Needing to Go Thru Samaria - John 4:4

John the apostle wrote, “When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, (Though Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples,). He left Judaea, and departed again into Galilee”, and in chapter four and verse four of his book, John shared how Jesus needed to, “go through Samaria” where we read:

And he must needs go through Samaria.

The verse reads, “And he must needs ...,” John began with the words, “and he” which refers to “Jesus” “must needs” or “behooved, was necessary, right and proper” to do the following. John shared how Jesus “needed” to do the following.

The verse continues, “... go through Samaria.”. John added the words, “go through” which means “travel or journey by way of” “Samaria” which means “guardianship and was a territory in Palestine which had Samaria as its capital”. John shared how Jesus “needed” to “travel” through the area known as “Samaria”.

When we think through John's words in this verse, we learn about the “route of travel” Jesus took to journey to “Galilee”. “Judaea” was located in the southern portion of Israel and Galilee was to the north. “Samaria” was in between them, and the shortest route from “Judaea” to “Galilee” was through the region of “Samaria”. Jesus, knew this, however, the Jewish people often circled around “Samaria” for their travels because the Jews had no dealings with the “Samaritans”. Jesus “needed” to go through “Samaria”, and we shall see why in our next few verses. For now let it suffice us to know Jesus will go wherever necessary to reach people with the “gospel of His Kingdom”, and those who are wise will yield their lives to Him as their personal “Savior and Lord” when He appears.

Next time John shares how Jesus came, “to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar”, so read ahead, and we shall join together then.

Until tomorrow…there is more…

Look for the daily devotional book “Equipped for Battle – From Generation to Generation”, the marriage book “So, You Want to Be Married”, “One Year in the Sermon on the Mount” and the new poetry book "Random Mushrooms Volumes I and II" and the new novel "Elizabeth County" in all major bookstore sites, http://www.amazon.com ; http://www.barnesandnobles.com ; download to e-books, and find it locally at www.mrzlc.com/bookstore. All references are from "Strongs Concordance".