Daily Manna 04-05-2016

Topic: The empty tomb 32

Reading: Matthew 27:57-66, 28:1-15

Scripture: He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee. (Luke 24:6)

Note: The fierce animosity between the Jews and the Samaritans can be traced to the origin of the Samaritans. They were a mongrel breed developed as a result of intermarriages between earlier Hebrews of the northern kingdom of Israel and the Assyrian settlers in Israel following the captivity of the northern kingdom in 722-21 B.C. Further infiltration from pagan settlers compounded the original racial dilution.

This forbidden racial dilution resulted in a brand of worship that was alien to the original worship of Jehovah. It was an amalgamation of Jehovah worship and heathenism. During the rebuilding of Jerusalem following the Babylonian captivity, the voluntary offer of service by Samaritan indigenes to assist with the rebuilding was treated with suspicion and rejected.

King Josiah of Judah had sought to remedy this new monster of a worship that was an affront to the true worship of Jehovah during his era, (2Chron 3-8). The death of king Josiah of Judah however, saw a gradual decline in the revival of the worship of Jehovah for both nations; Judah and Israel (later Samaria).

The Samaritans were more liberal in their worship and belief system compared to the predominantly Pharisaical Jews. This liberal view of looking at things seemed to have impacted negatively on their social and moral lifestyle, the woman at the well with five ex-husbands serving as a typical example of the general populace.

Food for thought: Faith in God is better sustained when it is driven by internalised virtues more than externally driven factors that depends on changing circumstancial evidence.

Declaration: 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. (John 4:14)

© Author: Rev Fred Aboe