Chapter IV
Verses 1-6. The Lord left Jerusalem and Judea and turned towards Galilee. On the way there He must needs go through Samaria. In His omniscience He knew her whom He had come to seek and save. In the Gospel of Matthew we read that He said to His disciples, when He sent them forth as His messengers, that they should not go to Samaria nor to the Gentiles, but only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. (Chapter X.) The message which He gave then was the message for Israel — ““The Kingdom of heaven is at hand,” that is the promised, literal kingdom. He sent them forth to herald that kingdom; they were the messengers of the King, the Son of David. It was a national affair. It took place before John the Baptist had been put into prison. But now John’s ministry is ended; he is in prison; he is not seen again in the Gospel, and is mentioned but twice more (Chapter v:33; x:40). The Lord with His disciples did not enter Samaria to announce the nearness of the kingdom, but He went there for the sake of the woman to whom He would reveal even greater things than He revealed to the teacher in Israel, Nicodemus.
The reason for the Lord’s departure from Judea was His knowledge that the Pharisees were greatly stirred up by the fact that He was making more disciples, had a greater following, than John. They must have recalled the testimony John had given concerning Him, they also knew what had occurred in the temple. No doubt they were even then secretly plotting to end His ministry. The omniscient Lord knew it all. ‘Therefore He left Judea, and spent two days in Samaria, before He reached Galilee, to manifest His gracious power again and to perform His second great sign.
We must not pass over these events without pointing out their typical significance. When our Lord left Judea and
Jerusalem it foreshadows the setting aside of Jerusalem, which rejected Him. His going into Samaria for two days to bring the message of salvation to the outcasts, to reveal Himself in the fullness of grace, is typical of what would happen after Jerusalem rejected Him, the Gospel of grace preached to the Gentiles. Then comes the third day, when He reached Galilee, is received, heals the nobleman’s son, which foreshadows the restoration of Israel. (See and compare with Hosea vi:i-3.)
He must needs go through Samaria, for it was the only direct way to reach Galilee. The Galileans, when going to Jerusalem to attend the feasts of the Lord, always had to journey through Samaria, but some of the strictest Jews when obliged to go to the northern part of the land made a detour and passed through Perea, so as not to become defiled by contact with the Samaritans. The Jews hated and despised the Samaritans, because they were a mongrel race with a religion partly Jewish, and partly heathen. (2 Kings xvii:24-41).
But the Lord knew why He must needs go through Samaria. While in the preceding chapter Nicodemus sought Him, here He seeks the woman.
He came to the city of Samaria called Sychar, which means “purchased.” It is unquestionably identical with Shechem, and is a very historical place. God first appeared unto the father of the nation at Shechem (Gen. xii:6). Jacob dwelt there (Genesis xxxiv:2). At that place Joseph’s brethren fed their flocks (Genesis xxxvii:12). It was one of the cities of refuge (Josh. xx:7-8) and Joshua delivered at this place his great message (Josh. xxxiv:1). At Shechem the bones of Joseph were buried as well as those of his fathers (Josh. xxiv:32; Acts vii:16). Shechem is also prominently connected with the revolt of the ten tribes (1 Kings xii:1, 25).
There at Jacob’s well, on the stone rim of the well, we see Him sitting, being wearied with His journey. The dusty looking traveler, tired out and thirsty, is the Lord of Glory, in creature form. “Thus,” He sat on the well. Said Chrysostom, “What meaneth thus? Not upon a*throne; not upon a cushion; but simply,and as He, was upon the ground.” It is a beautiful illustration and evidence of His humiliation and the reality of His human body He had taken on in incarnation. Well may we think of Him when we are weary, knowing that He can and He does sympathize with us in our weariness (Hebrews iv:15). And it was about the sixth hour. This was at noon, in the hottest, most sultry part of the day. And there He waited patiently for her to come, who knew Him not, but who was known by Him. It has been mentioned by Burgon that “Jacob and Moses each found his wife beside a well of water; and here is seen that a greater One than they, their divine Antitype, the Bridegroom taking to Himself His alien spouse at a well likewise.”
Verses 7-10. And now she appears with her waterpot and finds the stranger sitting there. It is customary to go to the well towards evening, but she came at noon, probably on account of her character, an outcast, ashamed to mingle with others.
