All of us know who we are, but I bet that you guys don't know everything about yourselves. You might not fully understand your emotion, strength, weaknesses, and even your future.
All of us do not know everything about ourselves, but God knows everything about us because God is all-knowing. God is omniscient. God knows Himself and His creation perfectly. We do not know everything about us, but God knows Himself and His creation entirely.
He knows your strengths and weaknesses, your desire, dream, ambition, body, hair, and even your sins. In the story of the woman at the well in John chapter 4, verses 4-18, Jesus knew something about the Samaritan woman that she didn't know about herself. There are three observations about this woman:
1. She is an extraordinary and special woman.
First of all, she was a Samaritan woman, and society despised Samaritan women at that time. The fact that she came to draw water about the sixth hour indicates that she was an outcast. She was an immoral person. Verse 16 says that she has five adulterous relationships.
Second, she is also despised and looked down upon because she is a Samaritan. The Jews and Samaritans hated one another. The Jews despised the Samaritans because the Samaritans worshiped a false God. Verse 9 says, "For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans." It means that Jews would not eat with the Samaritans. Therefore, there is a racial barrier between the Jews and Samaritans.
Jesus is a Jew, and He had enough reasons not to meet this woman. Nevertheless, verse 4 says, "He had to pass through Samaria." If you were a Jew, you would not go through Samaria because Jews hated Samaritans. However, Jesus decided to go through Samaria because Jesus wanted to meet her.
He had to go through Samaria because He cared about her. Regardless of her immorality and racial barrier, Jesus actively sought her to care about her. It tells us that God loves us in spite of our bankrupt life.
2. She didn't know Jesus and didn't have eternal life.
In verse 7, Jesus asked for a drink, but she answered in verse 9, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria." In verse 10, Jesus answered, "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." Clearly, the woman didn't know Jesus and the gift of God, which is the living water that Jesus offered because she just met Jesus.
The woman didn't know about the living water, and she even thought that the living water is just regular water that comes from the well. The living water is the gift of God, and we cannot find it here on earth. It is only found in God. The living water is the gift of God, and you can't earn it.
Before I talked about the third observation, in verse 13, Jesus said, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again." What Jesus said here is the reality. It doesn't matter what you drink and how much you drink; you will be thirsty.
However, the living water that Jesus offers is not physical water because Jesus said, "the water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." The living water is a different kind of water. It offers eternal life. However, the woman still didn't understand.
To help her understand, Jesus pointed out something that the woman didn't know about herself. Jesus pointed out her unsatisfaction.
3. She is an unsatisfied woman.
The woman is unsatisfied, so she decided to pursue happiness and satisfaction through her adulterous romantic relationships. The problem is that her romantic relationship cannot satisfy or fulfil her. That is why she was involved in many illicit romantic relationships, one after another.
In other words, Jesus said that everyone who drinks water would be thirsty. Likewise, everyone who seeks satisfaction in a romantic relationship will not be satisfied. It is also the same for money, fame, entertainment, and the things of the world which cannot satisfy you.
Jesus revealed to the woman something that she didn't know about herself and even some of you might not know this about yourselves. He revealed that mankind will not be satisfied until they find satisfaction in Christ.
Dat Nguyen is a student at the Master’s Seminary and a member of Grace Community Church in Los Angeles, California. His desire is to be a faithful minister of the Word of God. He loves playing basketball and watching movies.
Dat Nguyen is a student at the Master’s Seminary and a member of Grace Community Church in Los Angeles, California. His desire is to be a faithful minister of the Word of God. He loves playing basketball and watching movies.
