May 5
Judg 21:1 - Ruth 1:22 | PS 105:1-15 | Prov 14:25 | John 4:4-42
In today’s reading we will read of two women, both from a cursed lineage, separated by around 1200 years. Yet both, despite their backgrounds were brought into the family of God. Our proverb for the day, Proverbs 14:25, states, “A true witness delivers souls, But a deceitful witness speaks lies.” We are called by God to be His witnesses to a lost people. It really isn’t a matter of upbringing, pedigree, or the number of letters after one’s name. Without Jesus Christ all are lost. With Him all are blessed. Simple but true. This needs to be our message.
God’s heart has always been to reach the whole world. Ruth was from Moab, not Israel, and thus from a cursed race. She grew up in a pagan culture. Her Jewish husband died at a young age. Yet, due to the testimony of her mother-in-law, Naomi, and eventually through the actions of her Kinsman-Redeemer, Boaz, she came into faith in the God of Israel, was redeemed, and eventually became part of the lineage of Jesus Christ. Read the words of this former pagan, as she speaks to Naomi, in Ruth 1:16, “ “Entreat me not to leave you, Or to turn back from following after you; For wherever you go, I will go; And wherever you lodge, I will lodge; Your people shall be my people, And your God, my God.”” Fast forward 1200 years and we meet an unnamed woman in a conversation with Jesus, alone at a well. We pick up the conversation in John 4:9, “Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.” Samaritans we’re half-breeds, as a result of the northern tribes of Israel being taken into captivity by the Assyrians around 722, BC, and being forced to intermarry with the surrounding pagan people. But Jesus didn’t care about her lineage, as He extends the offer of salvation in 4:21-26, “Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When He comes, He will tell us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”“
When His disciples return a conversation arises, which Jesus gives them instructions that we would do well to apply personally in John 4:34-35, “Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work… Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!”. Lineage? It doesn’t matter. A bad past? It doesn’t matter. What matters is the gospel message. It doesn’t matter who you were. It matters who you will be. Just as Jesus invited the Samaritan woman, He invites each of us. Once we have made the decision to repent and accept His offer, it is our calling to go into the fields, as a witness for Jesus, for the harvest is indeed ready.
Messages from Pastor Lloyd Pulley: