Well, Wednesday night, we're going to continue our study through the Gospel of John,

and why don't you turn there with me as we pull our text from our upcoming Wednesday night's study?

We'll go to John Chapter 4 for today's study.

John Chapter 4.

Before we read this amazing, beautiful story in John Chapter 4, I feel like we've got some work to do maybe

on some history, because it'll help us understand some of the nuances we might otherwise miss

as we're reading John chapter 4. And it has to do with the place called Samaria. What area,

you say? Samaria. Be more specific. No, it's literally Samaria.

That's the place we're going to talk about.

The history of Samaria, I find it interesting.

It's quite a story, really, the Samaritan people.

And it starts way back, you know, remember when the children of Israel finally was free from slavery in Egypt?

They made their way after a long

wilderness wandering and finally crossed the Jordan River, you know, from the east, into the west

and took over the land of Canaan. And that all, you know, happened right around 1,200 BC-ish

when the Jews took the land of Canaan. And the 12 tribes settled in that region. Of course,

you know, the two and a half tribes, Ruben Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh, they settled on

the east side of the Jordan River, bad idea, by the way. But the other half of them in Manasseh and

Ephraim, they settled in the middle part of Israel and all the other tribes kind of scattered in Israel. But the other half of a Manasseh and Ephraim, they settled in the middle part of Israel

and all the other tribes kind of scattered in Israel.

But the reason this is important is that the two tribes, Ephraim and Manasseh,

that region would eventually become known as the region of Samaria.

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