She also was weary and alone; she knew not what was before her, and that in a little while she would leave her waterpot, forget her weariness, and fly back to the village to bring glad tidings to other weary souls, after her own refreshment. ‘Give me to drink,” were the words the stranger addressed to the woman. How simple the request; yet it was heavenly wisdom which made it. Another has pointed out the significance of it in the following words:
“In this simple request of our Lord there are four things deserving notice. (a) It was a gracious act of spiritual agression on a sinner. He did not wait for the woman to speak to Him, but was the first to begin conversation. (b) It was an act of marvelous condescension. He by whom all things were made, the Creator of fountains, brooks, and rivers, is not ashamed to ask for a draught of water from the hand of one of his sinful creatures. (c) It was an act full of wisdom and prudence. He does not at once force religion on the attention of the woman, and rebuke her for her sins. He begins with a subject apparently indifferent, and yet one of which the woman’s mind was doubtless full. He asks her for water. (d) It was an act full of the nicest tact, and exhibiting perfect knowledge of the human mind. He asks a favor, and puts Himself under an obligation. No line of proceeding, it is well known to wise people, would be more likely to conciliate the woman’s feelings towards Him, and to make her willing to hear His teaching. Simple as the request was, it contains principles which deserve the closest attention of all who desire to do good to ignorant and thoughtless sinners.”
“Give me to drink.” But there was another thirst in His loving heart for the poor lost soul. He thirsted for her salvation. “But what a sight to God, and indeed, to faith, the Son of God when driven out by the jealous hatred and contempt of man, of His own people who received Him not, occupying Himself with an unhappy Samaritan who had exhausted her life in quest of happiness never thus found!” And the woman was greatly surprised that He, a Jew, should ask her, a Samaritan woman to give Him to drink. There was great enmity between the Jews and the Samaritans. A Samaritan, on account of past history, was looked upon as an outcast, who had forfeited all rights of membership in the commonwealth of Israel. They despised them. One of the vilest utterances made against our blessed Lord is the one recorded in Chapter viii:48, when His enemies said to Him, “Say we not well, Thou art a Samaritan, and hast a demon.”
How blessed is His answer. He does not enter with her in a discussion of the differences between the Jews and the Samaritans, nor does He explain why He had asked her to give Him to drink. He says something which at once aroused the curiosity of the woman and made her forget her surprise that a Jew should make such a request of her. “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith unto thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of Him and He would have given thee living water.” He speaks of Himself, for He is God’s unspeakable gift. Yet in the first instance when He said, “If thou knewest the gift of God” He meant God’s condescending grace coming down to seek the lost sinner, ready to give all manneeds. This marvelous grace, God willing to give, is expressed and demonstrated in His own person, the Son of God. If she had known, that it is Jehovah manifested in the flesh, the promised Messiah, she would turn to Him with a request to give her, and He would give her living water. But she was ignorant of these facts in her darkened, sinful heart. She knew nothing of
God’s abundant grace, nor of Him who had come to reveal that grace. Such is still the blindness of the natural man, even though he may have confessed to be religious, as the Samaritans were religious.
He told her that He could give “living water.” What did our Lord mean by this term? In Jeremiah 11:13 we read that the Lord is called a fountain of living waters, and in Isaiah xliv:3 the water poured forth is identified with the Holy Spirit — “I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring.” But we do not need to go outside of the Gospel of John for an explanation of this term. It is once more used by our Lord in the seventh chapter of this Gospel, and there we find a divinely given comment. “If any man thirst,” said our Lord at the Feast of Tabernacles, “let him come unto Me and drink. He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this He spake of the Spirit which they that believe on Him should receive, for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified” (vii:38, 39). The “living water” is the gift of the Holy Spirit. We find this verified when we hear what else the Lord had to say to this woman about the living water.
Verses 11-14. She speaks as Nicodemus spoke, knowing nothing of the great spiritual Truth the Lord had uttered. She reasoned about His words, the only thing the natural man can do and the natural man generally does. The well is deep, how is He going to draw the living water? Is this stranger a greater man than Jacob, or has he a better well?
