John 4:5-15
In the account of Christ's interview with the woman of Samaria, we have a striking example of His faithfulness to the mission entrusted to Him. He was hungry and weary with His journey, and as He rested by Jacob's well at noonday, His disciples having gone into Sychar to buy food, the woman came to draw water. His request that she would give Him some to drink was met by an expression of surprise on the part of the woman that He, being a Jew, should ask any favour from a Samaritan. Not a very encouraging opening, but beneath the exterior of superstition and ignorance, Christ recognized the spiritual need and longed to open to this benighted soul the treasure of the Father's love.
He did not ask her to come again when He would be feeling rested and refreshed, or suggested that, if she could get together a sufficient congregation to make it worthwhile, He would speak to them on some very important truths, but to this single individual He proceeded to make known His work and character. She did not seem a very hopeful subject, living in sin, her mind set on temporal advantages, only seeking the water of life if it would save her the trouble of coming to the well to draw water, and so far as one could judge from her trivial, irrelevant interruptions, entirely unresponsive to the deep spiritual truths which Jesus was unfolding to her. Yet this woman was among the very few to whom Christ explicitly stated that He was the Messiah. His words at last reached her heart. Spiritual things prevailed; she recognized in Christ the One whom she needed, and now, leaving her water pot, she sought to bring her neighbors and friends into contact with the Saviour.
The woman of Samaria is representative of the great majority to whom the word of the Lord comes. Earthly things engross the mind to the exclusion of the things which belong to our peace. The Lord is anxious to reveal Himself to us, but any trifle suffices to turn us away from listening to His voice. Yet He does not become discouraged. If the Lord had nothing of special value for us, He might be tempted to abandon the effort to gain our attention, but because that which He offers is beyond price, more than has entered into the heart of man to conceive, He cannot, for our sakes, withdraw the gift. If only we knew its worth, there would not be another moment's hesitation on our part to enter into the enjoyment of it.
Christ said to the woman of Samaria, "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." Notice how Christ speaks of these steps as a matter of course, admitting of no question. If the woman knew what the gift of God was, she would of course, ask for it. Everyone can believe that. But it is just as much a matter of course that He should grant her request. Let us remember, as we study what the living water is, and desire to drink deeply of it for ourselves, that the Lord reckons on our asking for it, and says that just as surely as we do, we shall have it. It is as natural on His part to give the water of life as it is for us to desire it, and even more so, for He gives more, exceeding abundantly more, than we can ask or even think. (Eph. 3:20) "Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." Here is perfect satisfaction, fullness of life, an unending rejoicing, an everlasting salvation. How little we have appreciated what Christ wants to do for His followers, the wonderful life that He desires them to live. It is not His will that there shall be any unsatisfied longings among His people, or vain hungering and thirsting after unattainable blessings. "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled." (Matt. 5:6) The blessing that Moses pronounced upon Naphtali is to be the experience of all God's children, "satisfied with favour, and full with the blessing of the Lord." (Deut. 33:23) Jesus says, "I am the bread of life: he that cometh to Me shall never hunger; and He that believeth on Me shall never thirst." (John 6:35)
In the earth made new there will be "a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb." (Rev. 22:1) This flows from God's own being for He is "the Fountain of living waters." The tree of life, which is on either side of the river, derives its exhaustless vitality from the river of life. It will be a good thing to drink of that river. Poets have sung of it, and wherever the thought of it has found an entrance into human hearts, it has awakened a thirsting which nothing else can satisfy. Whoever drinks of that stream shall find freedom from all evil, fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore. There are none who would refuse to quench their thirst with its crystal waters if they only had the chance. It is the outpouring of God's own life, and eternity and heaven are in its now. It is written of the redeemed, "They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; ... for the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them into living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." (Rev. 7:17) We are not told of these things that we may decide to strive to win them. So far as they lie beyond the utmost stretch of the imagination, do they rise beyond the compass of human effort. Not as dazzling glimpses of the uncertain future, but as present realities, to be received and enjoyed, they are made known to us. "For all things are yours ... things present or things to come." (1 Cor. 3:21, 22) "The heavenly gift" is something to be tasted now, and "the powers of the world to come" are for the present life. (Heb. 6:4, 5) "Let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." (Rev. 22:17) To men living on this earth, even to us, Jesus says, "If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink."
