The Woman of Samaria.
Zion's Advocate, Vol. 41, No. 2, February 1902."Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?" John 4:29.
It was necessary for Jesus to go through Samaria, in passing from Judea into Galilee, not only because of the geographical location of these three divisions of Palestine, but also because there lived a poor, sinful woman in Samaria whom he purposed to bless. Before he started on the tiresome journey he knew all about this woman, and the conversation he would have with her, and the great revelation that he would make to her, and the joy that would fill her heart on receiving that revelation.
She was one of his elect, who had been predestinated to be conformed to his image. It was his Father's purpose that she should be made a joint heir with him of an incorruptible, eternal, fadeless inheritance. He came to do the will of his Father, and it was his Father's will that nothing given him should be lost. Hence "he must needs go through Samaria," he must go at the very time he went, he must pass by the city of Sychar, and rest at the well of Jacob just at the time she would come there for water.
He and his disciples journeyed on foot. As they walked along they were seen, no doubt, by the rich and proud, who looked upon them with contempt. What did they care for this poor traveler and his unpretentious followers? They took pride in hoarding wealth and gloried in the earthly riches they had succeeded in amassing, but the poor Nazarene had no place to lay his head at night, and no beast to carry or draw him on his way. Is poverty a disgrace? Be it so. Let none of the poor of Jesus' flock complain of the disgrace since their own blessed Master shared it with them. Is the lot of the poor a sad one? It can be no sadder than was the lot of Jesus who wept but was never known to laugh. Do the rich neglect the poor? What else could be expected, since they not only neglected the Saviour, but despised and rejected him?
Think, O think, poor ones, how much better it is to be poor here and rich hereafter, than to be rich here and poor hereafter! Why should you envy the rich, since "God has chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him?" Have you learned what Solomon meant when he said, "The poor is hated even of his neighbor, but the rich hath many friends"? Proverbs 14:20. Has the observation of this truth cast a gloom over your mind? Rejoice in the sweet thought that God is your friend. Your simple prayers are dearer to him than all the costly oblations of the rich.
Jesus and his disciples came to Sychar. A parcel of ground was there which had been given by Jacob to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there. Jesus, being wearied from the journey, sat upon the well to rest, while his disciples went into the city to get bread. The well afforded a resting place for the weary traveler, but he was thirsty as well as tired, and the well was deep, and he had nothing with which to draw water from it. Think of it, dear readers. He, whose dwelling place had been the heavens, whose chariot was swifter than the wings of the morning, he was a weary traveler, plodding his way along with disciples as poor as himself! He, who had given the seas their bounds, who had sent a flood upon the earth, who had supplied his people in the wilderness with water from the rock, he was so poor that he had no water to quench his burning thirst! He, who had been the rightful owner of "the cattle of a thousand hills," who had supplied his people with manna for forty years, who had employed the ravens to feed his lonely and disconsolate prophet, who was able to feed five thousand with a few small loaves and fishes, he was hungry and destitute of food! Wonderful, amazing love! He endured all this poverty that his people might be rich.
Let your imagination picture Jesus sitting on the well! What is there in his appearance to excite the admiration of the indifferent beholder? Who would suppose him to be the great being he was? "There is no beauty in him that any should desire him." In solitude he sits. The passer by might take him to be an aimless vagrant, but in him the eternal purpose of God is being accomplished. All the works of man will come to naught, but the fruit of his work will endure to all eternity. Songs of praise to him will be forever sung, the music of which will far excel the grandest music ever heard by mortal ears. The name of the very one that sat on the well is now high above every other name.
While Jesus was sitting on the well a woman of Samaria came there to draw water. Her coming there at that time was according to the eternal purpose of God. Seeing that Jesus was a Jew she did not expect him to speak to her. She was surprised, therefore, when he asked her to give him a drink. Had she known that he could read her history at a glance, and that he knew the secrets of her heart, she would have been much more surprised.
She was far from being a good, respectable, virtuous woman. She had had five husbands, and they might have all been living. At any rate she was then living with a man who was not her husband. What guilt rested upon her, and Jesus knew it all! Is it surprising that he spoke to her, knowing the depth of her pollution? Ah! He came to seek and to save the lost, and here was a lost one. Her case was not beyond the reach of his skill. If her case had been left to the power of mortals she would have been forever lost. Such is true of any poor sinner. But Jesus is the great Physician whose power to cure has never been defeated. He who gave that sinful woman her being could lift her up from degradation, recreate her, and thus give her a new, spiritual being.
He did not degrade himself by conversing with her, for all her sins were to be laid upon him. He was to put them all away by the sacrifice of himself, and she was finally to dwell with him in heaven in full possession of that incorruptible, undefiled and fadeless inheritance. This circumstance exemplifies the fundamental truth of the gospel that sinners are saved, not by works of righteousness done by them, but by the abundant grace and rich mercy of Jesus. What a glorious truth this is! But for this there would be no gospel no good news to publish to dying, sinful mortals. Paul himself was the chief of sinners. He wrote, "This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief." No wonder he believed that it is by grace sinners are saved, through faith, and that not of themselves, it is the gift of God.
When the woman manifested surprise that he asked her for a drink of water, he told her that if she had known God's gift, and who it was that made this simple request of her, she would have asked living water of him. She knew nothing of him, but she was not any more ignorant of him than his disciples would have been if his character had not been revealed to them. The natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God and cannot know them. External evidences alone are not sufficient to unfold to the natural mind the mysteries of godliness as displayed by the wonderful character and life of Christ.
Though Jesus was thirsty he turned the course of his conversation from natural to spiritual water, drawing a lesson on the latter from the former. Those who are thirsty ask for water as the Saviour did. If the woman had been a living, thirsting subject in a spiritual sense, she would have asked him to give her living water. He said in his sermon on the mount, "Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled." Only the living experience the keen sensation of hunger and thirst the dead know nothing about it. This woman did not know the Saviour, and was insensible of her state of destitution. How many sinners hear the gospel preached, but feel no need of the Saviour it proclaims! They ask not for the living water, because they know nothing of it, or of the Saviour who gives it. The knowledge essential to cause this asking comes by the Spirit quickening the dead. This quickening must be done before the need can be felt, and unless the need is felt the asking is in vain. Those who do not thirst for this living water are wholly unable to do so, for thirsting is not an act voluntarily performed by one that is not thirsty. A state of thirst cannot be entered by those who are not thirsty resolving to become thirsty, neither can such a state be produced by the power of persuasion or force of reasoning. If the eternal destiny of those who do not thirst for the living water, were suspended upon their exercising voluntary thirst, their fate would be forever sealed. Arminians teach that the sinner must make the start. That simply means that those who do not thirst for living water must make themselves to thirst. As it is impossible for them to do this, it is impossible for them to be saved by the Arminian system. Arminianism, therefore, cannot reach the unwilling those who do not thirst for the living water. It says that God has done all he will for dead sinners till they make the start. That system has nothing for this class and can do nothing for them. Since Paul shows, in the third chapter of Romans, that there is no difference, for all have sinned, it follows that Arminianism cannot reach any.
Arminianism makes no provision for giving the unwilling a gift, since it denies that God does anything for a sinner till the sinner takes the first step. That step, on the part of the unwilling, would have to be to become willing. If we suppose the unwilling sinner could will to become willing, or that he could will to will to become willing, we suppose an impossibility, for that would be to suppose the first act of the will to be before the first act of the will.
J. R. D.
Copyright c. 2005. All rights reserved. The Primitive Baptist Library.
