The G4 PROJECT - Day 8

Living Water at the Well [part II]

Feeling the flush of revelation, she turns the conversation away from her sin.

“(because you know these intimate details of my life) It’s obvious you are a prophet (from God).  What about worship?  Moses, Abraham and Jacob, who we also claim as our ancestors, worshiped on this mountain (Mt. Gerzim), but you (Jews) claim that the real place we ought worship is in Jerusalem – who is right?”

so much here.

The Samaritans and Jews had a long standing disagreement about whose sacred books were correct – the Samaritans having changed a few words in what was mostly the Hebrew texts.  As such they also disagreed about the format of worship.  Where should we worship?

Her question is the perfect opportunity for Jesus to clarify what God is looking for.

In essence He responds like this:
“Ma’am, since you regard me as a prophet of God, you should take to heart and believe what I am about to tell you.  A time is coming when the true worshippers of God won’t be bound in their worship to a particular location.

You Samaritans are worshipping by guessing, using your best attempts, but they are off.  We Jews worship what we do know, because we do have the true Word of God – and God has said the Messiah would come through the bloodline of Judah.  So we are called ‘Jews.’  But a time is coming – and it has already begin – when the true worshippers of God will worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth – those are the kind of worshippers God is looking for.  God is spirit and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

Spirit and truth.

What does He mean?

Spirit –

-      ***  the time would come when those who trust in God’s Messiah would have the Holy Spirit living inside of them.  Since the ‘residence’, if you will, of the Holy Spirit seemed in Jesus’ day to reside in the temple, it will not matter where worshippers worship in the future, since the Spirit is with them.  This is one of the reasons that it always strikes me as odd that people get worked up about non-biblical issues in church buildings saying, “but this is God’s house”.

"Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house you will build for me?” (Isa. 66:1)

-      *** The greek for ‘spirit’ is ‘pneuma’ – it means wind.  And not just any wind, but a wind with strength.  It’s the word we get pneumatic from, and if you’ve ever used a pneumatic nail gun – you know it is not a gentle breeze.  Jesus may have also been saying that God’s worshippers will being a vitality to their worship – not half-hearted praise.

-      *** Their worship will be spiritual – not just outward formalities or rote ritual.

Truth-

-      *** In part He may be addressing her question by referring to the fact that the Samaritans holy book was an altered version of the Hebrew or Jewish scriptures.

-      *** The worshippers of God would sing and speak truth about God in their worship.

-      *** “Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being…”(Ps. 51:6)  God desires that our worship be authentic, that when we sing phrases like “You are my everything” that they are not just air across our lips; that when we sing “I surrender all…” we mean it, that we are not internally holding onto ‘pet’ sins, that we are not just paying lipservice.

     tomorrow - part III