What is the importance of Samaria in the Bible?

Omri was Elah's commanding general. Upon Elah's assassination by Zimri he left off fighting against the Philistines at Gibbethon and besieged Tirzah, the capital. Did it get destroyed along with the palace? Zimri was soon defeated, but now the people were divided in their loyalties between Omri and a rival, Tibni. The civil war that ensued seems to have lasted at least four years before Tibni was dead and Omri secure on Israel's throne. Omri, a powerful and ambitious man, purchased a hill and built a new capital city upon it, Samaria. This city figures largely in the subsequent history of the northern tribe kingdom, and in the prophets the northern kingdom is often called Samaria. Omri must have made quite an impression on neighboring nations, for in the records of the enemy Assyrians after this time Israel is called the house of Omri even after his dynasty was gone from power.

This city was built by Omri, king of Israel, and came into prominence by becoming the capital of the kingdom of the ten tribes. It was situated on the side of a hill, and was adorned and fortified by the kings of Israel. Ben-hadad, king of Syria, besieged Samaria in the reign of Ahab, but by the intervention of God it was not taken. 1 Kings 20:1-34. In the days of Jehoram it was again besieged by Ben-hadad, and the famine became so great that they were on the point of capitulating when some lepers brought word that the enemy had fled, and abundance of provision was to be found in the camp. 2 Kings 6:24-33; 2 Kings 7:1-20.

It was besieged again by Shalmaneser, about B.C. 723, but held out for three years, being eventually taken by Sargon. The people were now carried into captivity. 2 Kings 18:9-12. Among the Assyrian inscriptions there is one in which Sargon says, "The city of Samaria I besieged, I captured; 27,280 of its inhabitants I carried away." It was partly re-peopled by the colonists imported by Esar-haddon. Samaria was again taken by John Hyrcanus, who did his best to destroy it.

THE DISTRICT OF SAMARIA is often alluded to in the N.T. It occupied about the same territory as that of Ephraim and Manasseh's portion in the west. It had the district of Galilee on the north, and Judaea on the south. Luke 17:11; John 4:4; Acts 1:8; Acts 8:1-14; Acts 9:31; Acts 15:3.

The Samaritans of the Lord's day were justly looked upon as a corrupt race. The commencement of their history is recorded in 2 Kings 17:24-41. Following the captivity of the ten tribes, the Assyrian king repeopled the land with men from Babylon and other heathen cities. Dwelling in the land of Jehovah, and yet not fearing the LORD, they were troubled by the LORD. In attempting to meet this trouble, the Assyrian king sent a priest of Jehovah to teach them the ways of Jehovah. In result they became a corrupt people who "feared the LORD, and served their own gods". Thus they had some dim knowledge of the Lord, and of the fact that the Messiah was coming.

For the origin of the mixed people and worship of Samaria, see 2 Kings 17. They were but half Jews, though they boasted of their relation to Jacob. They received the five books of Moses as sacred, but undervalued the rest of the Bible. They were circumcised, kept the law after a sort, and were expecting a Messiah to come. The personal visit of the blessed Lord to Samaria is of the deepest and most touching interest. (John 4) The well at which He rested, it is said, "lay in a valley between the two famous mountains, Ebal and Gerizim, on which the law was read. On the latter height stood the rival temple of the Samaritans, which had so long afflicted the more zealous Jews by its daring opposition to the one chosen sanctuary on Mount Moriah."

The Samaritans claimed to be true Israelites. The woman of Samaria said to the Lord, "Art thou greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well?" As to their religion, she spoke of 'this mountain' as the proper place to worship; but the Lord said, "Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews." The hour had however arrived when they that worship God must worship Him in Spirit and in truth. Many of the Samaritans believed and received the Holy Spirit. John 4:9-42; Acts 8:5-17.

It is remarkable that while the Jews have lost all means of keeping their feasts at Jerusalem, a few, still calling themselves Samaritans, at Nablus, in a humble synagogue at the foot of the mountain, continue their worship, and annually ascend the mountain and keep the feast of the Passover with a roasted lamb: a marked instance of imitation, now so common in Christendom. They have an ancient MS called the SAMARITAN PENTATEUCH (q.v.), for which they claim great antiquity.

The tidings of God's gracious work in Samaria could not but make a powerful impression on all saints; and of these none would estimate its importance so deeply as the personal companions and most honoured servants of the Lord in Jerusalem. His will and glory, as well as love to the objects of His grace that they might be blessed more abundantly, drew their hearts to the spot where God had wrought so manifestly. Indeed the Lord risen (Acts 1:8) had specially named Samaria as a scene of future testimony for the disciples. What a contrast with Jews having no intercourse with Samaritans!

Philip's case, recorded in Acts 8 is remarkable also in its way. Samaria was to be brought under the power of the Gospel. This was a work of unusual importance, because of the peculiar position that Samaria had maintained for several centuries in relation to Jerusalem. Though a mixed race, the Samaritans professed to worship Israel's God, they reverenced their Scriptures, and had a temple of their own on Mount Gerizim. For all these things the Jews hated them, and had no dealings with them. Their conversion was therefore a matter of great importance and significance, yet we find the Spirit of God again passing by the twelve, and using for the blessed work another of the chosen seven. Philip preached Christ to them, and wrought miracles of healing amongst them, filling the city with joy. In the wisdom of God the Samaritan converts did not receive the Spirit until Peter and John went down (for unity's sake); but all the foundation work in their souls was wrought by the preaching of the ardent evangelist. Who can fail to see in Philip's case, as in Stephen's, the sovereignty of the Spirit's action?

The disciples, on their return, wonder, like the woman, that Jesus had not kept His Jewish distance. But still they are conscious of the presence of a glory that was above them; for "no man said, What seekest thou? or, Why talkest Thou with her?" They did not as yet know the secret which the Son of God carried; and He then shows them, as white already for harvest, fields which their faith had never surveyed. They knew of no fields but such as, of old, had been parted among the Tribes. In their esteem God's husbandry must be confined to that sacred enclosure; and Samaria, they judged, was now outside that, and but an unclean place. But there was, as we have already seen, a secret with God. It was the Son of God, the Saviour of sinners, who had now gone forth with seed, and His toil had prepared a harvest for the reapers, in the defiled plains of Samaria.* He shows His disciples a company just coming out of Sychar, who were soon to say, "This is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world." And thus were they ready for the sickle. The harvest in Judea was plenteous (Matt. 9:37); but in Samaria it was ripe for the reapers. The Lord had borne the toil of the sower; had talked, weary and faint, with the woman; but He would now share with His disciples the joy of the harvest; and, in pledge of this, He abides for two days with this little gathering out of Sychar, believed on and owned as the Saviour of the world.

The remarkable thing about the work in Samaria was that although so many had believed the Gospel, and been baptized, none had received the gift of the Holy Ghost. The order that Peter had propounded in Acts 2:38, was not observed in the case of the Samaritans. God so ordered, we believe, for a special reason. There had been religious rivalry between Jerusalem and Samaria, as John 4 witnesses, and therefore there must have been a strong tendency to carry over into the new conditions this ancient prejudice. This would have meant a Samaritan church independent of, if not in rivalry to, a Jerusalem church; and thus any practical expression of the "one body" would have been imperilled even before the truth of it had been revealed. As things were, they only received the Spirit when Peter and John had come down and laid hands on them, thus formally identifying the Apostles and the church in Jerusalem with these new believers in Samaria. The oneness of the church was preserved.