who had now come down in grace, and who could not find where to lay His head in an unfriendly world.
Leaving that circle carries a lesson for us:
He had left the religious centre of men, so that nothing would hinder His display of grace. And you can depend on it: if you want to reach and enjoy the truth of God, you have to leave human religion in every shape behind.
He did not walk away coldly:
Men did not believe on Him because of the miracles He did. Instead the Pharisees grew jealous. So the Son of God in sorrow turns His back on that Judea to which He came from God. He felt it, as He always did. It could not be otherwise; it ought not to be otherwise. Love could not help feeling it. It was not just that they rejected Him. He felt for them as they threw away their own mercies, rejecting God Himself — rejecting Him, their Messiah. Yet this very rejection leads Him to display such grace as Judea had never heard of.
One writer traces what came of that withdrawal:
He knew they were aware that His disciples were making and baptizing many on His behalf. He knew this would draw out hostility, so He withdrew from among them. He went towards Galilee, and had to go through Samaria. There He met the woman and ministered blessing to her soul, which resulted in blessing for many others also. If some reject His grace, their unbelief does not dry up the channel, but diverts it: others get it.
His road to Galilee ran through Samaria:
He was weary, so He sits down outside the town at the edge of the well. He had to go that way. But this necessity gave occasion for the working of that divine grace which filled His Person. That grace overflowed the narrow limits of Judaism.
Another writer puts the same point about the route more directly: the way He took was not only about the map.
His route to Galilee lay through Samaria and He had to pass that way. This was not only because of where these two regions lie, but to accomplish a work in a woman and in others who belonged to the city of Sychar.
Where He went matters too:
Christ knew that, for the time, His earthly Kingdom was set aside. So He leaves Judaea to go into Galilee of the Gentiles (Matthew 4:15), to teach us truths that are for all the world.
- Cause — the jealousy of the Pharisees over His growing number of disciples drove the Lord out of Judea.
- Cost — He felt the rejection. He was leaving the Jewish capital, the centre of God's throne on earth, with nowhere to lay His head.
- Channel — unbelief in one place does not dry up grace. It diverts it, and others get what one group refused.
- Course — the road through Samaria looked like plain geography. In fact it was the occasion for grace to overflow the limits of Judaism and reach a woman at a well.
- Compass — He heads for Galilee of the Gentiles, and what He teaches from there is for all the world, not one nation.
And he must needs pass through Samaria.
Between Judea and Galilee, John records one word about the route — a "must." Was it simply the shortest road? Or was something else drawing Him to a well in Samaria?
The plain reading is a matter of maps: Samaria lay between Judea and Galilee. But the road also brought Him to one particular town. Commentators read a second reason behind the first.
The direct route to Galilee ran through the district of Samaria, so He "had to go" that way. That was a matter of geography. But there was also a necessity tied to the grace of God. It set Him on a road that brought Him to one particular city of Samaria, called Sychar.
Others push further. The shortest road was not the only road open to a Jewish traveller.
Why did He have to pass through Samaria? It is true that the direct route to Galilee ran through Samaria. But strict Jews took other routes, to avoid a people they despised. So the need was not a question of roads and countries. May we not say instead that the need was in the heart of God? Before the world was made, God had purposed blessing for a poor sinful woman in Samaria. To win that soul and gladden the heart of God, Jesus had to go through Samaria.
Commentators differ here. One writer takes the necessity as practical, while still allowing God's purpose behind it:
The "must" in chapter 4:4 is a practical one. The straight way was through Samaria, and the Jews usually went that way, though they did not stop in Samaria as they passed. I would not say He went on purpose to meet this woman — though it was God's purpose that He should.
He did not leave Judea by choice. The same writer who calls the necessity practical still sees the move as an opening for something larger.
Now, in John 4, Jesus is driven away by the jealousy of the Jews. He begins His ministry outside that people, while still recognising their true place in God's dealings. He goes away into Galilee, but His road led Him past Samaria... Being weary, He sits down outside the town at the edge of the well — for He had to go that way. But this necessity gave occasion for the working of that divine grace which was in the fullness of His Person, and which overflowed the narrow limits of Judaism.
