“IF YOU KNEW!”

John 4:7-26                                       (ESV)

“7 A woman from Samaria came 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 The Samaritan woman said to HIM, "How is it that YOU, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?" (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)

10 JESUS answered her, "IF YOU KNEW” the gift of GOD, and WHO it is that is saying to you, 'Give ME a drink,' you would have asked HIM, and HE would have given you LIVING WATER."

11 The woman said to HIM, "Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water?

12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock."

13 JESUS said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again,

14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

15 The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water."

16 JESUS said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come here."

17 The woman answered HIM, "I have no husband." JESUS said to her, "You are right in saying, 'I have no husband';

18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true."

19 The woman said to HIM, "Sir, I perceive that YOU are a prophet.

20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but YOU say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship."

21 JESUS said to her, "Woman, believe ME, the hour is coming when neither on 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 the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the FATHER in Spirit and Truth, for the FATHER is seeking such people to worship HIM.

24 GOD IS SPIRIT, and those who worship HIM must worship in Spirit and ruth."

25 The woman said to HIM, "I know that Messiah is coming (HE WHO is called CHRIST). When HE comes, HE will tell us all things."

26 JESUS said to her, "I WHO speak to you am HE."”

Not long ago I wrote these words on my Prayer List, “Trusting GOD completely is something that I am being taught, not just for finances, but for doing exactly what HE wants me to do, not just “good things” for good people! (Ephesians 3:20; Job 42:2)”.  Our humanity has a bent to help others, especially those who we love.

In the Scripture above, JESUS has sent HIS disciples into the city to buy food.  HE is alone at the well of Jacob, about 40 miles north of Jerusalem with a woman who was near the bottom of the social ladder of current society. A Samaritan was as lowly a class of people around during the time JESUS walked the earth in HIS physicality.  On top of that, this woman had five failed marriages, and the man she was with now was not even married to her!  Yet, the HOLY ONE WHO spoke the worlds into existence CHOSE her to share the GOOD NEWS with, in spite of how it looked to “this world”!

JESUS told her “IF YOU KNEW”, which is to say her EYES were not yet opened to SEE eternal things, WHO you are speaking with “HE would have given you LIVING WATER."  Of course, John 4:39-42 tells us more, “Many Samaritans from that town believed in HIM because of THE WOMAN’S TESTIMONY, "HE told me all that I ever did."  So when the Samaritans came to HIM, they asked HIM to stay with them, and HE stayed there two days.  And many more believed because of HIS word.

They said to the woman, "It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and WE KNOW that this is indeed the SAVIOR of the world."”

JESUS wasn’t TOO BUSY for a woman who couldn’t seem to get the marriage thing correct.  HE was TOO HOLY to be exposed to a segment of society that others saw as reprobates.  JESUS even spent two more days with the Samaritans ministering to them.  HIS earthly ministry only lasted a little over 1,000 days, yet HE spent at least three of those days with the Samaritans.  HE must have had a different opinion of them than “this world”???

The lesson for this lowly Servant of the MOST HIGH is that whoever JESUS shed HIS royal blood for is surely worth my time to be able to share the GOOD NEWS.  “IF YOU KNEW” how many people you (or I) have passed by to avoid catching a disease, or catching a bad reputation, or catching a BLESSING, would it change your life?  LORD IN HEAVEN, open my EYES and show me how I can be used by YOU “IF I KNEW” what YOU know!!!