The Rocky Road to Redemption

My studious Taiwanese wife Phoebe has been attending an English-language Bible study at a church here in Tamsui where we live for a couple of years now, and I'm happy to report that she really enjoys it, has learned an awful lot about the Bible, and has made some good friends. I might be tempted to go with her if I could, but I have to teach an adult English class in downtown Taipei City every Saturday morning. So she zigs while I zag.

Her class has been trekking through the first several books of the Old Testament for the last several months, and so when I say she really enjoys it, I...uhm, OK, being honest here:

I say that with a genuine sense of envy.

Confession time: I admit that I don't find certain parts of the Old Testament that are packed to the gills with reams of genealogies and detailed accounts of all the various comings and goings of the ancient Jews all that exciting to read. Of course, I am generally aware of the important events that occurred and as a rule understand and appreciate their scriptural importance, but whew...plowing through the actual biblical text of some of that stuff is not exactly one of my favorite Saturday morning activities, if you know what I'm saying.

Pray for me.

But it's like people say (and mistakenly believe the Bible says): The Lord works in mysterious ways. Here lately the Lord has been "mysteriously" using my wife's infectious enthusiasm, penetrating questions, and genuine interest in her class material to kindle an Old Testament fire under me that has succeeded in revitalizing my interest in some of that "boring" Old Testament stuff.

In other words...

The Holy Spirit has been having a field day with me.

He has been busy etching ever more deeply into my spirit certain fundamental aspects of God's plan of redemption—a plan we see introduced in the Old Testament and brought to fruition in the New.

As we look at the Old Testament, we not only see the promise of God's redemption being given to a man who would be the forebear of the nation of Israel, but we see Israel repeatedly casting that promise aside and trampling it underfoot, and following in the footsteps of a corrupt, sinful world that utterly spurned the one true God. We see God repeatedly punishing and dropping judgment on Israel to bring them to their spiritual senses, and we see God firmly and repeatedly reconfirming that covenant promise to what could be a surprisingly rebellious, stiff-necked group of people.

In other words, as we plow through some of that Old Testament material, hopefully something begins to come shining through the fog:

We begin to gain a deeper appreciation

for how rocky that road to redemption

was through the entire Old Testament.

And more importantly, we begin to gain a deeper appreciation for the love, mercy, grace, and incredible forbearance of the holy God who sacrificed the life of His precious Son to make that redemption a reality.

So, as a result of the Holy Spirit's working overtime (not to mention my wife's dragging me through some of her class material), what I want to do in this article is take a trip back to a small city in the West Bank where a number of significant Old Testament events occurred that can be overlaid to form a composite picture of that rocky road to redemption.

And the name of the city is Shechem.

On the one hand, we see God giving and repeatedly confirming His covenant promise to Abram and his descendants, who held firmly to that promise in faith. On the other hand, see surrounding groups of people repeatedly spurning the God of the Jews and worshiping all manner of false gods and indulging in horrific pagan practices. And to top it off, we also see the people of Israel repeatedly following in their footsteps and abandoning the one true God and trampling His blessings and His covenant promise underfoot.

Finally, we see a key part of God's covenant promise fulfilled when Christ the Redeemer comes in the flesh to die on the cross and rise from the grave, effectively offering the blessing that God promised man—redemption from sin. That's the road to redemption I'm talking about here:

The road that leads from

the covenant to Calvary.

Throughout the Old Testament, this is a road that primarily applies to Israel, and that road is rocky indeed. God repeatedly has to judge and punish His people to keep drawing them back from a condition of failure and rebellion to one of faith and obedience.

Before we finish, however, we will look at another version of the rocky road to redemption, and in a sense it continues the journey of the first:

And that road begins at Calvary.

God's covenant with Abram

First, a few quick historical notes just to get our bearings. I don't want to get too caught up in the overall history of Shechem, because my focus in this article is only on several significant biblical events that occurred there—not the city's entire 4,000-year history.

