I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Kings 17-18.

    When the Assyrians conquered they took a large number of the Israelites and settled them elsewhere. Then they brought in people whom they had conquered elsewhere and settled them in the land. This was, and is, a practice conquerors often use to minimize the risk of rebellion in conquered territories; break up the bonds among the people living in the conquered territory and introduce people with no loyalty to those living there. Like many of the people of the day, the Assyrians believed that many gods were local. So, when things went badly for the new settlers, they brought back some of the priests from exile to teach the settlers how to worship the god of this land, who happened to be God. The religion which these priests taught the settlers was the origin of the Samaritan religion. The settlers worshiped according to the teachings of these priests, but continued to also worship the gods of the lands they came from. Despite the differences between the practices of the people of Israel and the practices taught in the law of Moses, and the differences introduced by these foreign settlers, by the time of Christ the Samaritan religion had become a corrupted form of worship of the one true God. One which looked back to Moses and forward to the Messiah. The Samaritans were at least as receptive to Jesus’ teachings as the Jews.

    This evolution of the Samaritan religion reminds me of something which C.S. Lewis wrote in his “The Chronicles of Narnia” series. In the book, “The Last Battle” he wrote that no service which is vile can be done to Aslan (who is an analogy of Jesus and God) and no service which is not vile can be done for Tash (who is an analogy for Satan, and other idols). Which is another way of saying what Jesus said in the 2Sermon on the Mount, ” Keep on seeking, and you will find.” Those who seek God will eventually find Him. My observation is that, if the people who follow a false religion genuinely seek goodness, over time that false religion will begin to more and more resemble true Christianity. The Holy Spirit can, and will, use even the least smidgen of Truth to reveal more Truth to those who seek that Truth.