What should we learn from the woman at the well?

He spoke to her of God, and of God's gift of living water, which for ever satisfies the thirst of those who drink. He was revealing to her what God is, but that revelation did not and could not illuminate her dark soul until He had exposed what she was. He had to probe her sinful life; the light shone until all things that ever she did lay bare before her eyes, yet such was His grace that she did not fly from His presence. He spoke to her of the Father and at last He revealed Himself to her, and that revelation revolutionised her, she was a transformed, a converted woman from that hour, and a witness to the Christ who had blest her.

There is a woman coming with her water-pot to the well. She is one to whom the proud Pharisee would scorn to speak. She is a despised Samaritan, and that is not all; she is a poor wretched being, living in open sin. She little knows that she is about to meet the eye of Him who knows all that ever she did. She arrives at the well, and is astonished that Jesus, being a Jew, should ask her to give Him to drink. "Jesus answered, and said to her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that says to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water."

He did not say, If thou wert not so great a sinner. He did not say, If thou wilt reform and become a holy woman, then I will give thee living water. No! No! No! He let her know, that He knew all that ever she had done. But there was such a depth of pity, grace, and compassion in the wondrous countenance; such tender love to the sinner in those words, that it won her heart, it converted her soul. Christ was revealed to her; and leaving her water-pot she went to the city so full of Christ, that forgetting her own shame, she said, "Come see a man which told me all that ever I did: is not this the Christ?"

There was not a bit of good in this woman. Her social life was corrupt and her religious life was a blank. She had not one commendable feature about her. And yet the blessed Son of God speaks to her of the greatest gift that can be conferred upon the creature—living water—life in the Spirit. This great gift was what was uppermost in His mind. It was not the thing she would have best understood, but it was the thing she most needed. He spoke to her afterwards about her sins and the uselessness of her worship, and then she began to understand Him. He lets the light in upon her guilty life, and she feels herself in the presence of the Searcher of hearts. But it was the day of grace, and the grace in which He spoke to her enabled her to bear the searching. He told her all that ever she did. Well for her it took place in the day of grace. Had it taken place in the day of judgment it would have meant for her an eternity of woe. The great white throne was anticipated. All that could be brought to light was manifested, and there was no condemnation. When it was all out it was all gone, for God was then not imputing to men their trespasses.

The creature was in the presence of its God. There all must be real. So she at once answered, "I have no husband." True that was. And now she heard from the stranger the history of her past life, and the laying bare of her then present condition: "Jesus says to 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 saidst thou truly" (17, 18). A life of unusual matrimonial vicissitudes had been hers. And now she was living in sin. She did not tell the Lord that. He told her of her past and her present. She admitted it. He had known it all along, yet had offered her the living water. He had come to seek and to save the lost. So He did not drive her from His presence, as too polluted a creature to talk with; nor did He by His action as the light make her withdraw, as one who would shun it. There is a dealing of God with sinful creatures, which none would ever have supposed. He can engender confidence in Himself in the sinner's heart, that, when convicted, and owning it, He may bless the erring creature. We see that illustrated in the prodigal son, who turned to his father, and had no doubt that he would admit him under his roof, if it were only as a hired servant. So this woman convicted, and her life laid bare, remained where she was, attracted in a way which perhaps she could not have explained, but kept by Him, who would not only bless her, but make her a means of blessing to others. "Sir, I perceive that Thou art a prophet," was all that she could say, admitting thereby that what He had told her of herself was true. Who would like to continue in the presence of a stranger, who laid bare the course of the individual in such a plain, unvarnished manner, unless, as in this case, the One who exposes it is God? A Jew at first in her eyes, He had now become a prophet. Now prophets were messengers from God to deal with the heart of a creature, when failure had come in. Such, too, had the mind of God. Fully would He answer to both these services of a prophet of God.

Worship. — As such she now addressed Him, starting quite a new, and a very different, subject from that hitherto before them. Then she had replied by questions to that which the Lord had said. Now she introduced the subject of the place of worship, a matter of contention between Samaritans and Jews. To this He replied, "Woman, believe Me, the hour comes, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeks such to worship Him. God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth" (21-24). The Samaritan worship was then all wrong. Their separation from that carried on at Jerusalem was quite unauthorised. Salvation was of the Jews. Through them it must come, and not through the upholders of the Samaritan schism, as we may well call it. Besides, those worshipped they knew not what. A solemn announcement indeed! A false worship has another being behind it than God. Demons are there, not God (1 Cor. 10:20). Was it not that to which the Lord referred? No question, then, could there be, but that the Samaritan worship was wrong. That question, which Samaritans had debated for centuries, and determined as they wished in their own favour, was settled against them by the prophet, as she thought Him, in a very few words, and there was left no room for a rejoinder. Salvation being of the Jews, Samaritan opposition to the worship at Jerusalem must be wrong. God could not be with them who disowned the only house and altar which He had sanctioned. Real worship of God there could not be in the Temple at Gerizim. Then if God was not there, what was there?

