Participants: Deyvy Rodriguez & Jon Paulien
Series Code: JBOTB
Program Code: JBOTB00009A
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00:20 Hello and welcome to this program,
00:21 "Books of the Book." 00:23 I'm so glad that that you're able to join us 00:24 in this Bible study 00:26 and we're studying the Gospel of John. 00:28 And today we're studying about the Samaritan woman. 00:32 And with us is Dr. Jon Paulien. 00:34 He's a scholar of the Bible 00:36 and I have been blessed with the Bible studies 00:38 that I've been sharing with him or we both been studying here. 00:42 And I hope that you too can be blessed 00:44 and if you have a time, if you can join us, 00:47 you can pick up your Bible 00:48 and join us in chapter 4 starting in verse 1, 00:53 that is the Gospel of John. Dr. Jon, welcome again. 00:58 Good to be with you. 01:00 You know, in our last program we were talking about Nicodemus 01:03 and we said that men will be judged 01:06 not for the darkness that they loved, 01:09 but for the light they received in their darkness 01:12 which they rejected. 01:14 And so last chapter we see that 01:16 Jesus is having this one on one conversation with a man. 01:21 And now we come to verse 4 01:23 and He has another one on one conversation, 01:25 but this time with a woman. 01:28 And we know her as the woman at the well. 01:31 That's right. Right. 01:32 So where do we pick up? 01:34 Okay, well this particular story occurs 01:37 in a place called Samaria. 01:40 And in the Old Testament there was a time 01:43 when Israel was divided into two nations. 01:45 So one was around Jerusalem called Judah 01:49 and other was around this area Samaria 01:52 and it was just called Israel and they had different kings 01:57 and eventually even different places of worship. 02:00 I had a chance recently in Israel to go to Tel Dan, 02:04 which has a temple, the remains of a temple. 02:07 It's the only Hebrew temple 02:10 that is still in good shape in the land of Israel 02:13 from the time of the Old Testament. 02:15 It's about 800 BC and you could see the altar there 02:18 and so that's-- that was pretty exciting stuff. 02:21 So in Samaria--there's really a long history here, 02:26 because these Samaritans are kind of cousins to the Jews. 02:31 They are related and yet their religion is different and so on. 02:35 And they actually believed that they had the true religion 02:39 and that the Jews did not. 02:40 And if you go to the Old Testament 02:42 you could see some of that. 02:45 Because when Abraham comes from Ur of the Chaldees 02:48 and comes to Palestine, where does he end up? Shechem. 02:53 And in fact the Samaritan Pentateuch, 02:56 the Samaritan version of the Books of Moses, 02:59 actually say that Abraham came to Shechem in the land of Moriah 03:04 where Abraham sacrificed Isaac. 03:07 So the Samaritan see that activity actually happening 03:12 on Mount Gerizimc in Samaria rather then at Jerusalem? 03:17 So in their minds everything goes there. 03:20 Jacob when he comes back from Mesopotamia, 03:24 he lands in Shechem. 03:27 When the Israelites come out of Egypt 03:30 and they enter into the Promised Land, 03:31 where do they hold their first worship service? 03:34 In Shechem, Mount Gerizim, 03:36 Mount Ebal on either side of Shechem. 03:38 Apparently they fought battles in the north 03:42 and they fought battles in the south, 03:44 but the people in the centre of the country 03:48 were not hostile, you see. 03:50 So apparently Abraham when he came there 03:54 made some converts and stuff like that 03:55 kind of stayed true all the way along. 03:59 In fact archeologists have found in Shechem, 04:02 an altar to the Lord of the covenant. 04:06 And that's interesting language 04:07 because, you know, the Old Testament 04:10 speaks off about the covenant that God makes with His people. 04:14 So you have abundant evidence 04:17 that Shechem was a place of worship 04:20 going all the way back to Abraham. 04:22 When does Jerusalem become the centre of worship? 04:26 Only under David. 04:28 Only about 1000 years after Abraham. 04:32 So for the Samaritans they say, you know, who are you guys? 04:36 We've been here long before you. 04:37 We've been worshiping the true God long before you. 04:40 This is the real place, this is the real religion. 04:43 So when Jesus and this woman enter into debate 04:46 over the right place to worship, 04:48 there's a long history going on here that opens it up. 04:53 Now when the Israelites went to Babylon, 05:00 those people came from Judah, 05:02 the southern kingdom not the north. 05:04 They went to Babylon 05:05 and with the help of Daniel, Ezekiel and so on, 05:08 their religion was reformed, their idolatry was burned away 05:12 and they came back from Babylon to change people. 05:15 When they came back, 05:17 there were people still in the land 05:18 who remembered the old ways and they were conservative. 05:22 I guess you would say. 05:24 And they--these people come back from Babylon, 05:25 they got a totally new religion. 05:27 What's going on here, you see? 05:29 So the Samaritans, they're kind of like old school Hebrews. 05:34 They're hanging on to the old religion 05:36 where Yahweh had female consorts, 05:39 you know, you can even see a little female figurines 05:43 that you'll find archeologically in that place. 05:47 So the Samaritans thought of their religion as superior 05:50 because it was earlier, because they hadn't changed. 05:54 But you see God often changes things. 05:58 And if we don't move with God when He changes stuff, 06:02 we can get left behind, 06:04 even though we're faithful to what we thought we knew. 06:07 We haven't changed, everything is looking good. 06:09 And yet when God is moving, when the Spirit comes, 06:12 it can take you places you didn't expect. 06:15 So the Samaritans were kind of people 06:17 who were hanging on to the old ways. 06:19 And now Jesus comes to the Jews 06:23 who were now also hanging on to their old ways 06:25 and He's offerings something totally new in the sense. 06:30 They were all stuck with the temple. 06:32 Temple on Mount Gerizim or temple in Jerusalem 06:35 and that's the right place 06:37 and if you got that, you're good, 06:38 if you don't have it, you're not. 06:40 And Jesus come and says, 06:42 it doesn't matter, Gerizim, Jerusalem. 06:45 He says true followers can worship God anywhere. 06:49 So that's the deep thing that's coming through here. 06:54 Unfortunately the Jews 06:55 and the Samaritans hated each other. 06:59 The Jews felt that 07:01 everything the Samaritans touched was defiled 07:04 by the fact that they touched it. 07:07 And so the Jews held a very low opinion, 07:10 but here's an interesting thing. 07:13 When people called Jesus Messiah what does He usually do? 07:18 No, don't call me Messiah, you don't use those terms? 07:22 In Samaria, He says, yeah I'm the Messiah. 07:26 What's the difference here? It's the view of Messiah. 07:30 For the Jews at that time the Messiah was gonna be a king, 07:34 a military general who would deliver them from the Romans. 07:37 Jesus couldn't say yes to that. 07:40 Their agenda for the Messiah was not his. 07:43 When He said He's Messiah, they would expect Him to be 07:45 something different than what He was. 07:47 But the Samaritans didn't have a military 07:50 and economic political picture of the Messiah. 07:53 They thought of the Messiah as a reformer, 07:57 someone who would teach them the true way to worship. 08:00 And so you see in Samaria, 08:02 Jesus could admit that He was the Messiah, 08:05 because they would understand Him correctly from that term. 08:09 So the Samaritans, you know, 08:14 had some great ideas about the Messiah 08:17 and Jesus accepts their ideas 08:19 and He says, yeah I'm the Messiah 08:22 in the terms that you have. 08:24 Now before we get to the text, 08:25 there's one more thing I want to share with you. 08:27 So we talked about weddings a few programs back, 08:31 and I see the smile come on your face. 08:33 I think about that because that's a good thing 08:35 in your future here somewhere. 08:37 But you know, in the Old Testament 08:40 there were lots of encounters at wells. 08:43 Moses found his wife at a well. Jacob found his wife at a well. 08:49 Isaac found his wife at a well. 08:52 And interestingly enough 08:54 every time the couple encounters each other at the well, 08:59 then the girl goes back leaves the well, 09:03 leaves him at the well and goes to get her family. 09:06 The family comes back and then the marriage happens. 09:09 So I've a question for you. 09:11 Do you know where the nearest well around here is? 09:17 Oh, we can work on that. May be off the air. 09:21 All right, if you go ahead. That's right. 09:23 So here you have this background, 09:26 so when John is writing the story 09:29 and people are reading the story at the time 09:31 and if they have that background and mind they're gonna say 09:34 interesting he's meeting a woman. 