The study of Bible numbers and their meanings can be over-emphasized. Taken so far that one misses the practical emphasis of a Text.

But then again so can Scripture’s numbers be under-emphasized.

In the Gospel of John’s Account of Jesus speaking to the “woman at the well,” that Samaritan woman … I counted and was astounded to see that in such a prolonged conversation she spoke a total of seven times.

Her overall conversation in John chapter four actually splits into “six” outbursts followed by “one” glorious set of words! We’re discussing “numbers!” Let me explain …

She spoke six times as a lost woman!

First, when Jesus asked her for a drink of water from the well where He was sitting … “How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.” John 4:9

Second, she asks … “Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water? Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?” John 4:11-12

Third, now persuaded of Jesus’ Authenticity … “Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.” John 4:15

Fourth, on the defensive now, having been asked to go bring her husband to the interview … “I have no husband.” John 4:17

Fifth, we read her next response: “Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.” Here asking a religious question, John 4:19-20.

Sixth, perhaps her warmest statemen yet … “I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things.” John 4:25!

At some point through these six utterances (“six” being the number of man, man as a human being, man apart from God) she realizes her hopelessness and believes on Jesus. Likely back at her third sentence! “Give me this water.”

But now … watch her “seventh” set of words in the chapter … “The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men, Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?” John 4:28-29

Unquestionably … “seven” in the Bible is the number (six plus one) of man as spiritually complete! (Lost man, number six … plus … God, the One like no other … equals a total of seven, often called the “number of spiritual completion, of spiritual maturity!”

And with her seventh insertion into the Narrative … she is telling others about Jesus! She is witnessing! She is soul-winning!

A mature thing to do!

Maybe we can learn from her trajectory here. We all used to be characterized by what the number “six” represents! Lost and on our way to Hell!

Then we, like her, asked for that Water; that everlasting water, eternal water, a fountain of gushing water!

Now may we, still like her … go forth and tell others about our Lord! May we grow to that point of spiritual maturity!

Amen!

Bible numbers, amazing!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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After a lengthy interview (conversation) with a woman from Samaria … our dear Lord Jesus identified Himself as follows … “I that speak to thee am He.” (John 4:26)

She (in verse 25) had just brought up the Subject of the “Messiah!”

The word order in a Greek sentence (while saying the same thing as our English Bibles) often varies. Jesus’ Answer to the lady was (again in Greek, literally and sequentially) … “I AM” the Messiah!

This then is Jesus’ First “I AM” Statement in the Gospel of John.

When teaching this verse Wednesday (it’s on YouTube, the video class, under yesterday’s date, August 18, 2022) I failed to give the full list of Jesus’ great “I AM” Proclamations, Identifications!

So, here they are. Worship with me …

John 6:35 … “And Jesus said unto them, I AM the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.”

John 8:12 … “Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I AM the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”

And John 8:58, the favorite of many Christians, though each is vitally important … “Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I AM.” Our timeless, eternal Saviour!

John 10:7 … “Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I AM the door of the sheep.”

John 10:11 … “I AM the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.”

John 10:36 … “I AM the Son of God.”

John 11:25 … “Jesus said unto her, I AM the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.”

John 14:6 … “Jesus saith unto him, I AM the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

John 15:1 … “I AM the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.”

And again in John 18:6, at Jesus’ Arrest … “As soon then as he had said unto them, I AM he, they went backward, and fell to the ground.” (Jesus succinctly said, to identity Himself, “I AM” He! Whereupon over six hundred soldiers fell over backwards onto the ground! Illustrating the sheer Power of “I AM!”)

What a list!

Better yet, WHAT A SAVIOUR!

Oh, by the way … God identified Himself in the Old Testament to Moses as the Great … “I AM.”

Exodus 3:14 … “And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.”

Only one deduction can be made, and every honest person knows so … OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST IS GOD!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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I recorded one of our “Evening Meditation” Bible Studies around Noon yesterday, and the devil has fought it fiercely. (The Class in titled “John 4:7-15,” if you want to watch it sometime.)

It has taken over 13 hours to upload to YouTube, our channel there! That’s a world record … for slowness. It’s the motel Internet service, the culprit, looks like. (At home a typical Class uploads in about 45 minutes.)

Still, once it’s online, the Lesson will be available to any hungry Bible student. But I did (partly because of lack of time, just 30 minutes) fail to say several things that need to be mentioned.