The site of the ancient city of Shechem is located 30 miles due north of Jerusalem, nestled in the valley between Mount Gerizim to the south and Mount Ebal to the north. Long before Abram ever left his home in Ur of the Chaldees in obedience to God and set off on his journey, Shechem was a Canaanite settlement that had grown into an important commercial center since it was located near several major trade routes.

Although Shechem was destroyed and rebuilt in the tenth century BC, many historians say that the ancient city of Shechem continued to exist until it was finally destroyed by the Romans in AD 67, prior to their attack on Jerusalem in AD 70 during which Second Temple was destroyed.

Today, the site of ancient Shechem is located in Nablus, a city in the West Bank of nearly 200,000 inhabitants that is littered with the archaeological remains of the area's storied past.

I think that'll do.

We are first introduced to Shechem in Genesis 12, when God initially gives Abram His covenant promise:

¹Now the LORD had said to Abram, Get you out of your country, and from your kindred, and from your father's house, to a land that I will show you: [Note that Abram had no idea where God was going to lead him—he basically mounted up and departed in pure obedience and faith.]

²And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing: [See remarks below.]

³And I will bless them that bless you, and curse him that curses you: and in you shall all families of the earth be blessed. [Verses 2–3 are basically the covenant promise in a nutshell.]

⁴So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken to him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran. ⁵And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came. ⁶And Abram passed through the land to the place of Sichem [a variant spelling of Shechem], to the plain of Moreh. [Most versions mention a specific "tree of Moreh," a site most Bible scholars believe was used by the Canaanites in their pagan worship.] And the Canaanite was then in the land. ⁷And the LORD appeared to Abram, and said, To your seed will I give this land: [It wasn't until Abram got to Shechem that God said anything specific about land.] and there built he an altar to the LORD, who appeared to him. ⁸And he removed from there to a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east: and there he built an altar to the LORD, and called on the name of the LORD. ⁹And Abram journeyed, going on still toward the south.

(Genesis 12:1–9 AKJV / emphasis & [comments] added)

God simply tells Abram to take his family and leave his home, and journey to some unknown place that He would show him. Then He promises to (a) make him a great nation, (b) to bless him and make his name great, (c) to bless those who bless him and curse those who curse him, and (d) that all the families on earth would be blessed through him. Note that although there are several aspects to what God is promising Abram, for the sake of simplicity I will generally refer to the whole package as the "covenant promise."

While working on this article, I noticed one little detail here that I had never noticed before, and it struck me that it might be worth mentioning. Notice that God only spoke to Abram in his home in Ur of the Chaldees. But when he arrives in Shechem—after he has left his home and stepped out in obedience and faith—the LORD appears to him. And only then does God's covenant promise begin to take on some concrete reality, as the LORD appears to him and says something a bit more specific about the land He will give to him:

To your seed I will give this land...the land of Canaan you're standing on.

I hesitate to read too much into this, but it's just that I am keenly aware that the Holy Spirit is a very careful writer and every word in Scripture is there for a reason and not there for a reason. That said, however, it strikes me that after speaking to Abram in his home in Ur of the Chaldees, God waited until Abram demonstrated his obedience in faith by packing up and making the journey all the way to Shechem before He appeared to him and gave him more detailed insight into His original promise.

Now, maybe it's just me, but I believe this obscure little wrinkle in Genesis 12 gives us a precious nugget to stick in our hip pocket:

Obedience in faith just greases God's wheels.

Nothing deepens and enriches our relationship with God or more openly invites Him to help us, work with us, or act on our behalf than simply obeying Him in faith. Conversely, without faith and obedience, we get nowhere with God.

One other thing: In verse 2, when the LORD tells Abram that He will make of him "a great nation," naturally the first thing everyone thinks of is the literal nation of Israel. But I am inclined to believe there is more to it than that.

