In 2015, I was living in Cape Town, South Africa, a city that doesn’t have a skyline the way normal cities do. Instead, this city is marked by the three mountains that loom large over the metropolis. The biggest of these mountains is called Table Mountain, named for its long, flat shape.

I’m not a hiker by any means, but climbing to the top of Table Mountain is a rite of passage of sorts, especially for foreign students like I was. While my family was in town, we decided to tackle the trail together. It was continuous stairs and switchbacks from the trailhead to the top, and it always seemed that just when you thought you were going to see the top, the trail just kept going.

It seriously boggles my mind how quickly Israel could forget God’s goodness, mercy, and provision towards them. The Jews left Egypt and began their journey in the wilderness in Exodus 15, and here we are in chapter 17 and already we’ve seen 3 different iterations of them having a need, shaking their fists and Moses and God about it, not trusting in God to fill it, and God supernaturally proving Himself by fulfilling their need with a miracle. And what’s worse is that those are just a couple of chapters at the beginning of a 40 year-long journey! We know that there are still many, many more times that Israel repeated that same pattern.

But we are the same way. And just think: If Israel found it hard to rely on God and constantly fell into habits of questioning Him despite the miracles and wonders they witnessed, how much more so is it for us?

I have always loved the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. I feel like it’s one of those stories from the Bible that always gives you something new every time you study it. Mostly, it’s because the conversation is so deep and multi-faceted. The first thing to understanding this story is to know the cultural context. In Jesus’ time, the Samaritans and the Jews did not get along. The reason being is this: When the Babylonians conquered Israel, they took most of the Jews captive and brought them back to Babylon to assimilate them to their culture.