Worshiping What You Do Not Know

by Hugh DeLong

“You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews” (John 4:22).

The background of this discussion is found in the history of the Samaritans. In short, they are descendants of Jews who returned from Babylonian captivity and intermarried with people who had been moved there during the same period. This, of course, happened over 400 years earlier and thus many generations.

A long-standing debate developed: What does Scripture say about worship? The New American Commentary states concerning this:

“The Samaritans argued that their temple was authorized by Moses (cf. Deuteronomy 27:4 in the Samaritan Pentateuch, which reads “Gerizim” instead of “Ebal”). They contended that Gerizim was the place that fulfilled the prediction of God’s “dwelling” (cf. Deuteronomy 12:5), which was called the mountain of God’s blessing (Deuteronomy 11:29 as here in John 4:21–24 over against Ebal)" [NAC (see another quote below)].

Based on this, the Samaritans built their own temple on Mt. Gerizim and had their own religious rules for worship.

With this background, and sensing that Jesus was a prophet, the woman took the opportunity to find an inspired solution to this old debate! Jesus’ answer probably came as a bit of a shock. In simple terms, the Samaritans were wrong, and the answer lay with the Jewish scriptures.

Jesus here gives us some concepts about the worship of God.

• Worship of God is desired.
• Worship of God is regulated.

Before Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection, this was found in Old Testament revelation.

The change is that ‘a time is coming’ when there would be a change! “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” (John 4:23).

Such time has come! As the Hebrew writer stated: “God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world" (Hebrews 1:1-2).

But that change is not that we are free to worship God in any way that we desire. Our worship is still desired and regulated, but that is found in New Testament revelation.

The struggle today is about what is revealed. Many still, like the Samaritans, worship what they do not know – i.e., they worship according to their desires and not according to God’s revelation. This challenges us: do we know what we worship? Is our worship based upon Scripture? Do you know what you worship?