Sure, you could say Israel became a great nation. But I see something here that transcends that in this verse. Abram (from now on Abraham) was not merely the father of the ethnic group of people who became the literal nation of Israel. He was more than that—he was the spiritual father of all who believe in faith, and Paul touches on this in Romans 9. Abraham is called the father of the faithful. So in a spiritual sense, the "great nation" of which God speaks in verse 2 could readily be interpreted to mean all those who believe in faith from that time on, all the way up to the First Advent and on through the Church Age, the Tribulation, and the Millennial Kingdom.

God tells Abraham that in him all the families of the earth will be blessed, and most agree that this is a reference to the Redeemer God would send to play the crucial role in His plan of redemption. As I'm sure you know, Jesus Christ, the Redeemer Himself—came from Abraham's descendants, through the line of one of Abraham's great grandsons named Judah.

As I note in verse 7 above, most translations mention a specific "tree of Moreh," or "oak of Moreh," not just the "plain of Moreh." Many Bible scholars are convinced that Abraham built his altar at a specific spot under one specific tree where the Canaanites regularly carried out their pagan worship practices. Thus, Abraham essentially reclaimed that site and repurposed it as a place of worship of the one true God, essentially marking it as the spot where that one true God established His covenantal promise:

A promise that began clearing the path for man's road to redemption.

But that covenant promise was established with Abraham in an environment replete with the worship of false gods and horrifying pagan practices, including the sacrificing of innocent children to those gods. I've written about this before, but child sacrifice was a relatively common practice with the Canaanites as well as other people groups in the broader region.

So Shechem gives us a graphic picture of how God's covenant promise was met head on with the sin and rebellion of people who insisted on following their own perverse ways and who rejected the very notion of the one true God. Sound familiar? It should, and we will see this pattern repeated again and again in the environs of Shechem:

Divine promise superimposed on

the backdrop of man's sin and failure.

And although Abraham faithfully passed on God's covenant promise to his descendants, you could still say that man's road to redemption appears to be off to a rocky start.

Jacob buries the idols

Speaking of Abraham's descendants, about 200 years later Abraham's grandson Jacob settled in Shechem, and bought a piece of land and built an altar to worship what he knew to be the one true God:

¹⁸And Jacob came to Shalem, a city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Padanaram; and pitched his tent before the city. ¹⁹And he bought a parcel of a field, where he had spread his tent, at the hand of the children of Hamor, Shechem's father, [Shechem was a man who bore the same name as the city] for an hundred pieces of money. ²⁰And he erected there an altar, and called it EleloheIsrael ["God, the God of Israel"].

(Genesis 33:18–20 AKJV / emphasis & [comments] added)

First of all, note the name he gave this altar: "God, the God of Israel." It struck me that in this case, "Israel" isn't a normal reference to the nation of Israel...because there really was no "nation of Israel." At least not yet.

At that point in time, Jacob himself was "Israel."

Not long before this, Jacob had been in his famous all-night wrestling match with a man that many Bible commentators believe to be a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ Himself...and although this "divine wrestler" loses the match, He gives Jacob a new name:

²⁴And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. ²⁵And when he saw that he prevailed not against him [i.e. the mysterious man Jacob is wrestling with didn't defeat him], he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him. ²⁶And he said, Let me go, for the day breaks. And he said, I will not let you go, except you bless me. ²⁷And he said to him, What is your name? And he said, Jacob. ²⁸And he said, Your name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince have you power with God and with men, and have prevailed. ²⁹And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray you, your name. And he said, Why is it that you do ask after my name? And he blessed him there. ³⁰And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved. [In other words, Jacob realized that he hadn't been wrestling with any mortal man, but with God in the flesh.]

(Genesis 32:24–30 AKJV / emphasis & [comments] added)

The point is that when Jacob names his altar "God, the God of Israel," it's not as if he's naming it in reference to a nation called Israel—he's naming it in reference to himself. In reality, it's like he's calling it...

"God, the God of me, Jacob (but you can call me Israel)."

At some point after settling in Shechem, however, things went south. Genesis 34 describes how a local man named Shechem (bearing the same name as the city), son of Hamor the Hivite (the "prince of the country"), fell head over heels for Jacob's daughter Dinah and slept with her. Shechem entreated his father to speak to Jacob about giving Dinah to him as a wife, but Jacob's sons caught wind of the fact that he had defiled their sister, and plotted revenge.

