Hebrews 13:5 Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.

It is difficult in this modern world not to want more. Capitalism only flourishes in a growth market. Everyone who is trying to make a living, no matter which system of government, has to contend with a dwindling market. The government cannot feed the masses without resources. The goal for any government or business is fundamentally the same, grow the economy and collect revenue.

That doesn’t happen when people are content with what they have. Nearly everything we have has a shelf life. Very few things outlast their consumers. This has become a disposable world, it cost more to repair most items than it does to replace them. They call it the law of diminishing return. The longer you keep an item the less value it has in the market place.

This conversation is not about the economy but rather the condition of the heart. We live in the world. We abide by the laws of this world. We cooperate with leaders, we are subject to one another. We have the option of cooperating either from loving consideration or selfishness.

Hebrews 13:6 So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.

What man shall do unto you is act selfishly. The selfish man will use you. He will exploit any weakness. Our only protection from these kinds of people is the help the Lord provides to those who love Him and obey His commands.

Job 31:7-8 If my step hath turned out of the way, and mine heart walked after mine eyes, and if any blot hath cleaved to mine hands; Then let me sow, and let another eat; yea, let my offspring be rooted out.

Stay in the Way.

 

2 Kings 17:24 And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel: and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof.

If you will read the passages following verse 24 you will get a sense of why the Jews upon their return to Jerusalem from exile refused to allow Samaritans to worship in the temple at Jerusalem. Israel was in Babylon for seventy years. I am not sure how long after their exile this displacement occurred, but let us fast forward some five hundred years.

John 4:9 Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.

Five hundred years have passed and historical resentments have carried on for centuries. Could it be that nothing had changed in five hundred years?

John 4:12 Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?

“Our father Jacob” the woman identified Jacob as an ancestor. Was it by blood or adoption? Jews did allow for conversion and allowed those to worship in the temple. But not these Samaritans. For the Jews nothing had changed.

How can we relate to this telling in our present lives, now two thousand years removed from the event? I would have to say it has everything to do with historical resentment. The pain and suffering of the past haunts many people today yet they were not a part of that history. These Samaritans were a displaced people, not of their own choosing, forced by circumstances. Many people have had to live under similar circumstances and the historical resentments surrounding their displacements are passed down from generation to generation infecting a people who had no part in the event.

Jesus broke the segregation barrier and reached out to the disenfranchised.

He still does, in us.