Ocean View Women’s Bible Study

Week Seven: Thirsty

John 4:4-15l

READ John 4:4-15

4Now he had to go through Samaria. 5So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

 7When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" 8(His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

 9The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.[a])

 10Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."

 11"Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?"

 13Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

 15The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water."

READ Isaiah 55:1-3

1 "Come, all you who are thirsty,         come to the waters;         and you who have no money,         come, buy and eat!         Come, buy wine and milk         without money and without cost.

 2 Why spend money on what is not bread,         and your labor on what does not satisfy?         Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,         and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.

 3 Give ear and come to me;         hear me, that your soul may live.         I will make an everlasting covenant with you,         my faithful love promised to David.

• We see here a very interesting conversation and exchange between the woman and Jesus.  It is not an ordinary way of teaching, and it’s almost as if Jesus poses questions knowing she will misunderstand and have to ask further
• It’s like it’s been said, “There are certain truths which a man cannot accept; he must discover them for himself.”  
• She first thinks that Jesus is speaking literally about water, for they are at an actual well and it is actually midday and Jesus must have actually looked tired and thirsty.  
• But Jesus knows that the disciples are looking for food and he trusts that his needs will ultimately be tended to.  He stops his personal needs and wants for that moment to meet the spiritual needs of this woman
• Jesus here isn’t talking about literal water but living water
• To the Jew this would have had an immediate meaning.  When they said living water they meant running water and would have immediately thought of a steam of natural water, not just water sitting in a well.  Pure, natural, spring water would have obviously been preferred.
• They lived in a desert environment, where there was little water and natural foliage.  They weren’t having many dreary and rainy days like we have been having this week; it was hot and steamy and they were in need of water.  Just imagining the streams that were in the area would have been a refreshing and welcoming thought.
• But the meaning of water went even deeper for the Jews, and this is where the conversation between the woman and Jesus quickly turns.  
• Jews often spoke of a thirst for God as a longing for God, and they spoke of quenching that thirst with living water.
• These were terms that would have been plain and simple to understand to anyone who had a spiritual longing or understanding
• Revelation 21:6 says, “He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life.”
• In Revelation 7:17 the lamb is prophesied to lead them to springs of living water
• This is always the hope of God’s people, that they would draw water, joy, life, and salvation from the wellspring of God.
• However rich this symbolism obviously is, the woman was blinded to see any piece of it as they begin their conversation
• It’s like she is having a completely different conversation, the joke goes over her head, and she misses the meaning altogether
• Jesus then tells the woman that he could give her water that could quench her thirst forever, and she again takes him literally.
• But the claim Jesus is making here is one above a normal spiritual understanding, for here he is speaking of the messianic claims that only He can and will fulfill.
• Jesus was stating that He was the anointed one that had been prophesied about in the scriptures and he was the one who would bring in the new age.
• She still can’t see it, and we can’t help but wonder if her response is out of joke or sarcasm, like ‘okay, yeah right, give me this magic potion you speak of.”
• What we see here is the revelation of something that is in the heart of every single person, whether or not they choose to see and accept it.  
• St Augustine said, “Our hearts are restless until they rest in Him.”
• I truly believe that by the end of this long conversation, which is past what we have read tonight, and probably was much longer than is even recorded, that this woman did get the most important parts of what was being shared with her.
• I believe she had a sense about Jesus, she knew He was real, that He was God, that he was the one even SHE had been waiting for, event though she didn’t know she was waiting for anything.
• And she knew that what she received was the truth life.  That is meant something in HER.  It wasn’t just something outside of herself that she could admire but not participate in.  She was a part of it, and when she received it, this savior became a part of her.  They would be forever intertwined, and she would be forever ‘quenched’

What can we learn from this encounter?

• God knows us and knows our thirst

• It is so striking that Jesus met this woman, and yet knew exactly what she needed
• God knows

• Jesus longs for us to share our heart with Him

• Even though Jesus knew the woman already and her story, he wanted to have an interaction with her.
• Jesus wanted there to be a back and for the conversation.  Sometimes we think we already know God, certainly this woman had her thoughts of who Jesus was.  She knew hew wasn’t supposed to be talking to her and then proceeded to be confused by their conversation
• But through the interaction, through the back and forth, the woman came to a much fuller understanding of who God was and what He wanted to give to her.

• Jesus wants us to THIRST for him

Psalm 63:136

 1 O God, you are my God,  earnestly I seek you;  my soul thirsts for you,  my body longs for you,  in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

• Do we come to Jesus thirsty?  Do we have our water bottles open ready to receive from him, or do we find ourselves surprised and confused when He wants to quench our thirst

• What are you thirsting for:

• What are you longing for? What are you praying for?  What is a side of Jesus that you do not see?  What is something you long to see Jesus do in Ocean View?  What is your great need?

So too, Jesus comes to us with this living water.  How do we encounter him?

Pray