A Drink for Thirsty Souls

by Whaid Rose

"May I get you something to drink?"

The question comes from a smiling host as you enter his home. You are his guest; he wants you to be refreshed and relaxed so you can enjoy your visit.

The Bible talks about the practice of offering a drink, but the drink is more than mere refreshment; it is eternal life: "The Spirit and the bride say, 'Come!' And let him who hears say, 'Come!' And let him who thirsts come. And whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely" (Revelation 22:17).

The Host and the Water

In this verse, we see Jesus as the ultimate Host of the universe. He smiles and extends a gracious invitation to come and drink. It is for all who hear, for all who thirst, and for all who are willing to come drink of the water of life.

But as we learn elsewhere in the New Testament, Jesus is not only the Host, but also the water of life itself. That's what God had in mind when He told the people of Israel through Isaiah the prophet, "With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation" (Isaiah 12:3).

As we will see, there is a thirst in the soul that can only be quenched by drinking from this Fountain.

Dealing with thirst

Never before has there been such widespread display of this thirst than now. The problem is that people try to deal with it by turning to all the wrong things: alcohol, drugs, pornography, entertainment, relationships. But none of these things satisfies; rather, they try to destroy.

A woman who lived in Jesus' day had been trying to satisfy her soul's thirst with the wrong kind of "drink." She met Jesus one day when she went to a well in Samaria to draw water. When she left, the woman hadn't drawn a drop of water, but her real thirst had been quenched.

Loneliness and emptiness

Jesus went to the well at noon. On the surface, He was tired and wanted a break from the rigors of ministry. But below the surface, Jesus knew there would soon come an empty, lonely woman to the well to draw water.

Sure enough, the woman came. In the eyes of Jewish society, she had three strikes against her:

She was a woman (in those days, women were second-class citizens, especially if they talked to a Jewish teacher);
She was a Samaritan (Jews did not mix with Samaritans because they looked down on them);
She was divorced. From Jesus' words in John 4:18, this woman had been married five times. The man she was currently living with wasn't her husband. She went to the well around noon to avoid the scorn and ridicule from other women.

The woman from Samaria had tried to quench her thirst with men, but had come up dry.

Religion

Jesus knew something else about this woman. Her questions concerning the worship traditions of Samaritans, as opposed to those of the Jews, showed she had had religion "up to here" but still did not understand God, salvation, or true worship. Jesus therefore corrected her thinking:

"The hour is coming when you will neither on 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 Jews" (vv. 21, 22).

Some of the most thirsty people in the world are religious; many of them go to church regularly. The problem is that while religion might make us feel good for awhile, it does very little to fill the void in the heart.

Thus, the woman was hot, thirsty, and tired -- not just from her walk to the well, but from life's emptiness; not just from a physically thirsty throat, but from a spiritually thirsty soul.

Jesus paid no attention to racial, social, or religious boundaries. He focused on the woman's real need and on what He could offer her: living water (v. 10).

Living water

What did Jesus mean by "living water"? He meant Himself. Contrasting the water in the well with the water He was offering, Jesus told the woman:

"Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life" (vv. 13, 14).

In essence, Jesus was telling this woman that a relationship with a man would never satisfy her need for a relationship with God. She could continue through life empty and lonely, or she could accept the drink He was offering.

Quenching a thirst

There by the side of a well, the Fountainhead of the water of life introduced a different kind of water to a thirsty Samaritan woman.

What was the woman's reaction? She ran to her village to call her friends, leaving her water pot behind (v. 28). I bet that pot had been one of her most prized possessions. Yet when her spiritual thirst was quenched, it lost its significance.

For those who thirst, the Host of the universe offers this invitation: Come and drink. Unlike earthly beverages, His living water is free and abundant. Drinking from it will make the difference where you will be a thousand years from today.

Whaid Rose is president of the Church of God (Seventh Day) and lives in Denver, CO . Scripture quotations were taken from the New King James Version. A version of this article appeared in a past issue of the Bible Advocate magazine. For a free subscription, contact us at BibleAdvocate@cog7.org

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