from WL Worcester (H Blackmer, ed.), 
The Sower.  Helps to the Study of the Bible in Home and Sunday School
 
(Boston: Massachusetts New-Church Union, n.d.)

Table of Contents
 

 

Lesson 7

John 4: 1-42  At Jacob's Well

The Story

Primary

The Lord and the disciples were leaving Judea after some months in this southern country to go again into Galilee. Their way was through Samaria, by Shechem and Jacob's well. This old well which Jacob dug was in the edge of the beautiful meadow where Abram and Jacob loved to live, where Joseph came looking for his brethren, which Jacob before his death gave to Joseph. Mount Gerizim rose just above the well, and the road passed around the mountain to the city Shechem.

The people of this district were among those who were taken away by the Assyrians to live in distant places, and strangers were brought to live in the towns of Israel. Do you remember the story? How the newcomers suffered from the lions, and how the king of Assyria sent back one of the priests of Israel to teach them how to worship the God of the land? But they still also worshiped their own gods. The Samaritans had their worship in Mount Gerizim, and they still continued to do so for many years, and they were never recognized as brethren by the Jews, who lived and worshiped in Jerusalem. (2 Kings 17:24-34, 41)

The Lord was now at Jacob's well in the country of the Samaritans, the beautiful meadow stretching before Him, Mount Gerizim rising above. We will read, or tell, the story and the Lord's words to the woman. The Samaritans were glad to listen to the Lord and believed in Him, first from the saying of the woman, then from hearing Him themselves. They asked Him to stay, and He stayed with them two days, and then went on His way to Galilee, to Cana near Nazareth.

Junior

We have learned of John's baptizing, and how the suspicious Jews at Jerusalem sent "priests and Levites" to the Jordan to find out about him. We have also learned that these same Jews at Jerusalem were even more angry with the Lord for His cleansing of the temple and because "many believed on Him." And today we learn that the Lord's disciples also baptized, and that more people came to be baptized by them than came to John. When this became known to the Pharisees the Lord and His disciples left Judea to go to Galilee, and they "must needs go through Samaria."

Now you will look at your map again. The straightest and quickest way you see to go from Judea to Galilee would be to go right across Samaria. We will think a moment about Samaria before we go on with the story of the Lord's journey there. It was a most beautiful country, in the very heart of the land.

Long, long before, Jacob was journeying through the land which the Lord had promised to his fathers, and he came to Shechem, and he bought a piece of land there for a hundred pieces of money. (Genesis 33:19) Here Jacob dug a well some hundred and fifty feet deep in the limestone rock. Afterward Jacob gave this piece of land to his son Joseph. Then, you remember, Joseph died in Egypt, and when the children of Israel came out of Egypt to take possession of the promised land, they brought up the bones of Joseph and buried them in this piece of ground. (Joshua 24:32) Then the land was settled by the children of Israel, each tribe having its share, and the part that was later called Samaria fell mostly to the tribe of Manasseh. After many years the king of Assyria came and conquered this part of the country, and to keep it more completely in subjection he took away the Jews who lived there and carried them captives to districts near to Nineveh, and brought people from distant places to live here in Samaria. You read the story in 2 Kings 17. These people did not worship the Lord, but idols of their own; and it is said that lions came and killed some of them, and they thought it was because they did not worship the God of the land. So the king sent back one of the priests of the Lord whom he had taken prisoner, and he taught the strangers about the Lord and His laws. But the people only thought of the Lord as one of many gods, and they still went on worshiping their idols. They learned something of the Word of the Lord and believed in the books of Moses, which contain His laws. But they were very much looked down upon by the Jews of Judea who would have nothing whatever to do with the Samaritans, and the Samaritans hated the Jews in return. The Jews made Jerusalem the central place for their worship. And the Samaritans worshiped in Mount Gerizim, which stands by Jacob's well, and there they built their altar to the Lord.