He makes it clear to her first of all that He is not speaking of the literal water, that she is mistaken in thinking He meant the water in the well before them. Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again. Even so it is true not only of the physical water, but of all temporal, material things; they can never satisfy the human soul. He, who drinks of these and finds his enjoyment in earthly things will thirst again. But He has another water to give, living water.
He can give living water for the soul’s need, just as in creation He has supplied the physical water, free, without money and without price, to satisfy the creature’s need. And that living water, when received from Him, satisfies. He who drinketh of it shall never thirst (or: in no way thirst for ever). And more than that; He promises that the water He gives shall be in him who receives it a well (or: spring) of water springing up unto eternal life. He speaks of the gift of the Spirit, whom all receive who believe on Him. To Nicodemus the Lord unfolded the necessity of the new birth, by the water and the Spirit, and now He speaks of what the believer, who knows the gift of God, receives. He gives the Holy Spirit to be in him as a spring of water springing up unto eternal life. The Holy Spirit is in the believer to satisfy his needs, for communion and for worship, and becomes thus a perpetual exhaustless source for joy and peace, so that if this spring flows unhindered, thirst after other things ceases. All this was spoken by our Lord in anticipation of His work on the Cross, His resurrection and glorification as the risen Christ. ‘The words of our Lord tell us that He who knows the gift of God, His free gift, eternal life in Him whom He has sent, receives from Christ the living water, the Holy Spirit, who indwells the believer, abiding with him forever and supplying all his needs, so that all soul thirst is satisfied.*
Verses 15-18. The woman with her darkened mind still thinks of the literal water; she did not know, nor understand, what the Lord Jesus meant when He spoke of living water and of the indwelling fountain. Yet here is also the first evidence that her heart responded to His Words. He had said to her “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldst have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living
*Shall thirst no more for ever. What an assurance this is! But how little oftentimes does it seem to justify itself in actual realization. Here comes in the sad reminder for us of how we with our unbelief limit the glorious largeness of the divine promises, and often seem bent upon making falsehood of eternal Truth. Christ speaks according to the fullness of the gift bestowed. As toourenjoyment of it, it is always conditional upon the way in which faith entertains it. We are not to expect that it will be realized without the activity of faith and the diligent use of what God has given us as means to its attainment. — Numerical Bible.
water.” And now she said to the unknown stranger, “Give me this water.” Though she did not know what she asked, yet it was a prayer. It expressed a want, though she knew not what it was; she realized she was in the presence of One who could give and she asked Him to give to her. It is the first, faint desire of her heart for something. “It would be as foolish to scrutinize the grammatical construction of an infant’s cry, as to analyze the precise motives of a soul’s breathings after God.’ This fully applies to the case of the woman.
Then the Lord abruptly changed his mode of speech; He drops the figurative language He employed, and no more mentions after this the living water. Up to this point He had spoken to her of the gift of God, of His Grace, of His power to give living water. But her conscience was unreached; yet the conscience must be aroused, deeply exercised, before grace, and the gift of grace, can be understood and appreciated. The Lord therefore asked her to call her husband. He knew her whole sad history of sin; and laying bare the secrets of her life He aimed at her conscience to produce conviction of sin, and to show her His own omniscience. It has been well said ‘“‘the first draught of living water which the Lord gave to the Samaritan woman was conviction of sin.”” Nor must we lose sight of the fact that while our Lord touched her sinful life by saying, ‘‘Go call thy husband” that He also added “and come hither.” How His wonderful grace shines out in this request once more! If she is a sinner, living a vile, unclean life, He is the sinner’s friend ready to welcome her. ‘‘And come hither” is His word of welcome to her; grace speaks once more.
Her answer is brief. ‘I have no husband.” We take it that it was a confession of her evil life, and not an attempt to deceive the Lord, as some have thought. A few words come from His lips and she is fully uncovered as to her sinful, wicked life. Yet, what words these are which the omniscient Lord addresses to her! He shows the full knowledge of her sin in a few words, yet these words are not harsh words of condemnation. “Thou hast well said” — He commended her honest confession and then He laid bare her past life, a life of adultery, and tells her of her present sin, that she lived
aii = ri with a man who is not her husband. He closed His terse answer by telling her again “‘thou has truly said.” He who is the light of the world has manifested her darkness, yet He did it in a loving, gracious manner, such as He, full of grace and truth, alone could do.