Jacob's sons told Hamor that Shechem's marriage to Dinah could be arranged if all his men were willing to be circumcised as per Jewish custom. Hamor agreed, and arranged for this surgical procedure to be carried out on all of them. On the third day, however, while Hamor's men were all still "sore" and in the process of recuperating from the procedure, two of Jacob's sons, Simeon and Levi, descended upon them and slaughtered them all and took all their wealth and possessions away, and retrieved their sister Dinah.

When Jacob learned what they had done, he knew the population of the city would hate him and seek revenge. He understandably no longer felt safe living in Shechem, and God stepped in:

¹And God said to Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel ["the house of God"], and dwell there: and make there an altar to God [Jacob's second altar], that appeared to you when you fled from the face of Esau your brother. ²Then Jacob said to his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments: ³And let us arise, and go up to Bethel; and I will make there an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went. ⁴And they gave to Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, and all their earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem. [See remarks below.]

⁵And they journeyed: and the terror of God was on the cities that were round about them, and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob. [The "terror of God" is what protected Jacob's family from the revenge of the locals. Although they were pagans, they were not completely ignorant of what Jacob's God was capable of...word gets around, ya know?] ⁶So Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan, that is, Bethel, he and all the people that were with him. ⁷And he built there an altar, and called the place Elbethel ["the God of the house of God"]: because there God appeared to him, when he fled from the face of his brother.

(Genesis 35:1–7 AKJV / emphasis & [comments] added)

God tells Jacob to leave Shechem and move to Bethel, a city roughly 17 miles south of Shechem. God also tells Jacob to build another altar there, and to "put away" all the idols and "strange gods" from all those in his household.

So Jacob builds another altar in Bethel, then returns to Shechem in order to bury the idols, rather than destroying them (v. 4). Some commentators feel that by burying the idols rather than simply destroying them, Jacob made a conscious decision to defile the very foundations of Shechem, the city where his daughter Dinah had been defiled. This act also represented an absolute rejection of the pagan practices of the Canaanite culture, while his altar represented a strong commitment to the worship of the one true God—the God of his father Isaac and his grandfather Abraham.

Now it's official: Note that while Jacob was on this outing to Bethel, God appeared to him again and confirmed the fact that He was indeed changing his name to Israel, just as the "divine wrestler" had told him earlier. God also used this opportunity to reiterate His covenant promise to him (Gen. 35:9–12).

Some see significance in the name of Jacob's second altar, or "the God of the house of God." They argue that this is the first time their worship of God was cast in a corporate context (something that is strongly reinforced later when they enter the Promised Land).

Up until that point, God had been the God of individuals: the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, etc. Now, Jacob is regarding Him as "the God of the house of God." They argue that the "house of God" first took the form of Israel, later included the Church (the "house of Christ"), and ultimately includes all believers:

⁶But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end.

(Hebrews 3:6 AKJV / emphasis & [comments] added)

So the city of Shechem continues to give us a composite picture of a place where God's promises are established and confirmed, and where there are those whose worship is directed exclusively toward the one true God—the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In other words, our road to redemption continues to forge ahead. But we continue to see that road set against the backdrop of man's sin, failure, and rebellion, and his rejection of the one true God and his foolish worship of false gods and a sickening assortment of pagan practices.

But hang on to your hats:

It gets worse.

But first, a word from Joshua and a word from Joseph.

Welcome to the Promised Land

After 40 years of wandering through the wilderness and before the Israelites ever crossed the Jordan River and entered the Promised Land, Moses gave them some very specific instructions (Deut. 11:29–32; 27). After entering Canaan, the Israelites were to make their way to Shechem and renew their covenant with God in a very specific manner that Moses outlined to them.

