CGM Presents: In the Word Podcast

Episode 2, "He Gave Me Living Water" Series 9, Empowered Through Jesus, Our Living Hope

October 11, 2021 Stephanie Wright Season 9 Episode 2
CGM Presents: In the Word Podcast
Episode 2, "He Gave Me Living Water" Series 9, Empowered Through Jesus, Our Living Hope
Show Notes Transcript

Episode 1, “He Gave Me Living Water”

Today, we will look at a woman who discovered what it meant to find peace, comfort, and security when she drank from the water of eternal life offered to her by a man named Jesus.

Hello and welcome to Episode 2, in our new series “Empowered Through Christ Our Living Hope.” My name is Stephanie Wright. Thank you for joining us today. It’s time to step into the living water.

In this series we are looking at how Jesus empowered men and women. Today, we will look at the woman at the well from John, Chapter 4. 

If you would like to be a guest on our podcast email us at: cgmpresents@gmail.com 
We can be reached on Facebook at CGM Podcast International and our handle for Twitter and Instagram is @cgmissions, and  for YouTube is cgmissions. CGM is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Donations may be sent through CashApp to: $cgmissions

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CGM is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Donations may be made on our website: https://www.cgmissions.com/donate-here/


Episode 1, “He Gave Me Living Water”

Today, we will look at a woman who discovered what it meant to find peace, comfort, and security when she drank from the water of eternal life offered to her by a man named Jesus.

Hello and welcome to Episode 2, in our new series “Empowered Through Christ Our Living Hope.” My name is Stephanie Wright. Thank you for joining us today. It’s time to step into the living water.

In this series we are looking at how Jesus empowered men and women. Today, we will look at the woman at the well from John, Chapter 4. When the woman at the well met Jesus, she was thirsting for hope, security, and a love that would be lasting. When Jesus told her that he could give her water and she would never thirst again, she did not hesitate to say, “Sir, give me this water, so I will never thirst again, nor have to come here to draw water.” John 4:15. Then, she and Jesus must have had a long conversation because he told her all about herself. I believe Jesus not only told her about the five times she had been married and that she was now living with a man to whom she was not married, but he let her know he understood why she had been married five times and about her present situation. You see, we have heard for years that this woman was a bad person because of all the times she had been married and because she was living with a man. However, we never hear people who tear this woman down expounding on the history of women who lived during that time and why they had to marry and could be set aside in marriage. But this was a history with which Jesus was well acquainted because he was a Jew. When Jesus finished his conversation with this woman, she knew he was a prophet. Even better, when Jesus told her that he was the Messiah (someone whose appearance she was awaiting), she was overwhelmed. She was so overwhelmed that she left her waterpot and went and told everybody to come and see the man who was the Christ. Here we have a woman who is among the first, if not the first, living witness in Samaria. Jesus, I am sure, also spoke with her in kindness, not condemning her. Certainly, if he had spoken to her the way we hear her spoken of across the pulpit and sometimes on Christian television, she would have walked away. Who would tolerate someone condemning and mistreating them?

So, please allow me to briefly share some of the research I did concerning women from that era. Then we will look at what really mattered in this story and how it relates to both women and men.

Jewish women in that time period, more than 2000 years ago were treated just slightly above Gentiles by some and if you know your history, you know that means the women were looked down upon. My husband and I were recently listening to a speaker on television say some women were considered as low as dogs. They could be married off by their fathers as early as 14 years old and they could even be sold into slavery. Women who were married could be divorced by their husbands. They could own property, but the circumstances surrounding that happening were very unlikely. Think about Naomi and Ruth and how, if Boaz had not redeemed Ruth, she and Naomi were going to end up out on the street. Ruth 3:1-4:22. And think about Jesus and what he told John as Jesus was dying on the cross. He looked at John and he told John, "Behold, your mother," and he told his mother, Mary, "Behold, your son." And that's in John, chapter 19. And also think about what Jesus told the Jewish leaders in Matthew, chapter 19, about allowing them to divorce their wives or put away their wives because of the hardness of their hearts. But, Jesus said, that is not the way that it really was intended. So, Jesus knew the position that the women were in, in that day. Nothing had changed from the time of Ruth and Naomi, until the time he met the woman at the well. And even up until the time he died on the cross, he knew that women's positions were very hopeless and uncertain.