Rejection in one place did not shut down His work; it redirected it.
He went towards Galilee, and had to go through Samaria. There He met the woman and brought blessing to her soul, and that brought blessing to many others too. If some reject His grace, their unbelief does not dry up the channel — it diverts it, and others get it.
Samaria was not neutral ground. Jews kept apart from Samaritans. One writer argues they were right to do so, which makes the Lord's place on that road all the more striking.
The Jews were acting in consistent righteousness when they refused all dealings with the Samaritans... They were to be God's witnesses against the world. They were the clean, kept separate from the unclean, as a testimony to the righteousness of God against a corrupted earth. But Jesus was now standing apart from Israel. He had left Judea, the place of righteousness, and stood in defiled Samaria as Son of God, the Saviour of sinners. He had already gone to Judea looking for righteousness, the proper fruit of that country, and had not found it. He is not going to look for it in Samaria either. Here He must act in another way altogether — in the way of grace only.
At the well two tired people meet. One writer sets their contrast side by side.
She too was weary, as her words soon show. She was alone, as He was alone — but that only makes the contrast greater. She was in the sin that leaves a person isolated, shamed and condemned; He was in the unique glory of His Person and of His search... They were at opposite extremes, on opposite paths, and yet they met. It was not by her will or her planning, and she did not know what lay ahead of her. On His side it was the love that carried its own necessity: "He had to pass through Samaria."
- Must (1). On the surface the word is geography: the straight road from Judea to Galilee ran through Samaria.
- Must (2). Writers see a second necessity too: grace steering Him to one town, one well, one woman. Commentators differ on how far to press this.
- Must, not merit. Samaria was the place Jews avoided. He came there not to look for righteousness, but "in the way of grace only."
- Must, redirected. Jealousy in Judea pushed Him out. Unbelief did not dry up the stream of blessing; it diverted it, and others received it.
- Must, and met. She came for water by her own will; He came by love's own necessity — and their opposite paths crossed at the well outside Sychar.
He comes therefore to a city of Samaria called Sychar, near to the land which Jacob gave to his son Joseph.
Jesus leaves Judea for Galilee, and the road takes Him into Samaria, a country the Jews avoided. The verse reads like a travel note, yet the route, the town and the field once given to Joseph each carry weight.
The map explains part of the journey, but not the stop.
The direct route to Galilee lay through the district of Samaria, so geography alone meant He "had to pass through". But there was a second necessity too, one connected with the grace of God. It set Him on a road that brought Him to one particular city of Samaria, called Sychar.
The town lay near Shechem, and one feature of it has outlasted everything around it.
He reached Sychar, now Askar, about a mile east of Shechem, which is now called Nablus. Close to that city was Jacob's well, and through all the country's changes it has remained to this day. Generations may come and go, dynasties rise and fall, but wells remain from generation to generation. Springs are plentiful in that district by Shechem, yet Jacob dug his own well. That would make him independent of the usual water supply in the country. It may also have marked out his ownership of that piece of land.
The field was bought land, and it ended up being Joseph's burial place. One writer draws out the irony of the setting.
We find the Lord now at Sychar, a name that means "purchased". The town took its name from the piece of land Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor and gave to Joseph, who was buried there. So all that Jacob had bought — though he meant it otherwise — and all that he could give to his best-loved son, was a grave. It was a good place to speak of another gift and another purchase, free to all who wanted it and looked for it: a spring of life instead of a place of death. Jacob's spring could be both a picture of that new spring and — as every picture must be — an instructive contrast to it.
That grave points forward:
Joshua 24:32 speaks of the piece of ground in verse 5. It was Joseph's burial place, and his father Jacob had bought it. Joseph's death is a picture of the death of the Lord Jesus, and that death is the very basis for giving the water of life to guilty sinners.
Why does this verse name Joseph? One writer traces the answer back to Genesis 49.
Joseph is a well-known picture of Christ… Take, for example, John 4:6. Why does it say that "Jacob's well was there"? Surely to catch our attention in some special way; and Genesis 49:22 uncovers the secret. Joseph, we read, is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a well, whose branches run over the wall. So in this tired Man, who sat by the well of Sychar in the noonday heat, we see the true Joseph. Even while we look at Him, we see His branches running over the wall of Judaism, reaching this poor woman of Samaria with their good fruit.
