The Woman at the Well
John 4:1-42
If you have your Bibles, turn with me to John 4…. John 4. I’ll begin reading in verse 1.
Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more
disciples than John 2(although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), 3 he left Judea and
departed again for Galilee. 4 And he had to pass through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town of Samaria
called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus,
wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour. 7 A
woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.”
The story of the ‘Woman at the Well’ in John 4 this morning is a beautiful story that reveals so much
about Jesus and his heart to connect with outsiders. Jesus crosses national, social, gender and religious
barriers to connect with a Samaritan woman who in the end ultimately encourages a whole flock of
other Samaritans to put their faith in Jesus the Messiah. A woman of no influence is turned into an
influencer for Jesus’ sake. And when we’re reminded that this story comes right after Jesus’ interaction
with Nicodemus in John 3, we realize that we’ve moved from the top of the first century’s social and
spiritual ladder to the bottom of such a ladder and we’re reminded that Jesus came to challenge and
connect with the entire ladder1-- Jewish teachers need Jesus and Samaritan outcasts need Jesus as you
and I need Jesus. Amen to that, eh? Look at this quick comparison between Nicodemus (John 3) and
the Samaritan woman (John 4)
In our time today we’ll become acquainted with…
1
Bruner, page 245
1
Diving into the text, verses 1-3 tell us that Jesus decided to get out of town so to speak because his
ministry was getting too much attention with the Pharisees. So the normal route out of Jerusalem up to
Galilee would take Jesus and his disciples through Samaria. Let me show you that on a map.
You can see Judea at the bottom of the map and Galilee at the top of the map with Samaria in between.
You want to go to Fort Worth from here? You’re going to have to go through Dallas to get there. And so
it was traveling north from Jerusalem you had to go through Samaria to get to Galilee…if you stayed on
the west side of the Jordan River.
It’s been suggested that because of the animosity between the Jews and the Samaritans—and more on
that in a moment--some Jews crossed the Jordan down by Jericho and headed north on the east side of
the Jordan River to bypass Samaria and then crossed over to the west side when the coast was clear so
to speak. But Josephus the historian tells us that most Jews preferred the shorter route through
Samaria.2
Now verse 4 specifically tells us that Jesus had to go through Samaria and there’s some delicious
ambiguity in those words.3 Sure there is a geographical necessity but could it be that John telling us that
2
Ant. Xx.118;Bel.ii.232; Vita 269 as quoted by Carson, page 216
In this withdrawal process Jesus found it “necessary” (edei) to pass through Samaria (4:4). The use of edei, however, reminds one of the fact
that usually Jesus moved not in response to human pressure but as a result of the Father’s direction and the determined hour for his life. Did
the evangelist merely mean that Samaria was on the way? Or is there some overtone here that Samaria was on the divine agenda? Given the
significance of this story in the Johannine structure and the importance of the Samaritan confession (4:42), I cannot help wondering if the
3
2
there was some divine necessity that Jesus go through Samaria? (And the idea of divine necessity shows
up throughout the book of John4). It does seem reasonable to me that John is telling us that the Father
had a divine appointment for Jesus to make.5 Jesus had to go through Samaria. And having studied the
book of Acts recently, the movement from Jerusalem to Judea and then to Samaria is not an unfamiliar
pattern. 6
5
So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar7, near the field that Jacob had given to his son
Joseph.8 The Samaritans traced their lineage back through Joseph.
Verse 6 tells us that Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey sat beside
the well…Jesus 100% God and 100% man, was weary and he sat beside the well. Augustine writing on
this passage said: “Jesus we see is strong and weak: strong, because ‘in the beginning was the Word’;
weak because the Word was made flesh”9
{Now a well or spring (like a gate of a city) ‘in the ancient world was a place of encounter….and indeed
springs and wells in the Bible could be places of divine encounter’10 So the setting is pregnant with
possibilities.}
And we should note that the word for ‘well’ in verse 6 is a word that means ‘a running spring’. Down in
verses 11-12, the word for ‘well’ is different and it means a ‘cistern or dug-out well.’ It turns out that
“Jacob’s well was both; it was dug out, but it is fed by an underground spring that is remarkably reliable
even to this day.”
