A Man Walked Through.
There is a little town mentioned in the bible and very little was ever spoken of it. Or so we thought. It is known as Shechem and is first mentioned away back in Genesis. It is still there today and is about 30 miles north of Jerusalem. It is a strange little place with absolutely nothing to offer except that it is right in the middle of two valleys, one heading north and south and the other coming out of it and heading east to the Mediterranean Sea. And it shares the valley floor with another little town called Sychar. Both little towns are only about 2 miles apart and historically they both appeared to share the local water source. A single well.
And, like some of the places mentioned in the Bible, although this is just a little place, serving only as a junction or waypoint for travellers, it has proved to be very significant in God’s plans over the millennia and centuries. How many times has God met with us at a juncture in our lives?
It was here where God met with Abram and promised him this land……
Genesis 12v6 Abram travelled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land.
v7 The LORD appeared to Abram and said, "To your offspring I will give this land." So he (Abram) built an altar there to the LORD, who had appeared to him.
The area is mentioned again in Genesis when Jacob bought some land there. This plot of land was to have a significant historical impact many centuries later…
Genesis 33v18 After Jacob came from Paddan Aram, he arrived safely at the city of Shechem in Canaan and camped within sight of the city.
v19 For a hundred pieces of silver, he bought from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, the plot of ground where he pitched his tent.
Judges ch9v1 tells us that the mother of one of the most famous Judges of Israel, Gideon, came from Shechem. Joshua set it aside as a City of Refuge - Joshua ch20v7. And Joshua was to later assemble all the tribes of Israel at Shechem to renew God’s Covenant. The bones of Joseph, carried from Egypt, were finally interred “at Shechem in the tract of land that Jacob had bought” - Joshua 24v32. In 1st Kings ch12v1, after the Kingdom of Israel split up, Rehoboam, the son of King Solomon, met with the ten northern tribes to convene with them there and be crowned King. And so these little through-towns, set in the T-junction of two valleys, hosted many biblical events throughout the old testament.
And all this would seem significant enough in telling of God’s story, but the story wasn’t to end there.
For one day, a man came walking through. He was travelling with His companions up to the northern regions of Galilea when he stopped do get a drink at a well. And His name was Jesus. And these little T-junction towns were to, once again, provide us with one of the most significant and magnificent accounts in the Bible. For although it seems as if this was just a well along a dusty road in a dry valley, Jesus had a reason for stopping here – There was a woman at the well.
And one of the greatest sermon themes in all of biblical history was to originate here…
John ch4v12 [And the woman said] Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?"
v13 Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,
v14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
And these little towns, Shechem and Sychar, in the base of this valley area were to remain anonymous no more.
There have been many times when my christian life seemed humdrum and uneventful. I was just plodding along through the daily grind of living and working, church attendance and worshipping. And then one day, a man came walking through. His name was Jesus and He had something for me to do.
I have never been a writer. Nor even a great sermoniser. But here I am churning out blog after blog. Essay after essay. All the little bible courses I attended, all the little books that I read and the conversations that I had seemed to be coming together now. And the reason behind them all is Jesus.
And He has a call for you too, if you listen. If you allow Him, and you have a desire in your heart to get back into a place of communion with Him, He will awaken something in you that will take you to places that you never thought of. Don’t be afraid to stand up again in God’s presence. For He has promised to finish a work in us that He started so long ago.
A friend of mine shared with me recently, “…We as Christians today are the product of 6000 years of God's prophecy, God's providence, God’s planning and God's love. We are all part of the great timeline of church history, and today is the time that we have been appointed to exist in that great plan…..”.
But think what it has cost God to get us to here. So let us feel our worth and our value in Christ. Let us stand for Him and give Him the praise and the worship.
All the treasures I used to love. Have all faded from view.
There's a new day ahead for me. All my heartache is over.
For I left it at Calvary. Where my new life began.
I've come too far to look back. My feet have walked thru the valley.
I've climbed mountains, crossed rivers. Desert places I've known.
But I'm nеaring the home shore. Thе redeemed are rejoicing.
Heaven's angels are singing. I've come too far to look back.
…..written by Nancy Harmon.
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