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place of the words Ebal and Gerizim in the Law. Added to this was the strain of idolatry
that had been brought by the men transferred from Babylon by the king of Assyria and
the resulting mixture would justify the abhorrence of the Jew and the language of the
Lord when He said, "ye worship ye know not what". The Lord was about to reveal to the
Samaritan woman that change of dispensation which would set aside Jerusalem itself as
the "place" of worship, but, before doing so, He makes it clear that "salvation was of the
Jews" and that worship at Jerusalem was of Divine appointment.
The Lord's answer to the woman's question occupies verses 21-24 of Chapter 4:,
and the structure is as follows:--
A | John 4: 21.--DISPENSATIONAL CHANGE.--The hour cometh.
B | 21.--WORSHIP OF THE FATHER.--
Neither in this mountain. Nor in Jerusalem.
C | 22.--SALVATION IS OF THE JEWS.--
Ye worship ye know not what. We worship we know what.
A | 23.--DISPENSATIONAL CHANGE.--The hour cometh and now is.
B | 23.--WORSHIP OF THE FATHER.--
True worshippers, worship in spirit and truth.
C | 24.--GOD IS SPIRIT.--
Worship must be in spirit and truth.
Let us examine this very important pronouncement on the nature of worship. First of
all we observe that the Lord indicated that a time was coming when there would be no
further need to debate whether Gerizim or Jerusalem was the "place" where men "ought"
to worship.
"The hour cometh."--In verse 23, this reference to the dispensational change is
repeated, but with the added comment "and now is". What are we to understand by these
words? In John 5: 25 and 28 we have the same expansion, only in this passage the
order is reversed.
"The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of
God" (John 5: 25).
"The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice"
(John 5: 28).
From verses 21, 22, 28 and 29 it is clear that actual physical resurrection is in view,
and from verse 24 that a spiritual application of "life from the dead" is in view. Here the
"hearing" is equivalent to "believing". The "word" is equivalent to His "voice";
"coming out of the grave" is equivalent to "passing from death unto life". So in John 4:
"The hour cometh". Even the "place" chosen by God, and the "ordinances" enjoined in
the law, were, after all, "carnal ordinances, imposed until the time of reformation"
(Heb. 9: 10); and while, in the matter which the woman raised, the Samaritans were in
error--"Ye worship ye know not what; we know,"--and so far as prophetic truth was
concerned, the coming of Messiah and the hope attached--"Salvation is of the Jews,"--
was its purport yet, just as, later, Paul was to sweep aside both circumcision and
uncircumcision as superseded by the new creation (Gal. 6: 15), so now the Lord set aside