True Worship
When Worship Becomes Convenient: A Journey to the Well
There's something deeply unsettling about the story of the woman at Jacob's well. Not because of her five failed marriages or her current living situation—though those details matter—but because of what she represents about how we approach God when left to our own devices.
She came from Samaria, a place with a complicated spiritual history. To understand her confusion about worship, we need to travel back nearly a thousand years before that encounter at the well.
The Golden Calf Solution
When Israel's kingdom split into north and south, the northern king Jeroboam faced a political problem. His people would naturally want to travel to Jerusalem—in the southern kingdom—to worship at the temple. But if they did, they might remember their allegiance to the Davidic line and rebel against him.
His solution? Make worship convenient.
He fashioned two golden calves and placed them in Dan and Bethel, declaring to the people: "It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Behold, thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt."
The irony is staggering. This was almost word-for-word what Aaron said when Israel crafted the golden calf in the wilderness—an event that ended in catastrophic judgment. Yet here was Jeroboam, repeating history's worst mistake, and apparently no one objected.
The northern kingdom embraced this counterfeit worship system. They took priests from the lowest of the people—anyone would do. They established feast days devised in the king's own heart rather than prescribed by God. They ignored clear biblical mandates because, well, who needs all those statutes and laws when you can create your own convenient religion?
The Slow Disintegration
For 250 years, this corrupted worship continued. When the Assyrians eventually conquered the northern kingdom, they brought in people from Babylon, Cuthah, and other pagan nations, settling them in Samaria. These newcomers didn't know the God of the land, and lions began attacking them.
The Assyrian king's solution? Send a priest to teach them "the manner of the God of the land." But this priest himself came from the corrupted northern system. What followed was syncretism—a dangerous blending of religions where Jehovah God became just another deity in a pantheon of gods.
Second Kings 17 paints a disturbing picture: "They feared the Lord, and served their own gods." They would acknowledge Jehovah when convenient, then return home to worship Succoth-benoth, Nergal, Ashima, and other deities. Some even burned their children as sacrifices to Adrammelech and Anammelech.
The text says something chilling: "Unto this day they do after the former manners." Nothing changed. Generation after generation perpetuated this mixed-up worship, refusing to let God's Word instruct them.
The Woman's Question
This brings us back to the woman at the well, a descendant of this confused religious system. When Jesus offered her living water—water that would spring up into everlasting life—she was spiritually hungry enough to want it. She was done with her life, done with relationships that never satisfied, coming to draw water at noon when other women wouldn't be there to judge her.
But when the conversation turned to worship, she tried to redirect: "Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship."
Jesus's response cuts through centuries of religious confusion: "Ye worship ye know not what."
She was sincere but ignorant. She had been taught that Jehovah God was as good as any other god—just another option in a religious smorgasbord. But sincerity doesn't equal truth.
What Worship Actually Means
The Greek word for worship used throughout this passage is proskuneo—to kiss toward, to prostrate oneself, to pay divine honors with extravagant love and reverence. It's not passive attendance or ritual repetition. It's the submission of our entire nature to God.
Jesus made it clear: "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth."
Must. Not might, not should, not could. Must.
Real worship must be anchored in truth—in who God actually is and how He has revealed Himself, not in how we imagine Him or prefer Him to be.
The Modern Temptation
We like to think we're nothing like those ancient Samaritans. We don't have golden calves or worship Nergal. But are we worshipers?
The temptation toward convenient, self-designed worship hasn't disappeared. We still try to have a little God and a little world, a little Bible and a little culture, a little holiness and a little Hollywood. We compartmentalize—Sunday God, Monday god, Tuesday god, each day with its own priorities and allegiances.
We structure our worship, devise our approaches, and then assume God is okay with it. But biblical worship flows from God to us, not from us to God. He prescribes how He will be approached, honored, and adored.
The Father Seeks
Here's what makes this passage so beautiful: "The Father seeketh such to worship him."
While Satan walks about seeking whom he may devour, the Father is seeking true worshipers—those who will worship Him in spirit and truth, those who desire genuine intimacy with Him, biblically founded and biblically centered.
The woman at the well found Him that day. When she recognized Jesus as the Messiah, she left her water pot and ran to tell others: "Come, see a man which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?"
She had come seeking physical water. She left having found living water and the One worthy of all worship.
An Invitation to True Worship
Perhaps we're more like that woman than we care to admit. We come thirsty, dissatisfied with what the world offers, but still carrying confused ideas about who God is and how He should be approached.
The invitation remains: worship Him in spirit and in truth. Not with empty repetition or vain tradition. Not by mixing Him with whatever else competes for our allegiance. But with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength—prostrate before the One who alone is worthy.
