What an amazing request! Here, the eternal Son of God—come in flesh—is found weary with His journey. Was He feeling this only as Man? He surely did feel that which we feel—hunger, thirst, loneliness and sorrow. But this weariness was more than merely human, for, as the eternal Son of God, He had come unto His own only to find rejection. The light of His personal glory had shone into the moral darkness of this world—a darkness so great that the world had not comprehended it.
The One full of grace and truth walked in lowly submission among the “all things” that were made by Him. And what did He find? All was ruined by sin. He was in the world, but it knew Him not.
The Pharisees—religious leaders of His beloved earthly people—rejected Him too. They sought, in jealous hatred, to turn the people that they were responsible to guide to Jehovah against Him. Oh! we say again, how weary with His journey the blessed Man of Sorrows must have been, as He sat at that well!
Jacob’s Fountain and the Divine Fountain
What a picture we see in Sychar’s well. That fountain, where Jacob found refreshment for himself, his children and his cattle, now hosts its divine antitype—“Jesus . . . sat thus on the well” (John 4:66Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour. (John 4:6)). The true Fountain of living water replaces Jacob’s fountain with that which is eternal.
The Thirsty Saviour
How wearying to the Lord’s holy soul was the unbelief that He met! But if those of His own would not have Him, He then must needs go through Samaria. If the lips of His beloved earthly people are silent, the Lord will have praise of stones (Luke 19:4040And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out. (Luke 19:40)). His loving heart, if not refreshed by the Jews, will find its joy in meeting the need of a thirsty, outcast sinner.
He who became poor that we through His poverty might be rich thus perfectly fulfills Jacob’s prophecy. He is that “fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall” (Gen. 49:2222Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall: (Genesis 49:22)).
Thus the God of Jacob, having taken upon Himself the form of a Servant, sits there—“just as He was” (JND)—humble, weary, rejected, the divine fountain of living water—the source springing up into everlasting life—and He requests of the outcast Samaritan woman, “Give Me to drink.”
The Thirsty Sinner
Who was this one of whom the Creator condescends to make such a request? A despised, moral castaway because of her lifestyle and belonging to a race of spiritual outcasts (Samaritans). Thus does she blindly claim what is not hers: “Our father Jacob, which gave us the well.” In principle she is “without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world” (Eph. 2:1212That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: (Ephesians 2:12)). What a hopeless condition!
She who had drunk at this world’s well five times and was yet seeking to quench her thirst in a futile sixth attempt is about to receive the true water of eternal life. Finding this seventh time the living water she has longed for, she then must immediately share her discovery with those very men who knew her best. “Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?”
The Satisfied Saviour
The disciples, oblivious to the desires of their Lord, were gone away into the city to buy meat for Him. But He had meat to eat which they knew nothing about (John 4:3434Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work. (John 4:34)). When they come back to Him with this world’s food, saying, “Master, eat,” He tells them of that which has fully satisfied His heart—to do the will of God.
The woman came back with something better than the meat offered by the disciples. She brought the men of the city—those whose spiritual needs provided the eternal Giver’s heart joy as they too drew from the Fountain of eternal life (John 4:3030Then they went out of the city, and came unto him. (John 4:30)).
A Drink for Him From the Redeemed
Oh! that we too may respond to the expressed desire of His blessed heart—“give Me to drink”—as did David’s mighty men who brought their beloved king water from Bethlehem’s well. Let each redeemed soul give Him daily a refreshing drink of love, worship and devotion. What a high and holy service—what a privilege belongs to the redeemed—to be able to give Him that which He desires in a world that only knows how to take for itself.
A Drink for Him From the World
Let us never forget the final, awful insult this world rendered to our blessed Lord Jesus Christ. There, hanging on the cross after those six long hours of mockery and agony and those three awful hours of forsaking of holy God, knowing that all things were now accomplished, He said, “I thirst.” Was there any sympathy, pity or compassion shown that innocent Victim’s request? Ah! they offer the Lord of glory water made bitter with sour wine (vinegar) to satisfy His thirst (John 19:2929Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a spunge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth. (John 19:29)).
May we be stirred to ever give that peerless, glorified Man the desire of His blessed heart—a refreshing drink, suitable and acceptable to Himself.
Ed.