SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/17/2016
9:48 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
Christ’s Impression on the Samaritans
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: John 4:39-42
Message of
the verses: “39 From that city many of the Samaritans
believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, "He told
me all the things that I have done." 40 So when the Samaritans came to
Jesus, they were asking Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days. 41
Many more believed
because of His word; 42 and they were saying to the woman, "It is no
longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for
ourselves and know that this One is indeed the Savior of the world.’”
We see the words “believe” and “believed” in this
section that we are in today, and I wanted to look at how many times these
words were used in the entire book of John in the NASB and I found out that
believe is used 49 times and believed is used 23 times. In the books of 1, 2, and 3rd John
he also uses these words, believe four times, and believed two times, so we can
be assured that these important words were favorites of John.
Now we have not actually seen the Samaritans in
verses 31-38 and so they re-enter the picture in our verses today and some of
them have believed because of what the woman had told them, and since they did
believe we have to believe that there was more narrative by her than what John
recorded, but we also must understand that the Holy Spirit was at work in the
lives of these people too. I realize
that the Holy Spirit did not work exactly how He works in people’s lives today,
after the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, but I have to
believe that there was a spiritual act of God going on in the lives of the
people that this woman spoke to when she came running back to town. John MacArthur writes “The supernatural
knowledge of the details of her past settled for them that He was in fact the
Messiah. Therefore when they ‘came to
Jesus’ at the well, ‘they were’ continually ‘asking Him to stay with them; and
He stayed there two days.’ During that
time ‘many more believed because of His word.’
Though they were influenced by the woman’s testimony, hearing from Jesus
Himself was the clincher. So they were ‘saying
to’ her, ‘It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have
heard for ourselves and know that this One is indeed the Savior of the world.’ Such words were not intended to denigrate her
testimony, but rather to indicate that their time was with Jesus confirmed it.”
The salvation of the Samaritans was indeed
significant because they were not Jewish and many wanted to think that the
Messiah, when He came would only deal with the Jews, which of course is not
true because we read in different parts of the OT, mainly the prophets that
when the Messiah comes He would also save Gentiles. As I think back on this from the history of
the OT there are some things that come to my mind. We know that when God created the earth, along
with all of the stars that we see that everything was perfect. Man was perfect until sin came into their
lives because of listening to Satan and eating from the forbidden fruit from
the forbidden tree. Things surely went downhill
from there and it got so bad on earth that God destroyed the earth with a
flood, only saving the animals, along with Noah and his family. All of the people who believed before the
flood were Gentiles for there were no Jewish people alive at that time, this did
not come about until the 12th chapter of Genesis when after the
flood, God called an idol worshiping man named Abram to leave his home and come
to what would eventually be called the Promised Land. There was a godly line that was heading to
the birth of the Messiah from Adam to Abram who would be called Abraham, and
all of these were Gentiles, so it is not surprising to me that when we read
John 3:16 that God loves the world, meaning the world of people, including the
Gentiles and even those who were part Gentile and part children of Israel, the
Samaritans. When we look at the Great
Commission we read that the gospel is to go to the entire ends of the earth and
so Jesus took that first step in taking it to the hated Samaritans.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: I am to be read to tell others of the hope
that is in me as Peter wrote “always being ready to make a defense to everyone
who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with
gentleness and reverence (1 Peter 3:15b).”
My Steps of Faith
for Today:
Trust the Lord to keep me close to Him, and not focus on all of the
things that are going on in the world.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “In the cave of Machpelah” (Genesis 50:1-13).
Today’s Bible question: “Who laughed when told she would have a son?”
Answer in our next SD.
2/17/2016 10:25 AM
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