1. The Samaritan and the Rabbi
2. Spiritual Integration of Jew and Gentile in the Commonwealth of Israel
3. “You are a Prophet…”
4. The designated place to Worship Adonai
5. “Salvation is of the Jews…”
6. Worshiping the Father in Spirit and in Truth
7. “When the Messiah comes He will declare all things…”
8. “A hour (definite time) is coming…”
9. The self-declaration of Messiah

The Samaritan and the Rabbi:

וַתֹּאמֶר אֵלָיו הָאִשָּׁה אֲדֹנִי תְּנָה־לִּי הַמַּיִם הָהֵם לְמַעַן אֲשֶׁר לֹא־אֶצְמָא עוֹד וְלֹא אוֹסִיף לָבוֹא הֵנָּה לִשְׁאֹב׃ וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלֶיהָ יֵשׁוּעַ לְכִי וְקִרְאִי לְאִישֵׁךְ וְשׁוּבִי הֲלוֹם׃ וַתַּעַן הָאִשָּׁה וַתֹּאמֶר אֵין לִי אִישׁ וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלֶיהָ יֵשׁוּעַ כֵּן דִבַּרְתְּ אֵין לִי אִישׁ׃ כִּי בְּעָלִים חֲמִשָּׁה הָיוּ לָךְ וַאֲשֶׁר עַתָּה לָךְ אֵינֶנּוּ בַּעְלֵךְ לָכֵן אֱמֶת הַדָּבָר אֲשֶׁר דִבַּרְתְּ׃ וַתֹּאמֶר אֵלָיו הָאִשָּׁה אֲדֹנִי רֹאָה אָנֹכִי כִּי נָבִיא אָתָּה׃

The Woman said to him, “My master, give me that water so that I will not thirst again and I will no longer come here to draw water.” Yeshua said to her, “Go call your husband and come back here.” The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.” “You have rightly spoken, ‘I have no husband.’ For you have had five husbands and the one you have now is not your husband. Thus, the statement you spoke is true.” The woman said to him, “My master, I see that you are a prophet.”

אֲבוֹתֵינוּ הִשְׁתַּחֲווּ בָּהָר הַזֶּה וְאַתֶּם אֹמְרִים יְרוּשָׁלַיִם הִיא הַמָּקוֹם הַנִּבְחָר לְהִשְׁתַּחֲוֹת שָׁמָּה׃וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלֶיהָ יֵשׁוּעַ אִשָּׁה הַאֲמִינִי לִי כִּי תָבוֹא שָׁעָה אֲשֶׁר לֹא תִשְׁתַּחֲווּ לָאָב בָּהָר הַזֶּה וְלֹא בִירוּשָׁלָיִם׃ אַתֶּם מִשְׁתַּחֲוִים אֶל־אֲשֶׁר לֹא יְדַעְתֶּם וַאֲנַחְנוּ מִשְׁתַּחֲוִים אֶל־אֲשֶׁר יָדָעְנוּ כִּי הַיְשׁוּעָה מִן־הַיְּהוּדִים הִיא׃ אוּלָם תָּבוֹא שָׁעָה וְעַתָּה הִיא אֲשֶׁר עֹבְדֵי אֵל הָאֲמִתִּים יִשְׁתַּחֲווּ לָאָב בְּרוּחַ וּבֶאֱמֶת כִּי בְּמִשְׁתַּחֲוִים כָּאֵלֶה חָפֵץ הָאָב׃ הָאֱלֹהִים רוּחַ הוּא וְהַמִּשְׁתַּחֲוִים לוֹ צְרִיכִים לְהִשְׁתַּחֲוֹת בְּרוּחַ וּבֶאֱמֶת׃ וַתֹּאמֶר אֵלָיו הָאִשָּׁה יָדַעְתִּי כִּי־יָבֹא הַמָּשִׁיחַ אֲשֶׁר יִקָּרֵא לוֹ כְּרִיסְטוֹס הוּא יָבוֹא וְיַגִּיד לָנוּ אֶת־כֹּל׃וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלֶיהָ יֵשׁוּעַ אֲנִי הַמְדַבֵּר אֵלָיִךְ אֲנִי הוּא

“Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say Yerushalayim is the chosen place to worship.” Yeshua said to her, “Woman, believe me that an hour will come when you will not worship the Father on this mountain or in Yerushalayim, You worship what you do not know, but we worship what we know,  for salvation is from the Yehudim. However, an hour will come and is even now when true servants of Adonai will worship the Father with spirit and with truth, for the Father desires worshipers like these. Adonai is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship with spirit and with truth.” The woman said to him, “I know that the Mashiach will come, who is called Christos. He will come and tell us everything.” Yeshua said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”

Spiritual Integration of Jew and Gentile in the Commonwealth of Israel:

Prophetically the Samaritan woman (mixed race) represents the coming together (integration) of Jew and Gentile; the tearing down of the wall of enmity that divides the two.

The integration in view here is not so much a physical integration but a spiritual one.

In the future messianic kingdom both Jew and Gentile will worship Adonai together at the Millennial Temple (that is depicted in the prophetic visions located at the end of the book of Ezekiel). The age old enmity between Jew and Samaritan has it’s historical roots when the nation of Israel was politically split into two separate entities after the rule of Solomon. It was during this time that the first ruler of the northern kingdom (King Omri) named the capital of his kingdom (that ruled over ten of the twelve tribes of Israel) “Samaria” (cf. 1 Kings 16:24).

Eventually the name Samaria came to represent the entire northern region and sometimes even all of the northern kingdom that had been conquered by Assyria in 722 BCE (cf. 2 Kings 17:1-6). Thereafter, Assyria led away most of these conquered people (of the ten tribes) away into the region that is identified today as northern Iraq.

Thereafter, a majority of the conquered Jewish population was moved to northern Iraq (the present home of the Kurds) and a smaller population was left behind to remain in the northern (Samaritan) district of northern Israel. Assyria replaced most of these redeployed (exiled) Jews with Gentiles. Consequently, the indigenous Jewish population eventually intermingled with the Assyrian transplanted Gentile populace.

In turn this Assyrian forced integration of many Gentile cultures onto the northern Israel landscape resulted in a multitude of competing religious systems. As a result of this regional dynamic of great and highly accelerated social and pluralistic religious change: Even the carefully guarded and sustained traditional Yahwistic beliefs and practices of northern Israel underwent significant change. The new mixed-race Samaritans opted out of the worship of Adonai in Jerusalem and chose instead to create their own worship center at Mount Gerizim (the Mountain of Blessings; where the promise of blessedness—accomplished by the Grace of Adonai—was promised to all those Jews who would fulfill the Law of Adonai; as given by Moses and ‘fulfilled’ by Messiah).

The Samaritans also differed with their orthodox Jewish counterparts in so far as they believed that only the first five books of the Tanakh are inspired by Divine revelation. As a result, intense tension and conflict continued to exist throughout the long and difficult competitive history of the Jews and Samaritans relating to one another (cf. Ezra 4:1-24).

In this testimony (of the interview) of the Lord by the Samaritan woman (at the two wells; i,e. our physical and spiritual natures; our temporal and eternal being) we see illustrated for the first time the first of the three permanent offices of Messiah (prophet-priest-king): The office of the Prophet.

Messiah the Prophet of Israel, Adonai’s Prophet to all of the World:

וַתֹּאמֶר אֵלָיו הָאִשָּׁה אֲדֹנִי תְּנָה־לִּי הַמַּיִם הָהֵם לְמַעַן אֲשֶׁר לֹא־אֶצְמָא עוֹד וְלֹא אוֹסִיף לָבוֹא הֵנָּה לִשְׁאֹב׃ וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלֶיהָ יֵשׁוּעַ לְכִי וְקִרְאִי לְאִישֵׁךְ וְשׁוּבִי הֲלוֹם׃ וַתַּעַן הָאִשָּׁה וַתֹּאמֶר אֵין לִי אִישׁ וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלֶיהָ יֵשׁוּעַ כֵּן דִבַּרְתְּ אֵין לִי אִישׁ׃ כִּי בְּעָלִים חֲמִשָּׁה הָיוּ לָךְ וַאֲשֶׁר עַתָּה לָךְ אֵינֶנּוּ בַּעְלֵךְ לָכֵן אֱמֶת הַדָּבָר אֲשֶׁר דִבַּרְתְּ׃ וַתֹּאמֶר אֵלָיו הָאִשָּׁה אֲדֹנִי רֹאָה אָנֹכִי כִּי נָבִיא אָתָּה׃

The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, so I will not be thirsty nor come all the way here to draw.” He said to her, “Go call your husband and come here.” The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.” Yeshua (the Messiah) said to her, “You have correctly said, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly.” The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet.”

