Religion & Spirituality
After the nation of Israel split in two after Solomon’s reign, the Assyrians invaded the north in 722 BC (2 Kings 17:1-6). They exiled most of the Jews to Assyria and sent Assyrians to rule the land. As they intermarried with the Jews, their ‘half-breed’ children, known as ‘Samaritans’, were hated by southern kingdom Jews. As Jerusalem and the temple was in the south, the Samaritans were rejected, so they made a place of worship up north at Mt. Gerizim. The gospel fixes cultural prejudice (Gal. 3:27, 28). By Jesus’ day, three routes went north to Galilee; two went around and one went through Samaria. Jesus took the rarely travelled one and had to stop from thirst at a well near Sychar. Without anything to draw water, he waited for help. Even the limitless God had limits as a man.