Kenneth Copeland - Who Was the Woman at the Well
— Hello, everybody. Welcome to the day before Thanksgiving, 2022. Praise God. And yesterday we began talking about the woman at the well. And we are learning an extremely important lesson, not to assume anything. Take the facts. I mean, this is in life. And Jesus made the statement, well, let's go back to the fourth chapter of John's gospel. Jesus made the statement, you know a tree by its fruit.
— That's right. And so when we hear people say certain things, but you still don't judge it. I don't know why they said it. I don't know what's behind it. So I cannot... I cannot assume to judge any person. They create a prayer field for me and, you know, when you watch and listen to what political people say, you always must remember doing and saying things in a political office with a political mind only, the same devil that's tried to destroy Israel all of these years is the same devil that's trying to destroy the United States and stop it from being a united state to split it. Now, we as prayer people cannot allow that. We cannot allow it in ourselves and you... There are times that I just don't want to hear that. And anyway Father, we thank You today that we don't second guess You in Your Word or just assume it was this way. And I'm asking You to forgive me for doing that, where this woman at the well was concerned. She was so special that You, Lord Jesus, actually told her that You were Messiah. That was very, very rare. And You saw fit to call her to preach. So who are we to judge her? And we thank You for this passage of Scripture and its teaching. Thank You, sir. In Jesus' name. Amen.
— Amen. So go back in there, Professor, and let's look... Well, you take it up from there because...
— So I don't want to set the whole thing up again about the history, but this is a very important place. This is Jacob's well, this is between the blessing mountain and the cursing mountain. This is where a king would be hung and they would recite the blessing.
— So you have Gerizim on one side and Ebal on the other, Shechem is right in the middle.
— That's where they're at.
— And in the pictures that we have of that, it shows where Jacob's well is.
— That's correct. And Joshua's Altar would have been up the mountain from there and the shout of the blessing and the cursing. There's a nation divided. Now she's part of the group of the Samaritan Israelites. They're Israelites, but they believe that you worship at that mountain, not in Jerusalem. The Judean believer, the Judean Jews believe you worship at Mount Zion in Jerusalem. And that's what the whole split, it's a doctrinal split that's happened between them because of two goofy Kings, Sons of David. Now the real son of David, the seed of David is there. He must needs to go through Samaria for this reason right here. He's going to rectify this whole thing. His name is Jesus, Yeshua. This is where Joshua, Yehoshua once stood. So he's fulfilling this. Okay, we talked about that. She didn't change husbands, but I struggled with the story all the time because it didn't match the character and nature of Jesus, didn't match the way he treated other women and other situations. It seems like this one, he's reading her mail like we like to say, or, you know, exposing her, making her look bad. But when you read the whole story, he's not doing that. There's no indication that... She had been married these times with no indication that she was a scandalous woman of any kind. It's scandalous because he's in Samaria talking to a Samaritan. That's what is scandal. And when you look at this, women didn't initiate divorces. It could be possible their husbands cheated on her or they divorced her with no cause. And it says here that she...
— Would have been barren.
— She could have been barren.
— And they just kept divorcing her and kept divorcing her.
— Which would which fits the narrative better than her being promiscuous, because that would lend its ear to Sarah, wouldn't it?
— Yes.
— And all that restoring things. So he says "Thou hast had five husbands, verse 18 of John 4, and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband in that saidst thou truly. Okay, so she's living with somebody who's not her husband. What if it's her brother? Oh, what if it's her uncle? Why do we assume that she's... use a term that I hear a lot shacking up with somebody. We don't know that. It might be that... she might be having an affair with this man. I don't know. We don't know that, doesn't say that.
— We know this.
— Could be a distant relative.
— We know this. If it was, if it was the ugliest you could think of, he called her anyway.
— Right. She is surviving.
— Yes.
— And she's out there at the well at this time.
— But he just look past any and every bit of her past.
— Right.
— And turned it completely around. He called her to preach.
— He stayed with his purpose. He didn't put her on the cross of justice here. He's letting you know. I know everything. I know all the pain. Here's what he's doing. I know all the pain you've endured. Just like Joseph. This is Joseph's land.
— Yes.