The people living around Jacob's field were not simply foreigners; they were the product of a mixed settlement recorded in 2 Kings.
The Samaritans of the Lord's day were rightly seen as a corrupt race. 2 Kings 17:24-41 records the beginning of their history. After Assyria carried away the ten tribes, its king resettled the land with men from Babylon and other pagan cities… The result was a corrupt people who "feared the LORD but also served their own gods". So they had some dim knowledge of the Lord, and of the Messiah who was coming.
The Jews had a real reason for keeping clear of Samaritans. That is what makes the Lord's presence in this town so striking.
When the Jews refused all dealings with the Samaritans, they were acting in keeping with righteousness… They were to be God's witnesses against the world… But Jesus was now standing apart from Israel. He had left Judea, the place of righteousness. He stood in defiled Samaria as Son of God, the Saviour of sinners. He had already gone to Judea looking for righteousness, the proper fruit of that country, but had not found it. He is not now to look for it in Samaria. Here He must be in another way altogether, in the way of grace only.
- Necessity — Samaria was the direct road to Galilee. The stop at Sychar met a second necessity, one belonging to the grace of God.
- Purchase — Sychar means "purchased". Jacob bought this ground, and it became the grave of his best-loved son.
- Grave — All that Jacob's purchase could give his son in the end was a grave. That is the fitting place to speak of a free gift and a spring of life.
- Branches — Genesis 49 calls Joseph a fruitful bough by a well, with branches running over the wall. At this well the true Joseph reaches past Judaism to a Samaritan woman.
- Grace — Judea was the place of righteousness, and it produced none. In Samaria the Lord stands on wholly different ground, as Saviour of sinners.
Now a fountain of Jacob's was there; Jesus therefore, being wearied with the way he had come, sat just as he was at the fountain. It was about the sixth hour.
Jesus stops at Jacob's well in Samaria and sits down, worn out from the road. Two questions follow: what does His weariness say about who He is, and why does John note the hour?
The detail is not about travel. The One who made the world felt the world's tiredness in His own body.
The everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, never faints and never grows weary. Yet here He is a Stranger in the land, wearied with His journey. The One who made every drop of water in the universe is Himself a thirsty Man in the world His hands had made. In heavenly glory, angelic hosts had always surrounded Him. On earth He appears as a lonely Man.
Older translations say He "sat thus" at the well. That small word has drawn careful attention.
Houtōs, "thus" — that is, just as He was (compare Mark 4:36). The "wearied," as Zahn says, emphasises His humanity.
His body had reached its limit. His love had not.
He sat just as He was — on the well, wearied, thirsty, hungry. How truly Man He was! In His spirit He felt the hatred and rejection of the Jews with perfect sensitivity. In His body He felt the hardships of life too — the heat of the midday sun, the roughness and the length of the way, the pangs of hunger and thirst. And yet He was God, the giver of living water. He was wearied in body but unwearied in His love. At that well side He found both rest and food in doing the will of Him who sent Him.
Sitting on the well, the Maker of the world had no way to reach the water Himself.
He was weary with His journey and sat alone in the world — what an astonishing place! This was the world He had created. More than that, it was the world He had come into in love. And here He is only a weary Man, feeling the rejection of His love. In the place He had taken, He depended for a drink of water on this poor sin-wearied woman — He who had made the water. Grace is in the humbled and obedient Man — that is where what God is shines out.
Commentators differ on the clock here. Some read it as midday, and find in that heat the reason a woman would come to draw water alone.
It is the sixth hour — twelve o'clock. The sun, at its height, was pouring its burning rays on the ground. That is the moment the Lord chooses to pass that way, to meet that soul. The Spirit records the fact. And why? Because that was not the time when women in the East went out to draw water. That was done in the morning, or in the evening, when the heat was not so great (Genesis 24:11). But this woman comes out in the middle of the day... Her sin had isolated her.
Others read the hour as six in the evening, and point to the rest of the chapter.
