The Source

Our Lord’s object was to bring the woman to seek salvation of him.

Our desire is the immediate conversion of all now present.

The Samaritan woman accepted the Savior upon the first asking.

Many of you have been invited to Jesus many times—will you not at last comply?

Our Lord aimed at her heart by plain teaching and home dealing—we will take the same course with our hearers.

When his interesting emblem failed to reach her, he fell to downright literalism, and unveiled her life. Anything is better than allowing a soul to perish.

I. WE WILL EXPOUND THE PRECEDING TEACHING.

The Lord had said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that says to you, Give me to drink; you would have asked of him, and he would have given you living water.”

The figure was that of living water in contrast to the water collected in Jacob’s well, which was merely the gatherings of the surrounding hills—land-water, not spring-water.

He meant to say that his grace is like water from a springing well.

It is of the best and most refreshing kind.

It is living, and ministers life.

It is powerful, and finds its own way.

It is abiding, and is never dried up.

It is abounding, and free to all comers.

Furthermore, he intimated to the woman that—

1. He had it. There was no need of a bucket to draw with.

2. He had it to give.

3. He would have given it for the asking.

4. He alone could give it. It would be found in no earthly well.

II. WE WILL ANSWER THE QUESTION OF THE TEXT.

In ignorance the woman inquired, “Whence then have you that living water?”

We can at this time give a fuller reply than could have been given when our Lord sat on the well.

He has now a boundless power to save, and that power arises—

1. From his divine nature, allied with his perfect humanity.

2. From the purpose and appointment of God.

3. From the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

4. From his redeeming work, which operated for good even before its actual accomplishment, and which is in full operation now.

5. From the power of his intercession at the Father’s right hand.

6. From his representative life in glory. Now all power is delivered into his hand. Matthew 28:18.

III. WE WILL DRAW CERTAIN INFERENCES FROM THE ANSWER.

1. Then he is still able to bless. Since he has this living water only from his unchanging self, he therefore has it now as fully as ever.

2. Then he needs nothing from us. He is himself the one sole Fountain, full and all-sufficient forever.

3. Then we need not fear exhausting his fullness.

4. Then at all times we may come to him, and we need never fear that he will deny us.

Drops

When we see a great volume of water issuing from a spring, it is natural that we should enquire,—whence does it come? This is one of the mysteries of nature to most people. Job speaks of “the springs of the sea”, and hints that none can find them out. But where are the springs of salvation? Whence comes the river, yes, the boundless ocean of divine grace? All fullness is in Jesus; but how came it there? He gives drink to all who come to him; whence has he this inexhaustible supply? Are not these questions worth asking? Must not the reply be instructive to ourselves, and glorifying to our Lord? Come, then, and let us borrow the language of this Samaritan woman, and talk with our Lord.—C. H. S.

When I have ridden through London, I have been overwhelmed with the greatness of the supply which must daily be necessary to feed its millions, and have wondered that a famine has not at once set in. But when I have seen the markets and the store-houses, and have thought of the whole earth as eager to obtain a sale for its produce in our vast metropolis, I have rested in content. I see whence the almost illimitable supplies are drawn, and my wonder henceforth is, not that the millions are fed, but that they should be able to consume such immeasurable quantities of food.

Thus, when I behold man’s spiritual need, I marvel that it should ever be met; but when I behold the person and work of the Lord Jesus, my marvel ceases, and a new wonder begins. I wonder rather at the infinity of grace than at the power of sin.—C. H. S.

Speaking of Cairo, the author of “Ragged Life in Egypt” says, “Perhaps no cry is more striking, after all, than the short and simple cry of the water-carrier. ‘The gift of God’ he says, as he goes along with his water-skin on his shoulder. It is impossible to hear this cry without thinking of the Lord’s words to the woman of Samaria, ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that says to you, Give me to drink; you would have asked of him, and he would have given you living water?’ It is very likely that water, so invaluable, and so often scarce in hot countries, was in those days spoken of, as now, as ‘the gift of God’, to denote its preciousness; if so, the expression would be extremely forcible to the woman, and full of meaning.”—The Biblical Treasury.

How ready are men and women to go to this well and that well to drink water for the help and healing of bodily distempers, and to go many miles, and dispense with all other affairs, that they may be recovered of corporeal diseases: but how few inquire after the water of life, or leave all their secular business for the good and health of their immortal souls!—Benjamin Keach.

“The well is deep,” the woman said to Jesus; and so it was. It took two-and-a-half seconds from the time that the pebble was dropped, before we heard the splash in the water below.… Turning to the illustration before us,—“living water,“—the meaning only dawned upon me when I visited the spot. Jacob’s well, deep as it was, and cool as its waters doubtless were, was only an artificial well—a cistern for the collection of rain, and the drainage of the land.… In seasons of drought, this well must have been useless—it was a well, or cistern; not a spring.—J. W. Bardsley.

The fountain of living waters is God himself (Jeremiah 2:13). “With you is the fountain of life” (Psalm 36:9). It is not a mere cistern to hold; it is a pouring, running, living stream; nay, rather a fountain that springs up perpetually. We all know that a jet or fountain is produced by a head of water that presses down from a great elevation; and that, the higher the spring, the loftier and more powerful the jet, which, however, never surpasses the height of its source. Our spiritual life, “our well-spring of life”, has its source in Heaven: and it is heavenward that it rises, and it is content with no lower level. It came from God, and to God it will return.—F. A. Malleson.