Verses 19-24. The woman is convicted of her sin. She acknowledges the truth of the words He has spoken, that they were words of divine power, and that He who had uttered them must be the mouthpiece of God. Her conscience is awakened because her sins were so fully exposed, and therefore she turns to Him for instruction and light, which was an evidence of her spiritual anxiety. Her first thought is to do something. Her mind thinks of worshipping God, which she probably in her sinful career had totally neglected.
She was fully aroused and deeply anxious to know the truth; but how is she to know what is true worship and the true way to God? As a Samaritan she remembered at once that their mode of worship differed from the Jewish worship. The Jews claimed that Jerusalem was the only place where men ought to worship. ‘Our fathers,” she said, ‘worshipped in this mountain” pointing, no doubt, as she spoke, towards Mount Gerizim. According to Samaritan tradition Gerizim was the mountain where Abraham offered up Isaac. This tradition is not true; but Gerizim is the mountain where a rival temple had been built, which, according to Josephus, was destroyed by Hyrcanus in the year 129 B. C. To this day this mountain is called “the holy mountain.”
The answer our Lord gave to this seeking soul is of great importance. He reveals great truths concerning true worship, that is Christian worship, which in these words of our Lord is mentioned for the first time in the Bible. ““Woman, believe Me,” he said to her. It is the only time our Lord used this phrase “‘believe Me.” What He was about to reveal was something altogether new and it required faith to lay hold on it. The hour He speaks of is the present Christian age. During this dispensation worship of the Father will not be done upon a mountain nor in an earthly Temple, in Jerusalem. Not alone will the worship of the Samaritans cease, but the whole system of the God-appointed Jewish worship, altars, sacrifices, offerings, priests, etc., would pass away. Ritualistic Christendom with its show-worship, apes after the ancient Jewish worship, is, in view of these words of our Lord an invention. “To bring into the Church holy places, sanctuaries, altars, priests, sacrifices, gorgeous vestments and the like, is to dig up that which has been buried long ago, and to turn to candles for light under the noon-day sun. The favorite theory of the Irvingites that we ought as far as possible in our public worship, to copy the Jewish temple service and ceremonial, seems incapable of reconciliation with the words of our Lord.” (Bishop Ryle.)
In all their worship, the Lord told her, the Samaritans did not know what they worshipped; it was different with the Jews, they knew what they worshipped “for salvation is of the Jews.”” The Samaritans had no authority for their worship, but the Jews had all authority. Salvation, or as it is in the Greek, “‘the salvation” is of the Jews. The Lord meant Himself. The Hebrew word for “salvation” is Jehoshua; the Greek “Jesus” is derived from the Hebrew word. Everything in the worship of the Jews in Jerusalem foreshadowed the Messiah and His salvation, and foremost of course, the great prophecies of the prophets revealed Him and His work. And when that work was finished on the Cross there would be as a result another worship; there would be true worshippers, who worship the Father in spirit and in truth. Then the Lord announced that “the Father seeketh such to worship Him.” Nowhere in the Old Testament do we read that God was worshipped as “Father”; the worship of God, of Jehovah, is everywhere mentioned, but the relationship of a believing sinner to God as Father, and as a son of God is unknown in the Old Testament Scriptures. The Son of God alone has made known this marvelous truth and it is made known through His finished work on the cross.
In Judaism God dwelt in thick darkness, and the testimony rendered by the whole Levitical system (with its sacrifices, priests, veil, incense, etc.) was, that the way into the Holiest had not yet been made manifest. When Christ died the veil was rent from top to bottom, and eternal redemption was found; the worshippers once purged from their sins have no more conscience of sins and can draw near. Such is Christianity, God having revealed Himself as the Father in the Son through the Spirit. To know Him, the only true God, and Him Whom He sent, His only Begotten, is life eternal. And the mighty work which was done on the cross hath dealt with all our evil, so that we are free to enjoy Himself. We know, therefore, Whom we Worship and not merely “‘what.”’