The time seems to have been six in the evening, for the disciples had gone away into the city to buy food, which might have been for the evening meal. After this the Lord went into the city, and many of the Samaritans believed. They asked Him to stay with them. That was a kindness often shown in the East when the day was far spent.
Why does John mention the well at all? One writer finds the answer in an old picture of Joseph.
Why is it mentioned, "Now Jacob's well was there"? Surely to catch our attention in some special way; and Genesis 49:22 uncovers the secret. Joseph, we read, is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a well, whose branches run over the wall. So in this wearied Man who sat by the well of Sychar, we see the true Joseph. Even while we look at Him, we see His branches running over the wall of Judaism. They reach this poor woman of Samaria with their good fruit.
- Weary — and truly Man. Hunger, thirst and tiredness belong to a real human body. The Creator who never grows weary sat down worn out in the world He had made.
- Weary — just as He was. He sat down just as the journey had left Him.
- Weary — yet unwearied. His body gave out; His love did not. Rejected at Jerusalem, He found rest and food in doing His Father's will at a Samaritan well.
- Weary — and therefore asking. Sitting there, He depended on a sinful woman for a drink. Grace shines out through the humbled, obedient Man.
- Weary — and reaching over the wall. At Jacob's well we see the true Joseph. His branches run over the wall to reach a Samaritan woman.
A woman comes out of Samaria to draw water. Jesus says to her, Give me to drink
A tired traveller sits by a well in Samaria and speaks first to a woman who has come alone to draw water. His four-word request raises the question of who really needs help here — and who is really giving.
The Creator sat there depending on His own creation for a drink:
Just think of the Lord Himself. None of the rulers of this world knew Him, yet He was the Lord of glory. He sat there weary on the well, thirsty, depending on this world for a drink of water — the world He Himself made, and it did not know Him! And now He depends on this woman for a drink of water.
His weariness was not only in His body:
He sat there — just as He was — on the well, weary, thirsty, hungry. How truly Man He was! In His spirit He felt the hatred and rejection of the Jews with perfect sensitivity. In His body He felt the hardships of life too: the heat of the midday sun, the rough and long road, the pangs of hunger and thirst. And yet He was God, the giver of living water. He was wearied in body but unwearied in His love.
He had the power to meet His own thirst another way:
He simply says, "Give me a drink." Why did He ask for a drink of water? The well was deep, and He had nothing to draw with. But could He not have worked a miracle to quench His thirst? For others He works miracles of grace. Yet we never read that He worked a miracle to meet His own needs. There is only one answer. The eternal Son, sent by the Father to be the Saviour of the world, stoops in the greatness of His way to owe a fallen woman a cup of cold water — and so to win the confidence of her lonely heart.
His request was aimed at something deeper than thirst:
The One who made the heart knows perfectly the way into its affections… God, in the lowliness of a man, asks the Samaritan woman for a favour, a drink of water. But it was to open her heart to her own needs, and to give her eternal life in the power of the Holy Spirit.
She came out to the well alone. One writer traces that solitude to her sin:
Her sin had cut her off. Her sin drove her into complete loneliness. She avoided the faces and company of people, and went out to be alone — but she walked into the company of God. She avoided the face of man, because she feared his frown and his judgment. But see the grace of Christ: He goes to that place at the very moment He knew He would meet her.
Her answer was surprise, not water. One writer sets it beside Rebekah, a woman asked for a drink at a well long before:
The Lord broke the silence with the simple request, "Give me a drink." Those few words opened the way for everything that followed. Asked by this stranger to meet His need, she answered with surprise… How differently Rebekah had acted, when a stranger asked her for water (Genesis 24:18). But in her day religious argument had not soured people's minds, or made them forget ordinary courtesy.
Everything turns on knowing who is asking.
Here is the great truth, and not knowing it ruins the world. People do not know who it is that asks them for a drink… still asking a favour of them. The difference the world does not see is this: it is the Son of God who humbles Himself like this to ask sinners to come. It is the Lord of glory doing it.
His poverty was what made her rich:
He became a poor, needy, lonely man by a well side. That was how He reached a poor fallen woman and brought heaven's best gifts to earth's worst sinners. At the very moment He is enriching us with a fountain of water springing up to eternal life, He Himself has become so poor that He must ask for a drink of water.
