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Worship What You Do Not Know - John 4: 22
Worship What You Do Not Know - John 4: 22
“You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews” (John 4:22).
The background of this whole discussion is to be found in the history of the Samaritans. The short story, they are descendants of those Jews who had returned from Babylonian captivity AND their intermarriage with the people that had been moved there during the same captivity period. This of course happened over 400 years earlier and thus many generations.
There developed a long-standing debate: What does the scripture say about worship? The New American Commentary states concerning this: “The Samaritans argued that their temple was authorized by Moses (cf. Deut 27:4 in the Samaritan Pentateuch, which reads “Gerizim” instead of “Ebal”). They contended that Gerizim was the place that fulfilled the prediction of God’s “dwelling” (cf. Deut 12:5), which was called the mountain of God’s blessing (Deut 11:29 as here in 4:21–24 over against Ebal). NAC (see another quote below).
Based on this, the Samaritans had built their own temple on Mt. Gerizim and had their own religious rules concerning their worship.
With this background, and sensing that Jesus was a prophet, the woman took the opportunity to find an inspired solution to this old debate! Jesus’ answer probably came as a bit of a shock to her. In simple terms, the Samaritans were wrong, and the answer lay with the Jewish scriptures.
Jesus here gives us some concepts about the worship of God.
Worship of God is desired.
Worship of God IS REGULATED.
Such was, before Jesus DBR, to be found in the OT revelation.
The change is that ‘a time is coming’ when there would be a change! “But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.” (John 4:23)
Such TIME HAS COME! As the Hebrew writer stated: “ God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. (Hebrews 1:1-2)
But that change is not that we are free to worship God in any way that WE desire. Our worship is still desired and regulated, but such is to be found in the NT revelation.
The struggle today is about what is revealed. Many still, like the Samaritans, worship what they do not know – i.e., they worship according to THEIR desires and not according to God’s revelation. This presents a challenge to us – do WE KNOW what we worship? Is OUR worship based upon scripture? Do YOU know what you worship?
Hugh DeLong
ESVStudyBible: 20–21 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain. Mount Gerizim (Deut. 11:29; 27:12) was the OT setting for the pronouncement of blessings for keeping the covenant. The Samaritans’ version (see note on v. 4) of Deut. 27:4 named Mount Gerizim (rather than Ebal) as the place for the altar; this is where the Samaritans had built their temple. When the woman mentioned the “fathers” who “worshiped” on Mount Gerizim, she may well have included Abraham (Gen. 12:7) and Jacob (Gen. 33:18–20), who built altars in that region. A Samaritan temple on Mount Gerizim was recorded in Josephus (Jewish Antiquities 11.310, 346–347; 12.257–264; cf. 2 Macc. 6:2