— Joseph endured a lot of pain by the hands of his brothers. She's a female. Joseph... before she is. He's restoring... Because Joseph's bones are buried there. John makes a point to say that. All right, Shechem is.... Here's another thing. Shechem is one of the cities of refuge. In Israel, they had cities of refuge. So a city of refuge is a place where you accidentally killed somebody and now eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But if you can get to a city of refuge, you can live there. But you can't leave the city of refuge.
— You have to stay there. So maybe she has to be in a city of refuge. I don't know. And she's come into the well at this time because this is a safe time to get out of town, to get water, to go back. Who knows? But it's a safe haven. Excuse me. And so she's living outside of the tourist prescription here. And so there's a special place of God's grace for her, because that's who she meets. Maybe she's there because of a crime, it doesn't say. Shechem, the Joshua assembled the tribes of Israel and he challenged them at Shechem to abandon their gods in favor of God. He made a covenant with them. He buried Joseph's bones there. He made them say, "As for me in my house, we will... This is where... Shechem's house. So he's making something for her right there. Just like Joshua did before. Choose this day, who are you going to serve? You're going to worship in this mountain. Are you going to worship? Because I'm telling you, the day's coming when those that will worship will worship in spirit and truth, he's turning her to a new... a new in a better way. He's pointing to the new covenant.
— I just heard from the Lord, the Lord may be calling you today. He may be calling you right now and calling you... He may be calling you to preach. Oh, brother, I'm too old. Well, hey, it's better to get it done in order than leave it undone. But this is speaking to you right now. Whatever her past was, didn't get in the way of Jesus calling her to go preach. And she obeyed him. And she started a meeting in that area.
— That's right.
— Which we will see. I mean, she went in and told about it and then they called him in there to preach and they said, Oh, we heard her, but now we've heard you ourselves.
— Yeah, well, let's look at it. Verse 27, upon this came his disciples and marvelled that he talked with the woman. Notice that they marveled that he's speaking to a Samaritan woman, "Yet no man said, What seekest thou? or why talkest thou with her? Nobody questioned Jesus. I love that about the disciples.
— I do too.
— There's honor. They see him, they're there. This is different. Why is he doing this? But they honored him. The woman then left her water pot. Look. Look at her. Look how excited she is. She leaves the water pot and went her way into the city and said to the men, Come see a man which told me all things I ever did, is this not the Messiah or the Christ? Then they went out of the city, and came unto him. In the mean while his disciples prayed him, saying, Master, eat. But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of. Therefore said the disciples one to another, Hath any man brought him ought to eat? Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work. Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. He's pointing them to the harvest field in Samaria right here, guys, these people will believe.
— We have to do this. Yes, we're called here.
— Yeah, well, here we go. And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth. I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours. And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman, which testified, there she's preaching.
— Yes,
— He told me all that ever I did. So when the Samaritans were come unto him, they besought him that he would tarry with them: and he abode there two days. Jesus not only delivered her, he committed himself to her.
— Yes he did.
— And many more believed because of his own Word; And said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, Messiah the Saviour of the world. Now after two days he departed thence, and went into Galilee.
— She started a move of God.
— She started a revival. Now, among people that the righteous, the Judeans, they bypass them. How many people Brother Copeland, have we prejudged and bypassed? Right now if somebody, if an evangelist would set up a tent at the southern border, all those people coming into the country, you can have a revival like you've never seen. God's royal son came to reunite Israel with Judah, reunite these two people. He reunited her with the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, her former father's at the very place where the Israelites renewed their covenant in response to God's Word. Choose this day who you will serve. And Jesus did that. He revealed himself to her, told her plainly who He was, and that entire city.
— Now is there traditional information about her, of her, her future after that.
— I don't know anything after that, but I know that many Samaritans believe on him as a result of that. I mean, they're even mentioned to the point that Jesus will give a final assignment. Well, first of all, he'll teach the Good Samaritan, the ten lepers, and one comes back thankful. The one that came back thankful was a Samaritan.
— Yes, it was. Let's go to that.
— Okay. That's over in Luke, chapter 17.
— There's something very special about this that I want to bring out.
— Luke, 17 verse 11, "Came to pass as he went to Jerusalem. They passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee, and he entered into a certain village there, met him ten men who were lepers, which stood afar off, and they lifted up their voices and said, Jesus Master have hesed, mercy on me, on us. And when he saw them, he said to them, Go show yourselves to the priests. It came to pass as they went. They were cleansed. Now that's what you do after leprosy, you go show yourself to the priest. So where are they going to go? They're going to go to Jerusalem, to the temple, and show themselves to the priest. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: Thanksgiving week... "giving thanks. And he was a Samaritan. Now, Samaritan can't go to Jerusalem to show himself to the priest. So what did he do? He showed himself to the priest.