- Weary — He sat just as He was — hungry, thirsty, tired in body, feeling rejection in His spirit. Yet His love never tired.
- Asking — He worked miracles for others but never for Himself; He chose to owe a fallen woman a cup of water.
- Winning — The One who made the heart knows the way into it; asking her for a favour was how He opened her own need to her.
- Crossing — Grace crossed the border between Jew and Samaritan, into a place where religious argument had killed plain courtesy.
- Giving — The Beggar at the well is the Giver of living water; the world's ruin is not knowing who it is that asks.
(for his disciples had gone away into the city that they might buy provisions).
John pauses the conversation at the well to explain why Jesus was alone when the woman arrived. That everyday errand raises real questions about the One who needed food, and about why He wanted to be alone.
One writer sees the Lord's own choice behind it. Sending the disciples away served two purposes at once:
Weary, hungry and thirsty, He sat at the well side. His power upholds the planets in their tireless courses, and His opened hand satisfies the need of every living thing. Yet He sat there at the well, waiting and alone. He was waiting because at that hour a solitary sinner came to that place, weary, hungry and thirsty in another sense. It was His Father's will that He should meet and bless her there. He was alone because He had sent His disciples away to buy food. That gave them the opportunity of serving Him, and kept them from pushing their unsympathetic presence into the sacred meeting that was to come. Such was His gracious and considerate way with them.
Someone had to buy bread because the Lord needed it. That need shows what kind of body He took:
Birth and growth, eating and drinking, hunger and thirst, weariness and sleep all belong to the human body. They appear here in connection with the body of the Lord. They prove how real the body He took was, and how truly it was marked by all that is characteristic of the human body, sin apart.
The scene has Him both wanting a drink and wanting a meal at the same moment:
Coming to Jacob's well, and being "wearied with His journey", He sat on the well-side. Not only is He weary, but thirsty; for He asks the woman, who at this moment comes to the well, to give Him water to drink. Moreover, since the disciples have gone into the neighbouring city to buy food, the Lord is alone.
Jews avoided dealings with Samaritans, yet the disciples went into a Samaritan town to buy food. One writer explains the old rule, and what had changed:
It was quite consistent with righteousness that the Jews refused all dealings with the Samaritans. It was according to their calling to say, "It is unlawful for a Jew to keep company with, or to visit, anyone of another nation;" for this was a testimony against evil, and such testimony was the very trust which Jehovah had committed to Israel... But Jesus was now standing apart from Israel. He had left Judea, the place of righteousness, and was standing in defiled Samaria as Son of God, the Saviour of sinners.
Their absence left the Lord free to deal with one person. One writer sets this meeting beside another one — with Nicodemus, who came to Him at night:
The Lord sat on the well-side about midday, as the time of greatest heat approached. Nicodemus sought Him by night. He sought a Samaritan sinner at midday... Many of us would own that it takes more spiritual skill to deal rightly with an individual than to address a crowd, and makes a bigger demand on our courage.
Commentators differ on the hour. Another writer takes the errand itself as the clue:
The time seems to have been six in the evening, for the disciples were gone away into the city to buy food, which might have been for the evening meal.
So the woman meets Jesus alone:
He is alone with sinners, settling with them the great interests of their souls, in the grace and power of the Son of God. And blessed it is to see this. It is one of the dearest thoughts to us sinners, that we may be alone with Jesus, and that apostles and churches, or fellow-believers and ordinances, are not needed for this business which is to determine our own personal, individual eternity.
The disciples left Him hungry. They came back to find Him satisfied already:
The disciples had left Him, in want of rest and drink and food. He had had none. They return to find Him wonderfully refreshed and satisfied, though the sources of it were too deep for them to enter into: "I have food to eat that you do not know about … My food is to do the will of Him who sent me, and to finish His work."
- Errand. The disciples go to buy food. John records this small detail because it explains why Jesus is alone.
- Hunger. The need for that food was real. Hunger, thirst and weariness prove how human the body He took was, sin apart.
- Barrier. Jews kept clear of Samaritans. Yet the disciples buy food in a Samaritan town, while their Master waits there as Saviour of sinners.