It was about the sixth hour. And verse 7 says A woman from Samaria came to draw water.
Now the sixth hour would be 12:00 noon. It would be the heat of the day. It was an unusual time for
women to fetch water…It would be more normal to come early in the day when it wasn’t hot yet, so
they could have water for the housekeeping chores for the entire day11…and many take this as an
indication that this woman was an outcast because of her immoral past…she came at noon because
then she would be alone… more on that in a few minutes…
evangelist saw in this story more than just a geographical reference at 4:4. Borchert, G. L. (1996). John 1–11 (Vol. 25A, pp. 198–199). Nashville:
Broadman & Holman Publishers.
4 ESV Study bible, (dei everywhere else in John 3:7,14,30; 9:4; 10:16; 12:34 20:9)
5
Bruner, page 243
6 Borchert, John 1-11, See Acts 1:8
7 Sychar, the name of the Samaritan town at which Jesus arrived, is not attested in earlier literature, but is probably to be indentified with the
modern village of Askar, on the shoulder of Mount Ebal, opposite Mount Gerizim. Jacob’s well lies about a half mile to the south of the modern
village. Sychar, John tells us, was near the plot of ground Jacob had given his son Joseph. The reference is to Genesis 48:22 where Israel (Jacob)
on his deathbed tells Joseph, “I give you the shoulder of a mountain I took from the Amorites.”
8 “The reference to the field that Jacob gave his son Joseph reflects the inference from Gen. 48:21-22 and Josh 24:32 that Jacob gave his son
Joseph the land at Shechem, which he had bought from the sons of Hamor (Gen. 33:18-19) and which later served as Joseph’s burial place (Ex.
13:19; Josh 24:32).
9 Bruner, page 240
10 Borchert, John 1-11 The story here reminds us of the meeting between Abraham’s servant and Rebekah (Gen 24:11, 15–17; cf. Rachel in Gen
29:2–12). Indeed, springs and wells in the Bible could be places of divine encounter (cf. the encounter of Hagar in Gen 16:7).
11
Encounters with Jesus, Timothy Keller, page 25
3
{Additional note: Archaeology has revealed that there were water sources closer to the women’s
town.12 Why does she come this distance, alone, and at this uncomfortable hour? Might it be to avoid
the disapproving look from the other women? Or might it be that she was being urged to come here by
the same Spirit who was compelling Jesus?13}
The woman’s arrival at the well set up a crisis in light of the traditional Jewish customs of the day. It set
up a crisis first because she was a woman—“Jewish men avoided speaking with women in public, even
their own wives”14 but more importantly it set up a crisis because she was a Samaritan15.
The Samaritans were regarded by the Jews as despised half-breeds. They were descendants of northern
kingdom Jews who intermarried with foreigners. 16 Briefly the story goes like this. The Assyrians in 722
BC, after sacking the Northern Kingdom of Israel, transported large numbers of Jews to other conquered
sites and repopulated the territory of Samaria with other conquered people. You can read about this in
2 Kings 17. So the Jews who had been left in Samaria intermarried with the foreigners who had been
brought there and a syncretistic religion resulted—it was a little bit of this and a little bit of that. For
example, the Samaritans used only the Pentateuch—the first 5 books of the Old Testament. And the
scriptures they used were different in some places than the ones we use. Secondly, for a while they had
their own temple on Mount Gerazim17—and by the way the well Jesus is sitting at is in the shadow of Mt
Gerazim. (or at least you could point to Mt. Gerazim from the well. The temple is no longer there as
Jesus speaks to the woman but the Samaritans still worshipped at the top of Mt. Gerazim.
