A WORD ON JOHN 4: 22

I just wish to read this one short verse. It is the Lord’s answer to the question propounded to Him by the woman of Samaria. “Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews”.

I would indicate the point in which I believe we may see the connection with, and the confirmation of, what has just been said to us. I believe the enemy is seeking to break down the faith of the saints, and to throw them into a state of discouragement, but the Lord, by the Spirit, would really encourage us. I have been greatly impressed with the grace of our blessed Lord. From the outset the woman gives Him the place of being a Jew. He approaches her and asks for a drink. She is filled with astonishment, and says, “How is it that thou, being a Jew,” &c. She recognises Him as such, and He takes the place of being one, and yet He is much more. He is the Giver of living water. He could say to her at the outset of His conversation, “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water”. The Giver of living water was down here, and was putting Himself in such contact with men, and speaking in such an encouraging way, as though He had said to her, ‘You can have it for the asking’. “Thou wouldest have asked of him and he would have given thee living water”.

But I pass on to the question she asked Him. He has touched her heart, no doubt, and more than that, He has reached her conscience. All is exposed in the light. She recognises Him as a prophet. He was the Prophet that Moses had spoken of centuries before, and she appeals to Him as to the question at issue between the Jews and Samaritans: the question of worship, that of the place of worship. There was Mount Gerizim in Samaria; there the Samaritans had erected a temple, set up altars, had their priests, and maintained a system of divine worship; there was Jerusalem, there stood that wonderful temple where God had placed His Name, the divine oracles were there, all the light upon earth in regard to God was to be found there; and where the light of God is there is salvation. There is none where the light of God is not, for the salvation of man lies in the knowledge of God, and where salvation is not, there is no true worship of God. How the glory of His blessed Person shines out in every word that leaves His lips! He is a way-worn, weary traveller. “Jesus, therefore, being wearied with the way He had come, sat just as He was at the fountain”. He had travelled all that morning, was weary and thirsty, but who is He? He is the Son of God; the only-begotten Son in the Father’s bosom. He is the One who can speak of God, who can tell what God is. He says, “God is a Spirit”. He is perfectly acquainted with the Father’s heart, and can give expression to all its desires. He says, “The Father seeketh such”—worshippers.

He now says to the woman of Samaria: “Ye worship ye know not what”. Why? There was no light of God there. The revelation from God; the oracles of God were not in Samaria; consequently there could be no true worship. Mark the “ye” and the “we”. Is it not beautiful to see Him put Himself in as one of the “we”? He says, “Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews”. It has often been pointed out that John’s gospel begins where the other gospels end. “He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received Him not”. In the second chapter of John what do you find? The religious condition of the Jews was a public scandal: yet there stood the temple, and there were the oracles of God; there was the Name of God, the blessed Son of God could say at that moment in the history of Judaism, “Salvation is of the Jews”. It was said today, the form in which the power of Satan over man expressed itself in the Old Testament times from the flood on was idolatry, and what does salvation mean? It means salvation from all that in connection with which man is under the power of Satan, and where was salvation from idolatry? It could only be found among the Jews.

In connection with this I wish to speak of Naaman the leper and how he came to the prophet and got perfect cleansing, also of the ten lepers. As to the latter they all were perfectly cleansed, but nine of them went on with things as they were, and one came back. I do not think the nine obtained salvation from the existing state of things, for when the Lord was here salvation was connected with Him, but I think the one that came back got salvation. So, with Naaman; He was cleansed perfectly in Jordan. The record is that his flesh became as that of a little child, and this means there was not one single trace of leprosy in his system. The cleansing was perfect and complete, but I have questioned about Naaman’s salvation. He was going back to his royal master, who was an idolator and worshipped in the house of Rimmon. He asked for two mules’ burden of earth to make a little altar of his own. I do not think you can make a little altar of your own, and have salvation in connection with it. You may have perfect cleansing from the leprosy of sin.

The ten were all cleansed. There was no difference at all in respect of their cleansing, but I think there was a great difference in respect of certain moral consequences. I am sure the one that came back to the Lord and fell down at His blessed feet, and gave glory to God, came into something that the other nine did not. I have wondered about Naaman. Of course the prophet just committed him to God, and he went his way. It is so encouraging in the close of the church’s history to know that the house of God is still here. It is still true that it is “the assembly of the living God, the pillar and base of the truth,” and what is “the truth”? We have been told it is that which may be known of God. I am sure the Lord would deliver us from every sort and kind of pretension, and would encourage us at the same time to go on in “the truth”. Those thus going on may be reduced to a very feeble company. How feeble that company in Luke 2! There was Anna; she was 84, old and a widow; also Simeon, Zacharias and Elizabeth. They are a feeble few. They had no status, no publicity; but what marks them is, they have the light of God in their souls, and they cling to that, which God had set up. The tables of the moneychangers, and the traffic of those who sold doves, did not keep them out of the temple. They represented the remnant. The woman the affection, and the man the energy of faith. In Simeon there is the energy of faith, but in Anna the affection that does not know anything about giving up. The affection that keeps the soul on the line of cleaving and continuing. All this is for our encouragement. We have everything to encourage us at the present moment. There is nothing to be discouraged about, or to give any excuse for a moment to entertain the thought of giving up or letting go. “We know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews”. Salvation is in the knowledge of God, and salvation is a means to an end, and where salvation is, worship is realised. May the Lord in the greatness of His grace be pleased to encourage our hearts!

NEW YORK

1906

From Ministry of James Taylor—Old Series, vol 3