Chapter 2 – Right in the Sight of the Lord
The results of reasoning among men and reasoning with God will be contrasted in this chapter. We will also consider why a woman who asked Jesus for living water is often derided in churches today even though she was respected in her day.
The Bible's Counsel on Reasoning
"Every way of a man is right in his own eyes" (Prv 21:2). Using this wrong standard lets men tell themselves they are in the right even when they are doing "evil in the sight of the Lord" (1Ki 11:6, et al.). Scripture says, "the way of a fool is right in his own eyes: but he that hearkeneth unto counsel is wise" (Prv 12:15). But all counsel is not equal. Men took counsel among themselves when a sick man was carried to Jesus by his friends and here is what happened:
"When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. But there were certain of the scribes sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts, Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? who can forgive sins but God only? And immediately when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, he said unto them, Why reason ye these things in your hearts? Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk?" (Mk 2:5-9)
Their reasoning was proven wrong when Jesus healed the man (cf. Mk 2:11-12). Elsewhere, Jesus told a parable about self-reasoning:
"The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee" (Lk 12:16-20).
In scripture, group reasoning among scholars fared no better:
"the chief priests and the scribes came upon him [Jesus] with the elders, And spake unto him, saying, Tell us, by what authority doest thou these things? or who is he that gave thee this authority? And he answered and said unto them, I will also ask you one thing; and answer me: The baptism of John, was it from heaven, or of men? And they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, From heaven; he will say, Why then believed ye him not? But and if we say, Of men; all the people will stone us: for they be persuaded that John was a prophet. And they answered, that they could not tell whence it was" (Lk 20:1-7).
Reasoning among themselves also did not help the disciples:
"Jesus said unto them [his disciples], Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have taken no bread. Which when Jesus perceived, he said unto them, O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread?" (Mt 16:6-8)
The parable of a son sent to get the fruits of his father's vineyard from his workers ends this way, "when the husbandmen saw him [the son], they reasoned among themselves, saying, This is the heir: come, let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours" (Lk 20:14). So, reasoning together does not guarantee a rational result.
Reasoning is Better When God is Included
If the individual and/or the collective reasoning of men cannot be counted on to lead people to judge rightly, then we cannot assume any individual or group can be trusted to tell people how to view God's word. So, we need a way to validate the reasoning of men (including our own). Scripture gives us a right standard and verses like "prove all things; hold fast that which is good" and "judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment" (1Th 5:21 & Fourth gospel 7:24) are calling on us to be critical thinkers and diligent truth seekers.
Reasoning is necessary to make judgments and weigh evidence, but how can we avoid errors in reasoning like those noted above? In the first chapter of Isaiah, the Lord's people "rebelled against" him (v. 2) and he called them a "sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers" (v. 4). This was his counsel for them – "wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil" (v. 16). He then said, "let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow" (v. 18). So, when the Lord's people needed correction, his counsel for them was to reason together with him! If God's view of what is right is the basis of our judgment, then the Lord is included in our reasoning.
As we would expect, the words "let us reason together, saith the Lord" are a perfect fit with passages like, "it is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man" and "trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding" (Ps 118:8, Prv 3:5).
Reasoning According to the Scriptures
When we are not diligent to include the Lord in our reasoning, misunderstandings of God's word will occur. We will now look at some examples to see how reasoning together with the Lord can correct faulty views or keep them from happening in the first place. First, we will consider Jesus' conversation with a woman he met at Jacob's well. If we reason according to scripture, how will we view her reputation and character? Here is the passage:
"Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour. There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink. (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.) Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. Jesus answered and said unto her, 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 woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water? Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw. Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither. The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband: For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly. The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. The woman saith unto him, I know that Messiah cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he. And upon this came his disciples, and marveled that he talked with the woman: yet no man said, What seekest thou? or, Why talkest thou with her? The woman then left her water pot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men, Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ? Then they went out of the city, and came unto him" (Fourth gospel 4:6-30).