But we should add this. Because the Samaritans did use Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and
Deuteronomy, they were awaiting a future deliverer in keeping with the promise of Deuteronomy
18:15-19. {In fact we’ll see later in the story that the Samaritan woman does express hope in the
coming Messiah.}18
So to this racially inferior, heretical, outcast woman, Jesus said “Give me a drink.” And in speaking to
her, as we said, “he is deliberately reaching across almost every significant barrier that people can put
up between themselves. In this case a racial barrier, a cultural barrier, a gender barrier, and a moral
barrier.”19
Follow with me as I read verse 7-19….
12
Bruner, page 240
Bruner, page 240
14 Borchert, John 1-11
15 SAMARITANS — the name given to the new and mixed inhabitants whom Esarhaddon (B.C. 677), the king of Assyria, brought from Babylon and
other places and settled in the cities of Samaria, instead of the original inhabitants whom Sargon (B.C. 721) had removed into captivity (2 Kings
17:24; comp. Ezra 4:2, 9, 10). These strangers (comp. Luke 17:18) amalgamated with the Jews still remaining in the land, and gradually
abandoned their old idolatry and adopted partly the Jewish religion. After the return from the Captivity, the Jews in Jerusalem refused to allow
them to take part with them in rebuilding the temple, and hence sprang up an open enmity between them. They erected a rival temple on
Mount Gerizim, which was, however, destroyed by a Jewish king (B.C. 130). They then built another at Shechem. The bitter enmity between the
Jews and Samaritans continued in the time of our Lord: the Jews had “no dealings with the Samaritans” (John 4:9; comp. Luke 9:52, 53). Our
Lord was in contempt called “a Samaritan” (John 8:48). Many of the Samaritans early embraced the gospel (John 4:5–42; Acts 8:25; 9:31; 15:3).
Of these Samaritans there still remains a small population of about one hundred and sixty, who all reside in Shechem, where they carefully
observe the religious customs of their fathers. They are the “smallest and oldest sect in the world.” Easton Bible Dictionary
16 Fernando, page 271
17 400 BC to 128 BC?
18 Fernando, page 271
19
Keller, Encounters with Jesus, page 25
13
4
7
A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.”…when it comes to
social power, an ‘asker’ puts himself beneath the ‘asked one’…it’s a good evangelism technique…. 8 (For
his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.)…you probably wouldn’t find kosher food in a
Samaritan village… 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink
from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans….Samaritans were
considered by many Jews to be in a continual state of uncleanness and so many Jews would have
thought that drinking water from this woman’s jar would make a person ceremonially unclean.20 10 Jesus
answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you
would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you
have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you
greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his
livestock.” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever
drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will
become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” ….{we ran across the word that is
translated “welling” in Acts 3 when the paralyzed man got healed…he was walking and leaping and
praising God… this spring of water is leaping up, its gushing up…} 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give
me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”
16
Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have
no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five
husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” 19 The woman
said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.
In these verses Jesus is using a physical metaphor, a physical picture like he does often in the book of
John, to teach spiritual truth. Water is a physical metaphor or picture of life, the life that God gives and
living water (flowing or spring water) is a metaphor for eternal life. The metaphor is kind of lost on us
because we have ready access to running water. But if we lived in arid climate like Israel we would
instinctively know what Jesus was talking about.
One author says it this way….“Because our bodies contain so much water, to be in profound thirst is to
be in agony. And then to taste water after you have been truly thirsty is about the most satisfying
experience possible”21
So throughout these verses Jesus is speaking on one level about the life that God gives and the woman
can only think about physical water and physical thirst. And unbeknownst to her, Jesus is tapping into a
rich spring of Old Testament texts that connect water and God, water and salvation. “When God comes
into our lives he gives us cleansing, healing, satisfaction, energy, sustenance, strength, and
refreshment—that’s what God will do”22
Zechariah 14:8… there are living waters pictured flowing out of Jerusalem to the east and west
20
ESV Study Bible note
Keller page 26
22
Mark Driscoll sermon, December 3, 1996
21
5
In Ezekiel 47…living water is flowing out of the temple
Isaiah 12:3 With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation
Isaiah 55:1 “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money,come, buy
and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
Isaiah 44:3 3 For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my
Spirit upon your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants.