And this worship in spirit and truth, this heart worship of the Father, is only possible with true believers, who are in Christ and possess the Holy Spirit, who alone makes such worship possible, “For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus, and do not trust in the flesh” (Philippians 11:3). This true worship necessitates living in the truth and walking in the Spirit.
“And such the Father seeketh to worship Him.” We do not find such a statement anywhere else in the Scriptures. Nowhere is it said that the Father seeketh; but here the Son of God makes known that the Father seeketh true worshippers, worshippers in spirit and in truth. And this seeking of the Father of true worshippers goes on throughout this present age through the Spirit of God. All who accept the Lord Jesus Christ, and are saved are thus sought by the Father as worshippers. It is true we are saved to serve; but a still higher truth is we are saved to worship. In fact only if we worship right, can we serve right. This true worship centers in the Lord Jesus Christ; true worshippers are not gathered to earthly names, institutions, denominations, sects or parties, but. unto the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. The day will come when “the hour” in which the Father seeketh such to worship Him will end; this dispensation in which the true Church is gathered will end, like previous dispensations ended. The true Church will be brought to glory, and is seen there, in the Book of Revelation, as a company of worshippers. (Revelation iv-v.) And after that another form of worship will be introduced on the earth for Israel and the Nations. This will center once more in Jerusalem, in a house to which all nations gather in the Kingdom. (See Ezekiel xl, etc.)
“God is a Spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” The declaration our Lord made to the woman as to the nature of God is one of the profoundest ever made. It is impossible for the finite mind to define, to explain or understand fully this great utterance ‘“‘God is a Spirit.” True worship must, therefore, be in correspondence with the nature of God; He can only accept spiritual worship.
“The importance of this great principle, laid down in this and the preceding verse, can never be perverted. Any religious teaching which tends to depreciate heart-worship, and to turn Christianity into a mere formal service, or which tends to bring back Jewish shadows, ceremonies and services, and to introduce them into Christian worship, is in the face of these remarkable verses most unscriptural and deserving of reprobation.”* And this false worship we find today almost universally in connection with the counterfeit Gospel, against which the Holy Spirit so solemnly warns in the Fpistle to the Galatians.
Verses 25-27. And now this Samaritan woman thinks of Messiah, the promised Saviour-King. Her heart is ready, yea, made ready by the Lord, to receive the truth as to the Person before her. She had heard of “living water”; her life of sin and shame had been uncovered, which she fully owned and did not deny; she had with an awakened conscience inquired about worship and was told of true heart worship, which she was unable to render. And now convicted and perplexed, she wishes for Him, the Messiah (of whom the Samaritans had knowledge and in whose coming they believed), who would reveal all things. She expressed thus her desire to know the promised One who, according to the faint conception she had, would supply her need and solve her difficulties. No sooner had she uttered this wish, than the Lord in His gracious condescension makes Himself known to her.
It has been pointed out how the story of the Samaritan woman reveals the mercy, the wisdom, the patience and the power of our Lord. His condescending mercy that He should take up such a one and seek her; His wisdom in deal-
*Notes on John.
ing with this sinful soul; His patience in bearing with her ignorance and His power in drawing her to Himself. The returning disciples wondered that He talked with a woman. They marveled that He instructed a Samaritan woman. Yet they did not dare to ask Him a question about it, knowing as they did, the dignity and glory of their Lord and Master, that all He did was right and perfect.
Verses 28-30. After the Lord had told the woman that He was the Messiah she forgot all about her errand, why she had come to the well; she left the waterpot empty and unfilled at the well. It was probably a large jar and of value to her; but her soul was so stirred that she paid no attention to the jar and rushed back in haste to the city as a messenger to others. She gives a glowing testimony of Him who had found her, both of His grace and of her own sinfulness. ‘Come and see a man, who told me all things that I ever did. Is not this the Christ?” She becomes a witness for the Lord, and is anxious to make Him known to others, who needed Him. While the Lord had told her first “go and call thy husband” she now goes to the city to call the men of the city to come out and see Christ. They must have known her character; how great must have been their surprise when this abandoned woman, all aglow with fervor and emotion, brought such a message! Her ‘“‘Come and see,” the blessed words of grace we found so prominent in the first chapter of this Gospel, used first by the Lord and by His disciples, found a great response, for the men went out and came to Him.*
Verses 31-38. These words were spoken by our Lord to His disciples during the interval of the woman’s departure and the coming of the Samaritans. How little they knew with what their-Lord and Master was occupied! They thought of only the body and its temporal wants, and were ignorant of what filled His holy soul. They were ignorant of the meat, the other food, He was eating. Their ignorance is at once revealed when they speak to each other, “Hath any man
*What foolish inventions the Roman Catholic Church has made may be learned from the commentary of Cornelius a Lapide. He says the woman’s name was Photine; she later suffered martyrdom, and that her head is kept as a relic in the Basilica of St. Paul in Rome, and that it was actually shown to him!
