Hello and

I'm your host Matt Todd is out today but have no worries mom he's doing just fine in fact he has some great news to share as do karene and I

We'll wait until next week to share that with you together.

Thank you for your patience with us as we've been out.

We've had some exciting things happening and we'll be back next week with another regular edition of Bible stories

but for today we're going to do something a little different I'm calling this

conversations with Jesus and for today we're going to look at the conversation that Jesus had

with the Samaritan woman at the well. Thanks for hanging in there with us. We'll be

back next week with another regular episode. As for today, welcome to Conversations with Jesus. There really never should have been a conversation between Jesus and this Samaritan

woman at the well. Geography, gender, faith, and a real deep-seated cultural divide should have been enough to keep these two apart.

And this cultural divide, it finds its roots hundreds of years before the conversation between Jesus and this woman took place.

It goes all the way back to the kingdom of Israel as it was under King Solomon.

Well, at his death death the kingdom splits into two,

separating Israel into a southern kingdom that becomes known as Judah and a

northern kingdom that's known as Israel and a northern kingdom that's known as Israel.

And these two nations they were plagued with a series of wicked kings.

They were marked by seasons of short-term repentance but habitual disobedience.

The Northern Kingdom became the target of the Assyrians and the Assyrians were a powerhouse in the known world.

The King of Assyria laid siege to the nation of Israel

and demanded tribute. Now the relationship between these two countries it becomes

fractured when the King of Israel is assassinated and replaced by someone

who refuses to be submissive to the Assyrians and this resulted in big trouble.

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