Reading the Bible Together

Passages for the Day

4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.

    7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

    9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

    10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

    11 ”Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?”

    13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but those who drink the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

    15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

    16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”

    17 ”I have no husband,” she replied.

    Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

    19 ”Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

    21 ”Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

    25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

    26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

Points of interest:

·         ‘he had to go through Samaria’—Samaria is the Roman-era name of the area Isaiah called ‘Ephraim.’.  The tensions that always existed between the people of Ephraim and of Judah became far worse in the aftermath of the exile.  First of all, Samaritan opposition was to a large extent responsible for the post-exilic delays in rebuilding the Jerusalem temple.  Secondly, the two people were drastically affected by the different exile strategies used by the Babylonians and the Assyrians.  The Babylonians exiled their conquered people, like the Jews, in homogeneous groups; but the Assyrians scattered their conquered people, like the Ephraimites, in small groups around their empire.  The Ephraimites therefore did much more intermarrying with other people; and many other people were brought to Ephraim to mix with the remaining Ephraimites.  So, while the Jews remained relatively distinct ethnically and pure religiously, the Samaritans were a very mixed group.  The Jews looked at the Samaritans as heretical mutts, and the Samaritans resented it.

·         ‘How can you ask me for a drink?’—as you might be able to guess from my previous note, Jews and Samaritans didn’t associate.  A Jew would never ask a Samaritan for anything, and a Samaritan wouldn’t be inclined to give it.

·         ‘If you knew the gift of God’—Jesus is not only willing to ask something of this Samaritan woman, he’s even willing to give her something far more valuable.

·         ‘Are you greater than our father Jacob’—Jacob is the common ancestor of the Jews and the Samaritans.  The woman is giving Jesus a little dig by pointing out that her people’s history is just as ancient, and just as connected to Abraham’s blessings, as the Jews’ history.

·         ‘you have had five husbands’—this would have been very rare, and quite scandalous.

·         ‘I can see that you are a prophet’—the woman steers the attention away from her personal life and toward a theological dispute between the Jews and the Samaritans.

·         ‘neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem’—given the centrality of Jerusalem, even in the prophecies about the nations we’ve been reading, this is quite a radical thing for Jesus to say.

·         ‘salvation is from the Jews’—‘from the Jews’ but not necessarily only ‘for the Jews.’  Jerusalem and the house of David play a unique role in God’s plan, but as God had told Abraham it’s a plan meant to bless the whole world.

·         ‘in the Spirit and in truth’—it’s not where you worship, or what rules you follow, that will ultimately be important.  Jesus is about to do something that empowers anyone, anywhere to connect truly with God in a new way.

Taking it home:

·         For you:  The Samaritan woman came to Jesus with a pretty clear and defined picture of how she could interact with him and what he could do for her. I wonder if it’s ever the same for us—that maybe we come to God with some rigid unspoken limitations about what he will and will not do in our lives.  Are there things in life that you just expect will always go the same, your lot in life that God could never change: ‘I will always fail’; ‘I’ll always be single’; ‘I can’t ever break that habit’; ‘I can never trust people’; ‘God won’t ever speak to me’? Consider that Jesus, just like with the Samaritan woman, might want to exceed what you expect he can do in your life.

·         For your six: Are any of your six in some complicated relationship situations—with spouses, ex-spouses, boyfriends, girlfriends, etc? The Samaritan woman demonstrates that relationship difficulties are anything but new.  Pray that their relationships would go well and that God would heal any consistent destructive patterns or wounds that have resulted from relationships gone bad.

·         For America: Jesus didn’t get hung up on the myriad of details—the life-circumstances, religious preferences, socio-cultural-gender specificities—regarding the Samaritan woman; he simply cared about people who would worship him in Spirit and in truth. Pray today that we wouldn’t get hung up on details (even really important-seeming ones), but that we as a nation would find ways of pointing ourselves simply toward Jesus.

⁴⁷ Whoever belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.”