Not long after initially entering the Promised Land and as per Moses' instructions, they went to Shechem and placed half of the tribes on Mount Gerizim to the south (which represented blessing) and the other half on Mount Ebal to the north (which represented cursing). The ark of the covenant was placed in the valley between them, accompanied by Joshua, the Levites, and all the elders. There, in the valley between the two mountains, Joshua read the Law of Moses word for word—every blessing and every curse—for all the people of Israel to hear.

Good acoustics: As it turns out, the acoustics in this particular location are ideally suited for such an event. Both these mountains are very nearly the same relatively modest height: Mount Gerizim is 2,890 feet high, Mount Ebal clocks in at 3,083 feet, and both their shape and their position in relationship to each other create some wonderful natural acoustics. One can stand on either of these mountains and actually hear what someone is saying in the valley below—it's a natural amphitheater.

So there at Shechem, early in their efforts to take the land God had given them, the Israelites gathered to formally and solemnly reaffirm their commitment to and covenant with Yahweh their God, thus deepening and strengthening their spiritual relationship with Him.

It's interesting to note that the ceremony carried out at Shechem was like an inverted version of what they experienced at Mount Sinai. Instead of standing at the base of Mount Sinai and looking up to receive God's revelation, now they were all gazing down upon the Ark of the Covenant in their midst—an arrangement that stressed Israel's national unity and shared responsibilities for one another as God's people.

Later, near the end of Israel's conquest of the land of Canaan, Joshua reconfirmed Israel's covenant with God at Shechem one last time shortly before he died at the age of 110. This is his well-known "Choose you this day whom you will serve" speech:

¹⁴Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve you the LORD. ¹⁵And if it seem evil to you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom you will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.

(Joshua 24:14–15 AKJV / emphasis added)

Once again, we see the city of Shechem as a stage upon which Israel repeatedly and solemnly confirms their covenant with their God, and does so surrounded by a society steeped in the murkiest depths of paganism. So we see that road to redemption pressing steadily ahead, in spite of all the rocks and the bumps.

Bury me in Shechem

The city of Shechem also comes into play in regard to Joseph, who died before the Israelites even got out of Egypt. Joseph made his brothers swear that they would bury him in the land God promised to give to them:

²⁴And Joseph said to his brothers, I die: and God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land to the land which he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. ²⁵And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from hence.

(Genesis 50:24–25 AKJV / emphasis added)

And his brothers kept their promise:

³²And the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel brought up out of Egypt, buried they in Shechem, in a parcel of ground which Jacob bought of the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for an hundred pieces of silver [see Gen. 33:19]: and it became the inheritance of the children of Joseph.

(Joshua 24:32 AKJV / emphasis & [comments] added)

Also, Shechem obviously held deep personal meaning for Joseph, since it was very near the spot where his brothers sold him into slavery:

¹²And his brothers went to feed their father's flock in Shechem. ¹³And Israel [i.e. Jacob] said to Joseph, Do not your brothers feed the flock in Shechem? come, and I will send you to them. And he said to him, Here am I. ¹⁴And he said to him, Go, I pray you, see whether it be well with your brothers, and well with the flocks; and bring me word again. So he sent him out of the vale of Hebron, and he came to Shechem. [And when he finds his brothers, he ends up getting sold into slavery in Egypt.]

(Genesis 37:12–14 AKJV / emphasis & [comments] added)

By choosing to be buried in Shechem, Joseph was effectively anchoring himself in the legacy of his family's commitment to establishing a permanent presence in Canaan, the land God had promised his family and his people. And in so doing, he demonstrated supreme confidence in Israel's ultimate attainment of what God had repeatedly promised them.

And that's ultimately the point: No matter how rough or rocky that road to redemption may get, what invariably shines through is God's faithfulness in fulfilling His promises.

OK, now comes the part I warned you about earlier.

The part I warned you about earlier

What has to be one of the rockiest stretches of the road to redemption comes later, during the period of the judges.

Not long after Joshua died, there followed a period of roughly 300 years during which Israel had a series of what were called judges. Time after time, God would raise up someone to deliver Israel out of some mess they were in, and that deliverer would be appointed as the next judge. They would continue to play a role in the leadership of the nation until God raised up a new judge to bail them out of their next mess.

