Presumption
or
"If you only knew"
By
H. David Edwards
Do
you ever presume to know the mind of God? The Scriptures teach us that His ways and thoughts are as much higher than our own
as the heavens are higher than the earth. Yet, don't we sometimes think that we understand all that there is to understand
about God's plans and activities as they relate to us?
Our
Lord's encounter with the woman at Jacob's well in Samaria is a familiar story, but one that haunts me a bit with its implications
for me. I have meditated a great deal on Jesus' comment to the women when He said, “If thou knewest the gift of God
and who it is that sayeth to thee give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water.”
In other words, “If you only knew...” and I wonder how often nowadays, if we could only rightly hear what He says,
we would hear Him saying, “If you only knew. If you only knew the measure of My gift. If you only knew the way in which
I could give you all that you need in order that you might be all that I intend that you should be. If you only knew.”
WE
PRESUME IN IGNORANCE
As
I ponder that encounter at Jacob's well, I become aware of the woman's ignorance. Not only was she ignorant of Jesus' identity,
but even her religion was based on ignorance. “Ye worship ye know not what,” Jesus told her. She was ignorant
of the fact that Jesus was speaking metaphorically when He said, “If you only knew I would give you living water if
you asked.” She responded at the literal level and described two difficulties that she perceived, saying, “The
well is deep, and even if the well were shallow, you don't have anything with which to draw water.”
Jesus
attempted to lead her from the literal, material concepts upon which she was focusing into the spiritual truth He wanted her
to understand. He said, “If you drink of this (literal) water you'll thirst again, but if you drink of the (spiritual)
water that I give you'll never thirst.” Then I am impressed with the presumption in her response as she supposed what
He was saying could be understood within the framework of her understanding, which was based in selfish motives. “Give
this to me that I thirst not,” she replied and revealed her wish to be independent by adding, “neither come her
to draw.” She wanted to be free of the obligation to go daily to the well and carry water back home and she thought
Jesus was offering her a very good “deal.”
We
may be inclined to judge the woman a bit harshly, but how often the communication between God and us is hindered because we
interpret what He has to say to us within the framework of our existing understanding. We presume to know what He means. It
is a common problem.
Take
Nicodemus as an example. When Jesus said that a man must be born again, rather than acknowledging that he needed enlightening
about such a birth, Nicodemus “judged” Jesus' statement by suggesting that it was illogical. He said, “How
can a man be born again when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born?” Being a religious
leader, Nicodemus should have known better, as Jesus said, “Art thou not a teacher in Israel and knowest not these things?”
His understanding should have been at such a level that the significance of the words of our Lord would have been clear to
him.
WE
NEGLECT WHAT WE KNOW
Similarly,
the woman at the well should have known from the Old Testament what Jesus was talking about. Isaiah had said, “With
joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.” The Psalmist had said, “As the hart panteth after Thee,
O God.” Isaiah had also said, “I will pour water on him that is thirsty,” and again he said, “Ho,
everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters.” Jeremiah had said, “They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living
waters, and hewed out cistern, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.” Exekiel, in the 47th chapter of the book by
that name, told of his vision of the river of living water. Zechariah had said, “In that day there shall be a fountain
opened in the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness.” And again the same prophet
spoke about living waters that should go out from Jerusalem. She should have known what it was that the Lord was talking about.
But she interpreted what He had to say within her own very limited framework and she missed the significance of His offer.
There
were others who had said, “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?” I read these things and I wonder how often
we have the same kind of difficulty in our communication and understanding of what it is that God wants to say to us because
we try to interpret Him on the basis of our past experience. I recognize that, to some extent, that is inevitable. And I have
considered the remarkable condescension of the Father that He often does humble Himself to communicate with us on our level
of understanding.
When
a mountaineer is climbing a rock face, he drives in large spikes to give himself something to hold to. He makes sure that
they are very secure. He tests them before he commits his weight to them and then proceeds to climb on the basis of those
that he has tested. I think that God wishes to communicate with us and have us try the communication, the truth that He offers
us. But He wants to stretch us, too. He wants us to climb on the basis of the security we have found as we have tested what
He has already communicated.
What
hinders us from getting to God's meaning? Here are some of the things that I believe are involved: our prejudices, our preoccupations,
our precautions, our preconceptions, our preferences, our pretensions, our preventions, and our prevarications. These all
make it difficult for our minds to be open to hearing precisely what God wishes for us to understand.
THE
EXAMPLE OF NAAMAN
Thinking
about these things, I am reminded of II Kings 5 and the story of Naaman and what was revealed about his attitude. He saw himself
as the great captain of the host of the king of Syria, a great man with his master, honorable because by him the Lord had
given deliverance to Syria, a mighty man of valor who, incidentally, was also a leper. But, in order fro Naaman to receive
the healing he sought from God, the details had to be read in this way: “Naaman, captain of the host of the king of
Syria, a great man with his master, honorable because by him the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria. He was a mighty man
of valor – BUT HE WAS A LEPER!” Until Naaman's need became the primary thing in his life, there was nothing that
God could do for him. It was only when Naaman was awakened by the wise advice of his servant that all that God had for him
could be his.
How
often do we keep ourselves closed to God because all we are willing to emphasize about ourselves are our virtues when, in
fact, where God wants to meet us is in our great need.
When
Naaman did go to the prophet Elisha he presumed that Elisha would come out and heal him in his chariot, before a gathering
crowd of spectators. Instead, Elisha sent out a messenger to tell him to wash seven times in the Jordan river. This ran so
contrary to Naaman's presumption that, in his anger, he almost went home without his healing. It took strong persuasion from
another to bring him to the point where he was willing to do as he had been told by the prophet of God.
WE
ARE RESISTANT TO CHANGE
Isn't
this typical of how we act? We are so unwilling for God to initiate us into something that might be radically different from
what we have become used to. All we want Him to do is reinforce what we have been doing to this time.
"All we want is power, Lord, so that we can work for You. Don't do anything new. Don't do anything different.
Maybe it would be better for us, but we don't really want it. We're afraid. We're cautious."
How
many times have you said, “I don't see how...” All that you have said, when you have said that, is that you don't
see how. It's the same when you say, “It seems to me that He must...” It merely means that that is the way it
seems to you. Haven't there been times when God has spoken to you and you have said, “Oh, I know what that means,”
only to discover later that God's meaning was quite different?
Are
you thirsty? Do you need healing? Do you need a new birth? Our Lord is as available to you as He was to the woman at the well.
He is available to you as God's power was to Naaman. He is as ready to meet with you as He was with Nicodemus. All you have
to do is to be as willing to let Him minister to your thirst and your need in the way that only He can, with a meaning that
He would give to the water of life in your soul. Don't presume how He must work. It might be as different from your expectations
as dipping seven times in the Jordan river was for Naaman's. But if faith is in your heart and if the Lord is speaking to
you, I am sure that it can happen to you like it happened to Naaman. I'm sure that He can provide for you the well of waters
springing up into everlasting life like He offered to the woman at the well of Samaria.
