Read John 4:16-19
In the previous verses, Jesus asked if this woman would like living water. She would! Now Jesus is about to get into her personal business. Here comes that first dosage of living water for her to consume and penetrate her very soul. Jesus asks her to get your husband. Bring him back with you.
Were there a couple of minutes of silence as the woman digested this request? Can I trust this man? Where and what path is he leading down with this conversation? Ok, I’ll see where this leads.
She answers that she doesn’t have a husband. A short simple answer. All the details can be kept quiet and to herself.
But Jesus gets further into her business, into the details of her life. His response back to her starts to reveal that He knows those details. She has had five husbands already in her life. And right now, you are with a man that is not your husband.
Was there another couple minutes of silence as she reacted and pondered the words that were just spoken by this man? Not just anyone can do this, especially a stranger, a Jew who would have no clue who she was before this encounter. Do I trust this man?
Her mind races again to digest all the words of this conversation so far. Everything within her being tells her that this must be a prophet. She’s heard of prophets in the past. What do I do? What do I say? I believe in God. I’ve been taught to believe in God. I’ve been told that God can use prophets to help and teach His people. I’m going to choose to acknowledge that He is a prophet.
Now that I’ve acknowledged that this man is a prophet, how should I act? What should I do? He already knows the details of my situation. I can’t hide from that. Ok, I’ll accept this fact and see what I can learn from this. It could be painful, yet this man was offering me living water.
What does this mean to us? Do we really believe that Jesus already knows everything about us? Our thoughts? Our emotions? Our challenges while living in this world? Our Sin? The places where we are stuck? The pits we are in, whether we jumped in ourselves, or at the hands of others?
What about the woman in this story? Jesus knew that she had five husbands in her past and the man she was currently with was not her husband.
As I was growing up, I always believed that this woman was bad, living in sin. I didn’t see people living together out of wedlock back then. Only bad people did that. So I applied my understanding to this woman’s situation.
Eventually, I was to see a couple of other options for what could be this woman’s situation.
There are instructions in the Old Testament, including examples of when a woman did not bear a son and their husband died, they would marry the husband’s brother. (See an example of this in Genesis 38 in the story of Judah and Tamar). There could be several brothers that she could have been married to.
There is other information available about how during the time of Jesus, husbands were divorcing their wives for any little infringement. Not many women were able to make a living for themselves and were dependent on men, especially through marriage for their provisions in life. Could this woman have been caught in the cycle and was being passed around? Could she have been so shamed by this time that she didn’t want to be in the company of other women when it was time to daily come to the well?
And what was the waiting time between husbands? Could the man she was living with be someone who was caring for her out of necessity?
We don’t know the reason why the woman had so many husbands. We don’t know all the details of her situation with the man that she was living with. But Jesus did. And He came to meet her, right there in her current situation.
The woman at the well concluded that this man must be a prophet. She started to follow the direction of the conversation that was presented to her. It was a spiritual encounter that was to change her life. It was a lesson of ingesting the Living Water before her and letting it cleanse her soul and spirit.
She could have focused more on her situation and not allowed Jesus to impact her life. She could have resisted and been offended, especially this Jew whom she was taught that they have no association with. She had a choice on how she was going to respond to the words of Jesus, favorably or negatively.
In the same way, we have a God that wants to draw our attention to Him. He meets us at the place where we regularly spend our time. Then He gets our attention. How this happens can be different for each of us. But He knows the direct path to our individual hearts and minds. He knows where we have been and what we have done. He wants to get our attention so that we can move on from there and allow that Living Water to cleanse and refresh us for a new day. New beginnings.
It could be from a sermon. It could be from a book you are reading or a movie you are watching. A news story could flash on the television that uniquely grabs your attention. The Lord could be touching your heart and mind from a conversation you are having with someone. The Lord could bring someone into your life, whether a short or long duration that brings words into your life that you did not expect. Here’s an interesting thought… could we encounter a prophet today?
These verses reveal Jesus as a Prophet. This is one of His attributes. He still exists today.
In the New Testament, in the chapter of Acts, in what many of us describe as the first church, there are several instances of prophets.
In Corinthians, Paul mentions the gifts of prophets and some folks moving within the office of a prophet.
In the book of Revelation, we are told that there will be prophets in Jerusalem.
Throughout the Bible, we find that there are people who allow the gift of prophecy to operate in their lives as the Lord directs. The New Testament reveals that God didn’t stop using prophets once Jesus came to earth and was resurrected.
Here’s a challenge for us today… what if the Lord placed a person in your life who spoke words from Him that revealed your current situation? They wouldn’t know it. But you knew the Lord was using them in some way to reach you. He was getting your attention through this person. Like the woman at the well, we have a choice in how we react to the words that we hear.
However the Lord chooses to get our attention, He has something we need to know or to receive. Living Water for our situation. We need to leave the past behind with whatever stigma it may contain. Time to move on to something new and better. The Lord has our attention and we’re ready for the next step.
The woman at the well realized that the Lord was getting her attention. She can leave the past behind and look toward where this conversation is going to lead. She starts with her own understanding. But now she is opening herself up to learn more. Bring it on.