What do we know about the woman from this passage? There are people who view her in a bad light after they read these verses. We will discuss why they come to this conclusion, but we will also reason together with scripture and see why scripture demands a different conclusion.
Jesus said, "thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband." If we rush to judgment, we may conclude he was citing problems in her relations with men. But just because we cannot see how his words could mean something else, it is not a justification for us leaning on our understanding. Blind spots can lead to accidents on the road and, in the same way, blind spots lead to mistakes in our reasoning. This is why we need to allow scripture to guide our thinking. Those who think this woman had a low moral character tend to say things like:
- 'she was a serial adulterer,'
- 'she had a problem with commitment,'
- 'she had a reputation for being the town floozy,'
- 'she was now in a relationship with a live-in lover,' etc.
Those who reason within themselves and conclude this is what he meant, view other things in the passage in this light. Some say, 'She was alone at the well because people in the town would not associate with her.' Others say, 'When he put the spotlight on her personal life, she changed the subject.' Are such ideas justified?
The Evidence of Her Character
"The woman then left her water pot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men, Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ? Then they went out of the city, and came unto him" (Fourth gospel 4:28-30).
If a town drunk said he had a cure for cancer, who would listen? An outrageous claim that would be ridiculed or rejected if it comes from a person of low moral character will carry weight if it is made by someone who is respected.
If she had a bad reputation, those in her city would have been inclined to doubt her word on most anything, let alone a claim to have met the Christ. Yet, when she invited the men of her city to meet the Christ, "they went out of the city, and came unto him" (Fourth gospel 4:30). She invited people who knew her to meet a man who she thought was the Christ and they did not ridicule her, they jumped into action!
This does not suggest the men in her city saw her as immoral or as a shunned outcast. If people infer such things from the words Jesus spoke about the five husbands in her past, this shapes how they see her from then on. It also leads them to overlook facts that argue against their view, like how the men reacted when she said she had met the Christ, and to overlook what was explicitly said later in the passage about their response to her claim:
"many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman, which testified, He told me all that ever I did. So, when the Samaritans were come unto him, they besought him that he would tarry with them: and he abode there two days. And many more believed because of his own word; And said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world" (Fourth gospel 4:39-42).
Many believed based on her witness! So, her word carried weight. Others did not believe until they heard Jesus for themselves, yet they still went out at her word; then later, after hearing Jesus, they came to the same conclusion about him.
What Did She Know and When Did She Know It?
He told her, "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" (Fourth gospel 4:10). So, a lack of knowledge is what kept her from recognizing him at that point.
She also thought he was speaking about physical water at first. But she grasped the spiritual nature of his words moments later when the following part of their conversation took place:
"Whosoever drinketh of this water [from Jacob's well] shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw" (Fourth gospel 4:13-15).
Jesus said he would give her living water if she asked. She did, and then he said, "go, call thy husband, and come hither." Why? He was talking about spiritual matters before her request. Did he suddenly stop doing this and start talking about physical matters and her relations with men? No, for here is what happened next:
"The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband: For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly. The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. The woman saith unto him, I know that Messiah cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he" (Fourth gospel 4:17-26).
Jesus' disciples arrived at this point and the conversation ended. When he said she spoke truly, she said, "I perceive that thou art a prophet." Everything said after this involved spiritual matters. Some have said she wanted to change the subject to get the focus off her personal life when she called him a prophet. If this is true, it worked, because the remainder of their conversation was about spiritual things.
They were discussing spiritual matters before Jesus said, "go, call thy husband" and after he told her she spoke truly. If we reason according to scripture, then the phrase "five husbands" has to be weighed in light of his focus on spiritual issues. But before looking at this, we will consider a perspective that is sometimes needed to rightly divide God's word. Then this principle will be applied to help us see what the term "five husbands" meant.