One of Israel's judges was a man named Gideon, who is well known to students of the Bible as the guy who gave rise to the expression "to put out a fleece." (And if you're not familiar with what that's all about, read this five-verse passage in the book of Judges when you get a chance.)

In addition to his fixation with fleece, Gideon also had quite the collection of wives (plus a Canaanite concubine in Shechem), who collectively sired a total of 70 sons. One of those sons was named Abimelech (born to the concubine), who served as judge after the death of his father.

And as it turns out, precious few biblical characters were ever on a power trip that rivaled that of Abimelech.

In Judges 9, we read that Abimelech (whose name can mean either "my father is king" or "father of a king") had a deep-seated desire (maniacal obsession?) to rule over the people in the region of Shechem as king. Understand that this period of judges came before the time when Israel had kings—kings (who were to be appointed by God) would come later. So it was clear that it was not God's will for Abimelech to be any sort of king—he was operating under the complete control of his bloodthirsty lust for power and hugely inflated ego.

As a result of his cruelty and crazed lust for power, Abimelech added one of the darkest chapters to the story of Shechem and easily one of the rockiest stretches along the road to redemption.

Abimelech was so consumed with the idea of becoming king that he felt the need to eliminate the competition: He slaughtered his 70 brothers (all except the youngest one, who managed to slip away and hide). He conned and gaslighted the elders of Shechem, manipulating them with high-sounding talk of his Shechemite heritage and ultimately succeeded in persuading them to make him king against their better judgment.

After a three-year reign characterized by cruelty, bloodshed, and betrayal, the people in the region of Shechem had finally had enough of Abimelech. They rebelled against his bloody rule, and in response Abimelech leveled the city of Shechem, slaughtered its population, and burned alive about a thousand people who had sought refuge in Shechem's temple of Baal-Berith.

Then Abimelech proceeds to Thebez, where he meets his fate:

⁵⁰Then went Abimelech to Thebez, and encamped against Thebez, and took it. ⁵¹But there was a strong tower within the city, and thither fled all the men and women, and all they of the city, and shut it to them, and got them up to the top of the tower. ⁵²And Abimelech came to the tower, and fought against it, and went hard to the door of the tower to burn it with fire. ⁵³And a certain woman cast a piece of a millstone [often interpreted as an "upper-millstone," which was typically about 12 inches in diameter and weighed about 25 pounds] on Abimelech's head, and all to [usually interpreted to mean "totally"] broke his skull. ⁵⁴Then he called hastily to the young man his armor bearer, and said to him, Draw your sword, and slay me, that men say not of me, A women slew him. And his young man thrust him through, and he died. ⁵⁵And when the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, they departed every man to his place.

(Judges 9:50–55 AKJV / emphasis & [comments] added)

Thebez also had a large tower in which many people were seeking refuge just as they had in Baal-Berith. Abimelech was in the process of trying to burn that tower and all the people in it as well, but apparently he got too close to the door of the tower and a woman dropped an upper-millstone from its roof that struck Abimelech in the head and crushed his skull.

Bullseye.

In the moments before Abimelech died, he asked his armor-bearer to kill him with his sword so that nobody could besmirch his reputation by saying he was slain by a woman—a historical fact which, somewhat ironically, became a common anecdote in Jewish culture.

Abimelech provides us with some of the most horrible images associated with Shechem, and his vicious, murderous exploits represent one of the rockiest patches along that road to redemption. The exploits of a man like Abimelech can't help but make us wonder how God ever got mankind through to the destination He intended for us:

In a position to receive the free gift

of redemption—of salvation by grace

through faith in the atonement His Son

would purchase for us with His blood.

A kingdom divided

Shechem also takes on a key role when Israel became divided into a northern kingdom and a southern kingdom after the death of David's son Solomon. The full story is complex and beyond the scope of this article, so for our purposes the Reader's Digest version will suffice.

