In our dealings with this terribly lost world of blind souls, who cannot recognize truth on their own, we are often confronted with arguments and barriers. It is job #1 for the enemy to keep them in a blinded state, so that the Light of the LORD will remain unseen by them (2 COR 4:4). It is job #1 for us saints, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb by the grace (unmerited favor) of God, to declare the gospel, prayerfully seeking God's touch upon them (2 COR 5:20-21), that they may perceive the love of God for them (1 JOHN 3:16).
JOHN 4:7-10
7 There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink.
8 (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.)
9 Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.
10 Jesus answered and said unto her, 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.
Samaritan. The very word was disdained by pure bred Jews who looked upon these 'half-breeds' with contempt. These were Jews who were abducted and brought as slaves to Assyria (approximately 720 B.C.E.), where they eventually intermarried with the natives. This affected them socially, culturally and religiously and when they returned to the land (Samaria) they maintained much of their ways - much to the hatred of their Jewish neighbors, who would travel far out of their way in journeying from Galilee to Judea (or vice-versa), just to avoid going through Samaria.
Not so with the LORD Jesus: ". . . He must needs go through Samaria." And not just any place in that land, but into the very city of Sychar, a place possibly named so by contempt of the Jews to allude to "drunkenness" and, or "falseness" because the Samaritans were given over (to what the Jews believed to be) idolatry. And Jesus "must needs go through" - because He was on a mission.
Yet when He comes to the well, wearied with His long journey and thirsty- this Man asks a Samaritan woman for some water. She came to the well as that hour (around noon) and not in the relative coolness of the morning, quite probably because she was something of an outcast, and not welcome to the well by other women, who (correctly) perceived her as a 'loose woman' (see vs. 17-18).
Yet this woman carries with her the cultural barrier between Jews and Samaritans; she questions why Jesus is even speaking with her, much less wanting to receive water from her. Yet the LORD would not be put off by her rebuff. He speaks to her of "living water" - that is, of Himself (JOHN 7:37-38). He beckons her to go and get her husband, and when she confesses that she has no husband, the LORD commends her for her honesty, declaring that she had previously had five husbands, and the one she was with was 'shacking up' with her. This is when she says:
JOHN 4:19-24
19 The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.
20 Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.
21 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.
22 Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.
23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
The shift from cultural and social barriers now turns at the direction of this woman to a religious one. This was no doubt, a long standing controversy and generational contention between Jews and Samaritans. She challenges Jesus on the location for true worship: Mount Gerazim, where the Samaritans contend that Abraham offered up Isaac (GEN 22) or Jerusalem - the location of long held conviction and historical veracity of Jewish worship. It seems an 'either/or' answer is what this woman sought of Jesus; not unlike the answer which the Herodians asked of Him concerning paying taxes to Caesar (MARK 12:13-14). Yet the LORD was not about to get cornered by such a question.
His answer to this woman was the same kind as with the Herodians: Neither the option of Jerusalem or Mt. Gerazim (A or B) was chosen, but C: the truth!
The revelation of God's truth and plan of salvation came from the Word of God Himself (HEB 1:1-8); the written Word was then entrusted to the Jewish nation (ROM 3:2) - salvation indeed is "of the Jews (vs. 22)" in that sense, but like the Samaritans, the children of this world (EPH 2:2-3), the tares planted by Satan (MATT 13:26-28, 38-39), the deceivers and false teachers (2 PET 2:1; 2 TIM 3:13) today want to blend in just a bit of truth with their do-it-yourself-religion, and the latest incarnation of this is the Emergent Church Movement or Emergence Christianity. It is abomination in the sight of God! In another article FROM The MIND of FIRE, I wrote concerning the pollution of God's Truth and Way of salvation:
"In EXOD 20:25 it states:
And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it.
"The LORD Jesus Christ is referred to as 'the ROCK' in scripture, as well as that 'stone cut without hands'. I find it interesting then, that if any sacrifice is made on an altar of stone, its not to be of hewn (cut) stone, but natural; in other words any changing of the rock's appearance through human effort would pollute it and any sacrifice offered upon it.
"God will not accept any human design, imagination, efforts in works or elaborate religious creations in regards to the justification He Himself provides for the salvation of mankind!" And might I add He will not tolerate those who would make 'another Jesus' (2 COR 11:4) seeking to change the true and living LORD.
"In NUM 25:1-11 There is an account where Israel committed whoredoms with the pagan nation of Moab (this seduction was performed by the counsels of Balaam, who advised Balak to have the Moabite women go into the camp of Israel and lure their men); in the throes of erotic passions, the Moabite women would bring out their idols, and they would pay homage to these false gods.
This wasn't even done under cover of darkness, nor behind the backs of Moses and Aaron; note vs. 6:
And, behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought unto his brethren a Midianitish woman in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, who were weeping before the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
Because of this, a plague from the LORD broke out among the children of Israel, but it was suddenly stopped. How? Did they have an ecumenical meeting with Baalpeor and the leadership of that nation? Did they have a consensus and seek out common beliefs so that they could dialogue and come to a mutually agreeable belief system whereby they could join together and form a peaceful religious association so that they might better their world?
No! Read in vs. 7-8:
And when Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from among the congregation, and took a javelin in his hand;
And he went after the man of Israel into the tent, and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her belly. So the plague was stayed from the children of Israel.
Harsh action? Cruel punishment? An unjust deed?
Listen to what the LORD had to say about this!
NUM 25:10-13
And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, hath turned my wrath away from the children of Israel, while he was zealous for my sake among them, that I consumed not the children of Israel in my jealousy. Wherefore say, Behold, I give unto him my covenant of peace: And he shall have it, and his seed after him, even the covenant of an everlasting priesthood; because he was zealous for his God, and made an atonement for the children of Israel.
Because one man had the zeal, the love for, and awesome reverence for the LORD and His Holy Name, he took it upon himself to stand up for righteousness and bring a stop to the whoredoms and spiritual adultery that had infested the camp of Israel! He slew those who were guilty of High Treason against the LORD GOD Almighty, Creator and Judge of all the Earth! For that, the plague ceased at the command of the LORD, and He blessed Phinehas!"
Getting back to Samaria now, let's see how the LORD deals with this situation:
23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
Spiritual worship must be in accordance with truth as found in God's Word; not according to experiential subjectivity or 'what feels right, or good' as is the case with New Age style worship or meditation or contemplative prayer.
There are so many that when confronted with biblical truth say, "Well I believe . . . " and go on and explain their belief system based on their own understanding, information and a hodge-podge smorgasbord of pseudo-spiritual suppositions and dogma. Yet what sort of foundation is this? It is based on self and not Scripture, on one's own thinking rather than the Mind of God as so revealed in the Holy Bible.
Even so-called Christians tend toward subjectivism and will believe this about the Bible, and that, but refuse to believe this or that about the Bible - and as it has been said before: If you pick and choose what you will believe and won't believe about the Bible, then it's not the Bible you truly believe, but yourself!
If truth is sacrificed, specifically the objective truth as found exclusively in the Holy Bible, then worship is vain (MARK 7:7; MATT 6:7) and any relationship with God is unobtainable (ISAIAH 59:1-3).
In our dealings with the lost, we must stay on point, not allow distractions or deflections; our chiefest desire is to lead them to the God of Truth, leading them in the Way of righteousness, and introduce them to the Author of Life (JOHN 14:6). We must not merely point them in the right direction and bid them 'go' but experience the Way, the Truth and the Life for ourselves, daily, and bid them 'come' and 'follow me as I follow Christ' (1 COR 11:1).
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