# 73 I Am He

Joh 4:25 The woman said to Him, "I know that Messiah is coming" (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."

Remember this about the Samaritans. They were strangers in this land. They were a mix of people who had been brought in to settle the northern kingdom of Israel after it had been conquered by the Assyrians. When they first began the occupation, they had no Jewish Bible.

The King of Assyria did send in a Jewish priest to teach the Samaritans about the God of Israel, so they knew some of the basics, and their Bible consisted of the first five books of the Jewish Bible. (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.) These books are called the Pentateuch.

One of the promises of the Pentateuch that the Samaritans held dear, was the promise of a Messiah.  They rightly believed that a Messiah would come and “tell them all things.” This is key information as it relates to the Samaritan woman’s style of evangelism, because after she went back to town and told the townspeople about Jesus she said, “He told me all that I ever did.” (Jn 4:39)

The promise that the Samaritans held to is found in  De 18:18,19, 'I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him.  19 'And it shall be that whoever will not hear My words, which He speaks in My name, I will require it of him.

The woman initially thought that Jesus was just a prophet, but He immediately straightens her out and bluntly tells her that He is the anticipated Messiah. What Good news! The long-awaited Messiah is here! The perfect Prophet who speaks the perfect words of God!

But don’t gloss over the accompanying warning attached to those spoken words! If you don’t heed them, it will be required of you! No wonder Jesus said  in  Joh 12:48 "He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him--the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day.

Sobering thought! But the Father makes it clear concerning the necessity of recognizing Jesus as the Messiah and heeding His Words. He spoke to Peter, James, and John on the Mount of Transfiguration and said, Mt 17:5, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!"

Your eternal destination depends on what you do with that proclamation.