sa lvation is of the JEWS one of the interviews which Jesus the Messiah of Israel had when He was ministering on earth, was without significance or deep interest. This is certainly true of the encounter He had with the woman of Samaria recorded in the fourth chapter-of the Gospel of John. She had come seeking for physical water to quench her physical thirst, but the Lord Jesus Christ pointed to Himself as the unfailing source of spiritual refreshing and spiritual life. When the Lord laid His finger on the spiritual cancer in her life, she used diversive tactics to shift the spotlight from herself to others. The account reads in part (4:19- 26): “ The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet Our fathers worshipped in this moun tain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to wor ship. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when neither in this mountain, nor in Jeru salem, shall ye worship the Father. Ye worship that which ye know not: we worship that which we know; for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth: for such doth the Father seek to be his wor shippers. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship in spirit and truth. The woman saith unto him, I know that Messiah com eth (he that is called Christ): When he is come, he will declare unto us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he.” When Christ indicated that the
tty Charles Lee Feinberg, Ph.D. Director, Professor of Semitics and Old Testament, Talbot Theological Seminary
Samaritans knew not what they wor shipped, He had reference to the fact that the Samaritans rejected the prophets and the writings of the Old Testament. They were thus deprived of the additional and fuller revelation of God given there. The difference in Jewish and Samaritan worship lay, not in difference of place of worship, but of the object of worship. The Samaritan religion, even after the ori ginal elements of idolatry (2 Ki. 17: 33, 41) had been removed, was a per verted religion. The five books of Moses which they had in a poor text, were not clarified nor illuminated by the clearer revelations God gave the prophets. But the Messiah of Israel declared that the Jews knew what they worshipped, for they had the full testimony of God’s revelation in the Old Testament. The Jews know their God, for salvation comes from them. God’s redemptive program was in tended and is for the whole world, (John 3: 16, 17) but it comes from (out of) the Jews. What did Christ mean when He made the sweeping and vastly impor tant statement that salvation is of the Jews? He was here comprehending in small compass the whole range of re demptive truth. Salvation is indeed of the Jews in a threefold way. In the first place, salvation is of the Jews In Its Preparation All the preparatory steps and stages of God’s redemptive scheme were laid in the realm of Israel’s spiritual life. Salvation was promised to Abraham and his descendants. Solemnly did God promise to Abraham that in him, in his seed which is the Messiah,
would all the families of the earth be blessed. This same covenant was ratified and remade with Isaac and Jacob and their descendants. (Gen. 12:3; 18:18; 22:18; 26:4.) The salvation of the Lord was por trayed by Moses in the tabernacle with its furniture. The altar of burnt- offering meant the coming Messiah would be the believer’s justification. The laver spoke of Messiah our sanc tification. The table of shewbread pointed to Christ our food. The can dlestick is the indication of Messiah as our light. The altar of incense speaks eloquently of Christ our inter cessor. The veil into the holiest of all declares Messiah is our access to God. The ark of the covenant preaches to us the truth of Christ as our repre sentative in the presence of God. Not only did the Mosaic tabernacle pic ture salvation in its preparatory stages, but the priesthood was vocal with its exhibition of the truth that the coming Messiah was to be the High Priest to make sacrifice for sin and to make prevailing intercession for His own. Furthermore, the very sacrifices all set Him forth as the perfect one in His person and work. The whole burnt-offering meant to tell us that He offered Himself unreservedly and obediently to carry out the full will of the Father. The meal offering pic tures Him as the blemishless and stainless one in His perfect and ideal humanity. The peace offering can mean nothing other than He was to accomplish the procuring of our peace with God from whom we, as continued on page 33 THE KING'S BUSINESS
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