THIS HUNT IS NOT YET LIVE. WE’RE STILL WORKING OUT OUR LINKS. WE GO LIVE AT NOON (MST) on 3/19. PLEASE RETURN AFTER THAT!
Welcome to the Christian Fiction Scavenger Hunt! If you’ve just discovered the hunt, be sure to start at Stop #1, and collect the clues through all the stops, in order, so you can enter to win one of our top 5 grand prizes!
Hi! My name is Jill Eileen Smith and I write Bible stories for grown-ups. I’ve loved the stories in the Bible since my teens, especially the overall history–HIS Story–of Jesus. Until last year, all of my works-in-progress have been women who lived in Old Testament times. This year is my second story set in the New Testament. You can learn more about me on my Social Media sites, Instagram, Facebook, and X and see a list of my books here on my Books Page. My newest release A Deeper Well is a different take on the woman at the well than you may have read before. Join me as we journey with the Samaritan woman, whom I’ve named Nessa, through five marriages and more, and most of all her amazing encounter with Jesus.
In ancient Samaria, tucked into the territory of Israel, beautiful young Nessa is given in marriage to her father’s wealthy widowed friend. Nessa is devastated that she cannot marry her first love, Lavi, but has no choice but to try to accept her fate. After only a year of marriage, however, tragedy hits her new family. Sent back to her father, Nessa finds herself in a new home where she struggles to find acceptance. Misfortune follows Nessa as she is passed from one husband to the next. Five husbands later, she encounters a Jewish rabbi at the town’s well and is forever changed.
Have you ever imagined what it might have been like to have five or six husbands? Not at the same time, of course! The Samaritan woman is the only woman in Scripture recorded to have done such a thing. Surely she must have been promiscuous, right? A woman dissatisfied with one mate, so she went from one to another. But could she do that in her culture?
When Jesus met her, He pointed out her five husbands and her current “mate” who was not her husband. Naturally, we assume that he was pointing to her sin. When we look at the society of her day along with the Law of Moses, we know that a woman couldn’t just walk out on a marriage. She couldn’t seek a divorce. She had to be given one. If she committed adultery, she could have been stoned. If she hid a relationship with another man, she could be cursed by God by the jealousy of her husband.
It doesn’t make sense to think of this woman as a prostitute or promiscuous. Married five times. Who would want to marry a woman after two or three failed marriages? It’s always good to look beneath the surface and try to understand as best we can. We can’t measure biblical men and women by modern thinking.
Life today is far different than it was then. Today, men or women can divorce and remarry as many times as they can find mates, and some celebrities have done so four, five, six, even nine times! After nearly 49 years of marriage to the same man, I cannot imagine such a lonely search for love.
No doubt Nessa longed for someone to love her for who she was, as I imagine those celebrities are doing. She found that love and acceptance from the only One who could give it—Jesus, the Messiah and Savior of the world. 
Here’s the Stop #10 Basics:
If you’re interested, you can order A Deeper Well on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, ChristianBook or at your local bookstore!
Clue to Write Down: Wonder
Link to Stop #11, the Next Stop on the Loop: Lynette Eason’s site!
But wait! Before you go, I’m offering two books to two entrants—a copy each of A Deeper Well and Star of Persia. All you have to do is like my Facebook page, follow me on Instagram, and enter here! (USA only)
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Happy hunting!
