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The “mincha” offering is viewed as a free-will offering, not related to a specific mis-deed of a
person, making the noon day prayer symbolic of the suppliant’s desire to grow closer to God.
The restrictions of bringing specific type of offering are removed to allowing a person that does
not have the standard animal or bird to sacrifice to present a meal or flour offering instead. No
portion of the “mincha” offering is set-aside for the priest demonstrating that the offering
belongs wholly to God.

The lamb for the “Tamid” (see notes) offering is also prepared at the sixth hour. The assigned
priest is required to give the selected lamb a drink of water from a sacred golden cup and then
tie the lamb to the altar to await its demise in evening sacrifice ritual.

(John 4:7) – A Samaritan woman arrives at the well after the Messiah. The woman’s presence
at the well at the sixth hour is not surprising because Samaritans are not known to follow
customary Jewish rituals like their rivals that lived outside of Samaria. The presence of a non-
Samaritan Jew in Sychar would alone be startling but to have a Rabbinic present at a the well, in
Samaria, during mid-day prayer, was inexplicable.
The woman is greeted with a request which adds to the strangeness of the encounter. Hearing
the Rabbinic asking her to give him a drink of water violated all expectations. Fulfilling this
request would be a cultural taboo, a Rabbi accepting water from a person labeled as unclean.
Student Review: Preparation of the Tamid
Considering the parallel backdrop to the preparation of the “Tamid” lamb the request is
unusual, specifically with the Rabbi representing the lamb that will be sacrificed. Serving water
to the lamb, in the golden cup, was a duty of a specially selected Levite in the temple. Daily
tasks were assigned to those that worked in the temple and each Levite had to be washed and
clean to participate in the daily rituals. The Rabbinic asking the Samaritan to symbolically
present Him with a drink was breaking all the expected cultural and religious norms.
(John 4:8) – The text clarifies that the Messiah is traveling alone, noting that the disciples are
gone away to buy meat. For the moment, there was no one to witness this unlikely encounter
of the clean associating with the unclean.
Pastoral Note: The word “tamid” is an expression that represent the complete cycle of an
event; from its beginning to the end. Physically the expression is demonstrated by a lamb
offering that’s begins the Jewish day at daybreak and another at the end of the day to complete
the cycle. The daily sacrifice is intended to illustrate that life is a progressive cycle of events.
Everything in life is moving a person forward to the next progression. The deeper illustration
reveals a base belief that every ambition and aspiration has an end point, a fixed destination to
come into fruition. The ambition of man should be aimed at becoming one with God; to be
made “whole”, a complete person spiritually. The daily lamb sacrifice illustrates that life will
produce the fruit that man begins with every day. If he offers himself to God in morning, he will
end the day fully consumed by God, like the second lamb offering that burns into the night until
it becomes nothing but ashes. The higher illustration symbolized by the lamb offering is
represented in the analogy of the Messiah as the lamb offering. The Messiah is the example of
man should follow to live life fully consumed to serve God. The sacrifice of the Messiah makes
it possible for all men to become spiritually whole and have access to eternal life. The Messiah
represents the final lamb offering but sets an example for men to surrender their life to God
every day.

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