Serving God To Appease or Please?

In the book Luke we have the story of the “Good” Samaritan. Notice I put in quotation marks the word good. The reason being, when Jesus is telling the story he never refers to him as good, as a matter of fact Jesus said elsewhere, “there is none good but the Father”. Jesus told this story in response to a question asked of him by a lawyer (scribe) concerning eternal life. The lawyer was actually a scribe which meant his occupation was making copies of the scriptures. There were no printing presses or copy machines at that time and every copy of the scriptures had to be hand written. In response to his question, “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus asked him, “What is written in the law? How readest thou?” The lawyer replied, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.” Jesus said to him that he had answered correctly and that if he did that he would have eternal life. He did not say to him if he “knew it” he would live, he said, “this do, and thou shalt live”. The lawyer had another question for Jesus. The bible says in verse 29, “But he willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbor?”



Now Jesus replied with the story about a certain man who went down from Jerusalem unto Jericho. That man was set upon by thieves which stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and left him half dead.

In this story three people were aware of this man’s plight, a priest, a Levite, and a certain Samaritan. The priest and the Levite had religious position and standing in religious circles and even had kinship with the victim but had no compassion on the man.

The Samaritan on the other hand was despised by the Jewish people of that day. According to the testimony of the woman at the well Jews had no dealings with Samaritans. In reality the man in the ditch was part of a society that oppressed the Samaritans, yet it was the Samaritan that had compassion on the victim. He left his beast to go down to where the man was. He looked upon him in that ditch and had compassion for him and took of his own substance and ministered to his immediate needs. He poured in oil and wine and bound up his wounds. He then put him on his on beast and began to walk as this wounded man rode. He carried him to an Inn and paid for his lodging, meals, and any other needs he might have. Before I finish this story I want to take some time to trace the heritage of the Samaritan people. Why was there controversy between them and the Jews? Who were the Samaritans? Where did they come from?

Let’s take the last two questions first, where did they come from and who were they? Looking back into the book of II Kings 17 we find the record of the sins of Israel in the reign of Jeroboam. In verse 21 it is recored that God rent or tore the house of David from Israel. This resulted in two kingdoms, Judah and Israel. The kingdom of Israel set Jeroboam over the kingdom of Israel who did wickedly. The Lord allowed the king of Assyria to come and capture the northern kingdom(Israel). The northern kingdom was located in the region of Samaria with the city of Samaria as their capital.

The king of Assyria carried them away into Assyria to dwell in two cities there on the river Gozan named Halah and Habor. The name Gozan means in English, “cutting off” and was known to the Assyrians as the place of stone cutting. The names of the 2 cities where they place Israel are, “Halah” which means painful and “Habor” which means “joining”. The King of Assyria also brought to Samaria people from out side to populate the region to prevent Israel from becoming unified and rise up and throw off the captivity. He immigrated people from Babylon, Cuthah, Ava, Hamath, and Sephravaim to inhabit the cities of Samaria. These peoples each brought their own idols and worship of them. They were by cities:

Babylon(confusion by mixing) who worshipped “Succothbenoth” which is a brothel.

Cuthah(crushing) who worshipped Nergal which means “hero”

Ava ( ruin) who worshipped Nibhaz which means “barker” the image of a dog. Also Tartak which means “the prince of darkness.”

Hamath(walled) made and worshipped Ashima which means guiltiness or I will make desolate.

Shepharvaim( the 2 sipporas or birds) because the city was divided in to 2 parts each had their own god. They were Adrammelech which means “honour of the king” and Anammelech which means “image of the king”.

They worshipped their leader. Their worship involved burning their children to these to idols. [ Interesting to see school children singing the praises of president Obama a man who whole heartedly endorses the wholesale slaughter of children in the womb. Solomon truly was right when he said there is nothing new under the sun. ] 　

So now we know the origins and the identity of the Samaritans. Now for the first question, why the controversy? We can get a little insight into that from the conversation Jesus had with the woman at the well. (John 4:5-30) She said to Jesus that the Samaritans worshipped in the mountain in Samaria and the Jews worshipped in Jerusalem. The Samaritans made an altar of convenience in order as not to have to travel the distance required by God in the Law. Isn’t it amazing how many people today are looking for a religion and a priest of convenience? A people who profess Jesus yet worship idols such as harlotry(Succuthbenoth), whoredom is glorified and excused by media ministry darlings. I have heard of congregations barking like dogs and putting leashes on each other and calling it revival. It is a revival alright, a revival of Nibhaz(the barker) worship! Hero(Nergal) worship is also big in the church in America we can’t get enough of sports figures who flaunt the laws of the land and command larger and larger salaries while they assault, rape, support the drug culture, gamble and corrupt our youth with their life styles. People who call themselves Christians support the burning of their children(abortion, the baby is burned by a saline solution injected into the womb to burn the baby to death) voting for these abortion advocate politicians because they also promise them prosperity! How preposterous is that? You will never prosper over the corpses of the most innocent and vulnerable of our society!!



Now the scripture says that when these people came into the land they had no fear of God, however God sent lions which ate some of them. They then appealed to the King of Assyria to bring back a priest of Israel from captivity to teach them the ways of the God of Israel. So they sent and brought a priest back from Assyria. He taught them how to appease God. II Kings 17v33 tells us they feared God but worshipped their own idols. The Samaritans mixed the worship of idols with the worship of God and only worshipped God as necessary to keep the lions from eating them. God had given the Children of Israel a commandment to have no other Gods!. He said to them hear oh Israel the Lord thy God is one God. By the law of God they could have now dealings with the heathen and idolaters.

I want to reiterate the title question, are you serving God to appease or to please God? Do you have a zeal for God or are like the Samaritans only serving God for rear of the Lions? Or for the properity? Or serving God to avoid hell? The church and priests of convenience abound in this day! What are your priorities? Materialism, money, pleasure, or the man in the ditch? The lost, the least, the last? are you like the lawyer in this story, seeking to justify yourself? Looking for a way to make an excuse for know and yet not doing the will of God? Jesus said to the lawyer to "do" and live.





Beloved, Grace and peace be multiplied unto you as you go! As you go preach saying the kingdom of God is at hand!



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