Satisfied
Verse 1: All my life long I had panted for a draught from some clear spring, that I hoped would quench the burning of the thirst I felt within.
Chorus: Hallelujah! I have found Him, Whom my soul so long has craved! Jesus satisfies my longings Thro’ his blood I now am saved.
Verse 2: Feeding on the husks around me, Til my strength was almost gone, longed my soul for something better on still to hunger on.
Chorus: Hallelujah! I have found Him, Whom my soul so long has craved! Jesus satisfies my longings Thro’ his blood I now am saved.
Verse 3: Poor I was, and sought for riches, Something that would satisfy, but the dust I gathered round me only mocked my soul’s sad cry.
Chorus: Hallelujah! I have found Him, Whom my soul so long has craved! Jesus satisfies my longings Thro’ his blood I now am saved.
Verse 4: Well of water, ever springing, Bread of life so rich and free, untold wealth that never faileth My Redeemer is to me.
Chorus: Hallelujah! I have found Him, Whom my soul so long has craved! Jesus satisfies my longings Thro’ his blood I now am saved.
John 4: 10-26 (NLT) 19 “Sir,” the woman said, “you must be a prophet. 20 So tell me, why is it that you Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place of worship, while we Samaritans claim it is here at Mount Gerizim, where our ancestors worshiped?”
21 Jesus replied, “Believe me, dear woman, the time is coming when it will no longer matter whether you worship the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans know very little about the one you worship, while we Jews know all about him, for salvation comes through the Jews. 23 But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. 24 For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”
25 The woman said, “I know the Messiah is coming—the one who is called Christ. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” 26 Then Jesus told her, “I AM the Messiah!”
Satisfied
The story of the woman at the well is familiar to many of us – we’ve heard about her condition and station in life – in the Book of John, we are told that Jesus was coming from Judea to Galilee – and in the middle of that journey an urgency to go to Samaria arose. I am so glad my situation is on Christ’s to-do list. His travels brought him to the Jacob’s well in Sychar and there He rested and waited for His appointment to show up. Around about noon a woman came to the well and her forever was changed because she met Jesus. The interaction goes something like this – Can you give me something to drink? The woman – I know you’re Jewish why are you asking me anything? –You have no idea who you’re talking to – if you did you would ask me and I would give you the greatest gift you ever had in your life, living water! – Well, you’re doing all this talking and you don’t even have anything to get this water with, and besides do you think you’re greater than our father Jacob, I mean come on now. The water from this well may be good – but the water I have is the best ever, one drink and you’re thirst will be quenched, your soul revived and you’ll have everlasting life. Oooh I want that water. Good then go getcha your husband. I ain’t got one of those. I know you’ve had five and the one you’ve got now isn’t yours. Oh wow, I think you’re a prophet, we usually have church over here, but ya’ll say the only church is over there. Woman, later for all that, it’s time to Worship God the Father, He is your salvation, He’s looking for those whose heart is turned toward Him and who are willing to put aside temporal things and seek Him honestly and sincerely. You know, I heard that the Messiah, the Christ is coming and when He comes, He will tell us all things. The One who is speaking to you, I am!
So this sister went to tell the other Samaritans what had happened, and how she met Jesus….
This story has been told from the perspective of this woman’s life, specifically the part about the husbands. I mean, she’s been called everything except a child of God. Yet there’s really no biblical account that she was a woman of ill repute – I mean Jesus didn’t address her as harlot, trollup, scunion or anything like that – the towns folks didn’t call her floozy, loosey, scunion or anything like that. We hear five husbands and think well this sister’s got a reputation, but I am thinking there had to be something within her that caused the necessity within Jesus to have a must needs desire to get to see her. As I began tearing into this, I think there was a worshipper’s spirit within her, I want to believe there was something within her longing for something more than just water. She knew of God but had no relationship with Him, she believed in the little bit that she knew, But her belief system was off kilter, so God dispatched His Son to and meet this woman and Jesus got down to the heart of the matter with her. Thank God, that He sent His Son to us, to show us the way back to the Father.
