Our Temporal Situation and God

The passage I would like to bring to your attention to is John 4:1-15 : 

Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John ² (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), ³ he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. ⁴ And he had to pass through Samaria. ⁵ So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. ⁶ Jacob's well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.

⁷ A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” ⁸ (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) ⁹ The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) ¹⁰ Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” ¹¹ The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? ¹² Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” ¹³ Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴ but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” ¹⁵ The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”

The passage of John 4 illustrates the sharp contrast of the focus and sight of Jesus Christ and us humans. We, desiring autonomy, have been profoundly cut off from God. This separation makes it incredibly difficult for us to conceptualize and truly see God in a world fallen and cursed due to sin. As Romans 1:18 greatly describes, our natural state is one of utter depravity resisting and suppressing the truth and righteousness of God. Further in Romans 1, it lists the types of sin and ungodliness we find ourselves desiring and begins each one with "God gave them up". This means God gives us what we want, in a fundamental sense, between two categories–wrath or righteousness. Wrath for those who desire autonomy in continuation of the original sin, and righteousness for those who approach God humbly in faith with trust and submission. 

So often do I hear, "God! God! If you are there, why would you allow such horrible things in this world to happen? Why would you subject us to such us to such horrors beyond comprehension?" So often do we, especially those who are unsaved, place the blame of the ills of the world on God. My fellow brothers and sisters of this world, it is us who brought these horrors upon ourselves. We, desiring autonomy, even at the slightest notion that seems so wholly innocent to us, have been given what we wanted–a world to pursue the desires of the flesh. We took this world from its original harmony that God intended (and we beg for) into a world of chaos. Our almighty God created us for relationship and to beautify His world, only for us to reject Him thinking we are good enough on our own. We deserve wrath. Yes, even those who live honorable lives relative to societal standards, you have tried to create your own world believing it to be worthy of praise and reward, including God Himself. Let me ask you this, did you stop to think that you even deserved to exist in the first place? Did God not create you with all your talents and abilities in a time and place where you could live in influence? God owes us nothing, and it is us who owe Him everything.

Why does God not intervene or remove such abominable activity today, like He did in the Bible? Because He is giving us up to what we wanted and still want today–the pursuit of autonomy. This comes with the consequence of sin, which we observe and experience in terror. This is the result of our works, not God's. God certainly intervenes in magnificent ways, but only for His grand purpose. All these prophecies, all these magnificent miracles, all these people transformed in the power of God recorded in the Bible are done for one objective: redeeming His creation out of the destruction we created into what it was originally supposed to be. God is keenly aware of what is happening, and he weeps just as Jesus wept at the death of Lazarus. These awful events in the world happen, because God, in His merciful justice, allows our choice of desiring control. God created us for relationship to satisfy His perfect loving nature. What kind of a God would He be if he continuously dictated our decisions and incessantly released terror to those who disobey in the most egregious ways? Would God not become the very monster He sought out to destroy?

Due to our pursuits, we are blinded and enslaved by our sin (Ephesians 2:3). God cannot be in the presence of sin making us cut off and unable to comprehend the things of God (Romans 8:7-8). We are so caught up in our ways thinking of what we can comprehend and see. The desires of the flesh overwhelm us blinding us to all things spiritual 2 Corinthians 4:4 :

The god of this world [Satan] has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.

As believers and disciples of Christ, we still greatly struggle to see the spiritual realm, as Paul puts it in GNV 1 Corinthians 13:12, "For now we see through a glass darkly..." Even those who spoke with God manifested in the flesh, they still struggled to see, which illustrates the intensity of our depravity. Let us bring our attention back to the story of the Samaritan woman at the well. This woman receives an incredible moment to speak with our Lord face to face. Upon asking her for a drink, Jesus offers in return the most wonderful gift of eternal life and spiritual rebirth. During this moment, however, the woman focuses on the temporal things in front of her. Why are violating social and cultural standards? What water are you talking about? Where is your bucket? How did you retrieve this water you speak of from the well? God, I am poor, where are you? Why do you allow suffering in this world? God, where is our church building that we need? Where are the monetary funds to assist in the needs of the church and ministries? Where is this provision you promised to believers? How can I access this provision?

Yes, yes, these temporal needs are legitimate, and God is keenly aware. However, do you not realize how spiritually starving you are? We call upon God in our spiritual death to provide temporal provision that will last for a period of time, while God is concerned over your eternal life. What kind of shallow relationship would it be if God just did away with our struggles giving us what we wanted without any depth or progress? God is not just concerned about the outcome, but the journey. Even to us believers, do you not see how much in spiritual need you are in? Do you not realize that even by entering into connection with God by the Holy Spirit you still fail to fully see the spiritual revival still to develop within you? Instead of focusing so much on temporal needs, let us heed the words of Christ in John 4:10 :

Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 

We know the gift of God, yet we still have the tendency to focus on the bucket and social structures. Yes, God is the one to provide us with temporal needs, but the call of faith is to heed the call of relying on the Lord's provision and timing. In other words, trust and submission. The most vital step, however, is to save you from your spiritual blindness and to fill your soul more and more with a spring of water : 

"The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

God wants you to rely on the spiritual relationship, not on a temporal relationship. Hardship and strife are allowed to occur so that your trust deepens giving space for God to mold you into the vessel you are supposed to become. Even good-natured items aimed for growing the kingdom of God can become a distraction in itself. The object of our faith can center around an object and our trust for growth becomes attached to it. The deep centered love for Christ and submission to Him is what enables your influence as a church, not your temporal capacity (Revelation 2:4-5). 