Word Pictures versus Physical References
If someone says, 'it was raining cats and dogs,' it is relatively easy to figure out this is not talking about animals falling from the sky. This word picture sometimes refers to a heavy downpour of water, but it is also used in other ways. If a wife calls her husband at work and asks him about his day, if he says, 'it is raining cats and dogs' she will not assume a cloudburst has occurred. Given the context, she knows this means his day has been frantic and problems are raining down on him.
English uses word pictures, but they are misunderstood when a physical meaning is attached to the words. Other languages also use word pictures. The phrase "drink the blood" did not refer to the oral intake of a liquid, as was shown earlier. To say this must refer to sipping a liquid 'because scripture means what it says,' is to misconstrue the words. [Scripture does mean what it says! Yet some people will use statements like this to imply scripture means what they say it says.]
Reasoning according to scripture lets God's word be the measure of truth. If we think scripture must be as we see it, then we make our view that measure. We can think we know something is true and still be wrong. Saul of Tarsus thought he knew God's word, but his view led him to persecute Jesus' followers (cf. Acts 22:4).
As noted above, Jesus' words indicate a lack of knowledge is what kept the woman from responding to him correctly. So, rather than assume she lived an immoral life because he said, "thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband," why not look to see if we could have missed something?
Jesus was not teaching cannibalism when he said, "my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed" (Fourth gospel 6:55), and anyone who would define his words in physical terms is doing an injustice to the text. Yet, many do not see how viewing the phrase "five husbands" in physical terms does injustice to the text.
But her response to Jesus' words should grab our attention, for it shows she understood his words reflected her spiritual ignorance:
"I perceive that thou art a prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship" (Fourth gospel 4:19-20).
Right in the middle of their spiritual discussion, Jesus contrasted historical fact (the prior "five husbands") with her present reality ("he whom thou now hast is not thy husband"). This led her to call him a prophet and to contrast Samaritan and Jewish views on the proper worship place. How do her words follow from what he said?
A woman could marry seven men under the law of Moses (cf. Mk 12:23), so why not five? Jesus did not mention divorce, adultery, or fornication, yet many infer these things because "five husbands" were in her past. Does scripture justify this inference? If not, then do the words, "he whom thou now hast is not thy husband" imply she was immoral and had 'a live-in lover'? If this is what we think, then we will view her in that light. But what if we are wrong?
Seeing word pictures in physical terms is an easy mistake to make since they use images from the natural world. The woman herself made this mistake twice. At first, she figured his talk about water meant liquid H2O. Likewise, when he said, "call thy husband," she said she was not married to a man. Yet, shortly thereafter she concluded he was a prophet – because he did what the prophets of God did throughout Israel's history and throughout scripture.
One of the things prophets did was call people back to God, and they often used word pictures in the process. This occurred when the prophet Nathan rebuked David in 2 Samuel 12:1-3:
"the Lord sent Nathan unto David. And he came unto him, and said unto him, There were two men in one city; the one rich, and the other poor. The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds: But the poor man had nothing, save one little ewe lamb."
Viewing this in terms of two men and one animal will lead one to miss the truth the words conveyed. Likewise, Jesus' words on her marital status, past and present, presented a word picture, and it was not talking about her sexual relations with men.
A Spiritual Challenge
Jesus highlighted her spiritual status when he said, "thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband." To help her see she was not as loyal to God as she thought, Jesus cited Samaritan history and her current condition. Amazingly, she immediately recognized this, and this led her to conclude he was a prophet! The remainder of her words show she wanted to know how to worship God properly.
She contrasted the practice of the Samaritans (her "fathers") and the teaching of the Jews on the issue of the right worship location. Once she knew Jesus was a prophet, she sought his counsel on this spiritual dilemma. She thought she had to choose to follow either Samaritan or Jewish tradition. But if people pick between the contrary opinions of men, they lack a way to confirm the truth. God's word gives people the way to answer such questions, and we see this in Jesus' response to her. We will come back to this after we take a moment to consider the history of the Samaritans, so we can understand the word picture that was used by Jesus.
Who Were the Samaritans?