We love this sassy, street-wise woman, with her very tough, bumpy road background! Notice how honest and up-front she is. Even with the Rabban Yeshua, the Messiah, she says straight up what she wants:

“Give me the miracle water from this miracle well you are saying you possess or shut up already!”

So to prove that He is sent by Adonai the Mashiach miraculously tells her something that no stranger could know: She has had five husbands and the one she is with now, the fifth one, he is “not” her lawful husband. The number five in the Tanakh is the number of “graciousness.”

Therefore, the fact that Messiah has providentially met this woman by the well, even though she has been living in sin for a considerable time, should give us all hope that no matter what our past moral and spiritual shortfalls Adonai is always willing to meet us (through Messiah) in a Spirit of Divine (Unmerited) Favor and Graciousness.

The symbol of the “well” represents our ‘inner being’ (spirit, soul, body), where, if the Spirit Indwells us, then the eternal life of the Holy One lives within our hearts (spirits). Then, by faith in the Spirit of the Holy One we can “draw-up” the saving works of His Presence!

“You are a Prophet:”

The prophetic manifestation of the gift of supernatural knowledge at the well by Messiah—where He supernaturally knew about this woman’s immoral past—caused the woman to exclaim:

“Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet!”

Immediately, thereafter, the Samaritan woman asked the Righteous One a question about whether or not the Samaritans were right in their belief that Adonai should be worshiped at the location of Mount Gerizim (the Mountain of fulfilled Torah; blessings; Grace) or the Jews were right in their insistence that Adonai be worshiped in their Temple on Mount Zion (the Mountain of the Sacrifice of the Beloved Son; i.e. the Messiah, foreshadowed in the sacrifice of Isaac) in Jerusalem.

The designated place to Worship Adonai:

אֲבוֹתֵינוּ הִשְׁתַּחֲווּ בָּהָר הַזֶּה וְאַתֶּם אֹמְרִים יְרוּשָׁלַיִם הִיא הַמָּקוֹם הַנִּבְחָר לְהִשְׁתַּחֲוֹת שָׁמָּה׃וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלֶיהָ יֵשׁוּעַ אִשָּׁה הַאֲמִינִי לִי כִּי תָבוֹא שָׁעָה אֲשֶׁר לֹא תִשְׁתַּחֲווּ לָאָב בָּהָר הַזֶּה וְלֹא בִירוּשָׁלָיִם׃ אַתֶּם מִשְׁתַּחֲוִים אֶל־אֲשֶׁר לֹא יְדַעְתֶּם וַאֲנַחְנוּ מִשְׁתַּחֲוִים אֶל־אֲשֶׁר יָדָעְנוּ כִּי הַיְשׁוּעָה מִן־הַיְּהוּדִים הִיא׃ אוּלָם תָּבוֹא שָׁעָה וְעַתָּה הִיא אֲשֶׁר עֹבְדֵי אֵל הָאֲמִתִּים יִשְׁתַּחֲווּ לָאָב בְּרוּחַ וּבֶאֱמֶת כִּי בְּמִשְׁתַּחֲוִים כָּאֵלֶה חָפֵץ הָאָב׃ הָאֱלֹהִים רוּחַ הוּא וְהַמִּשְׁתַּחֲוִים לוֹ צְרִיכִים לְהִשְׁתַּחֲוֹת בְּרוּחַ וּבֶאֱמֶת׃ וַתֹּאמֶר אֵלָיו הָאִשָּׁה יָדַעְתִּי כִּי־יָבֹא הַמָּשִׁיחַ אֲשֶׁר יִקָּרֵא לוֹ כְּרִיסְטוֹס הוּא יָבוֹא וְיַגִּיד לָנוּ אֶת־כֹּל׃וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלֶיהָ יֵשׁוּעַ אֲנִי הַמְדַבֵּר אֵלָיִךְ אֲנִי הוּא

“Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.” Yeshua (the Messiah) said to her, “Woman believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.”

