Section 7
Father. Later, He told His disciples, "My food is to do the will of Him Who sent Me, and to fin ish His work" (4:34). The Lord went to Samaria to do the will of God, which was to find the im moral Samaritan woman. He was seeking her that she might become a worshipper of the Father (4:23). That one soul was worth the Lord's going there purposely. According to history, no Jew would ever pass through Samaria. Samaria was the leading region of the northern kingdom of Israel and the place where its capital was (1 Kings 16:24, 29). Before 700 B.C., the Assyrians cap tured Samaria and brought people from Babylon and other heathen countries to the cities of Sa maria (2 Kings 17:6, 24). From that time, the Samaritans became a people of mixed blood, heathen mixed with Jew. History tells us that they had the Pentateuch (the five books of Moses) and worshipped God according to that part of the Old Testament, but they were never recog nized by the Jews as being a part of the Jewish people.
Although the Jews would never pass through Samaria, the Lord Jesus felt burdened to do so. He had to go there, not because it was necessary geographically, but because of the will of the Father. Because of the Father's will, He had to