Do you know the story of the woman at the well? Jesus approached a Samaritan woman drawing water from a a well at midday and struck up a conversation with her. What about the good Samaritan? An Israelite man, who is beaten up and ignored by priests and pharisees, is cared for and given medical aid by a Samaritan.
Both thse stories have a common theme of being fairly well know and, you guessed it, Samaritans. These encounters emphasize the enmity and conflict between Israel and Samaria. But why were they like this?
Funnily enough, I accidentally came across some background/history on Samaria and Israel while reading through some of the books of the prophets – Hosea and Amos – to be precise. Here’s what I found:
- Hosea 7:1 described the wickedness of Samaria.
- Hosea 8:1-6 describes the idolatry of Israel and the [golden] calf of Samaria being broken.
- Amos 3:12 describes the Lord pulling out pieces of Israel from the lion’s mouth of Samaria.
- Amos 4:1 adds that those on the mountain of Samaria oppress the poor.
- Amos 8:14 also says that those who swear by the sin of Samaria shall fall and never rise again.
From all these references, we could assume that Samaria was into idolatry, oppressed the poor, and may have influenced Israel to follow them.
In doing some research to satisfy my curiousity, I saw that in 1 Kings 16:29-34, King Ahab was based out of Samaria and ruled Israel from Samaria. He also built a temple to the god Baal and did more evil in the sight of God than any king before him. There was a lot idol worship to Baal at the time of Ahab’s reign and it makes sense that Samaria would be caught up in it afterwards too. 2 Kings 23:19 also mentions many shrines in high places in Samaria that the kings of Israel had made to provoke the Lord to anger. Clearly, we can see a history of idolatry that the Lord and His prophets spoke out against.
There’s a lot more history between Israel and Samaria, but I bring up this story to illustrate that books written by the prophets can seem vague, predicatable and too metaphor laden to understand, but they can also reveal a lot about the time period in which they were written. Additionally, they can reveal another facet of God that we’d miss if we just read certain books of the Bible.
“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,”
– 2 Timothy 3:16
All scripture really does mean all scripture. From the gospels to the letters of the apostles to the Old Testament, and yes, even Leviticus, all of it is given by inspiration of God and is applicable to your life. I highly recommend reading some of the less well-known books, such as the prophets. Many of them are around 10 chapters or less, so why not try sampling some of them? You may be surprised by what the Lord reveals to you in this.