And now in our story the Lord journeyed through this beautiful land, its fertile plains covered with the ripening spring wheat. He was tired as He came to the well about noon (or, as some understand, toward evening), and He rested there while His disciples went away to buy food. And while He was sitting by the well a Samaritan woman came to draw water. She would do this by letting down her jar by a long rope into the deep well. This Samaritan woman came to the well to draw water in this way, and the Lord said to her, "Give Me to drink. She was surprised that a Jew should speak to her, because she was a Samaritan. She would know by His dress as well as by His speech that He was a Jew.

The Lord talked much with her, and told her of a living water, different from the water that could be drawn from this or any other well. As she listened, she knew that He must be a prophet; and said, "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." Then she went into the town - Sychar, across the fields, near by, or Shechem, not far away - and called the people to come and see Jesus, saying "He told me all things that ever I did." They came, and many believed on Him, some from what the woman had told them, and some from what they themselves heard and saw. They begged Him to stay with them, and He stayed two days.

It is a long story of unfriendliness between the Samaritans and the Jews, of which we are reminded in our lesson. But we see a good spirit in these simple people and a willingness to hear the Lord. Do you remember another "good Samaritan"? Such a friendly feeling these simple, despised strangers showed, compared with the anger of His own people, who were so proud because they felt themselves the Lord's chosen people, and they did not even know Him when He came to them! Now, as then, the Lord can come nearer to people who are humble and gentle, than to those who are proud and well satisfied with themselves.

As we read the Lord's words at Jacob's well, notice how He turned the thoughts upward from natural to heavenly water, and from natural to heavenly food.


1. Where was Samaria - the city? The district?

2. Who were the Samaritans in the Gospel days? How were they regarded by the Jews?

3. What was the character of the Samaritan in a parable which the Lord once spoke? Were the Samaritans glad to listen to the Lord?

4. Of what other water did the Lord tell the woman?

5. Of what other food did He speak to the disciples?

Spiritual Study

Intermediate

The Samaritans are a type of Gentile people, sometimes of those who are in very false and evil states, but sometimes of Gentile people who are in simple goodness and have an earnest desire to be instructed. (A. 2702; E. 391, 483, 587) Note the position of Samaria, between Judea and Galilee. Judea has relation to heavenly affection, and Galilee to the plane of outward thought and life. Passing from a good affection to good life, one must needs go through the Samaria of instruction, and should receive instruction from the Lord. Shechem is associated with first instruction in heavenly things, as Abram's first camp and Jacob's first camp and the place where Joshua read the law to the tribes soon after entering the land. And now, how plainly the well where the Lord talked with the woman of Samaria is a type of the abundant instruction in good life from Him. (A. 8568; E. 71)

The Lord turned the thought of the woman from the water that refreshed the body to that which cleanses and refreshes the soul, and taught us to look to Him for this instruction, this water of life. Find help in studying the meaning of water, in God's Explanation of Bible Symbolism [originally titled The Language of Parable]:  Water. (A. 8568; E. 71)

The Lord told the woman to call her husband, and she said she had no husband; and this was preparatory to revealing Himself to her as the Christ. The woman who has lost her husband is the type of a good affection without the understanding of truth which should be its support and guide. The state here pictured is one which feels and confesses that it is utterly without the guiding truth it needs. This confession prepares one for instruction, and to recognize the Lord as the perfect guide. (A. 9198)

The Jews had been commanded not to make offerings in every place, but in the place which the Lord should choose. (Deuteronomy 12:5-14) The chosen place was Jerusalem, and the temple. In the Christian Church place is less important, and instead, we think of what? Of the state of mind and heart which brings us near to the Lord. The Lord's words to the woman point to this difference between the worship which had been representative of heavenly things, and the worship in which we should in some degree be entering into the heavenly things themselves. (A. 1604, etc.)

As the Lord turned the thoughts of the woman from natural water to the water of true instruction, so also He turned the thought of the disciples from natural food to the satisfaction and strength which are found in doing the Lord's will and finishing His work. The spiritual drink satisfies the longing of the understanding, the spiritual food the longing of the heart. (A. 5147, 5293)

In the, enjoyment of the good things of natural life, how largely we are dependent upon others, and upon those who have lived and worked before us! Still more are we dependent for natural and spiritual benefits upon the silent, unseen labor of the Lord and angels. They sow and we reap, and we are together in our rejoicing. (E. 911)

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