This woman at the well was most likely married at a young age and not necessarily to young men. When she was first married, she could have been married to an older man who then died. Then she remarried again because remember your position as a woman, you almost always had to have a husband or a man. Did each husband die? Did her husbands divorce her because of adultery? Highly unlikely because she would not have had a dowery. She would not have had any money to bring with her into another marriage if her husband had divorced her for adultery because he got to keep any money that the father would have given him if she had been caught in adultery. So, it's unlikely that adultery was the reason that this woman had to get remarried again. Being barren also was not the primary reason for divorce.  Consider Elizabeth and Zachariah. Zachariah did not divorce Elizabeth because she was barren although we know she did conceive at a late age in life. Luke 1:5‑25. We simply do not know why this Woman at the Well was married five times and under what circumstances she was living with the man she was living with. We just do not know. She was a woman in search of an answer to her situation.

But we're not just going to gloss over the fact that she was living with a man who was not her husband. That's what Jesus said. The man you're with now is not your husband. That does not necessarily mean then, at that time, what it would mean today. Today, we say you're shacking up with someone, but this is how it was explained in another study that I did as far as the Jewish community, at that time. This is what this author said. As for her current situation, that is her being, living with this man, maybe she had no dowery. Maybe she had no more money. And thus, she couldn't have a formal marriage because that's how they married then. They married through dowery, which means the woman brought money to the marriage. Okay? Meaning her status was similar to a concubine. It's possible that she currently was with an old man who needed care, but his children didn't want to share their inheritance with her. So, the man she was with, didn't give her a dowery document. In other words, a marriage document. Perhaps he was already married making her his second wife. So, while the ancient Jewish culture allowed it, such an arrangement was against Jesus' definition of marriage. Matthew, chapter 19. It makes sense then that Jesus would say she wasn't married.

But here are just a few things we should take away from this story of the woman at the well. Yes, the history of this woman’s circumstances may or may not be important but what is important for us is this. It didn’t matter what this woman’s history was because when it really mattered, this woman at the well, recognized Jesus, accepted Him as the Messiah, and received the everlasting, living water he offered to her.

What about you and me? We have to ask the question: Is he our living water today and every day? Are we dropping our waterpots (our busy-ness) and running and telling people about this man who knows everything about us? Are we telling people that Jesus is the One who came to deliver us from every kind of bondage, especially the bondage of sin? Are we telling them that Jesus in the Way back to God? The way to drink of everlasting water? Everlasting life? Yes, what about the Jesus in you, what about the Jesus in me? Or, are we busy condemning people instead of showing them the love of God through Jesus Christ? Are we leading them to the well of everlasting living water? These are the thoughts I will leave you with today.

Now, stay with us for a closing prayer and for Apostle Charles who will close us out and gives you contact information. And if you would like to be a guest on our podcast contact me at cgmpresents@gmail.com

Lord, we pray for all our listeners that they will daily know you as the One who provides everlasting living water. And if you have not accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, and call on Jesus to deliver you from a life of sin to a life of righteous living in him. Romans 10:9‑10, 13.

If you would like to be a guest on our podcast email us at: cgmpresents@gmail.com 
We can be reached on Facebook at CGM Podcast International and our handle for Twitter and Instagram is @cgmissions, and  for YouTube is cgmissions. CGM is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Donations may be sent through CashApp to: $cgmissions

Citations: Lynn H. Cohick, “Was the Samaritan Woman Really an Adulteress?” Christianity Today, October 12, 2015; Blair G. Van Dyke and Ray L. Huntington, “Sorting Out the Seven Marys in the New Testament,” Religious Educator 5, no. 2 (2004): 53–84.