The Mystery of the Five Husbands & The 7th Husband
We have covered the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman in the past and it is worth talking about it again. Jesus travels from Judea to Galilee and passes through Samaria, stopping at a town called Sychar near Jacob’s well. While His disciples go into town to buy food, Jesus sits by the well. A Samaritan woman comes to draw water, and Jesus asks her for a drink. Along the line of the conversation, the woman asked Jesus for the living water. Jesus tells her to call her husband. She says she has no husband. Jesus states that she has had five husbands and is currently with a man who is not her husband. The woman acknowledges that He is a prophet.
Jesus was talking to her about her current situation. However, there is a deeper meaning to this conversation that is often overlooked. We have to go back roughly 740 years back to the year that Israel fell, in order to fully understand what Jesus was talking about. The story is in 2kings 17.
Samaria is the capital of the Northern Israel. Assyria captures Samaria. Israelites were deported away from northern Israel. In exchange, foreign people were brought into Northern Israel to live with the remaining remnants. So, in 2 Kings 17:24, 5 different group of people were brought back and they brought back their idols into Israel. (see below)
Kings 17:24 And the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the people of Israel.
2 Kings 17:29–31 (ESV) 29 But every nation still made gods of its own and put them in the shrines of the high places that the Samaritans had made, every nation in the cities in which they lived. 30 The men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, and the men of Cuthah made Nergal, and the men of Hamath made Ashima, 31 and the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites burned their children in the fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim.
The Five Husbands
- Babylon → Succoth-benoth
- Cuthah → Nergal
- Hamath → Ashima
- Avva → Nibhaz & Tartak
- Sepharvaim → Adrammelech & Anammelech
When Jesus was talking to this Samaritan woman about her 5 husbands, He was referring directly back to 740 years ago. Essentially Jesus was talking to Nation of Israel and referring to the 5 different idols that they have brought from outside that they worshipped.
We know that God Often refer to Himself as our husband as a Metaphor. (See examples below)
Jeremiah 3:14 “Return, O faithless children, declares the LORD;
for I am your husband.
So Samaria (Northern Israel) replaced God with these idols. Jesus was referencing this in that story when He told her “You have had five husbands.” Each of these idols were significant deities in that era. We will not go deeper into those idols because that is not the point of the revelation at the well.
The 6th Husband
John 4:18 (ESV) “For you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband.
About 200 years after Northern Israel fell, Judah also fell. 70 plus years after that, Judah later returns from Babylonian exile (remember story of Daniel). During the Ezra, Nehemiah era, Samaritans were excluded from helping them rebuild the Temple again.
Samaritans developed their own religious identity. They recognized only the Torah (first five books of Moses), not the Prophets or Writings. Samaritans build their own temple on Mount Gerizim (which was later destroyed).
The 6th Husband is a hybrid system where they believed in Torah but not the prophets while still worshipping the idols represented by the 5 husbands. It is a system of confusion. The woman referenced that confusion below, .
John 4:20 (ESV) “Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.”
Jesus told her; The 6th husband that you are with, that identity, is NOT your husband.
So, who is the Husband?
Jesus, Our true and 7th Husband.
Isaiah 54:5 “For your Maker is your husband, the LORD of hosts is his name.."
Luckily for the Samaritan woman and all of us, God Himself was standing in front of her to answer the question. This was what led to the famous verses below;
John 4:21–24 (NIV) 21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship **
Jesus is the express Image of the Father. When you see Jesus, you have seen the father. The only way to worship God is to worship him In Spirit and in Truth.
What truth?
1. The truth that He is our true husband. This is what the institution of marriage prophetically points to. This is directly linked to the fact He gave himself for us the church and He left his Father in heaven to unite with us (written below)
Ephesians 5:25–32 (NIV) ; 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her…31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife…”32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.
2. That we cannot worship Him with idols. This is the 5 husbands in that story.
3. That we cannot Worship Him with Law and prophet. The law and the prophet all point to Jesus. But they cannot save. Jesus FULFILLED the REQUIREMENT OF THE LAW. We are saved by Faith in Christ ONLY.
Romans 3:20 (NIV) “Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.”
4. He is not looking to be worshipped In Jerusalem, Mount Gerizim or ANY physical location. He wants to be worshipped in Spirit, meaning without any reference to physical things or places.
Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.