Prerequisite
Recently I was at a store to buy a couple of products. While there I decided to browse on my way out of the store. I had mixed thought s about it. I thought I was wasting time. However, as I browsed near the exit of the store I heard someone call my name. The voice sounded familiar, so I turned around to look. It was a married couple I had not seen in years. We talked and caught up on our lives. Part of our conversation was to update the wife on the phone number of a mutual friend, whose number she had deleted by accident previously that day. What I thought was a waste of time, ended up being necessary for us to meet.
I thought of what would be required for us to meet. If it was not an accident or a coincidence, then it was providential. And, if God engineered it, then what did He have to do to ensure that we were at the same place at the same time? What were the prerequisites for our meeting? The first thing that obviously comes to mind is that I had to decide to stay in the store longer than I planned to stay. But, so many variables were at stake. Indeed, there were many prerequisites for our encounter to happen. Just in case, a prerequisite is something that is required in advance for an event to happen. The term is typically used regarding tuition: Which classes you need to take before you can take the one you really need? For this couple and I to meet, the store had to be there. We all needed to have a reason to be there, and of course, we had to be there also.
The meeting of Jesus with the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well also had prerequisites (John 4). For starters, Jacob had to exist both as the digger of the well and as one of the father's of the Israelite nation (John 4:11). Jesus had to leave at a certain time, to be at the well at the time when the woman would be there to draw water. This means that there had to be in Jesus a willingness to do His Father's will; which He did have (John 4:34; 5:30; 6:38; 8:28-29; 12:49-50; 14:30-31). This implies a willingness, on Jesus part, to walk through the land of Samaria, which most Jews would not do. It also implied a willingness, on Jesus part, to talk not only to a Samaritan, but to a Samaritan woman (John 4:9). God most likely took into account the fact that this woman preferred to go to the well to draw water around noon – perhaps the hottest part of the day in the desert. Of course at this time of the day, it meant that Jesus could talk to her alone, without onlookers interfering with the conversation.
Many say, "This is not a big deal, since God is sovereign and omnipotent. Nothing is impossible to Him." Well, there are things that are not possible for God: It is impossible for God to lie (Hebrew 6:18). It is impossible for God to force His will on man. This would go against His nature. When it comes to man's will, God begs and pleads, and we must concede. God made a big fish go to Jonah, but basically had to beg with Jonah to go to Nineveh.
How much does God have to plead with us? Do we see that there are no accidents or coincidences? Do we see that God has a plan? Are we willing to follow along His plan? Are we willing to follow God's will at all times? Does He have to reengineer His plans with and for us, because we fail to do His will? Next time you find yourself asking the question, "why am I here?" I pray that we can say as Jesus, "I do what I hear from my Father."
Raul Diaz
www.wolfsoath.com
