"The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water? Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?" (John 4:11-12 KJV)
"But Moses pleaded with the LORD, "O Lord, I'm not very good with words. I never have been, and I'm not now, even though you have spoken to me. I get tongue-tied, and my words get tangled." Then the LORD asked Moses, "Who makes a person's mouth? Who decides whether people speak or do not speak, hear or do not hear, see or do not see? Is it not I, the LORD? Now go! I will be with you as you speak, and I will instruct you in what to say." But Moses again pleaded, "Lord, please! Send anyone else." (Exodus 4:10-13 NLT)
To be perfectly clear, the Samaritan woman was not as in error as Moses, so this in not a comparison on that level; but it is bringing to light the issue of understanding what is being said, and by Whom! As Jesus clearly said, "If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water." She clearly did not know who it was she was speaking with; not yet!
Moses, on the other hand, clearly did, as he called Him, Lord. The issue with the woman at the well, well, it was more apparent that she did not understand the words that were coming out of His mouth. If she could have maybe memorized what was said, slept on it for a day or two, and maybe even said them out load to herself, maybe then she might have had a change of heart.
The closest thing she might have come to vertical truth, was the comment about the well being deep, other than that, she was stuck on the horizontal understanding; much as many of God's people are in this current time period we are living in today! Actually, it has always been that way, so we really don't need to think of ourselves as special. Adam and Eve sinned because focused more upon pleasing themselves, then they did upon pleasing God.
Basically that is where we see Moses; not that he was confused about God's power, because he had already seen his staff go from snake to staff again, and his own hand become as white as snow, and then quickly back to normal. This was plain as day, in that Moses was afraid of what man might think, as he complained about what they might say of him. Instead of caring about pleasing God, he concerned himself with the here and now; with worldly comfort and pleasures...
"He burns part of the tree to roast his meat and to keep himself warm. He says, "Ah, that fire feels good." Then he takes what's left and makes his god; a carved idol! He falls down in front of it, worshipping and praying to it. "Rescue me!" he says. "You are my God!" Such stupidity and ignorance! Their eyes are closed, and they cannot see. Their minds are shut, and they cannot think. The person who made the idol never stops to reflect, "Why, it's just a block of wood! I burned half of it for heat and used it to bake my bread and roast my meat. How can the rest of it be a god? Should I bow down to worship a piece of wood?" The poor, deluded fool feeds on ashes. He trusts something that can't help him at all. Yet he cannot bring himself to ask, "Is this idol that I'm holding in my hand a lie?"" (Isaiah 44:16-20 NLT)
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