Note the connection in Isaiah 44:3 between water and spirit
But it’s over in John 7 that the living water is specifically identified as the Holy Spirit. Jesus stood up in
the temple on the last day, the great day of the Feast of Booths and said these memorable words….
POWERPOINT
John 7:37–39
37
On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him
come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow
rivers of living water.’ ” 39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to
receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
But it’s a reference in Jeremiah, however, that helps us bridge to the Samaritan woman’s experience
and our experience….
Notice what God is saying there in Jeremiah. The people had forsaken God, the fountain of living
waters, and they were looking for life in other places. Isn’t that a picture of your life and mine at times?
Here God is a fountain. And somehow we lose sight of that and our eyes settle on some other so-called
means of refreshment. And we dig and we dig and we make a cistern just perfect, we pour all of our
energy into it and in the end it just doesn’t satisfy.
So what is Jesus saying to this outcast woman? He’s saying this, and I’m quoting Timothy Keller here:
“I’ve got something for you that is as basic and necessary to you spiritually as water is to you physically.
Something without which you are completely lost.”
6
And continuing with Keller: “But the metaphor of the living water means even more than that. Jesus is
not just telling us that what he has to offer is lifesaving—he’s also revealing that it satisfies from the
inside. He says, “My water, if you get it, will become in you a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
He’s talking about deep soul satisfaction, about incredible satisfaction and contentment that doesn’t
depend on what is happening outside of us. (When you and I think of things that will really make us
happy, inevitably it’s something on the outside isn’t it?). Some of us have our hopes set on romantic
love, some on career, some on politics or a social cause, and some of us on money and what it will do for
us. …Yet Jesus says there’s nothing outside of you that can truly satisfy the thirst that is deep down
inside you. ….you don’t need water splashed on your face; you need water that comes from even deeper
down inside you than the thirst itself… And Jesus is saying…. “I can give it. I can put it in you. I can give
you absolute unfathomable satisfaction at the core of your being regardless of what happens outside,
regardless of circumstance.”23
Now most people don’t recognize their ‘soul thirst;’ they don’t connect the longing in their souls to their
need for God. In fact it can be argued that they can’t without God’s help. Years ago, the great tennis
champion Boris Becker said, “I had won Wimbledon twice, once as the youngest player. I was rich… I had
all the material possessions I needed…it is the old song of movie stars and pop stars (who take their own
lives). They have everything, and yet they are so unhappy. But I had no inner peace.”24
Now what does this have to do with the Samaritan woman? How had she constructed cisterns that in
the end held no water? Well I think that’s why Jesus does what he does in verse 16. Look at verse 16.
It’s in verse 16, I think, that Jesus gets to the heart of the woman’s true thirst and how it had expressed
itself in her life. In a sense I guess we could say he exposes her cisterns (which she had found held no
water).
16
Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no
husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five
husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” Jesus reveals
her sin AND his omniscience.
The woman was looking for life in men. Mark Driscoll said it more strongly, “She worshipped men”25
John Piper said it even differently…
23
Keller, page 26-27
As quoted by Keller, page 28
25
“The Woman at the Well” by Mark Driscoll, December 3, 1996
24
7
It’s in light of these quotes that I think I see for the first time why a discussion with a Samaritan woman
would segue into a discussion about worship—because looking for life apart from God is really
misplaced worship.
Again quoting Keller, “Why does Jesus seem to suddenly change the subject from seeking living water to
her history with men? The answer is—he isn’t changing the subject. He’s nudging her, saying, “if you
want to understand the nature of this living water I offer, you need to first understand how you’ve been
seeking it in your own life. You’ve been trying to get it through men, and it’s not working, is it? Your
need for men is eating you alive, and it will never stop.”26
By revealing her morally messy past “Jesus is helping the woman come to term with the gift he is
offering”.27
19
The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this
mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.”
