Matthew 4:12 part 7-C Plain Text Form

Matthew 4:12 part 7-C

"I Perceive You
Are A Prophet"

  

(I am offering this outline in plain text form and pdf)

John 4:16-20

I must admit that I digressed from what my study was going to cover, but that is because I felt a history lesson was in order. I ended the last study with the Samaritan woman asking Jesus for the water HE spoke of so she would not be thirsty and not have to travel to this well again. It's obvious that she still does not understand him. I will continue with the spiritual problem of the woman in my next study, but for now take a journey into the past with me as I go in depth to expalain why the Jews and Samaritans don't get along. 

Some history is offered to help fill in the missing peices you may not know. Some histoprty that will help explain the anymosity. Things that many Jews and Samaritans themselves may not have truly been aware of. Hate can last so long that many forget why they hate. Children hate because their parents hate, yet seldom do those who hate truly understand the reason. Jesus came to meet a woman at the well who did not understand why they disagreed.

1. (John 4:16) Jesus said to her, “Go call your husband, and come here.”

1. Notice, Jesus did not ask, “Are you married please bring your husband.”

2. Jesus told her to go get your husband and bring him

1. Remember, it was not proper for a Jewish man to speak to a woman without her husband present

2. Jesus is saying, “Call your husband,so he may teach you, and help you understand these things, which you are ignorant of” 

1. Paul tells us that a woman must learn from their husbands (1 Corinthians 14:35)

2. It would have been proper for her husband to be present that he may be a witness to their conversation. 

3. By telling her this, Jesus was taking her to a place she would be convicted about

4. Instead of calling one a sinner, a wise teacher can make one see their own inadequacies 

   
   

2. (John 4:17-A) The woman answered and said, “I have no husband” 

1. She offers no more than the idea that she is not married, 

2. Maybe she is a old maid, or a widow

3. Her answer was an evasive one to avoid guilt

1. It's like saying, “Let us change the subject.”

2. When one lives in sin, the mind can come up with ingenious ways of avoiding conflict

4. She has had years of people ridiculing her for her life style

5. By now she was an experienced older woman with an attitude

6. After being with so many men, she is of the thought, I need no husband

   
   

3. (John 4:17-B-18) Jesus said to her, “You have well said, “I have no husband,” for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.”

1. It must be pointed out that the original Greek word translated into,husbands, very well could mean “men”

1. The Greek word is ανδρας, (pronounced andras).

1. Noun, masculine

2. With reference to sex

1. A male, or betrothed to a man, or husband

3. With reference to age, and to distinguish an adult man from a boy

4. Any male

5. Used generically of a group of both men and women

2. This passage could very well have been written as follows,

“for you have had five men, and the one whom you now have is also not your husband...”

3. For today's study we will go along with the idea that Jesus meant “Husband”.

4. If so, then she is now living in sin for she is now living with a man she is not married to

5. However, she was also sinned against by her former husbands

1. In those days, a woman could not divorce her husband

2. Only men could legally divorce a woman

3. Women had no rights as we do today

6. However, God did not allow for divorce, Moses did for the hardness of men’s hearts

1. When confronted about divorce, Jesus tells us in Matthew 19:1-9

“Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning made them male and female,and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’ ? So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.”

They said to Him, “Why then did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?”

He said to them, “Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery.”

7. The woman was Samaritan, but the Samaritans followed many of the Jewish laws

1. Jewish law allowed for 2 divorces and 3 marriages, 

1. She was possibly married 5 times, and now she was defiantly living in sin with a man

2. Jesus told her to call her husband because there is no true conversion without conviction

3. Jesus did not delve into the reasons, He simply say’s “You are a sinner, now lets go from there.”

4. Jesus exposed her sin but did not dwell upon it, too often we force people to explain why they sinned

   
   

4. (John 4:19-20) The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jewssay that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.” 

1. Notice how instead of confessing her sin she changes subject to a theological discussion

1. She acknowledges that He must be a prophet, 

1. Only a prophet of God could know such aspects of her life

2. Between Jews and the Samaritans the place of worship has always been a point of contention

   
   

5. To truly understand why the Jews disliked the Samaritans, we first must go back to when Solomon died

1. Israelites entered the Promised land in about 1250 B.C. 

1. Joshua was the first leader after Moses died (Deuteronomy 34:1-12)

1. Brought Israel into the promised land (Joshua 3:1-17)

2. The first Judge arose only after Joshua died in 1356 BC (Judges 1:1).

3. Judges ruled Israel for 336 years 

4. Samuel was the last judge who died in 1014 BC (1 Samuel 25:1)

2. Saul was Israel's first King (1 Samuel 9:27)

1. He ruled for 40 to 42 years 

2. Saul died in 1010 B.C. (1 Samuel 31:1-6)

3. David anointed King by Samuel 1010 B.C. (1 Samuel 16:1-13)

1. Would not become King of all of Israel until he was 30 years old in 1010 B.C. 

2. David was King for 40 years 

1. 7 years in Hebron

1. Saul was still alive. 

1. God removed Saul, but he stayed in control till his death

2. David became King of all Israel in 903 B.C. (2 Samuel 5:1-5)

3. David ruled for 33 years as Sole King of all of Israel

4. Ruled from Jerusalem. (2 Samuel 5:4-5)

5. David died in 970 B.C. (1 Kings 2:10)

4. Solomon became King upon David's death in 970 B.C. (1 Kings 1:32-40)

1. Solomon was 29 or 30 years old

2. Solomon dies in 931 B.C. (1 Kings 11:41-43)

5. Upon Solomon's death, his son Rehoboam becomes King of a united Israel 931 B.C. (1 Kings 11:43)

1. Rehoboam increased the taxes and forced hard labor on the people (1 Kings 12:6-11)

2. This angered the people and 10 tribes chose their own leader (1 Kings 12:6-20)

   
   