Let us continue with the story of the Samaritan woman at the well with John 4:16-25 :

¹⁶ Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” ¹⁷ The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; ¹⁸ for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” ¹⁹ The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. ²⁰ Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” ²¹ Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. ²² You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. ²³ But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. ²⁴ God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” ²⁵ The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” ²⁶ Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”

Once the woman senses the spiritual nature of what Jesus is discussing, she begins to default her thoughts on the temporal nature of religion that confines worship to specific authority and jurisdiction. Jesus reveals he is not only there to bring about the salvation of souls of mankind, but to release the temporal confinement of worship. To establish connection between us and God through His eternal sacrifice. True worship is neither here nor there, but within us in spiritual form. God's redemptive mission for each individual soul is not dependent on our own efforts or temporal establishments. He, the living God, is actively seeking, as it states in verse 23. Let us look further into John 4:23 with the Geneva Bible translation to illustrate further depth :

"But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and Truth: for the Father requireth even such to worship him."

The Geneva Bible translation uses the word "require" rather than "seek", both of which are technically correct. However, what the British Reformers underlined is an emphasis that God's will compels worship in spirit and truth from those He regenerates. This requirement is not a cold command but a holy compulsion awakening believers from spiritual death into worship He desires. God is not concerned on temporal structure and outward display of religious establishment, rather our hearts in true spiritual worship. 

An underlying theme of this story is that hope in this life is not material prosperity or national exaltation. The hope in this life is of God's presence and the transformative power of His coming. The Jews struggled to recognize their own Messiah, because they affiliated their hope in such temporal prosperity. The subtleties of the Samaritan woman's responses reveal this common underlying hope and search confined to places of worship and impressive national figures. Instead, they received a holy and humble servant. The words of Isaiah 40:1-5 redirects such misguided hope upwards and gives us insight on this matter :

"Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the LORD's hand double for all her sins. A voice cries: 'In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.'"

"Comfort, comfort my people" The passage begins with a call to comfort with God's people with a connection to warfare and iniquity. This points to comfort being a spiritual renewal and reconciliation with God rather than a promise of national dominance or material wealth. "Prepare the Way of the Lord" Expressions of valleys being lifted, mountains and hills being made low, and rough places being smoothed is the imagery of preparing a highway for God's arrival soon to come among them. "Revelation of God's glory" The culmination of this passage is the promise that the glory of the Lord will be revealed and that all people will see it. This is the ultimate hope being offered to Israel: not that they will be exalted above all other nations in a material sense, but that they will witness and be part of the revelation of God's glory. 

God's primary objective is His plan of redemption retrieving the souls He has lost to their own sin. Our hope, focus, and reliance are in Christ's current reign of the kingdom of God. God can individually strike down vile people of evil nature, provide food to miraculously appear to the starving, and abruptly end wars. However, these are quick and temporary fixes to a serious problem beyond our comprehension. Jesus Christ is the permanent solution to our broken world. His death concurred sin and death creating the Way to the Father in Spirit and Truth. The power of the gospel is beyond anything of this world. This power is meant to transform all of us to become what we are supposed to be, so that we can live in an eternal world in harmony without wars, poverty, and pain. Otherwise, we would be doomed with no hope out of this broken life. This living water Jesus speaks of is meant to transform us in this life so that we cease to do evil in this broken world, strive to take care of the needy and impoverished, and seek for peace. That is our temporal calling as a Christian. Does evil still occur in this world? Yes, absolutely, because we do not submit to the will of the Father and cling to our desire of autonomy, even as believers. People shake their fist at God, while they are unable to see how God has already created a way out for them. They look for immediate gratification in temporal signs and signals instead of looking to the grander spiritual realm. "What is this water you speak of? How do you get it without a bucket?"

What does this all mean? This means that the timing of our deliverance from evil, strife, and suffering is in a timing that we may not like. People reject this way of Christ, because it requires a journey and an incredible amount of trust in God instead of immediate answers and deliverance. They see God as entirely absent in their lives unaware of the spiritual realm and the providence of God around them. We take the daily functions of this world for granted seeing it as mundane and constant seemingly able to take care of itself. This cannot be further from the truth Matthew 6:26-33 :

"Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the frass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is throw into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you."

"Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." God knows we are all struggling in this broken world. He wants to help us, but first we must embrace the permanent solution of Jesus Christ, who was sent to deliver us from this broken world. This world we live in today is not our final resting place, nor is it the apex of our existence. To demand perfection and removal of all evil in the here and now misses the bigger picture that this world was not supposed to be like this. We miss the fact we are trying to channel God to our timing, not His, in the midst of a grander plan far better than what we can imagine. While we disparage God, we fail to see how much He truly does care of His fallen creation. The very birds outside our windows would not be fed without the grace of God's provision. Everything would cease to function. Our very existence would cease.

My fellow believers, heed to the call of Jesus Christ–seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. In other words, submit to the graces of God He has provided for you and hand over your worries of temporal anxieties over to Him. Your concern should be in your spiritual growth and not of the things of this world, because they will be met. See the realities of what we are and where we are at. Search the will of God and hand over your needs in supplication of prayer trusting that He knows what is best. Amen.