To drink of the living water is to drink of God's own life. What a wonderful possibility for men! It is our privilege to be filled with God's life, and to receive it as easily and naturally as we receive water when we are thirsty. His life is in all His gifts, so that as we quench our bodily thirst with pure water, we are drinking in His life. But there are so many other things for which we thirst, besides that which satisfies our physical appetites. All longing desire, ambition, discontent, lawful and unlawful, are the thirst of the soul, and nothing will quench this thirst but Christ. "He that believeth on Me shall never thirst."
Do not think that because you are unworthy it would be presumptuous on your part to come and drink. The presumption consists in not drinking. It is that of which the Lord complains. Therefore do not hesitate to accept the invitation to take of the water of life freely. "Be astonished, O ye heavens at this ... saith the Lord. For My people have committed two evils; they have forsaken Me, the Fountain of livings waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water." (Jer. 2:12, 13) We need never be afraid that any privilege which the Scriptures set forth is too good for us, being reserved for some more deserving class. God's ambition for each of us is a boundless one, and He thirsts to see it realized. He is not content that men shall live far from Him, where only the little, trickling streamlets of His blessing reach them. He wants them to live at the Fountain-head, where there is always abundance. It was to secure this object that Christ came to this earth. Men had wandered away from God, everyone to his own way, and Christ came to show us what it meant to live at the Fountain. "We behold His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." He Himself drank of the Fountain of life; it was the Father's life alone that was revealed in Him, and having thus shown us how desirable it is, He invites us to receive it also.
"But we are sinful and far from God," we say. That is no obstacle. "Ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ." (Eph. 2:13) The Fountain that has been opened is for sin and for uncleanness. (Zech. 13:1) The sin was in forsaking the Fountain. "In returning and rest shall ye be saved." There is salvation in returning to God because He Himself is our salvation. There is nothing incomplete or ineffective about the salvation. It is as perfect as God Himself, for it is Himself. Therefore God's gift to us is Himself. We draw our supplies from His being. When that stream is exhausted we may come to want, but not before. His resources are our resources. God is the strength of our life. He is our song. He is "the deep, sweet well of love." Therefore with joy will we draw water out of the wells of salvation. (Isa. 12:2, 3) There is more than enough for us and for everyone we desire to help. We may draw and draw, and always with joy, because there is no disappointment with the Lord. "Great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee."
"And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones; and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail nol." (Isa. 58:11) "They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of Thy house; and Thou shalt make them drink of the river of Thy pleasures. For with Thee is the fountain of life." (Ps. 36:8, 9) Only those who drink of Christ now, and find cleansing from sin in the fountain of His life, will be able to drink of the river that proceeds from the throne. Those who have no desire to drink of it now, will not care to do so then. It is God's presence that constitutes the glory and the attraction of heaven, and Christ is the brightness of His glory. That glory is given freely to us in Christ (John 17:22), and so receiving Him, we are delivered from the power of darkness and translated into the kingdom of God's dear Son. The powers of the world to come work in us, and make us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. (Col. 1:12, 13) Unless we thus drink of Christ now, and find Him good, we should be out of harmony with the spirit and surroundings of heaven. We have the privilege now of testing the joys of the redeemed, and deciding whether we will share them or not. Those who reject them in this life do so forever. Men will not be able to accuse the Lord of unfair treatment concealing from them how desirable heaven was. None will be able to say, "Had we known how pleasant it is, we would have chosen very differently," for that which makes heaven desirable is offered to men on earth in Jesus Christ. Even here they may know what it is to thirst no more.
"He that believeth on Me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive." (John 7:38, 39) God imparts Himself by His Spirit, and by it dwells in mortal flesh. Those whose inner man is strengthened with it, receive Christ into their hearts and are filled with all the fullness of God. (Eph. 3:16-19) Thus the Fountain of life is in them and flows forth in streams of blessing, rivers of living water. Christ was filled with the Spirit and the rivers of living water flowed from Him on earth, just as really as they flow from Him in heaven. Thus He caused the woman of Samaria to drink of the water of life, that she might thirst no more.
There is a lesson for all who labour with Christ in His experience on this occasion. No one can allow living waters to now through him for the salvation of others without being refreshed and strengthened himself. "He that watereth shall be watered also himself." (Prov. 11:25) This was true in Christ's case. When He began to talk to the woman He was hungry and weary, but in ministering to her need, He was refreshed and strengthened, so that when His disciples returned and urged Him, "Master, eat," He could say, "I have meat to eat that ye know not of." They supposed that someone must have brought Him food, but it was His meat to do His Father's will. God does not call men to exhaust themselves in His service, but to drink of the Fountain of life, and glorify Him by letting the life-giving stream now through them, watering their own souls and making fat their bones, in lives of blessing and willing service for others.
--January 19, 1899