The Samaritan Woman

The Samaritan woman was told, “Call thy husband, and come hither.” Who asked her to do this? It was the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the One who knows all the secrets of the heart. He sees every heart. He knows how we come up to His house every Sunday. He knows what keeps us busy during the church service. And do you know something? One day we will have to die and stand before Him. We will then have to give an account of the many sermons and messages that we have heard but laid aside.

“Call thy husband.” The Lord Jesus laid the finger in the wound of her life. There He laid His finger on a bosom sin in the life of this woman, a sin that lay deep in her heart. When the Lord comes in the life of His people, then He does not skip over sin, my friends. He continues to lay bare in our life what must be laid bare. We do not want our hearts to be laid open, but the Lord knows what is necessary. Christ does not go around sin, and neither do His servants. They have a duty to point out sin and to admonish the congregation. That is not always accepted; then the minister is not always seen as a loving preacher. But God's servants must point out who we are, and what we are, before God.

This woman answered the Lord by saying that she had no husband. Although she did not have a husband at the present time, she did have a man in her life. Thus she lived with a man outside the marriage bond. Today we call that cohabiting. We may see from this that there is nothing new under the sun.

The woman gave Jesus an evasive answer by saying, ‘T have no husband.” It was as if she wanted to say, “I don't want to speak about that part of my life. That part is mine, and it is private.” But Jesus laid His finger on the sin that controlled her life. This woman must come unto Him in her guilt. There must come a time in her life that she could not carry her burden of guilt any longer. Do you know a burden like that upon the way to eternity? Do you have a burden that is too heavy to carry?

Notice in this history what compassion and love the Lord had while He was probing deeper into the heart of this woman. He knew that if there would be a true spiritual hunger in her heart for that Living Water, then there must come a time that she might know how great her sins were. There must come a time that, by the grace of God, her heart was laid open. We see the Lord Jesus dealing with this sinner in a compassionate way. He did not speak harsh words to her. He did it with great wisdom and in compassion. “Thou hast well said…. For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband.”

Here the Lord spoke about an adulterous life. She had a life that was lived in sin. Here the Lord opened the book of her life. The Lord paged through her book, one page at a time. There her life was opened up before her. Perhaps the first time she divorced her husband, it was a really diffïcult time in her life. But by the time she came to husband number three, she did not have much trouble with it anymore. She went from the one to the other as she lived an adulterous life. She never saw marriage as a sacred bond. And besides this, the man that she was living with was not her husband. The Lord, before He brings His people to that Living Water, will page through their life and lay bare their sins. All that sin must become guilt, and all that guilt must become a burden.

If we had stood next to Jesus at this time, we might have said, “Away with her. There is no hope for that woman. There is no place for her amongst us.” But, my friends, Jesus did not say that. He did not cast her away, but He also did not camouflage what was going on in her life. He put His finger right in the wound. She wanted to keep that portion hidden. But He knew that if that sin were not laid bare, it could not become a burden in the life of the woman. It needed to be a burden that drove her upon her knees, begging for grace and for forgiveness. He knew that. What a wonderful and compassionate Shepherd He is for His sheep! He does not cover up her sin, but He seeks to drive the sinner to Him, who alone can atone for the sinner. May we pray unto the great Shepherd that He may stand amongst us and put His finger where it must be laid, so that there may come a humbling and a bowing before God.

“Sir, I perceive that Thou art a prophet.” Notice how gradually the Lord advanced in her life. We read in verse twelve that she said, “Art Thou greater than our father Jacob?” In verse nineteen it says, “Sir, I perceive that Thou art a prophet.” And then in verse 29 we read, “Is not this the Christ?” It is something wonderful when we see that the knowledge of self, when God uncovers sin, goes together with a knowledge of Christ.

How is it in your life? Has the Lord already laid bare your sinful heart? I do not ask how much sin you can see in your neighbor. It is possible that you are a good discerner, and that you can see sin in the life of your neighbor clearly, and yet that you miss what this woman experienced. It is possible to see all the backsliding in the congregations but yet miss the knowledge of sin in your own heart. But when the Lord begins in the life of a sinner, then he becomes acquainted with his own sin. Then the Lord also awakens a need for the Savior. The woman said to Him that she perceived that He was “a prophet.” He was no longer just a man. No longer was it, “Art Thou greater than our father Jacob?”

Do you ask the Lord for discovering light? Do you ask the Lord to lay your heart open and to put His finger on the wound? If your heart will ever come to the Living Water, Christ Jesus, then there must first come a time that your heart confesses your sins and iniquities at the footstool of God. Lay your heart next to this, my friends, and ask the Lord for discovering light.
to be continued

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