Now is this woman trying to shift the subject matter because she is a bit embarrassed? (“You’ve just
exposed that I’ve had five husbands and the man I’m living with now is not my husband…tell me, ‘Where
should we go to church?”) “It is easier to talk theology than to deal with truth that is personally
distressing.”28 Some have suggested that she is a seeker and that having her sin exposed, caused her to
seriously wonder where she could deal with her sin. Is Gerazim the place where I can deal with my sin?
Or is it in Jerusalem that I can deal with my sin? In any event, the place of worship was a key point of
contention between the Samaritans and the Jews.29 And so she raises that point of contention.30
26
Keller, page 31
Carson, page 221
28 Carson, page 221
29 Carson, page 222 “But the Samaritans read Deut. 12:5 to be “to seek the place the Lord your God has chosen..” This prompted them to look
at the Pentateuch for the right place for the temple. They noted that it was at Shechem, overlooked by Mt. Gerizim, was the first place that
Abraham built an altar. They noticed that it was on Mt. Gerizim that the blessings were shouted to the covenant community. In the Samaritan
bible, both in Exodus 20:17 and in Deut. 5:21, the ten commandments are followed by words found in Deut. 27:2-7 thus effectively tying the
Decalogue itself to Mount Gerizim. They insisted that it was the highest mountain in the world—even though Mt. Ebal was demonstrably
higher. Even after the temple was destroyed by John Hyrcannus, the Samaritans continued to perform their sacrifices and other rites on the
mountain.”
30 Bruce as quoted in Carson said this, “There are some people who cannot engage in a religious conversation with a person of a different
persuasion without bringing up the points on which they differ.” Carson, page 222
27
8
The next four verses, verses 21-24 are the most tightly packed section in the scriptures on the subject of
worship.
21
Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in
Jerusalem will you worship the Father.
In effect, Jesus is saying that a time is coming when both Gerazim and Jerusalem will be mothballed as
definitive places of worship. And since we know the rest of the story, we know that Jesus himself in a
sense becomes the ‘place’ where worship is to be offered. It’s because of Jesus that we can approach
God anywhere boldly and confidently.
Verse 22-- You (Samaritans) worship what you do not know (your worship is founded in ignorance); we
worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. (…in other words the stream of God’s saving
purposes flows through the Jewish scriptures, it flows through the Jews.) It was Abraham who received
the promise in Genesis 12 that (in him) all the families of the earth (would) be blessed. Salvation is
from the Jews…
Verse23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in
spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who
worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
The hour is coming and is now here… The “hour” in John is the hour of the death, resurrection and
exaltation of Jesus…that hour is coming, Jesus says, but in a sense it’s already come as Jesus stands
there before the Samaritan woman. He is the true temple, John 2:19-22. It’s time, Jesus says, to
worship the Father in spirit and truth, through him.
The hour is coming when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.
As I understand it “worshipping the Father in spirit and truth” can be interpreted a couple of different
ways. In the first way the word “spirit” is capitalized and the Holy Spirit is in view so worship is driven
by God’s Spirit and addressed to the one and only true God. Said a bit differently worship is offered in
the power of God’s spirit and addressed to God as he really is. In the second way of interpreting this
phrase, the word ‘spirit’ is not capitalized and it’s understood to mean the ‘spiritual realm.’ This means
that true worship involves not only our physical bodies but also our spirits, the immaterial aspect of our
existence that primarily acts in the unseen realm. 31 I could go with either; I think I like the second best.
Arthur Pink says it this way.
“To worship in spirit is to worship spiritually; to worship in truth is to worship truly. They are not two
different kinds of worship but two aspects of the same worship. To worship spiritually is the opposite of
mere external rites which pertained to the flesh; instead it is to give to God the homage of an
enlightened mind and an affectionate heart. To worship Him truly to worship Him according to the Truth,
31
Grudem, W. A. (2004). Systematic theology: an introduction to biblical doctrine (p. 1010). Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity
Press; Zondervan Pub. House.