Jesus’ Claims About Himself

⁴⁸ The Jews answered him, “Aren’t we right in saying that you are a Samaritan and demon-possessed?”

⁴⁹ “I am not possessed by a demon,” said Jesus, “but I honor my Father and you dishonor me. ⁵⁰ I am not seeking glory for myself; but there is one who seeks it, and he is the judge. ⁵¹ Very truly I tell you, whoever obeys my word will never see death.”

⁵² At this they exclaimed, “Now we know that you are demon-possessed! Abraham died and so did the prophets, yet you say that whoever obeys your word will never taste death. ⁵³ Are you greater than our father Abraham? He died, and so did the prophets. Who do you think you are?”

⁵⁴ Jesus replied, “If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me. ⁵⁵ Though you do not know him, I know him. If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and obey his word. ⁵⁶ Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.”

⁵⁷ “You are not yet fifty years old,” they said to him, “and you have seen Abraham!”

⁵⁸ “Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” ⁵⁹ At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.

Paul’s Anguish Over Israel

¹ I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying, my conscience confirms it through the Holy Spirit— ² I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. ³ For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race, ⁴ the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. ⁵ Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of the Messiah, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen.

God’s Sovereign Choice

⁶ It is not as though God’s word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. ⁷ Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham’s children. On the contrary, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” ⁸ In other words, it is not the natural children who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring. ⁹ For this was how the promise was stated: “At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son.”

¹⁰ Not only that, but Rebekah’s children were conceived at the same time by our father Isaac. ¹¹ Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad—in order that God’s purpose in election might stand: ¹² not by works but by him who calls—she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” ¹³ Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

¹⁴ What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! ¹⁵ For he says to Moses,
“I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,
and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”

¹⁶ It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. ¹⁷ For Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” ¹⁸ Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.

Lying Prophets

⁹ Concerning the prophets:
My heart is broken within me;
all my bones tremble.
I am like a drunken man,
like one overcome by wine,
because of the LORD
and his holy words.

¹⁰ The land is full of adulterers;
because of the curse the land lies parched
and the pastures in the wilderness are withered.
The [prophets] follow an evil course
and use their power unjustly.

¹¹ “Both prophet and priest are godless;
even in my temple I find their wickedness,”
declares the LORD.

¹² “Therefore their path will become slippery;
they will be banished to darkness
and there they will fall.
I will bring disaster on them
in the year they are punished,”
declares the LORD.

¹³ “Among the prophets of Samaria
I saw this repulsive thing:
They prophesied by Baal
and led my people Israel astray.

¹⁴ And among the prophets of Jerusalem
I have seen something horrible:
They commit adultery and live a lie.
They strengthen the hands of evildoers,
so that none of them turn from their wickedness.
They are all like Sodom to me;
the people of Jerusalem are like Gomorrah.”

¹⁵ Therefore, this is what the LORD Almighty says concerning the prophets:
“I will make them eat bitter food
and drink poisoned water,
because from the prophets of Jerusalem
ungodliness has spread throughout the land.”

For the director of music. With stringed instruments. A psalm of Asaph. A song.

¹ God is renowned in Judah;
in Israel his name is great.

² His tent is in Salem,
his dwelling place in Zion.

³ There he broke the flashing arrows,
the shields and the swords, the weapons of war.

⁴ You are resplendent with light,
more majestic than mountains rich with game.

⁵ The valiant lie plundered,
they sleep their last sleep;
not one of the warriors
can lift his hands.

⁶ At your rebuke, God of Jacob,
both horse and chariot lie still.

⁷ It is you alone who are to be feared.
Who can stand before you when you are angry?

⁸ From heaven you pronounced judgment,
and the land feared and was quiet—

⁹ when you, God, rose up to judge,
to save all the afflicted of the land.

¹⁰ Surely your wrath against human beings brings you praise,
and the survivors of your wrath are restrained.

¹¹ Make vows to the LORD your God and fulfill them;
let all the neighboring lands
bring gifts to the One to be feared.

¹² He breaks the spirit of rulers;
he is feared by the kings of the earth.