The Lord Jesus healed seven different individuals on the Sabbath day. This enraged the Jewish religious leaders, whose attitude was, “There are six days on which men ought to work; Come and be healed on them, and not on the Sabbath day.” They viewed healing as a ‘work’! Having been invited to the house a high-ranking Pharisee, and seeing a man present who was suffering with dropsy (an accumulation of water in the tissues of the body), the Lord took the initiative and asked, “Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath day?” There followed a revealing silence as the religious men, who were seeking to entrap Him, suddenly realised He’d entrapped them with His question! The Lord continued by asking, “Which of you, having a donkey … that has fallen into a pit, will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day?” Was this man with dropsy of less value than their suffering donkey?
“Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath day?” – Luke 14:3
The Lord Jesus knew the nation would reject Him as their Messiah. In the hearing of the chief priests and scribes, Jesus told a parable (the Tenants of the Vineyard vs. 9-16) in which the tenants, refused to give the landlord’s messengers his due rent. As a last resort, the Landlord sent his ‘beloved son’, assuming they would respect him. Sadly, they said, “This is the heir: come, let us kill him”. They rejected the son! The religious leaders knew Jesus ‘had spoken this parable of them.’ The Lord then asked them to consider what was ‘written’ in Psalm 118:22. This verse not only spoke of His rejection, but also of His future exaltation – ‘The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief corner stone’. The consequences of rejecting the Son are serious in the extreme! – ‘Every one falling on this stone shall be broken, but on whomsoever it shall fall, it shall grind him to powder’ Luke 20:18
“What is this then that is written?” – Luke 20:17
Many venues today have a DRESS CODE - ‘You dress to our requirements or there’s no
admission.’ The two crucified thieves mocked Jesus as He was nailed to the cross.
However, within the space of three hours, one of them had a dramatic change of mind.
He called out, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.” The reply was
immediate; “Today you shall be with Me in Paradise.” The Scottish preacher, Alistair
Begg, imagines the thief saying, “But isn’t there a dress code for entry? And if
there is such dress code, then I’m disqualified, because I hang here naked!” The
Lord replies, “Don’t worry, for your faith in Me means I will clothe you with a ‘robe
of righteousness’. You will wear ‘the garments of salvation!’ – The old hymn ROCK
OF AGES, written by Augustus Toplady, puts it this way, ‘Nothing in my hands I bring,
Simply to Thy cross I cling; Naked, come to Thee for dress …’
“Who can say … I am pure from my sin?” - Proverbs 20:9
The prophet Micah lived in dark days – ‘The godly man has perished out of the land, and there is none upright among men’ [7:2]. ‘Both hands are for evil, to do it well’ v.3. In other words, the nation had a dexterity for sinning. Bribery pervaded the law courts – ‘the judge is there for a reward.’ Judgment was therefore inevitable – v.13 ‘The land shall be desolate because of them that dwell therein, for the fruit of their doings.’ Seeing Israel severely disciplined by Jehovah, caused her enemies to gloat and taunt them, “Where is the LORD thy God?” The prophet knew that Jehovah’s covenant relationship with the nation, guaranteed that the dark days would pass. ‘He retains not his anger for ever … He will yet again have compassion on us … [He will] perform truth to Jacob, loving-kindness to Abraham, which [He] has SWORN unto our fathers, from the days of old’ v.18-20.
“Where is the LORD thy God?” - Micah 7:10
“How is it that ye do not discern this time?” - Luke 12:56
In v.54, the Lord turns from addressing the disciples to speak to the crowds. He
compliments them, in that they were skilled enough to understand the weather patterns,
and He gives two examples. “Whenever you look west towards the Mediterranean and
see a cloud rising, immediately you say, ‘A shower is coming’; and so it is. And
whenever the wind blows from the south over the desert, you say, ‘Hot weather is
on its way’; and so it is.” Intelligent though they were at interpreting the weather,
when it came to interpreting the multitude of miracles He did, they failed abysmally.
The miracles, when rightly interpreted, showed Him to be the long-awaited Messiah,
but the majority were unresponsive and some even ventured to say, “This fellow does
not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons.”. This was blasphemy!”
‘Elisha said ... what do you have in the house?” - 2 Kings 4:2
A widow, well known to Elisha the prophet, was in a crisis. She had borrowed money
from a creditor but was unable to pay it back, and the creditors had turned up threatening
to take her two children as slaves. She made her predicament known to Elisha who
asked, “What have you in the house?” She answered, “One pot of olive oil!”. Unknown
to the woman, the prophet was going to perform a miracle and turn this ‘one pot of
oil’ into gallons of oil. He instructed her, “Go, borrow empty vessels from all thy
neighbours and LET IT NOT BE FEW.” These vessels would soon be brim-full with oil
which she could then sell and pay off her debts. The amount of blessing she was to
receive, was in one sense, dependent on her. It all hinged on how many vessels she
was able to collect from her neighbours. The miracle beautifully blends God’s faithfulness
with man’s responsibility!
