Studies in the Gospel According XXX' ' X to John* : By R. A. TORREY ’ (T hese Studies are for car,efiil study, n o t rapi|d and heedless reading) • II. The Public Ministry of Jesus Leading Those Who Were of the Truth to Believe in Him as the Christ, the Son of God. Ch. 1:19— 12:50 (continued). rv 9. The Lord Jesus’ testimony as to say, “Her reply seems to have to the Woman of Samai;ia that involved thè assumption that the He was the Christ, and the Wo- promise could not be made good.” - It man s testimony, He ‘‘told me involved nothing of the kind. She had ^ i ®VGr I did, (ch, not at all grasped‘all the heights and continued). ' depths of our Saviour’s' thought; far 1 c P H . • from it, but still there was a cesire for •V. 15. 1he woman saith unto him, the water that this wonderful man r ^ T’ ^ ord)> Swe me this water, could give. Her prayer was genuine. that I thirst not, neither come hither right to the point, and it was heard; H B H h way Either) to draw.” promptly heard and wonderfully'ans- ihe relation between the woman of wered, though not in the way she ex- Samaria and our Lord is now cbiahg- pécted ( v s /16-26, 29-32). 1 s- inf: . He had begun by asking her for Though something of the meaning a drink, but she is awakening to the of-the Saviour’s words are beginning act that she has a deeper need ,than to dawn upon her, yet this woman still He has, and of a better water than she thinks of her physical wants, and hopes can give. So now she asks Him who to escape from the labor involved in first asked her. The woman had not going every day to Jacob’s Well The gra’sped the wonderful depths of our gift that Jesus could bestow seemed to words thought, she had still a very her to have two excellencies: (1) It superficial idea of the, water that He would satisfy her own heed; ( 2 ) It could give, but a more or less faint would satisfy others, and so she would glimmering of the truth is dawning be relieved from the necessity of go- upon her.. Her request wàs shallow, daily to draw water for them. In and more or less unintelligent, but her this she was right as far as she went, desire was real. She really wished for but it would satisfy her own need in the water that Jesus could give. Her a far different sense from what she request was not unlike that of those thought and satisfy the need of those who said in John 6 :34, “ Evermore she served in a far different sense give us this bread,T and yet she was from what she thought. ' V. T 6 , “■Jesus (rather, He) saith was testing-or ironical; but this does unto (rather, to) her, Go, call thy not ■fit the context at all, nor does it husband, and come hither.”* fit in with a true understanding of - This was a startling turn to the con- human nature. The story as'told by versation and at the first glance our . John is in wonderful accord with true Lord’s words seem to' have little Con- psychology: the story could not have nectiotr with the woman’s request' but been made -up. One has gone so far in reality they have ' the closest and »Copyright, by R. À. Torrey, 1914 . deepest connection with the request. not quite as shallow as they. Lightfoot- and. others have suggested that she
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