Hence, this Website Post …

Item one … When Jesus first met the woman, she having come to the well to get water, He (our Lord) asked her for a drink! Then in John 4:8 we learn that the disciples had left Jesus by the well … “to go into the city (Sychar) to buy meat.” I forgot to observe the fact that Jesus chose to not create meat or fish or bread that day, not to work a miracle! He just let the men go and buy food! (Jesus not once enacted a miracle to meet His personal needs! He always thinks of others.) Plus … it may be that He wanted time alone with the Samaritan woman, to witness to her, to offer her eternal life!

Item two … then the verse about the Lord being a “Breaker” (In John 4 He broke the racial barrier (Jew – Samaritan), the sexual barrier (man – woman), and the social barrier (holy rabbi – married five times individual)! The verse, Messianic to the core … “The BREAKER is come up before them: they have broken up, and have passed through the gate, and are gone out by it: and their king shall pass before them, and the LORD on the head of them.” Micah 2:13

Item three … in this glorious chapter the woman morphs from the “ultimate outsider” to an “informed insider!”In other words, she was saved!

Now some quotes I forgot to insert into the Class …

One writer called God’s Grace … “Matchless Grace!”

And called Jesus … that “Peerless Name!”

One more point, no longer numbering the “items!”

Nicodemus came to Jesus by night (perhaps) because he wanted to guard his own reputation as a Leader among the Jews. A Member of the Sanhedrin, nonetheless. But … by talking to the Samaritan woman Jesus proved He had made Himself “of no reputation!”

Do remember Philippians 2:6-8 … “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: BUT MADE HIMSELF OF NO REPUTATION, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”

Oh, what a Saviour!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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In a recent “Evening Meditation” Bible Class (one of our YouTube videos) we studied Jesus feeling “compelled” to travel through Samaria. “And he must needs go through Samaria.” John 4:4

Class warfare, racism in today’s terminology, existed between the Jews and the Samaritans back in that day. “The Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.” John 4:9

Even Jesus’ Disciples were astounded that our Lord “talked” to a Samaritan woman! Those people were among the “lowest” of sinners, especially in the eyes of the Jewish Leaders, the “separated” Pharisees and their cronies. John 4:27 … “His disciples marvelled that He talked with the woman.”

In fact, one of the enemies’ most bitter criticisms of Jesus was, according to Luke 15:2 … “And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners.”

One day that suspicious crowd even accused Jesus in this manner … “Then answered the Jews, and said unto him, Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil?” Blasphemy against the Son of God, John 8:48. Note their association of the “Samaritans” with “devils, demons!”

Wow!

But Jesus DID come to save the lost!

He is a “Whosoever will may come” Redeemer!

And that “whosoever” includes … of all people … Samaritans!

Hallelujah!

I’ll go this far … Jesus loved Samaritans!

And He loves you, too.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

By the way, by chapter’s end (John 4) … the lady does trust Jesus as her Saviour. She does get saved!

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Did you ever notice that John 3:16 contains not only one of the greatest Statements about Love (His Everlasting Love) … but also about Condemnation, eternal Death?

“For God so LOVED the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not PERISH, but have everlasting life.” I have capitalized the two “poles” in the Verse. The verb “perish” implies dying and going to an eternal Hell-Fire!

In fact, the last Verse in John chapter 3, incorporates this same paradox, love and condemnation! Life and Death!

Here it is, Verse 36 … “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting LIFE: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the WRATH OF GOD abideth on him.” Watch the capitals again, please, love and judgment! God’s Wrath clinging to one’s being? Right now, habitually so!

Furthermore, John 3:18 as well … in the chapter explaining to Nicodemus how to be saved!

“He that believeth on him is NOT CONDEMNED: but he that believeth not is CONDEMNED ALREADY already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

Wow!

Such dire “warnings” end four of Jesus’ five great Sermons in Matthew as well!

Actually Jesus taught more about Hell than any other person in the whole Bible! Check that fact for yourself if you have any doubt.

Yes, granted …

John 3 is likely the greatest Love, Salvation, “how-to-be-born-again” chapter in the New Testament.

Yet it is framed (at the beginning and then again at its end) with Texts that warn, warn sternly!

Men believed in Jesus at the end of John 2, but with a shallow “dead” faith. One commentator put it this way … “They believed in Jesus, but Jesus did not believe in them!”

Read it … “But Jesus did not commit (Greek pisteuo = to believe, trust) himself unto them, because he knew all men, and needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man.”

Then God’s Love, highlighted by John 3:16.

Then that famous Verse 36 again … “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.”(What a warning!)

The “believeth not” expression means “rebels against, irreverently rejects!” Will NOT be persuaded!

It seems that God generally, after offering His Grace, His marvelous Salvation … cautions anyone dismissing it about the ultra serious consequences!

About coming “condemnation” to Christ rejecters!

Be saved today!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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