Jesus starts with her and the well --- You see this well was significant to the Samaritans because it was on the plot of land that Jacob bought for Joseph – and although this well water was no doubt good, Jesus tells her that this water even from this ancestral well is not sufficient enough to supply her soul’s need… He says to her, if you only knew who it was who was talking to you and this wonderful gift you would have asked of Him and He would have given you water, not well water, living water. Water that would bring everlasting life! He was speaking of a direct relationship with the fountain of every blessing. Not just some water that is found at the end of a pit. You know wells get their water by being dug down below the water table to the point where an aquifer is, and aquifer is an underground layer of water bearing rock. Here Jesus is saying to this woman I want to give you more than just some water from the bottom. I will be your aquifer, I will be the Rock that gives you water and not only water to temporarily give you a reprieve from your thirst but come and drink of me, your thirst will be quenched, your soul revived and you can live me! He wanted to give her and us a type of water that always satisfies -
And as she ponders his offering, she began talking about church, or what she knew of church. She knew her church history, that they were children of Jacob, the swindler. You see the Jews claimed their heritage of Abraham, but the Samaritans were Jacob’s kids. And that’s when Jesus hits her with the husband thing. Now we can look at dismay at this woman for what Jesus says to her, that she has five husbands and the one she’s got now is not hers. There are a lot inferences there, but I just want to take it in a different way for a second: she is a Samaritan – and Samaritans had a religion that only believed in the Torah, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. Jesus said to her ya’ll don’t even know what worship truly is, because you only stopped at the first five books. There’s so much more of God that is written for our worship to be true, we praise God for what He does, but worship is based on who He is! He has written His story for us to know Him, and once you know Him, you’ve got to love Him! Perhaps Jesus was saying to her, the things that have kept you weren’t your true husbands – Isaiah 54:5 says, “for your Creator will be your husband. The LORD Almighty is his name! He is your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel” She was off base in her worship or what she thought was worship. She may have thought she was being kept by Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses – they were good, but not good enough. To top it off, the Samaritan worship system was a hodge-podge of paganism and Judaism, and maybe she thought that would keep her in standing with God. But Jesus came to tell her not so! Those five were not it and the current situation ain’t working either! I am so glad Christ came to change not only my heart but my mind! I spent so many lost years thinking I could just do things to get right with God, I was wrong! God wants my heart and my mind! He wants to transform my thinking and my worship focus. We like this woman sometimes come short of true worship because we attempt to revive old God-experiences, and are not willing to learn of God who never changes but is always doing a new thing. We sometimes feel our association with the building is our ticket into the kingdom. We assume our songs of faith and tradition speak of our salvation. We believe our testimonies confirm our transformation – but I hear the Lord saying – “come unto me all you who are weak and heavy-laden and I will give you rest, take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light, and you shall find rest for your souls.”
We all have well moments – when in the course of our everyday living – we meet the living Savior and He shows us more of Him - even if we think we know it all – what we know is a drop in the bucket, what we don’t know is the entire ocean!
This sister was relying on her religious training – that was faulty at best, but she did know she wasn’t thirsty for water; her soul was craving something she could not ever explain. I am so glad that Christ knows what we need in the time we need it and He makes Himself evident to us in order to bring us to Him. This woman had no idea that she was having a face to face with the King of Glory, but even with her little bit of religious training she knew that the Messiah was on His way little did she know that she was talking to
The Ram in the bush from Genesis
The Passover Ram of Exodus
The High Priest of Leviticus
The Cloud by day and pillar of fire by night of Numbers
The City of Refuge of Deuteronomy
The Scarlet Thread of Joshua
The Deliverer of Judges
The Kinsman Redeemer of Ruth
The Trusted Prophet of 1st Samuel
The coming Kingdom 2nd Samuel
The Established Throne of 1st Kings
The Patience of God 2nd Kings
The One who releases from captivity of 1st Chronicles
The Smoke of the Temple of 2nd Chronicles
The faithful scribe of Ezra
The Rebuilder of our brokenness of Nehemiah
The Orchestrator of time of Esther
The Living Redeemer of Job
The Mighty Shepherd of Psalms
The Word of Wisdom of Proverbs
The Teacher of the meaning of life of Ecclesiastes
The Rose of Sharon of Song of Solomon
The Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace of Isaiah
The Balm in Gilead of Jeremiah
The Faithful one of Lamentations
The Wheel in the middle of wheel of Ezekiel
The Forth man in the fiery furnace of Daniel
The Redeeming Lover of Hosea
The Restorer of dreams of Joel
The voice of justice of Amos
The faithful protector of Obadiah
The message of salvation of Jonah
The offer of pardon of Micah
The Stronghold in the day of trouble of Nahum
The Yet praise of Habakkuk
The call to repentance of Zephaniah
The Desire of all nations of Haggai
The coming of salvation on donkey of Zechariah
The Son of Righteousness with healing in his wings of Malachi
And she sure didn’t know that he was
The Christ, the Son of the living God of Matthew
The miracle worker of Mark
The Son of Man of Luke
The Lamb of God of John
The mighty wind of Acts
The Justifier of Romans
The first fruit of they that sleep of 1 Corinthians
The Sin bearer of 2 Corinthians
The Gift of God of Galatians
The Unsearchable Riches of Ephesians
The Joy of Philippians
The Fullness of God-head bodily of Colossians
The soon coming king of 1 Thessalonians
The Lord of peace of 2nd Thessalonians
The King Eternal of 1st Timothy
The King Immortal of 2nd Timothy
The Blessed hope of Titus
The Faithful Friend of Philemon
The High Priest forever of Hebrews
The Healer of the Sick of James
The Bishop of our Souls of 1 Peter
The Daystar of 2nd Peter
The Advocate of 1 John
The Truth of 2nd John
The faithful friend of 3rd John
The One who is able to keep us from falling of Jude
The Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the one who was, who is and who is to come of Revelation.
I call Him Jesus, the One who hung bled and died to buy my pardon, the One who came to me when I couldn’t go where He was, He came to me – on a Hill far away, stood an old rugged cross the emblem of suffering and shame – but I love that old cross where the dearest and best for a world of lost sinners was slain – He came to me….He came to me…and if you don’t know – now you know! I can sing, Hallelujah I have found Him whom my soul so long has craved, Jesus satisfies my longings and through His blood I now am saved.
I pray you have many well moments, with the Great I am, and that your encounter with Him transforms Your life into an everlasting praise of the One who has called You out of darkness into His Marvelous light.
Be blessed and a blessing.
Rev. Lauri Smalls (401) 265-4321
Pastoral Associate
Community Baptist Church
Newport, RI, USA
lesmalls@yahoo.com