The Father is still seeking such worshipers. Will we be found among them?
There's something deeply unsettling about the story of the woman at Jacob's well. Not because of her five failed marriages or her current living situation—though those details matter—but because of what she represents about how we approach God when left to our own devices.
She came from Samaria, a place with a complicated spiritual history. To understand her confusion about worship, we need to travel back nearly a thousand years before that encounter at the well.
The Golden Calf Solution
When Israel's kingdom split into north and south, the northern king Jeroboam faced a political problem. His people would naturally want to travel to Jerusalem—in the southern kingdom—to worship at the temple. But if they did, they might remember their allegiance to the Davidic line and rebel against him.
His solution? Make worship convenient.
He fashioned two golden calves and placed them in Dan and Bethel, declaring to the people: "It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Behold, thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt."
The irony is staggering. This was almost word-for-word what Aaron said when Israel crafted the golden calf in the wilderness—an event that ended in catastrophic judgment. Yet here was Jeroboam, repeating history's worst mistake, and apparently no one objected.
The northern kingdom embraced this counterfeit worship system. They took priests from the lowest of the people—anyone would do. They established feast days devised in the king's own heart rather than prescribed by God. They ignored clear biblical mandates because, well, who needs all those statutes and laws when you can create your own convenient religion?
The Slow Disintegration
For 250 years, this corrupted worship continued. When the Assyrians eventually conquered the northern kingdom, they brought in people from Babylon, Cuthah, and other pagan nations, settling them in Samaria. These newcomers didn't know the God of the land, and lions began attacking them.
The Assyrian king's solution? Send a priest to teach them "the manner of the God of the land." But this priest himself came from the corrupted northern system. What followed was syncretism—a dangerous blending of religions where Jehovah God became just another deity in a pantheon of gods.
Second Kings 17 paints a disturbing picture: "They feared the Lord, and served their own gods." They would acknowledge Jehovah when convenient, then return home to worship Succoth-benoth, Nergal, Ashima, and other deities. Some even burned their children as sacrifices to Adrammelech and Anammelech.
The text says something chilling: "Unto this day they do after the former manners." Nothing changed. Generation after generation perpetuated this mixed-up worship, refusing to let God's Word instruct them.
The Woman's Question
This brings us back to the woman at the well, a descendant of this confused religious system. When Jesus offered her living water—water that would spring up into everlasting life—she was spiritually hungry enough to want it. She was done with her life, done with relationships that never satisfied, coming to draw water at noon when other women wouldn't be there to judge her.
But when the conversation turned to worship, she tried to redirect: "Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship."
Jesus's response cuts through centuries of religious confusion: "Ye worship ye know not what."
She was sincere but ignorant. She had been taught that Jehovah God was as good as any other god—just another option in a religious smorgasbord. But sincerity doesn't equal truth.
What Worship Actually Means
The Greek word for worship used throughout this passage is proskuneo—to kiss toward, to prostrate oneself, to pay divine honors with extravagant love and reverence. It's not passive attendance or ritual repetition. It's the submission of our entire nature to God.
Jesus made it clear: "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth."
Must. Not might, not should, not could. Must.
Real worship must be anchored in truth—in who God actually is and how He has revealed Himself, not in how we imagine Him or prefer Him to be.
The Modern Temptation
We like to think we're nothing like those ancient Samaritans. We don't have golden calves or worship Nergal. But are we worshipers?
The temptation toward convenient, self-designed worship hasn't disappeared. We still try to have a little God and a little world, a little Bible and a little culture, a little holiness and a little Hollywood. We compartmentalize—Sunday God, Monday god, Tuesday god, each day with its own priorities and allegiances.
We structure our worship, devise our approaches, and then assume God is okay with it. But biblical worship flows from God to us, not from us to God. He prescribes how He will be approached, honored, and adored.
The Father Seeks
Here's what makes this passage so beautiful: "The Father seeketh such to worship him."
While Satan walks about seeking whom he may devour, the Father is seeking true worshipers—those who will worship Him in spirit and truth, those who desire genuine intimacy with Him, biblically founded and biblically centered.
The woman at the well found Him that day. When she recognized Jesus as the Messiah, she left her water pot and ran to tell others: "Come, see a man which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?"
She had come seeking physical water. She left having found living water and the One worthy of all worship.
An Invitation to True Worship
Perhaps we're more like that woman than we care to admit. We come thirsty, dissatisfied with what the world offers, but still carrying confused ideas about who God is and how He should be approached.
The invitation remains: worship Him in spirit and in truth. Not with empty repetition or vain tradition. Not by mixing Him with whatever else competes for our allegiance. But with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength—prostrate before the One who alone is worthy.
The Father is still seeking such worshipers. Will we be found among them?
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