This was true, but not all the truth, so the Lord rejoins, "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 saidst thou truly." To answer that she had "no husband" was only using the truth to hide it. Oh! what cowards we are! How we like to keep away from God. Sinners will bring in anything and everything rather than come into close quarters with God. But it will not do. There is nothing like facing all out with the Lord, and this is what He effects here, as He tells her she was living in open sin. All was out; He knew all. In a moment the conscience is reached. Conscience is the avenue by which God, now that man is a sinner, enters his heart. It is also the door of intelligence by which man learns God. Man feels he is known of God, and thus learns to know Him. She is discovered in the presence of Him, before whom she stands, and she exclaims — as she slowly discovers His glory, and that He whom she had never seen before, knows all about her — "Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet." Her eyes are opened, the sense of her sin is pressed in upon the soul, and this is always the moment when the soul really gets God's blessing. She does not, however, go away. The fact is that the grace of Christ had triumphed, and it was the deep sense of His grace that now bound her to the spot. There was a deep change in her soul's condition. God had spoken to her, and she recognised His voice.

The Saviour now takes another course in His wisdom; but the end is still the same - love. He had tried expostulation and entreaty, but she could not understand Him. He therefore says, "Go, call thy husband"; you are proof against all I have offered you; you cannot understand My motive and My meaning of love, so I must make you get a view of yourself - of your ruin - of your utter wretchedness. In this one sentence her little world of iniquity was unravelled to her mind. He brought her to the consciousness of what she was, and to the knowledge of what He was. She answers, "Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet." The secrets of her heart and life were laid open to her by One whom she had never seen before. The Lord struck the chord to the conscience of the sinner - it vibrated. The Stranger convinced her of what she never before in reality believed - that she was a sinner. He laid open what she had so carefully concealed, stripped her of her self-disguise, and shewed her that He was acquainted with the hidden recesses of her heart. And such ever follows the testimony of the truth, when brought home with power to the soul of the sinner. "He is convinced of all, he is judged of all; and thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so, falling down on his face, he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth." And it is thus the Lord acts generally, before we come to the distinct apprehension that we are in the presence of One who has the keys of our conscience, and knows the secrets of our hearts, in whose hands we cannot struggle or wrestle for relief; we are judged, we are convinced, we are dumb before Him; we feel His power, and are constrained to cry, "Come, see a man that told me all that ever I did." Even while there is no manifest perception of the blessing offered, yet the soul is brought to see and feel the power of Him with whom it has to do; that He who searches the heart and finds out our sin comes in the power of God, and that it is vain for us to dissemble with Him.

7 Her mind is now taken off from her waterpot, and she inquires where she was to worship God. Much might be said of the reply here given to her on the worship God alone requires - spiritual worship. The whole instruction of God's Spirit as to communion with Him is brought out here. But we pass on to the consideration of the blessed end of their converse. Her mind was now opening to the light. She was approaching to the knowledge of Him, whom to know is everlasting life, and she appears looking forward to the time when the Redeemer is to reveal himself. The Spirit leads her to say, "I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ; when he is come, he will tell us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he."

Pursuing our chapter we notice that though the woman was still in the dark as to the significance of "living water," the Lord's further words had at least sufficiently stirred her desires to lead her to ask for it. Before He gave it, her conscience had to be reached and conviction of sin produced. In bidding her call her husband the Lord put His finger upon a specially sore spot in her life, and followed this by letting her see that her sad story lay like an open book before His eye. On her side she at once saw and confessed that He was a prophet; thus by implication pleading guilty to His indictment; yet as is so often the way when a wounded conscience exists, she endeavoured to sidetrack the conversation into a religious discussion, thus eliminating the personal element.

She does not yet understand, but her heart is awakened, and evidently also a genuine confidence in this unusual Stranger, so that she does just what He had suggested to her: she asked for this living water. She was indeed a thirsting soul, and weary of her very existence, weary of coming to draw water.

However, it is not only her heart that must be reached. This having been done, now the Lord gently and wisely probes her conscience, telling her to call her husband. To this she replies that she has no husband. But He does not allow her to slip out of her responsibility by these words. He simply and pointedly lays bare her whole past. He knows she had had five husbands, and was now living with a man who was not her husband. How devastating an exposure! Yet He says no more: He does not condemn her.

The woman answering, "I have not a husband," is astounded to hear the withering reply, "Thou saidst well, I have not a husband; for thou hast had five husbands, and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: this thou hast spoken truly." She was convicted. It was in demonstration of the Spirit and power. Yet were the words few and simple, not one of them harsh or strong. It was the truth of her state and of her life brought home most unexpectedly, as God knows how to do, and does in one form or another in every converted soul. It was the truth which spared her not and laid her sins bare before God and her own conscience. She did not doubt for a moment what it was that made everything manifest. She recognised it to be the light of God. She owns His words to be not man's wisdom, but God's power. She falls under the conviction, and at once confesses, "Sir, I see that Thou art a Prophet." It was not the fact only, but the truth from God.

The woman was still walking like the rest of the world in a vain show. From this the Lord delivers her. "Go, call thy husband, and come hither." "I have no husband," she answers quickly. "Jesus saith unto her, Thou saidst well, I have no husband; for thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband. This thou hast said truly" (ver. 18). How overwhelming, yet how gracious! Not a reproach in His mouth, but He Who knew all men drew from her, by a word of His, the confession of her actual state of sin and shame, and set before her such a sketch of her life as testified to her conscience, that in her case at least all things were naked and laid bare to His eyes with Whom she had to do.