The best place to worship our heavenly Father is from the sanctuary of our own spirits.

Since Adonai is omnipresent, He can be at one place and every other place at the same time, the designated ‘eternal’ place that was made for His Spirit of Grace and Truth to rest in is our spirits. As for the physical location of the future global worship center (Temple) in the messianic kingdom:  The prophet Ezekiel reveals to us that the future ‘physical’ worship center (for the entire world; the whole of the Commonwealth of Israel) in the messianic era will definitely not be located in Mount Zion in Jerusalem or Mount Gerizim in Shechem (next to modern Nablas). It will be located in the middle of these two great sacred historical sites:  At Shiloh! (cf. our document, “Messiah in Rosh Hashanah II and Chanukkah II;” chapters 1-24).

“Salvation is of the Jews…”

אַתֶּם מִשְׁתַּחֲוִים אֶל־אֲשֶׁר לֹא יְדַעְתֶּם וַאֲנַחְנוּ מִשְׁתַּחֲוִים אֶל־אֲשֶׁר יָדָעְנוּ כִּי הַיְשׁוּעָה מִן־הַיְּהוּדִים הִיא׃

“Salvation is of the Jews (הַיְשׁוּעָה מִן־הַיְּהוּדִים הִיא).” The Salvation of Adonai and the worship of Adonai are not confined to one ‘location’ (place), for the Spirit of Adonai is omnipresent. However, the Salvation of Adonai and the worship of Adonai is “centered” on One Person, the Messiah. Therefore, these two things (salvation-worship) of necessity can only be accomplished through our exercising faith in the One Person (the Messiah of Israel) who is the visible manifestation of Adonai’s invisible nature and who, by the Divine Presence of the Spirit of Holiness, is the only One able to obtain for us the gift of Eternal Life.

מִן־הַיְּהוּדִים הִיא – is a reference to the Yehudim (Jews) as a “min,” as a specified “kind” of people. This is a direct reference to the biological association of the Jewish people to our fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It is also a reference to our Father in heaven, Avinu Shebashamayim. The Messiah is the Savior of all of the human race (HaMoshia l’chol Adam). However, it is important to remember that the Salvation of Adonai (Yeshua) is a Jew. He is a biological descendant of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and of King David. The Head of Israel is the Messiah. Without its Head the body of Israel is not able to save. However, with the Head of all things (Rosh l’khol-ha’edah), the Head of the Assembly (Rosh Ha’edah), the nation and people of Israel are able to bring the Salvation of Adonai to all of the nations and peoples of the world. As already stated: This gift of Eternal Life is received by the ‘insertion’ of the Life of the Spirit of the Holy One, the springs of His ‘living water,’ into the ‘well’ of our inner physical and spiritual being (our spirit-soul-mind-and body).

Worshiping the Father in Spirit and Truth:

אוּלָם תָּבוֹא שָׁעָה וְעַתָּה הִיא אֲשֶׁר עֹבְדֵי אֵל הָאֲמִתִּים יִשְׁתַּחֲווּ לָאָב בְּרוּחַ וּבֶאֱמֶת כִּי בְּמִשְׁתַּחֲוִים כָּאֵלֶה חָפֵץ הָאָב׃ הָאֱלֹהִים רוּחַ הוּא וְהַמִּשְׁתַּחֲוִים לוֹ צְרִיכִים לְהִשְׁתַּחֲוֹת בְּרוּחַ וּבֶאֱמֶת׃

“But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. Adonai is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit (בְּ-in ruach-רוּחַ) and truth (בֶ-in emet-אֱמֶת).'”

We learn later in the Proceedings of the Heavenly Court (as revealed by Yochanan ben Zebedee) that the truth ‘is’ the written and fulfilled Word of Adonai. In the Tanakh and the Brit Chadashah we have the means to read and understand the Word of Adonai but even if we do hear and understand His Word: “Where do we get the power to obey?” The Messiah gives us the answer here:  We can only obey the Word of Adonai if we receive the gift of the indwelling Presence of the Spirit of Holiness (the reality of the gift of the Presence of the Holy Spirit that is symbolized in the “Well and Living Water of Jacob;”). Only through the gracious help of the Helper can we ever hope to be regenerated and transformed into the likeness of the Messiah, who is the Perfect Man (the Beloved Son) who our heavenly Father desires us to be made in the ‘likeness’ of.