9
in a manner suited to the revelation He has made of himself; and no doubt it carries with it the force of
worshipping truly, not in pretense, but sincerely. Such, and such alone, are the acceptable
worshippers.”32
Continuing in our text
25
The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes,
he will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.” Remarkably, this woman is
the only person in the book of John to whom Jesus reveals himself so clearly as the Messiah. But that’s
consistent with the other gospels where Jesus was very subdued about his Messiahship among the Jews
because of the political and military baggage the term “messiah” carried among the Jews.
27
Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said,
“What do you seek?” or, “Why are you talking with her?” 28 So the woman left her water jar…don’t
miss that….is that a symbol that she found something way more important than she came for?... and
went away into town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can
this be the Christ?” 30 They went out of the town and were coming to him.
Now at this point it’s as if the drama is divided between two stages. On the front stage, Jesus dialogues
with his disciples, verses 31-38, “while on the back stage, the woman speaks to the townspeople of
Sychar and persuades them to come to see Jesus.”33
Well, let’s look in on the action that occurs on the front stage…
31
Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food
to eat that you do not know about.” 33 So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him
something to eat?” …. So again Jesus is using a physical metaphor, eating food, to describe a spiritual
reality…34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his
work.
It seems pretty clear that Jesus is echoing Deuteronomy 8:3 here. Let me put it up on the screen:
32
33
Pink, John, page
Beasley-Murray, G.R. (2002). John (Vol. 36, pp. 58-66)
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Jesus came to do the Father’s will and always did no less. His works were the works of God. And Jesus’
life perfectly illustrated, like no one else who has ever lived, that man does not live by bread alone but
by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.
“If in his dealings with the Samaritan woman, Jesus was performing his Father’s will, there was greater
sustenance and satisfaction in that than in any food the disciples could offer him.”34
Could that be said of you? Is there more sustenance and satisfaction in doing the will of God than in
physical food?
35
Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your
eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest.
It’s conceivable that Samaritans were coming across the fields to him from Sychar, wearing white
perhaps. So Jesus may be saying that “You think a certain gap must exist between sowing and harvest -There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’ --but I’m telling you that I’ve just sown the seed
and the harvest is already taking place.” (again referring to Samaritans coming across the fields)35
36
Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and
reaper may rejoice together.
Verse 36 calls to mind a really cool image from Amos 9:13. Listen to Amos 9:13…
13
“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the LORD,
“when the plowman shall overtake the reaper
and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed;
the mountains shall drip sweet wine,
and all the hills shall flow with it.
The harvest is so prolific that the sower and reaper are in the field together!
37
For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you
did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.” It seems that the point of
verses 37 and 38 is the diversity of gifts that go into a good harvest yield. One sows and another reaps,
and the work of both sower and reaper is essential. “The sower labors in anticipation of what is to
come; the reaper must never forget that the harvest he enjoys is the fruit of another’s toil”36
39
Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me
all that I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he
stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his word. 42 They said to the woman, “It
34
Carson, page 228
Carson, page 229
36
Carson, page 230
35
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is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know
that this is indeed the Savior of the world.”
____________
In our time today ….
The living water that Jesus gives… Have you drunk of it? Have you put your faith in Jesus Christ as your
savior? Or maybe you’re here today and you realized that you’ve been looking for life in other places,
you’re building cisterns that will hold no water. If that’s the case come to the fountain! Repent and
return to God.
The kind of worshippers that the Father seeks…. How’s your worship? Do you worship in the realm of
the spirit, God as He really is? Where’s your heart these days as we gather to worship? Is Jesus Lord of
your life?
And finally, the fields that are white for harvest.... Have you found your role in the harvest? Are you
somehow connected to the harvest? One sows and another reaps and everyone has a role….
Let us pray…
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