The so called “woman at the well” has been discussed in every which way. All of the narrations bring something different to the event and enrich the reader into understanding the messages of this event.
So what I want to highlight is the details of the passage that brings more meaning and understanding the the event. In this case the details centre around the different numbers in the passage of scripture and what significance they hold.
If you read John 4:4-26 (I copied it into end of this blog for your convenience) it will help understand my view on the event.
The woman comes to the well at the 6th hour ie around midday. This is unusual as most of the water gathering takes place in the cooler hours of morning and afternoon. So the woman seeks water in isolation and finds a man at the well. There is an interaction between them and Jesus explains he is the Living Water So she asks to demands that water and adds “so I will not be thirsty nor come all the way here to draw.”
Jesus then changes the subject to ask about her husband. Why so you ask? After all she she sought the Living water?
Jesus asks this question because He knows she has been seeking pure love and grace in human relationships. She responds that she does not have a husband because she is now living with a man after she had 5 husbands before him.
If we simply take the numbers involved in this discussion we see she had 5 husbands first. We know 5 represents Grace in the Bible and we can see the Samaritan woman has sought Grace and love in different relationships represented by 5 different men.
Having not found what she desired she resorts to a different type of relationship, still seeking love and grace, by living with a man outside the committment of a marriage. Chronologically this man is the sixth man. In the Bible 6 represents humanity or an imperfect system without God. By living with the 6th man we see she now desperately seeks love and grace through humanity.
Then she meets the 7th man at the well and number 7 represents perfection in the Bible. So the woman at the well meets the perfect man (Jesus) that satisfies humanities thirst for love and grace.
Isn’t that a true representation of people’s lives today. Seeking love from serial relationships yet never being satisfied because there is only one relationship that will satisfy. That is, the 7th man, the God-man. The perfect man who loves His creation so much that He died for them so we can experience that love and grace forever.
To conclude I want you to think about why the Bible states in verse 6 “(Jesus) …..was sitting thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour (midday).”There came a woman of Samaria to draw water.” QUESTION: what is significant about the woman coming at the 6th hour? QUESTION 2: Jesus died after 6 hours on the cross – why is that so significant?
Bible Text – John 4:4-26
Jesus Goes to Galilee
John4:1 Therefore when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John 2 (although Jesus Himself was not baptizing, but His disciples were), 3 He left Judea and went away again into Galilee. 4 And He had to pass through Samaria. 5 So He came to a city of Samaria called Sychar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph; 6 and Jacob’s well was there. So Jesus, being wearied from His journey, was sitting thus by the well. It was about [a]the sixth hour.
The Woman of Samaria
7 There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” 8 For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. 9 Therefore the Samaritan woman said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” 11 She *said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do You get that living water? 12 You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?” 13 Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”
15 The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, so I will not be thirsty nor come all the way here to draw.” 16 He said to her, “Go, call your husband and come here.” 17 The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You have correctly said, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly.” 19 The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”
27 At this point His disciples came, and they were amazed that He had been speaking with a woman, yet no one said, “What do You seek?” or, “Why do You speak with her?” 28 So the woman left her waterpot, and went into the city and said to the men, 29 “Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done; this is not the Christ, is it?” 30 They went out of the city, and were coming to Him.
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 were saying to one another, “No one brought Him anything to eat, did he?” 34 Jesus *said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work. 35 Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest. 36 Already he who reaps is receiving wages and is gathering fruit for life eternal; so that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. 37 For in this case the saying is true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored and you have entered into their labor.”
My Biblical Thoughts 