31 Days to Discover Israel | Jacob's Well – Shekem

1 church at Jacobs well

This is going to be an exciting day. We are going to tour Jacob’s Well in Shekem.

Jacob’s Well is the place where Jesus asked a Samaritan woman for a drink and offered her “living water.” This refreshing place lies in the crypt of a modern Greek church at Nablus in the West Bank.

2 church at jacobs well“Jacob’s Well” is often considered the most authentic site in the Holy Land since no one can move a well that was originally more than 40 meters deep. Jewish, Samaritan, Christian and Muslim traditions all associate the well with Jacob.3 church at jacobs well

The priest at Jacob’s Well has cared for the church and facility for thirty years. We enjoyed meeting him and watching him bottle ‘holy water’ from Jacob’s Well. 6 the priest at jacobs well

In the photo, the priest is using hot wax to seal small bottles of ‘holy water’ from Jacob’s Well. I was honored to drink a refreshing cup of water from Jacob’s Well.

5 the entry to jacobs well

We were encouraged by the hope of the memory of how Jesus ministered to the Samaritan Woman at Jacob’s Well. Won’t you take just a moment to read it here from John 4:4-26? (This is from www.Biblegateway.com)

Jesus Talks With a Samaritan Woman

4 Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John— 2 although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3 So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.
4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.[a])
10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

4 church at jacobs well
16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”
17 “I have no husband,” she replied.
Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

7 jacobs well
19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

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Don’t miss tomorrow’s stop: Masada

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