brought Him ought to eat?’ But the meat He meant was not that which satisfies the body, but that which refreshed His soul, namely, doing the will of His Father who sent Him, and to finish His work. That was His delight. And when He spoke of finishing His work, He must have looked on towards the goal, why He had come to earth — to die the death of the Cross. The will of His Father had been done in leading the Samaritan woman to Himself, so that ere long she would be a worshipper in spirit and in truth. And how His loving soul must have longed for the Samaritans to come!
Then He quoted a familiar saying, well known at that time: “Four months, then cometh the harvest.” But He speaks of another field and another harvest. Perhaps when He uttered these words, “lift up your eyes, and look on the fields, for they are white already to harvest,’ He pointed towards the Samaritan city and the stream of the inhabitants passing through the fields to seek His presence. ‘These men coming to Him showed that the fields were ripe for the harvest. We should also remember that our Lord used the field as a type of the world in which the good seed is to be sown. (Matthew xiii.) Reaping and sowing, sowing and reaping, will continue in this field till the harvest, the great harvest comes, when He comes again. And He that goeth into that field and reapeth, receiveth wages and gathers fruit and results, not for this present life, but for eternal life. Then, in glory comes the time when the sower and the reaper will rejoice together. These statements of our Lord, as well as those which follow, must be looked upon by way of contrast with the work done in the Old Testament by the Prophets. “I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labor; other men labored and ye entered into their labors.” The “other men” are the laborers of the Old ‘Testament who prepared the ground and sowed the seed; the disciples with their testimony as to Christ and His finished work would reap the harvest. Nor must we forget Himself as the great sower and the great reaper, that the joy and the glory belongs to Him. Of Him it is true what is written in the Psalms — ‘He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again .with rejoicing, bringing His sheaves with Him.” And when He comes, bringing His sheaves with Him, all His servants will receive the reward for the sowing and reaping.
Verses 39-42. How wonderful it is! The simple testimony of the woman, her ‘‘Come and see,” her witness to Christ in the few words she spoke, brought such glorious results, so that many Samaritans believed on Him. She had become a soul winner. Every Christian should be a soul winner. The more simple, earnest, direct and unassuming a testimony to the Lord Jesus Christ is, the more it will be owned by the Spirit of God. Every true believer may be used as this Samaritan woman was in leading others to Him. And when the Samaritans came, saw Him and heard His words, they entreated Him to tarry with them and He abode two days. They were not like the Gergesenes who asked Him to depart. Then many more believed on Him because of His own words; they had a higher evidence than the testimony of the woman. Hearing Him they knew that He is indeed the Saviour of the world.
We must not leave this portion of the Gospel without showing its interesting dispensational meaning. When our Lord went to Samaria He had left behind Jerusalem, and that which is represented by it, Judaism. In Samaria, He is, so to speak, on Gentile ground. What we have learned, the truth our Lord unfolds to the Samaritan woman, is specifically Christian truth. The fullness of grace, as the result of the finished work of Christ on the Cross; the coming and the gift of the Holy Spirit, indwelling the believer; the true worship, the Father seeking such worshippers; the witness bearing of the woman; the many Samaritans who believed on Him as the Saviour; are all the characteristic blessings of this age, the blessings of the Gospel as preached among Gentiles. The two days our Lord tarried in Samaria have, therefore, also a typical meaning. They foreshadow the time when divine grace is being manifested to the Gentiles, while Jerusalem is set aside. The same period of time is indicated in the prophecy of Hosea. In chapter vi of that Prophet we find a prophetic description of the repentance of a part of the Jews in the future. They will say then: “Come, and let us return unto the Lord, for He hath torn, and He will heal us: He hath smitten and He will bind us up.