After King Solomon died, conflict quickly arose concerning his successor to the throne. His son Rehoboam was made king, and was supported by the tribe of Judah and much of the tribe of Benjamin. However, the other 10 tribes and the remainder of Benjamin rebelled and chose to make Jeroboam their king.

The 10 tribes and part of Benjamin became the northern kingdom, commonly referred to as Israel (aka Ephraim), or simply the 10 Tribes. The tribe of Judah and most of Benjamin became the southern kingdom, commonly referred to as Judah. Although on the surface there were political motivations behind this division, the real roots were spiritual, and that division was prophesied by the prophet Ahijah in 1 Kings 11:31–35.

And it didn't take long for those spiritual roots to reveal themselves.

Most Bible scholars agree that the southern kingdom or Judah, whose capital was Jerusalem, although not without their flaws and failures, generally remained more faithful to God and His revealed Word. However, the northern kingdom or Israel rapidly slid into abject apostasy. And you'll never guess in a million years where they established their capital. Wow, you nailed it!

Shechem.

You're a good guesser. Although the northern kingdom had a bigger population and was considered more powerful, in 721 BC it was attacked by the Assyrians—their powerful enemy to the northeast. Although many of the inhabitants of the northern kingdom were carried off into captivity, many remained as Assyria annexed the region. As result, there was a good bit of intermarriage between the Jews of the northern kingdom and the Assyrians, and this gave rise to a group of people known as the Samaritans (stay tuned).

Incidentally, the southern kingdom of Judah also fell about 135 years later to the Babylonians, who took them as captives back to Babylon, thus launching the 70 years of captivity prophesied by Jeremiah (Jer. 25:1–12).

So Shechem again comes into play as the capital of a corrupt, apostate northern kingdom, where once more we see sinful men with their pagan practices defile what are places of divine significance—places where God repeatedly confirmed His covenant promise to His people.

The woman at the well

There is an ancient well in Nablus (i.e. Shechem) today that has traditionally been linked to Jacob, although there is no specific mention in Scripture of Jacob digging any well there. That said, however, it's certainly easy to assume that since he owned land in Shechem, he likely would have dug himself a well.

Known simply as Jacob's Well, this is where the final event I'm going to discuss takes place, and it involves a Samaritan woman who has come to draw water and who ends up having a spiritually monumental conversation with Jesus.

In John 4:1–42, we read how Jesus is sitting at the well, waiting for His disciples to return from the city where they have gone to buy food. A Samaritan woman approaches the well to draw water, and Jesus comes right out and asks her to give Him a drink.

Sounds innocent enough. The problem, however, is that most Jews regarded the Samaritans, who came from the interbreeding of Jews and Assyrians as I mentioned above, as heretical half-breeds. Most Jews of that day considered it below their dignity to even speak to a Samaritan, and the woman is keenly aware of that. So she responds with surprise to Jesus' request:

⁷A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink." ⁸For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. ⁹The Samaritan woman therefore said to him, "How is it that you, being a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?" (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) [The Samaritan woman knew her place among the Jews.]

(John 4:7–9 / emphasis & [comments] added)

Jesus wastes no time getting straight to the point: As the Messiah God had promised to send them, Jesus was in a position to offer her eternal life through her belief in faith. This is the "living water" of which He speaks:

¹⁰Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water." [That is, redemption from sin unto eternal life.]

(John 4:10 / emphasis & [comments] added)

The woman has no idea what Jesus is talking about when He says stuff like "living water" and "water springing up to everlasting life" and such, and then He begins to reveal His true nature to her. He blows her away by telling her that she's had five husbands and the man she is living with is not her husband—something she assumed He couldn't possibly have known. At that point she realizes Jesus is a prophet:

¹⁹The woman said to him, "Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. ²⁰Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, [i.e. Mount Gerizim at Shechem] and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship." [This was a major bone of contention between the Jews and the Samaritans.]

