THE KING’S BUSINESS
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was. The gift of God to which the Lord Jesus here refers, the context and other passages show to have been the real living water, of which the best earthly water was but a type and suggestion, viz., the Holy Ghost (vs. 13, 14; cf. ch. 7:37-39). Any one who really knew this gift of God would long for it. There are many today, even in our churches, who do not know it; they have heard of it, but have the dimmest sort of apprehension of what it means. Oh, that all might really know this "gift of God,” the Holy Ghost (Matt. 3 :11; ch. 1 :33; Acts 2 :32,33), she would have at once asked of Him regardless of the fact that He was a Jew and she a Samaritan, and He on His part would have heard her prayer and granted her then and there the “living water.” Why this gift of God was callel “living water” we shall see later. The second “thou” in,this verse is very empha tic', the thought being that if the woman had really known who it was who was speaking to her, and what He could give, she Would have been the asker and not He, for thirsty as He was, she had a deeper thirst and one that more needed satisfac tion. The Jews were familiar with the use phrase “living water” as applied to ’the quickening energies that proceed from Jehovah Himself (Zech. 14:8; Jer. 2:13; 17:13). But the Lord Jesus was about to give a more definite and fuller meaning to this familiar phrase. We learn from this verse that the Lord Jesus Himself is the Giver of the Holy Ghost, and that the three conditions necessary oh our part in order to receive the Holy Ghost a re: (1) that we know that there is such a gift; (2) that we know Jesus Himself, the Giver of the Gift; (3) that we simply ask Jesus to bestow the gift of the Holy Ghost upon us (cf. Luke 11:13). If she had asked of Him He would have given, and if we ask He will give. By speaking of Himself as the Giver of the Holy Ghost and thus the fountain of living waters, the Lord clearly claims Deity for Himself. Nobody but God can give the Holy Ghost, and in the Old Testament it is Jehovah,
spirit. If she had had any generosity of spirit at all she would have given a thirsty stranger a drink without asking how He being a Jew could ask a drink of her, a Samaritan. However, it was natural that she should be startled by the request, for the Jews of the day considered any con tact with the Samaritans defiling. Resent ment on her part toward any Jew was, quite natural, as the Samaritans were annually anathematized in all the Jewish synago gues, their testimony not taken in Jewish courts, the Jews prayed that Samaritans might have no share in the resurrection, and it was taught that entertaining Samari tans was laying up judgment for one’s children. It is said “that the Samaritans who touched a Jew washed off the pollu tion with all speed.” So there may have been a touch of contempt in the woman’s reply. The last clause of the verse is John’s explanation of the woman’s remark and should be in parenthesis, as in the Revis'ed Version. v. 10. "Jesus answered, and said unto her, I f 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 water.” There is wonderful grace and wonderful tact in the’ answer of our Lord Jesus. It is not a direct answer to the woman’s ques tion, it went far deeper than that. The woman had sought an explanation of the marvel that a Jew should ask a favor of a Samaritan woman, but probably she her self had dimly guessed that there was some deeper meaning lying back of it all. This deeper meaning our Lord begins to unfold. If she had known the gift of God, and who the One really was who asked her to give Him a drink, all controversies between Samaritan and Jew would have lost inter est for her, and she would have sought the gift of gifts from the Prince of Givers, who was right there with her. The pur pose of Jesus’ answer was twofold: (1) T o ,awaken in that sleeping soul a desire for the great gift of God. (2) To bring her to a realization of who He Himself
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