The Well That Never Shall Run Dry

In John's 4th chapter is a story about Jesus stopping at Jacob's well, which was in a Samaritan town. He meets a woman there and asks her for a drink of water. She thinks this was quite unusual because normally Jews advoided any contact with Samaritans. The Jewish people hated the Samaritans because they were a people brought in to resettle a part of Northern Israel by the Assyrians a couple of generations earlier, and their blood was mixed Jewish, non-Jewish (Gentile) blood. The Samaritans center of worship was not in Jerusalem, but at Mt. Gerizim. When she questions Jesus He answers; "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." And Jesus goes on to say; "Everyone who drinks (of the water at this well) shall thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life."

The woman does not understand the spiritual point that Jesus made. He then gives her a word of wisdom (knowledge about someone or something that is revealed by the Holy Spirit) to the woman, and still not understanding, but impressed, she responds with a theological question. "I perceive that You are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place that men ought to worship." Jesus tells her that even though her people were worshiping the Father, they didn't understand who He was. The Jews did, because salvation is from the Jews. But there was coming a time when if would not matter where the Father was worshiped. An hour is coming and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."

After Adam and Eve sinned the Spirit of God was not flowing through their spirits. They had made a decision to elevate the soul over the spirit, so God gave them physical signs to represent spiritual realities. The blood sacrifice was one of those. God chose Abram to be the father of a special people, the Jews. The Jewish people would have hearts (spirits) that would be able to be receptive to temporary giftings of the Holy Spirit, and would be able to approach the Father spiritually to a greater extent than could non-Jews. To signify being set apart God instituted another physical sign, circumcision, for Abram (afterwards called Abraham) and His descendants. Circumcision represented a cutting through of the flesh (body) to the spirit.

And God also set up the tabernacle, which would later on be incorporated into the temple in Jerusalem, and gave His people the oral and the written word, and the commandments written on stone. But here is the part that was usually missed, both then and today. The physical things represent spiritual realities, but because God is spirit He is approached on a spiritual basis, and that comes through faith. For example, God set up through the tabernacle a sacrificial system, yet several times in scripture God tells us that the sacrifice itself was not His purpose, that He takes no delight in the blood of bulls and calves. God was looking for both obedience and for the desire of the heart; for true repentance, and for faith that God was both Just and Loving. (see Psalm 51: 16-17)

God instituted the law to compel the Jewish people to the tabernacle (temple). And in the center of the tabernacle, in the Holy of Holies, was where (for a time) the glory of God rested. And every part of the tabernacle speaks of Jesus.. Later Jesus would come, and by being the perfect sacrifice for sin, He is able to enter into our hearts to change them, and to live there. Our hearts then become a tabernacle where the Holy Spirit dwells, and out of our hearts should come as well, rivers of living water.