(John 4:19–20 / emphasis & [comments] added)

Then Jesus reveals the nature of the spiritual relationship we are to have with God—a relationship we can only have by belief in faith in what He had come to accomplish on the cross as the promised Messiah:

²¹Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. ²²You worship that which you don't know. We worship that which we know; for salvation is from the Jews. ²³But the hour comes, and now is, [i.e. the Messiah had arrived] when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such to be his worshipers. ²⁴God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." ²⁵The woman said to him, "I know that Messiah is coming, he who is called Christ. When he has come, he will declare to us all things." [Being a Samaritan certainly didn't stop her from knowing the Messiah was coming.] ²⁶Jesus said to her, "I am he, the one who speaks to you." [...and Jesus finally properly introduces Himself.]

(John 4:21–26 emphasis & [comments] added)

The woman excitedly runs back home and tells everyone that she has met the Messiah, and many come out to meet Jesus. They escort Him back into their community where He stays a couple of days, and many Samaritan people come to believe in the message Jesus is preaching.

So Shechem gives us a snapshot of God's covenant promise finally being revealed to man in the flesh and nearly ready to be fulfilled on the cross, against a backdrop of legalistic Jewish religious leaders who will soon seek to kill Him to protect their own selfish interests and reputations, as well as their power over the population. More rocks...more bumps.

Now it's personal

So that's Shechem: a composite picture of the tension between...

Covenant and calamity.

Promise and perversity.

Confirmation and corruption.

Or more broadly stated:

His faithfulness and our failure.

This encounter in Shechem between Jesus and the Samaritan woman (which occurred about a year into His roughly three-and-a-half year ministry) stands out as a pivotal moment in biblical history. In a very real sense, it illustrates something of historic importance—it gives us a wonderful picture of the Old Testament meeting the New.

For two millennia, there had been people looking forward to the fulfillment of God's covenant promise of a coming Redeemer through whom all the families of the earth would be blessed. That afternoon in Shechem, we see a picture of how the fulfillment of that promise was finally nearing its fulfillment.

The Redeemer had arrived, and with Him our redemption.

The rocky road to redemption was about to be completed and arrive at its destination: the potential for sinful men to be eternally reconciled to a holy God by grace through faith. And now it was drawing near. How near?

In two and a half years, that rocky road would finally reach its destination on a blood-stained cross at Calvary and in a rich man's tomb nearby.

His death, burial, and resurrection—done deal.

Obviously the road to redemption we have been discussing up to this point must be viewed in a corporate context—it's destination is the fulfillment of God's promise to bless mankind through Abraham's lineage, which was fulfilled at Calvary. But as I mentioned at the outset, I want to mention another version of the rocky road to redemption, one that is unlike the one we've been discussing. This road is not about a nation. It's not corporate.

Now it's personal.

And as I said, this road begins at Calvary. Over the last two thousand years, everyone has traveled on this road—a road whose destination is God's promise of personal redemption for every single individual who responds to the conviction of the Holy Spirit and comes to a saving knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And we all know how rocky that road can be.

By grace through faith, however, millions of people have successfully reached that destination and received the guarantee of what God always meant for us to have and which we will actually receive after we die. Or for those who reach that road's destination prior to the Rapture and are among those "who are alive and remain," they'll receive it when they are changed in a moment, in the twinklng of an eye:*

An eternity of unimaginable bliss in a place He has prepared.

*After the Rapture, things get slightly more complicated.

I'm happy to say I reached that rocky road's destination many years ago, and I'm eagerly looking forward to actually receiving the substance of that promise soon and very soon. And I pray you can say the same.

Of course, we may all be on that rocky road to redemption, but we don't all arrive at its intended destination and receive the promise it offers. To those on that road who have no interest in God (the God of the Bible, that is), or mock and dismiss His prophetically confirmed Word, or have fallen for popular theories devised by fallen men about how "spiritual" things supposedly work, I say this with ironclad certainty:

This rocky road to redemption only has

one exit prior to reaching its destination.

All who foolishly reject God's offer of

redemption are forced to take that exit.

And God's Word tells us

where that exit leads to.

From Greg Lauer @ A Little Strength—DEC '25

Newer Post Older Post