At Jacob’s Well
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hands. He who made the ocean, who controls the waters of the great
deep, who opened the springs and channels of the earth, rested from
His weariness at Jacob’s well, and was dependent upon a stranger’s
kindness for even the gift of a drink of water.
The woman saw that Jesus was a Jew. In her surprise she forgot to
grant His request, but tried to learn the reason for it. “How is it,” she
said, “that Thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman
of Samaria?”
Jesus answered, “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is
that saith to thee, Give Me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of Him,
and He would have given thee living water.” You wonder that I should
ask of you even so small a favor as a draught of water from the well at
our feet. Had you asked of Me, I would have given you to drink of the
water of everlasting life.
The woman had not comprehended the words of Christ, but she
felt their solemn import. Her light, bantering manner began to change.
Supposing that Jesus spoke of the well before them, she said, “Sir,
Thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence
then hast Thou that living water? Art Thou greater than our father
Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself?” She saw
before her only a thirsty traveler, wayworn and dusty. In her mind
she compared Him with the honored patriarch Jacob. She cherished
the feeling, which is so natural, that no other well could be equal to
that provided by the fathers. She was looking backward to the fathers,
forward to the Messiah’s coming, while the Hope of the fathers, the
Messiah Himself, was beside her, and she knew Him not. How many
thirsting souls are today close by the living fountain, yet looking far
away for the wellsprings of life! “Say not in thine heart, Who shall
ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) or,
Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again
from the dead).... The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy
heart: ... if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt
believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou
shalt be saved.”
Romans 10:6-9
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Jesus did not immediately answer the question in regard to Himself,
but with solemn earnestness He said, “Whosoever drinketh of this
water shall thirst again: but whosoever drinketh of the water that I