— Yes, he did.
— That's all he did, he followed the rules. Jesus is my God. He's our high priest, the apostle. And so he came and he showed himself to the priest and gave thanks exactly as he was instructed, because he's a Samaritan. And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine?
— Now listen to that. How did he know? He said it by faith. He fully expected every one of them to be cleansed as they went. And he just... Were there not ten cleansed? That's his faith speaking. Well, of course, there were ten cleared.
— And they didn't lose their cleansing.
— No,
— They kept it.
— How did they get cleansed? He said it.
— That's it.
— He didn't think it. He said it. He believed it and he said it with his mouth. He did exactly what he taught. And Mark 11:22, 23, 24, 25. He believed it and he said it. And to him, there was no possibility of any of them not being cleansed.
— That's right. But look at the tension of the day. This goes back to the woman at the well, verse 18 says, are there not found that returned to give glory to God, save the stranger?
— Yes.
— Now he's an Israelite, but he's a Samaritan. So he's referred to as a stranger. Do you remember Brother Copeland? We were strangers and aliens to the covenants of promise. But Christ became the way for us to be partakers of the covenant.
— This area right here in this story is just pregnant with revelation. Look at this. There are not found that return to give glory to God, save this stranger. And He said unto him, arise, go your way. Your faith has made you whole. Now they're lepers. It could have been that the moment he came back, healed but body parts missing. But he said your faith made you whole. What does that mean? He's been a shut in. He's been shunned. What kind of financial situation do you think he's in? But his faith made him whole. So whatever parts were missing, now he's whole. Whatever financial part is missing, now he's whole. And he did something, he knew. Here's a Samaritan. He knew he was not supposed to go to Jerusalem, but he just took off anyway.
— Well, they've been united by the sickness. Didn't matter if you were a Jew or Samaritan, you're a leper.
— He took Jesus at his word.
— Yes, he did.
— And they shouted, Have mercy on us, because they're all in this thing together. They're all sick and torn up. They all got healed. He was made whole.
— And he went to the New Covenant High Priest. He did go to the High Priest. Jesus says at the end, when he gives us an assignment, that was our assignment. He goes, Go to Jerusalem, tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power then Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria. What does he tell the disciples? The harvest is ready right now.
— Now, we're still studying words are spiritual containers.
— Yes, sir.
— This man's words of praise spoke his faith and Jesus... I mean, and he fell down and worshipped him..
— Yes, he did.
— While the others went to Jerusalem, I'm going to say they got any less. But here's a man that just took it at faith value, knowing he's a Samaritan, knowing Jesus isn't. Have mercy! They were believers.
— Yes, sir.
— And they really didn't care one way or the other. But they all obeyed. They just took off.
— They did.
— And as they went, they were cleansed.
— They went on a word.
— They did.
— It's all it was,
— And his Word... The key word there was mercy. They're speaking Hebrew.
— That's right.
— The key word is the covenant word hesed. Excuse me. And when hesed is called upon, then Jesus in no way can turn it down. He's obligated by that word.
— Well, when they said Jeshua Master, that's acknowledging his Lordship, have mercy on us. See that woman at the well called him Lord?
— Yes, she did.
— And forever changed her and the people in that region. This is why he sent at that great commission, sent them back there into all the world. That's the answer. Today Nablus, Palestinian Authority, sits right there. That city. That's the answer to the problem in the Middle East. A revival of those two brothers, it would change everything.
— Yes, amen.
— And that's what changes America. That's the answer to racism. That's the answer to immigration problem is revival of thanks on the Word will change this.
— Now this reminds me of the fact, excuse me, that the Bible purposely points out and continues to call her this Rahab the harlot. Now it tells what she was and God just look right past that. He can handle it. It's people that get all shook up about it.
— She's in the lineage of Jesus.
— Yeah. Oh yeah. But the Bible just continues to point that out. And it's just this Book. Oh my... We study this thousand years and never get it all and we're out of time again today. Oh, okay. We'll take it up here tomorrow. Glory to God. And we'll be back in just a moment.