Wells, A Place to Meet

The most fascinating encounter at a well was when YAHSHUA met the Samaritan woman.  This Samaritan woman was symbolic of the bride of Christ made up of Jews and Gentiles.  This is of amazing significance to Christendom’s history.  The occasion for YAHSHUA to go through Samaria was when He learned that the Pharisees had been told that He was winning and baptizing more disciples than John.  He then left Judea and returned to Galilee, being necessary for Him to pass through Samaria.  And in doing so He arrived at a Samaritan town called Sychar, near the tract of land that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.  Jacob’s well was there.  So YAHSHUA, tired as He was from His journey, sat down by the well.  It was then about the sixth hour (about noon) (John 4:1-6).

The distance from Judea to Galilee is about 70 miles. This trip took YAHSHUA two and a half days.  We have an idea how tired He was when we read “So YAHSHUA, tired as He was from His journey, sat down by the well”.  The Time He arrived at the well was also of prophetic significance.  The sixth hour was the beginning of the hour when darkness enveloped the whole land and earth for three hours at His death on the cross.  Future redemption for the whole world was pictured here on the time of His arrival at the well to bring salvation to a lost people.  At the time when YAHSHUA was resting by the well, a Samaritan came to draw water.  YAHSHUA started the dialog when He asked her for a drink.  It had been ordained by God that YAHSHUA would be alone with the woman to deliver the message of salvation. The woman was puzzled that He, a Jew, was talking to her.  But YAHSHUA had something more important to tell her than to follow the boundaries that separated Jews from Samaritans.  The hour had come when He had to ignore traditions and rules.  He, being God was not limited to the rules of men to deny a thirsty woman the very truth she was thirsting for.  It was the time when He was to tear down the wall of religious prejudice and build the wall of unity of love as the Savior of the world, where Jews and Gentiles would be one in Him and He would be the head of all who would believe in Him.

Where did the Samaritans have their beginning as a people?  They were half-Jews (II Kings 17:7-41).  They began in 723-538 BC.  From the time of the divided kingdom to the time of Judah return from Babylon in 538 BC.  They were a pagan sect that grew out of the Tribe of Manasseh and Ephraim after the deportation in 723 BC.  They were people who had intermarried with pagans and had continued to the time of the woman at the well of John 4.  They were hated by the Jews, but YAHSHUA united them, as He had come to save the lost, Jews or Gentiles to form a bride for Himself out of that unity.  YAHSHUA was the light for revelation of truth to the Gentiles.  In Him there is no distinction between Jew and Greek (Gentile).  The same Lord is Lord overall and He generously bestows His riches upon all who call upon Him (Rom. 10:12).

It was for the sake of the Samaritan woman and her people that YAHSHUA had to pass through Samaria.  He was the well of living water, from Whom the woman and her people satisfied their spiritual thirst those two days YAHSHUA stayed with them at their request.  These two days comprised the time of the Gentiles in the two thousand years given to them to hear the Gospel.  So it was that at the well YAHSHUA fetched His bride at the beginning of His ministry.  Many have joined in to be His bride through the written and spoken word of God, the source of our living water; the eternal well that never runs dry!