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Chapter 19—Jesus and the Woman With Five
Husbands
This chapter is based on
John 4:1-42
.
On the way to Galilee Jesus passed through Samaria. It was
noon when He reached Jacob’s well. Wearied with His journey, He
sat down to rest while His disciples went to buy food.
Jews and Samaritans were bitter enemies. To trade with Samar-
itans in case of necessity was counted lawful by the rabbis; but a
Jew would not borrow from a Samaritan, nor receive a kindness, not
even a morsel of bread or a cup of water. The disciples, in buying
food, were acting in harmony with the custom of their nation. But
to ask a favor of the Samaritans did not enter the thought even of
Christ’s disciples.
As Jesus sat by the well, He was faint from hunger and thirst.
The journey had been long, and the sun of noontide beat upon Him.
His thirst was increased by the thought of the cool, refreshing water
so near; yet He had no rope nor water jar, and the well was deep.
A woman of Samaria approached, and seeming unconscious of
His presence, filled her pitcher with water. As she turned to go, Jesus
asked for a drink. Such a favor no Oriental would withhold. To offer
a drink to the thirsty traveler was a duty so sacred that Arabs would
go out of their way to perform it.
The Saviour was seeking to find the key to the woman’s heart,
and with the tact born of divine love, He asked a favor. Trust awakens
trust. The King of heaven came to this outcast soul, asking a service
at her hands. He who made the ocean, who controls the waters of
the deep, who opened the springs and channels of the earth, was
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dependent on a stranger’s kindness for even 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 asked, “that Thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a
woman of Samaria?”
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