6. Israel splits into 2 nations 931 B.C. (1Kings chapter 12) 

1. Rehoboam ruled over the united Israeli Kingdom for less than 1 year, before it split into two Kingdoms.

1. Southern Kingdom was Judea (1 kings 12:17)

1. Rehoboam, Solomon's son, was the king of Judea

2. Jerusalem was the capital city of the Southern Kingdom

3. The Temple Solomon built was in Jerusalem (1 Kings chapter 6)

4. God called for all Israelites to worship and sacrifice in Jerusalem

2. Northern Nation was Israeli, also called Samaria 

1. Jeroboam became the first King of the Northern Kingdom

2. He made Shechem the capital of the Kingdom (1 Kings 12:25)

1. The people became known as Samaritans 

3. Jeroboam set up idols in Dan and Bethel. (1 Kings 12:28-33)

1. He changed the their place of worship

2. He did not want the people to travel to Jerusalem anymore (1 Kings 12:26-27)

2. Problems between the two nations began right from the start

1. Rehoboam went to war with the Northern Kingdom to reunite them under his rule (1 Kings 12:21)

1. God sent Shemaiah to stop Rehoboam from going to war (1 Kings 12:22-24)

2. Shemaiah told him that this was an act by God, so Rehoboam returned to Jerusalem

3. This was the beginning of problems between the two nations

1. We read that there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all their days (1 Kings 14:29-31)

2. From the day the nation split into the Northern and Southern Kingdom problems existed

3. The Northern Kingdom, Samaria, never had a good King

1. Every NorthernSouthern King was evil in the sight of God

4. The Southern Kingdom, Judea, had some good Kings and some bad Kings

   
   




7. Now we get to 721 B.C. The Kingdoms split in 931 B.C.

1. After 210 years the Northern Kingdom ends 

2. In 721 B.C. the Assyrians attacked and destroyed, the Northern Kingdom of Samaria

3. The Northern Kingdom ceased to exist

1. Assyria took most of the people away as slaves (2 Kings 17:18)

1. Assyria resettled Samaria with foreigners (2 Kings 17:24) 

2. The new people did not know the customs, and were unfamiliar with the lands

1. Different people would not know what is good to grow

2. They would not know what the weather was like

3. Thus they would not survive

4. Assyria sent a Priest to teach them about God (2 Kings 17:26-28)

5. They did not listen but followed their own false god's

4. In 597 B.C. the Southern Kingdom of Judea was attacked and destroyed by Babylon

1. Nebuchadnezzar only took away the most prominent citizens of Judah: 

1. He took priests, craftsmen, and the wealthy. 

2. He left the common people who worked the lands (2 Kings 25:22)

3. There became two societies of citizens formerly known as the Southern Kingdom of Judah

1. The ones living in exile in Babylon

2. The ones who remain in Judah. 

1. Jeremiah wrote in Lamentations about the poverty of those left in Judea

1. Lamentations gives us an idea of the total devastation 

1. Temple completely destroyed

2. Jerusalem completely destroyed

3. Every city and town ravaged and pillaged

4. Those left had to struggle to build a life to survive

2. After 70 years those taken away returned (Ezra chapter 1 and 2)

3. The Israelites who remained in Judea had intermarried with foreigners

4. Jews began rebuilding the 2nd Temple in 527 B.C. 

1. The Samaritans offered to help, but were told they could not (Ezra 4:1-2)

1. They were told they were not pure, because they intermarried (Ezra 4:3)

2. Instead of being true Israelites, they were considered half breeds

3. Unclean heathens

4. No better than the rest of the gentiles whom the Jews hated

5. The first time citizens from of the Southern Tribe referred to as Jews is in 2 Kings 25:25

1. Jeremiah may have written 1 and 2 Kings,

1. If so, he coined the term, Jew, for citizens of Judea. 

1. Earliest reference to the name Jew

But it happened in the seventh month that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the royal family, came with ten men and struck and killed Gedaliah, the Jews, as well as the Chaldeans who were with him at Mizpah. (2 Kings 25:25)

2. Next time the word Jew is used is in Ezra 4:23

Now when the copy of King Artaxerxes' letter was read before Rehum, Shimshai the scribe, and their companions, they went up in haste to Jerusalem against the Jews, and by force of arms made them cease. (Ezra 4:23)

2.  This rejection caused the Samaritans to begin worshipping on Mt Gerizim

1. Mt Gerizim, 

1. Abraham and Jacob worshipped there, 

1. Jacob built an altar and named it “El Elohe Israel” 

2. Means “The mighty God of Israel,” (Genesis 12:6-7) & (Genesis 33:20)

6. Thus the reason the woman was shocked Jesus spoke to her

7. Hate can last so long that many forget why they hate. Children hate because their parents hate

8. Jesus came to meet a woman at the well who did not understand why they disagreed

   
   

8. Next week, Jesus will openly reveal himself as the Messiah to the woman at the well. To a woman who has lived a sorted life. She is a hated Samaritan woman who is half Jewish, and half Canaanite. The pious Jewish leader, Nicodemus, did not hear the words that Jesus tells this foreign woman when she states her belief in the coming Messiah:

“I am he, the one who is speaking to you” (John 4:26)

9. The conversation Jesus has with the woman is the longest recorded private conservation he had with anyone in the New Testament (John 4:7-26)