Jan 22 2025 6 mins
Daily Dose of Hope
January 22, 2025
Day 4 of Week 43
Scripture: Ezekiel 10-12; Psalm 83; John 4
Welcome back to the Daily Dose of Hope, the devotional and podcast that complements the New Hope Bible reading plan. It’s Wednesday so that means Recharge. I hope you will consider joining us at 6:30pm for an amazing night of worship, prayer, fellowship, and small community.
Just to mix things up, I thought we would start today with the New Testament passage which is John 4. This is the story of Jesus and the woman at the well. Many of you are familiar with this passage and it is an extraordinary one. Let’s try to look at it with fresh eyes. There are some really fascinating aspects to this narrative.
· Jesus did not have to go through Samaria; he chose to. He was making a statement here. Keep in mind, the Jews and Samaritans hated one another. Usually, Jews went the long way around Samaria so they didn’t have to be contaminated by the people who they called dogs and half-breeds. Remember, the region of Samaria was once the Northern Kingdom. They set up their own capital and their own temple. After the Assyrians conquered them, many people moved out and others moved in. Thus, the people who lived there during Jesus’ day were a mix of cultures and nationalities.
· Jesus initiates a conversation with the woman at the well. Jews and Samaritans didn’t have conversations. Honestly, men and women didn’t have conversations. So many things about this situation were taboo. But Jesus doesn’t care about social conventions, he cares about individual people.
· The woman was at the well in the middle of the day. That tells us that she was trying to avoid others. It was really, really hot at that time of day. Most women would have drawn water in the cool of the morning. So this woman was avoiding the town women because she was probably the focus of their gossip. She had been married many times and she was, at the time, living with a man who wasn’t her husband.
· We don’t know much about this woman, but my guess is that she had a life filled with hardship and trauma. Jesus knew that. He saw her needs and her struggles and he offered her living water. She was open and receptive.
· This woman turns out to be one of the best evangelists in the New Testament. She goes and tells the townspeople about this man who knew everything about her life. Remember, these are the people who don’t like her but she is boldly sharing about Jesus anyway. Thus, many of the Samaritans believed and became committed to following Jesus.
· Jesus is in the business of changing lives and whole communities. And he uses all of us. Our past does not matter to Jesus, only our hearts and desire to change.
We haven’t spent much time discussing the psalms lately so let’s talk briefly about today’s psalm. Psalm 83 is written by Asaph. Asaph was a Levite singer and writer who served both King David and King Solomon. He is pleading with God to stop his enemies and allow them to die in disgrace. It’s kind of hard to read. It also leads to this question – how often are our prayers for help selfish and about revenge, rather than about God’s glory?
Today, we also are discussing Ezekiel 10-12. Ezekiel is experiencing a vision from God. He is back at the Temple, witnessing the cherubim (these are the same winged creatures that he saw by the river on his birthday). Ezekiel is taken to a group of twenty-five men who are leaders and have led the city into sin. God tells the prophet to speak against them, to boldly speak about the murders and atrocities they have committed. He tells them that God will bring destruction. To those who thought they should not leave Jerusalem, that they this was their land and they weren’t about to leave, God will show them how wrong they were.
In chapter 12, we read about God instructing Ezekiel to do more of these sign acts to demonstrate the sin of the people and what God planned to do to them. Remember, this was kind of like street theater. He was acting out the prophecy. And yet, the people are still hard-hearted.
Obviously, this occurred some 2500 years ago. But as humans, we are still hard-hearted in so many ways. How are you hard-hearted? Spend some time in prayer about this today.
Blessings,
Pastor Vicki