This true incident, found in John 4:4-30; 39-42, has great significance in the divine truth of YEHOVAH God's dealings with His covenant nation, the House of Israel. For there are certain incidents and circumstances in the life of this woman which have an identical comparison with the fallen state of the House of Israel and their redemption through the sacrifice of the Messiah.

In verse 4 it states that "it was necessary for him [the Messiah] to pass through Samaria." This was not by chance. This was a deliberate meeting arranged by his Heavenly Father. In John 12:49-50 the Messiah says "For I have not spoken on my own initiative; but the Father who sent me has given me a command, namely, what to say and how to say it. And I know that his command is eternal life. So what I say is simply what the Father has told me to say" (Jewish New Testament). This is the reason why it states that it was necessary for the Messiah to pass through Samaria.

Reading from verses 5 and 6,

"So he came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from his journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour (NKJV)."

The sixth hour, if we think about Roman times, is twelve noon. The Romans had a day-watch of twelve hours and a night-watch of twelve hours. The day-watch began at six o'clock in the morning, so the sixth hour mentioned here is mid-day as we understand it.

Verses 7 and 8,

"A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink." For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food."

Evidently, this meeting was to be on a one-to-one basis between the Messiah and the woman. It was that important!

"Then the woman of Samaria said to him, 'How is it that you, being a Judahite, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman? For Judahites have no dealings with Samaritans.' Jesus answered and said to her, '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.' The woman said to him, 'Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob...?'"

That is a revealing statement made here for two reasons. Not only does she claim ancestry with Jacob/Israel for herself, but in saying "our" she implies there are others like herself dwelling in Sychar. How is this possible, for you will note the Messiah did not question her statement?

The Old Testament has something very interesting to say which hinges on this. YEHOVAH God made a statement that the House of Israel were His vineyard and that the House of Judah were His pleasant plant. This can be found in Isaiah 5:7. Now as long as the House of Israel walked in the pathway of obedience to YEHOVAH's commandments, statutes and judgments, then they proved to be a fruitful people and they indeed brought forth grapes as YEHOVAH's vine. However, we know they became disobedient and turned aside from the LORD and YEHOVAH God had to fulfill His word and cast them out of the land. So the armies of the Assyrians came with their military scythe as it were, and reaped YEHOVAH's errant people of the House of Israel, deporting them away from their land. A foreign people were then brought into the vacated land becoming known as Samaritans. That was Assyrian policy; to make it impossible for a defeated people to return to their roots.

But YEHOVAH God had made another statement through the prophet that He was going to leave Israelites in the land as gleaning grapes, only a few, and that scripture is found in Isaiah 17:6,

Further on in John 4:15 the woman says to the Messiah,

"Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw."

This woman, through force of circumstances, had to come to the well at 12 noon because her lifestyle was unacceptable to the inhabitants of the city. So instead of drawing water early in the morning when the day was cool along with the other women, she had to come in the heat of the day when she could be sure she would not meet anyone. And this is what the Messiah talks about with her next.

He says in verse 16,

"'Go, call your husband, and come here.' The woman answered and said, 'I have no husband.' Jesus said to her, 'You have well said, "I have no husband," for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.'"

It is interesting that her response to the Messiah's words is not indignation. She could easily have rebuffed him but she responds to the Messiah's words by saying,

"Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, and you Judahites say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship."

But the Messiah's reply is a prophetic one,

"'Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Judahites. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth.' The woman said to him, 'I know that Messiah is coming (who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.'"

Because the woman believes the Messiah is going to come means she must have had access to the Holy Scriptures. It is a fact that the Samaritans had a copy of the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament in Hebrew, around 400 BC. There was also the Septuagint, a Greek translation from the Hebrew, in about 250 BC. Thus it was feasible she knew of Moses' words in Deuteronomy 18:18, "I will raise up for them a Prophet like you [Moses] from among their brethren, and will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him."

Then in verse 26, "Jesus said to her, 'I who speak to you am he.'" On a previous occasion the Messiah had been talking with his disciples and he asked them "whom say you that I am?" Peter eventually speaks up and says "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." The Messiah says this has been revealed by the Father and then warns his disciples to tell no-one that he is the Messiah. But here the Messiah is talking to a woman, a sinner, at the well outside the city of Sychar in Samaria -- and he is telling her that he is the Messiah of YEHOVAH God.

There is a prophetic significance about this, insofar as it is YEHOVAH's plan to reveal the Messiah to His Israel nation. This woman, an Israelite, one of the gleaning grapes, is a symbol of the cast aside House of Israel. Consider the state of Israel as we read about them in the Old Testament. They were in an idolatrous state. They had turned aside from YEHOVAH God to follow the idols and practices of other nations and in the eyes of YEHOVAH they had taken other lovers and forsook their Husband YEHOVAH. They had broken their vow to YEHOVAH God, so YEHOVAH had to cast them away.

This woman was living in an outcast situation and now she has met the Messiah and a change begins to take place. No longer is she afraid of the opinions of others or their attitude towards her. Because now she goes to the city and tells them all about the meeting she has had with this wonderful person who knows everything about her. "Is not this the Christ," she says. And they are persuaded by her testimony to go themselves to meet this Yeshua and they want him to spend time with them and to teach them, which he does. Then in verses 41 and 42, "And many more believed because of his own word. Then they  said to the woman, 'Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.'"

The Messiah meeting with the woman of Samaria shows us the prophetic intention of YEHOVAH God towards His people. How He seeks them out and tells them the good news of their redemption and of becoming once again His servant nation.

It is all put succinctly in I Peter 2:9-10,

"But you are a chosen Race, a Royal Priesthood, an holy Nation, a People for a purpose; that you may declare the perfections of Him who called you from Darkness into His wonderful Light; who once were not a People, but now are God's People; who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy" (The Emphatic Diaglott).