An interaction between Jesus and a Samaritan woman illustrates how to hold a sustained, engaging, and fruitful conversation even with a person you are meeting for the first time. The bible account (John 4:1–26) starts with the two strangers meeting by Jacob’s well. Jesus was sitting by the well to rest from a tiring journey. The woman came to fetch water. We discuss their interaction to illustrate several points about holding a conversation toward understanding the art and practice of conversation.
We learn the following based on the conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan woman.
Initiate a conversation with a simple subject likely to be familiar to either party.
The other party (receiving party) has to respond to keep the conversation alive. A conversation works like a tennis game. Having received the ball in your court, you have to play it back to the other court to continue the game.
Each response should address the previous contribution and add related information, generally increasing in complexity as the conversation proceeds.
Be responsive and respectful, even if you have to steer the conversation away from a subject.
However, be open to every subject in order to expand the conversation.
Voluntary redirection refers to an intervention whereby God provides a person opportunity to re-evaluate and choose to abandon planned wrongdoing. We discuss an example from David, when he set out intending to attack Nabal for refusing with ignominy a request for food assistance. David expected Nabal to honor the request in gratitude for guarding Nabal’s shepherds and flock in the field. He reacted angrily by promising to attack Nabal. Alerted to the potential attack by a quick-thinking servant, Abigail judged David and his men deserved the food they requested and intercepted them with generous supply and an appeal to David’s reputation. David recognized Abigail as a manifestation of God’s intervention, showed appreciation, and confessed and repented from his initial plan.
Abigail persuades David from wrongdoing wikipedia.org
The life of David as king in waiting includes two event sequences during which he appeared to proceed toward actions inconsistent with his God-fearing reputation and responsibility as God anointed king in waiting. However, both event sequences terminated with David withdrawing from the initial plan. We discuss each of the event sequences as representing God’s intervention to provide a person opportunity to abandon a path to wrongdoing. The intervention could present the person with freedom to choose to abandon the path or compel him/her to a different path.
In voluntary redirection, the person is free to respond to the opportunity as he/she chooses. The intervention presents him/her with the opportunity and freedom to re-evaluate and voluntarily abandon the planned course of actions. In coercive redirection, in contrast, developments beyond a person’s control compel him/her to abandon the planned course of actions. Both types of redirection represent God’s intervention to provide a person opportunity to pull back from planned wrongdoing and seek a path to Godliness.
We discuss examples from the life of David as king in waiting. The examples are in fact manifestations of God’s intervention in David’s life to guide him away from actions inconsistent with keeping “the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just” [Genesis 18:19] so that God will fulfill his promise to David. God’s guidance may manifest the same way for any person, providing the person opportunities for voluntary or coercive redirection from a course of actions that would violate Godliness. The example on coercive redirection will be discussed in a future bible study. The current study focuses on the example of voluntary redirection.
David’s interactions with Abigail [1 Samuel 25:1–44] illustrate several principles applicable to present-day human relationships.
David Reacts to Nabal’s Contempt
David was angry with Nabal (Abigail’s husband) for rejecting with contempt his (David’s) request for food. David and his men had protected Nabal’s shepherds and flock in the field. So, David sent a few people to request food from Nabal during a sheep-shearing festival. Nabal not only refused but insulted David in the process. David set out with his men, intending to destroy Nabal and his belongings in a quest for revenge.
