"You visit the earth and water it,
You greatly enrich it;
The river of God is full of water;
You provide their grain,
For so You have prepared it.
You water its ridges abundantly.
You settle its furrows;
You make it soft with showers,
You bless its growth."
Psalm 65:9-10
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Good morning! I pray all of you are well. Let's begin with prayer.......
"Father, I pray and thank You for Your refreshing water. As I ran in the heat last night, I felt so privileged to drink the cool water You provided for me along the way. How cool it was on my very hot and dry throat. You reminded me how much I need You everyday at every minute. For without You I can do nothing.
I seek forgiveness of my sins today. I pray that You will wash me clean through Your word. I pray that You will fill me to overflowing with Your Spirit.
I pray for each lady presently reading this study. I pray that You will be with her as she tries to do all that needs to be done. I pray that You will be in her today and speak to her heart through Your word. Bless her with every spiritual blessing.
In Jesus name.....amen."
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Rivers and Seas.
In scripture, we often see rivers mention as well as the sea. In Revelation 22: 1-2 we find that there will be a "river of life" in the New Jerusalem, but in Revelation 20: 13 we find that the sea will give up her dead followed by Revelation 21:1 where we read there will be no more sea. Lastly, in the New Jerusalem, even our tears will be gone:
"And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying..." Rev. 21:4
So, we find that in the New Jerusalem, we will still need water. We will not be like God: without need for anything. We will still need light and water. But that water will be the river of life, flowing eternally for us to see and drink from always. No more salty undrinkable water from the sea or even our tears.
John 4:5
"He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son, Joseph."
Sychar is also translated as Shechem or Shalem.
Please read:
Gen. 12:6-9
Gen 16:14
Gen 33:18-20
Gen 48:21-22
Finally, Gen 24:62
"The Well-of-the-One-Who Lives-and-Sees-Me"
Beer Lahai Roi
This is the well where Jesus sits and waits for his Gentile bride to come to Him.........
Wells were very important in scripture. They symbolized the presence of God: He had provided water for them in the dry desert land. Boy, last night I was appreciating this fact alot!!
Wells were where grooms met their brides:
Please read:
Gen 24:1-21
Gen 29: 1-12
Now we find Jesus about to do the same..........
The scene is almost completely set now. This plot of land was where Abimelech was made king, Jeroboam's royal seat was, and where Jacob's well was.........obviously, the land of Samaria is very important to our God. At this time, it was not important to the Jewish people.
Please read:
2 Kings 17:24
"The hatred between the Jews and Samaritans went back to the days of the Exile. Samaria was the region between Judea and Galilee. When the northern kingdom was exiled to Assyria, King Sargon of Assyria repopulated the area with captives from other lands. The intermarriage of these foreigners and Jews who had been left in the land complicated the ancestry of the Samaritans. The Jews hated the Samaritans and no longer considered them to be "pure" Jews. Jesus, however, had no such bias." (Commentary, Nelson Study Bible, 1997)
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John 4:6
"Now Jacobs' well was there. Jesus therefore, being weary from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the 6th hour."
Here we see the humanity of Christ. -wearied from His journey. He needed to sit down.
We also see the time of this event: the sixth hour. Most Bibles translate this to be "noon" when the sun is at its highest.
Jesus rested at Jacob's well. A well of rememberance: Beer Lahai Roi. This is also where Abraham built an altar (Gen 12:6-9). Jacob also erected an altar near here:
Please read:
Gen 33:18-20
He called the altar: El Elohe Israel....."God, the God of Israel"
Jesus, the Son of God....God in the flesh appearing to His people.....the Promise....sits at this precious site to wait for His bride.
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Life Application
Notice that it was noon time. Why was Jesus sitting and waiting at this hour for a woman to come to Him?
Please read:
Gen. 24:5-24
Here we read that evening time was the time when women came to draw water. It would be cooler in the day and perhaps the women would socialize at the famous well. We'll find out why later in the study.......
Also, by seeing the humanity of Jesus, we are convicted with the fact that He did not give in to His earthly needs or desires. He was weary, yet did he go to sleep? Was He so impatient to fulfill His thirst that He drew His own water? He is God...He could have ordered the water to rise up and meet Him where He stood.
Yet, He waited.
Please read:
Matt. 8:24
How many of us are ruled by our own desires to the point of disobeying and rushing into things without waiting for the Lord to meet us there? I know I do it all the time.....yet we can learn from Jesus not to be ruled by our lusts or desires for material things, food, or people.
We watched a man and a woman, husband and wife, shark hunters on TV place their two little boys in shark cages under the water to watch the Great White sharks swimming and eating in front of them.
Scott and I could not believe that these people would place their children in such harm's way just to "teach" them to conquer their fears. The boys were about 6 & 9 yrs. old alone under the water in the shark cage. It amazes me how these parents, obviously "adrenaline junkies", are so ruled by their desire to conquer fear or to be so near to danger that they no longer can see how irrational they are being.
That is why we turn to Christ.
He was 100% man.
Please read:2 John 2:7
Jesus had hunger and fatigue and was even ignorant of fact at times (Luke 8:45-47). He had sorrow (Luke 22:39-46 & John 11:35,38) and we know He felt pain.
He was tempted:
Matt 4:1-11
And because of this, we now have an example to follow:
Please read:
Heb 2:17,18
Heb 4:15,16
Heb 5:2, 7-9
Because Jesus passed the tests of temptation, now we can go to Him, confident that He is the Helper we need.
John 5:19, 30:
"Then Jesus answered and said to them, 'Most assuredly I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.....I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me."
Until next time.............
"When you begin to see the Holy Spirit as a person- not as a power or an experience- you have a much different perspective on receiving or getting the Holy Spirit."
-Charles Stanley
(Relying on the Holy Spirit, 1996, p. 9)
Blessings,
Ruth
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