09:36 He meets her at the well, she runs off, 09:38 she gets her family they come back, 09:40 you know, something is happening here. 09:43 And you made a suggestion little while ago, 09:45 it says in the story that she has five husbands, 09:48 she's living with a sixth one and what was your idea? 09:52 Well, the sixth one was that she-- 09:53 where she meets Jesus and-- Yeah. 09:57 So maybe He's the seventh guy? 09:59 Well, I'm just-- I'm just thinking. 10:02 It's kind of the way John thinks. 10:04 I've never gone there before, but I like that idea 10:07 and maybe there's an implication here, 10:09 that she's had six men and Jesus is the seventh. 10:13 And as the seventh He's the true husband, 10:16 the one that can really meet her needs. 10:19 But anyway I don't know if John is going there, 10:21 but that's an exciting idea 10:23 and John certainly tends to think that way quite often. 10:27 All right then--should we just get into the text? 10:30 Let's get into the text? 10:31 Yeah. All right. 10:32 So we're in chapter 4, Jon, and we're reading verses-- 10:37 shall we start reading from verse 1? 10:40 Well, let's go to verse 5, 10:43 if we had more time it would be nice to go through every verse. 10:45 But I think there's some key things 10:47 we want to touch base on. 10:49 "So he came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, 10:52 near the plot of ground 10:54 that Jacob gave to his son Joseph." Now Jacob-- 10:57 Now this well, actually Jacob's well is there, 11:01 this well is still there. 11:03 It's actually in the basement of a church. 11:05 They built a church around it. 11:07 And this is a Palestinian area 11:10 and has been at times a place of tension, 11:12 but I was able to visit there once. 11:14 And it's some of the sweetest water 11:17 you would ever taste it, 11:19 it's really a pure, it's a lovely well. 11:22 Interesting the city is called Sychar 11:26 and that's exactly what it sounds like Sychar, 11:30 you know, it kind of close to sugar, 11:33 but it actually means drunkenness. 11:36 Now think about that. 11:38 Jesus spends time in the village of drunkenness. 11:42 You know, Jesus is not worried about guilt by association, 11:47 He goes and meets people where they are, 11:50 and He brings them out from where they are 11:53 to where they need to be. 11:55 I think sometimes these Christians were afraid 11:57 to associate with people that might bring us a bad name 12:01 or something like that, 12:02 but Jesus doesn't seem to have that fear. 12:04 Not that Jesus was a drunker to me than where they were. 12:07 Didn't need to do that. Right. Okay. 12:10 No, He didn't need to do that. 12:11 But He meets them in their place 12:13 and He's not ashamed to be seen with them. 12:16 And here you have a town. 12:18 Imagine living in the town called drunkenness. 12:21 I think some people make me feel, 12:23 they do living in such a town. 12:25 Everybody knows your secrets. Yeah. 12:27 Why don't you go to verse 10 and go through verse 14. 12:31 "Jesus answered and said to her, 'If you knew the gift of God 12:35 and who it is who says to you give me a drink, 12:38 you would have asked him 12:40 and he would have given you living water.' 12:43 The woman said to him 'Sir, 12:44 You've nothing to draw with and the well is deep. 12:48 Where then do you get that living water? 12:51 Are you greater than our father Jacob, 12:53 who gave us the well and drank from it himself, 12:56 as well as his sons and his livestock?' 12:59 Jesus answered and said to her, 13:01 'Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, 13:04 but whoever drinks of the water 13:05 that I shall give him will never thirst, 13:08 but the water that I shall give him 13:10 will become in him a fountain of water 13:12 springing up into everlasting life.'" 13:16 Well, in this story, a woman comes to the well 13:19 and Jesus asks her for drink 13:22 and she is shocked by that because He's clearly a Jew. 13:26 And Jews don't associate with Samaritans. 13:30 And for her to give Him a drink, 13:32 his lips are going to have to touch her pot 13:34 which in Jews' mind is the defile pot. 13:37 So Jesus is breaking all the cultural barriers 13:41 to reach out to this woman 13:43 and she is interested in physical water. 13:48 Well, we need water to live. We need food in order to live. 13:53 But if our whole attention is there, 13:55 we're not going to get with this gospel, 13:56 He's offering us. 13:58 And Jesus has a different kind of water 14:01 that will be satisfying in a way 14:03 that the regular water never could. 14:06 And let's talk about that 14:07 satisfying water after this break. 14:09 And stay with us, friends as we continue 14:11 to study this story in the Gospel of John. |
Revised 2014-12-17