“When the Messiah comes He will declare all things…”

וַתֹּאמֶר אֵלָיו הָאִשָּׁה יָדַעְתִּי כִּי־יָבֹא הַמָּשִׁיחַ אֲשֶׁר יִקָּרֵא לוֹ כְּרִיסְטוֹס הוּא יָבוֹא וְיַגִּיד לָנוּ אֶת־כֹּל׃וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלֶיהָ יֵשׁוּעַ אֲנִי הַמְדַבֵּר אֵלָיִךְ אֲנִי הוּא

The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah (Ha-Mahiach) is coming (He who is called the Anointed One) when that One comes, He will declare all things to us.” Yeshua (the Messiah) said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”

I who speak to you am He!

The Samaritan woman expected the Messiah to come but in her limited understanding she did not understand Him to be an anointed king who was a descendant of David. Why? This was so because the Samaritans rejected all of the revelation of the Tanakh except the Torah (the five books of Moses). The only understanding that the Samaritans possessed was that Messiah would be a prophet “like Moses.” In the limited understanding of the Samaritans regarding the Messiah (based on Deuteronomy 18:15-18) they still were able to believe that a Moses-like prophet-teacher figure would one day appear to solve all of their problems. In this way the woman at the well (with Messiah) was able to affirm her belief in the coming of Messiah and that He would declare “all things to us.” This profession of faith in the prophet-teacher role of Messiah provided the perfect opening for the Master to continue to do exactly that: Explain all things to her.

“A hour (definite time) is coming…”

Earlier on in His conversation with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well the Messiah said to her, “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.” This prophetic hour (of a definite time) that the Master is prophetically referring to is when the advent of the gift of the Father occurred on the day of Shavuot 30 CE (cf. our document “Messiah in Shavuot“).

However this sacred event was only the ‘start’ of the new age of the Spirit (brought about by the death, resurrection, and ascension of Messiah). Sadly, this wondrous event was only experienced by a very small remnant of enlightened Jews. Even as as this age of the Spirit continues on at the present hour, over 1,986 years later, both the Jewish and Gentile global populaces, as a whole, have yet to believe on the truthfulness of the Messiah Yeshua’s claims and receive the Gift of the Indwelling Presence of the Holy Spirit.

Such is our present spiritual condition that I sincerely believe that at the present time less than ten per cent of the total world population has embraced ‘true’ faith in the Messiah Yeshua and received the gift of eternal life; the gift of the regenerating Presence of the Holy Spirit; the gift of the Father’s Living Torah. The fact is the age of the Spirit will not reach its intended fullness until the (I believe near future) messianic age.

This culmination of the age of the Spirit will not occur until after the Messiah of Israel returns to earth a second time.

Our Messiah will return to Israel so that He might fully restore our nation and people to the fulfillment of all of the promises the the Father has made to our fathers over the last 4,000 years. The hour of the age of the Spirit began Sivan 6 (7), within the Jewish sacred year of 3790 (30 CE) but the real fulfillment of this age of the Spirit of Grace and Truth will not occur until the inauguration of the Messiah’s rule over all the earth at the outset of the Golden Age of Israel in the Millennium (the future one thousand years reign of Messiah on earth)!

The self-declaration of Messiah:

The self-declaration of the Rabban Yeshua to the Samaritan woman was absolutely clear, “I am the Messiah!”

With all of her moral shortcomings the Samaritan woman is assured by the Stranger at the well of Jacob that He is the Messiah; the One who she and her people had long been waiting for. The woman then marvelously responded with a completely open heart. Once the Messiah saw that the Samaritan woman thought of Him as the Messiah-Prophet sent by Adonai to reveal His truth, rather than as the materialist-political figure that most of His fellow Jews were expecting, He revealed Himself to the believing woman in a manner He did to few others throughout the course of His ministry. It is at this precise moment, the point in time where the Master confirmed His messiahship to the Samaritan woman, that His disciples returned from the woman’s nearby village where they were sent to obtain food for the Lord’s and their noonday meal.

Messiah in Rosh Hashanah & Yom Teruah Chapter 34 >>