- Alone. Their absence leaves room for a private meeting. No apostle, church or ceremony stands between a sinner and Christ.
- Satisfied. They came back with bread and found Him already fed — His food was to do the will of the One who sent Him, and to finish His work.
The Samaritan woman therefore says to him, How dost thou, being a Jew, ask to drink of me who am a Samaritan woman? for Jews have no intercourse with Samaritans.
Jesus has asked a Samaritan woman for a drink, and her reply is not an answer but a question: how can a Jew ask anything of her? Her surprise rests on centuries of history and a wall between two peoples.
Commentators trace the Samaritans back to the day Assyria emptied the land and refilled it:
The Samaritans of the Lord's day were rightly seen as a corrupt race. 2 Kings 17:24-41 records how they began. After the ten tribes went into captivity, the Assyrian king repopulated the land with men from Babylon and other pagan cities. They lived in the land of the LORD, yet did not fear the LORD, so the LORD troubled them. To deal with this trouble, the Assyrian king sent a priest of the LORD to teach them the ways of the LORD. The result was a corrupt people who "feared the LORD, and served their own gods". So they had some dim knowledge of the Lord, and of the coming Messiah.
God, not human pride, drew the line. He told Israel not to mix with the other nations; the nation then added contempt of its own:
So in reading the Old Testament we cannot miss this: God told His people they were not to mix with other nations. Intermarriage was out of the question. (But this separation was soon abused. Pride entered the heart of that nation, and they began to look down on the Gentiles as dogs. God made the distinction between the Jews and the Gentiles. Looking down on the Gentiles was their own failure, an abuse of God's sovereign grace.)
The Jews were right to keep apart; that was their calling. But Jesus had left that ground and stood somewhere else:
The Jews refused all dealings with the Samaritans, and that was fully consistent with righteousness... They were to be God's witnesses against the world. They were the clean kept apart from the unclean, as a testimony to the righteousness of God against a corrupted earth. But Jesus was now standing apart from Israel. He had left Judea, the place of righteousness. He now stood in defiled Samaria as Son of God, the Saviour of sinners... Here He must be in another way altogether, in the way of grace only.
How did she know He was a Jew?
"A Jew." She knew He was one by His dress.
But that was as far as she saw:
All she saw was a weary Jew, and notice how far short of the truth the woman of Samaria comes. What was the truth? The One who had said, "Give me a drink," was the One who made the well and the water in it. He was the Creator Himself. She did not know it. He knew it. Only the grace He could bring could meet and save her, a needy sinner... There are depths of grace in God that promises cannot express.
Commentators differ on who speaks the last line of the verse:
"For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans." The Revised Version of the Bible treats these words as a parenthesis — that is, as an explanatory comment by the writer of the Gospel. Calvin considered them to be spoken by the woman.
She answers the dispute instead of the request. One writer sets her beside Rebekah, who long before drew water for a stranger at a well:
The stranger asked her to meet His need. She replied with surprise: how could He, a Jew, ask a drink of her, a woman of Samaria? She knew the controversy between the two parties well, and referred to it at once. How different Rebekah's action had been when a stranger asked her for water (Gen. 24:18). But in her day religious argument had not yet soured minds or made people forget ordinary courtesy.
Writers see this meeting as an early sign that the wall would not stand for ever:
In the Gospels, the ministry of the Lord Jesus Himself often gave a preview of the removal of this "wall of partition". Take the woman of Samaria. She could not understand how the Lord, a Jew Himself, could say "Give me a drink" to her, a woman of Samaria, since the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans... Until this "wall of partition" came down, it was "unlawful for a Jew to associate with or visit anyone of another nation" (Acts 10:28).
- Wall built. The Samaritans began as a resettled, mixed people who "feared the LORD, and served their own gods".
- Wall God-given. God separated Israel from the nations. The contempt added on top was human pride abusing His grace.
- Wall crossed. Christ left Judea, the place of righteousness, and met her in Samaria in grace only.
- Wall misread. She saw a tired Jew and answered with the old argument. She was speaking to the Creator of the well.
- Wall removed. This meeting points ahead: the barrier that made such contact unlawful would come down.