After two days will He revive us; in the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live in His sight” (Hosea vi:1-2). The third day is the day of their coming restoration when Israel receives the kingdom, which the Lord as the promised Messiah-King first preached unto them and which they rejected. That third day, the day of the coming Kingdom will last 1,000 years; it is the millennium. The preceding two days during which Israel is dead, spiritually and nationally, cannot mean two literal days; they are prophetic days as God measures days — ‘‘One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”’*
The two days here in this Gospel when our Lord tarried with the Samaritans have the same meaning typically, foreshadowing the period of time when His grace goes forth to the Gentiles, as it still does. The remainder of this chapter fully confirms this and we shall see how the recorded events show what is yet to take place in the future, when He returns and Israel is restored and blest. But before we do this we call attention to another fact. The Lord did not perform a single miracle among the Samaritans. Not a sick one was brought to be healed; the Samaritan woman and the other Samaritans believed without seeing a single sign, or manifestation of His divine power. It was different when the Lord sent His disciples to carry the Gospel of the Kingdom to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then He told them,“‘Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not.”... “Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons” (Matthew x:7-8). And why did the Lord give power to His disciples to perform miracles? Because they were the heralds of the kingdom the King was offering to Israel, and that offer demanded the outward signs and miracles promised in connection with the kingdom. But when in Samaria the Lord did not perform a single miracle, in harmony with the characteristic of this age, the age of faith and not the age of sight. ‘This ought to help those who have been misled by false teaching, who think that miracles, healings, certain
*We do not want our readers to understand that we teach that this present age, therefore, must last the full two thousand years. The exact duration of this age, or the durationofthe times of the Gentiles cannot be definitely ascertained.
gifts, like the gift of tongues, ought to be revived in connection with the preaching of the Gospel of Grace and the Church.
Verses 43-45. The two days over, the Lord came to Galilee, back to Cana, where He had turned the water into wine; He came back to His own country, that which was His land. So will He return some day to His own and as the Galileans received Him, even so He will find a welcome from the faithful remnant of His people. That Cana is mentioned again where He had made the water wine, the blessed type of the coming days of joy and glory, is to tell us that when the days of gracious Gentile visitation are over that which His first miracle foreshadows will be accomplished.
Verses 46-54. The nobleman was a courtier, probably attached to Herod’s magnificent court. This nobleman is of course not the same person mentioned in Matthew viii:5, for there it is a servant who is healed, here it is a son. The miracle reported by John is nowhere else mentioned in the synoptic Gospels. This courtier had heard that Jesus had come, and then he appeared in His presence, beseeching Him to heal his son who was sick unto death. The words which our Lord first addressed to him, “‘Except ye see signs and wonders ye will not believe,” bring out the contrast between the simple faith of the Samaritans and the unbelief of the Galileans and the Jews, which demanded signs and wonders in order to believe. The request of the nobleman is answered by the Lord; the son was healed by the Word of the Lord. He demonstrated His power, the power of God. The very hour the Son of God had spoken ‘“Thy son liveth” the deadly fever had left him. The healing Word, “Go thy way; thy son liveth,” was spoken at one o’clock p. m. Capernaum, where the healing took effect, was about twenty miles away. The late Professor Curtis rode from Cana to Capernaum easily in a little more than four hours. The nobleman might have been back and by his son’s side by five o’clock, yet we read that it was the next day before he went home. What kept that father, but a moment before Jesus spake the life-restoring Word so filled with fear and distress about his son, quietly at Cana all those hours? Nothing, clearly, but a new born faith in the power of His Word, and a new born love for Himself. Nothing less than this could have kept that father from the bedside of his son.
The experience of millions confirms the truth of the incident; for the Christian’s assurance rests on the Word of God and on that alone. We are saved by believing in Christ according to the Word of God, and we have quietness and assurance by believing what the Word says about the finished work of Christ. This second sign the Lord did typifies the healing and restoration of Israel, the third day, when He will raise them up and they shall live in His sight and declare His glory.