The Samaritans were not Gentiles (Mt 10:5), yet they were not Jews. The northern kingdom of Israel had acquired Samaria (1Kgs 16:24) and came to be called by this name. Israel lost control of the area when they were forcibly relocated to Assyria (2Kgs 17:23). The king of Assyria brought in foreigners to populate the land of the former kingdom of Israel: "the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel" (2Kgs 17:24).
Later, the king of Assyria moved a priest of Israel back to the land to teach those foreigners "the manner of the God of the land" (2Kgs 17:27). He "taught them how they should fear the Lord" (v. 28). Even so, it says, "every nation made gods of their own, and put them in the houses of the high places which the Samaritans had made" (v. 29). They learned the truth but still held onto error and, as a result, "they feared the Lord, and served their own gods" (2Kgs 17:33).
It was a mix of truth and error from then on. "These nations feared the Lord, and served their graven images, both their children, and their children's children: as did their fathers, so do they unto this day" (2Kgs 17:41). Yet, even before they got there, both Samaria and Jerusalem were rebuked by the Lord who said, "with their idols have they committed adultery" (Eze 23:37). It was not between men and women, this was against the Lord, who was their husband: "thy Maker is thine husband; the Lord of hosts is his name" (Isa 54:4). He was pictured as a husband way back in Egypt. The Lord said this about the Exodus, "I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was a husband unto them, saith the Lord" (Jer 31:32).
Samaria and Jerusalem were "adulteresses" (Eze 23:45). The Lord even gave Israel "a bill of divorce" (Jer 3:8). So, without a doubt, God's word did use marital terms to portray spiritual relations.
Five Husbands?
Marriage portrayed the bond between a people and their God(s). So, this is why the woman knew Jesus' reference to five husbands in her past referred to the worship of God – because five groups replaced Israel in Samaria and all five worshipped their own gods! They were "from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim" (2Kgs 17:24), and each group "made gods of their own, and put them in the houses of the high places which the Samaritans had made" (2Kgs 17:29).
Jesus cited her history. She judged him to be a prophet because he gave a reproof and used word pictures, as God's prophets did. Beyond her troubled roots, Jesus noted, "he whom thou now hast is not thy husband" (Fourth gospel 4:18). So, if she was not married to the ideas of her past, who did she have at that time and why was he not her husband? She believed God was her God, but she was not married to him. Jesus told her, "ye worship ye know not what" (Fourth gospel 4:22), and we cannot marry someone we do not know. She was spiritually confused. For example, thinking she must pick between the traditions of the Samaritans and the Jews (regarding the proper place to worship God) kept her from worshiping God "in spirit and in truth" (Fourth gospel 4:24), as Jesus said must be done.
She asked, "art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well?" (Fourth gospel 4:12) Thus, she identified with Jacob and, thereby, with the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Yet, she also said, "our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship" (Fourth gospel 4:20). So, on this, she identified with the tradition of the Samaritans over that of the Jews. However, she must have had her doubts on this spiritual dilemma, since the first thing she did when she knew she was talking with a prophet was ask about this issue.
Living Water
Jesus indicated she would respond to the truth if she knew it (cf. Fourth gospel 4:10). Not surprisingly, therefore, she responded rightly when she learned the truth from him during their talk.
He indicated he could give her living water. She came to believe he could do it. We know this because moments later she did what he told her to do, she asked for it! She said, "give me this water".
Jesus told his disciples "other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd" (Fourth gospel 10:15). Did this Samaritan woman hear his voice? Consider this exchange:
"The woman saith unto him, I know that Messiah cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he" (Fourth gospel 4:25-26).
Did she believe him? Yes. The return of the disciples interrupted their interaction at that point, but she staked her reputation on him. She witnessed to the men of her city, "come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?" She could say this because he had given her living water and she drank it!
[Later on, we will look at what scripture means by the word faith. If a biblical definition of faith is applied, it proves this woman acted in faith. Therefore, the rewards that come along with acting in faith would also apply to her.]