Expect the Unexpected
Luke 4:14-30"They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill…in order to throw him down the cliff. But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way."
(LUKE 4:29-30)
Many of us like predictability. We're comfortable with the expected. Perhaps it's because it gives us the illusion that we're in control.
When Jesus taught in the Galilean region, He received praise from all who heard Him. Then He traveled to His home town of Nazareth.
The people of Nazareth thought they knew Him. After all, they had watched Him play as a child. They had seen Him help Joseph in the carpenter shop. So they expected Him to behave the way all the hometown men behaved. How dare He declare Himself a prophet over them? Worse yet, He compared them to lepers!
Mob mentality reigned. They took Him to the top of a cliff to throw Him off. "But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way" (v. 30).
Some might argue this wasn't a true miracle. Yet Jesus displayed His power in a clearly divine manner. He could not have walked through the crowd any other way. Sometimes a miracle is not found in signs or wonders, but in recognizing God for who He is when He is in our midst.
INSIGHT
HOW HAS THE LORD ACTED IN UNEXPECTED WAYS IN YOUR LIFE? EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED AS GOD WORKS FOR YOUR GOOD AND HIS GLORY!
READ THROUGH THE BIBLE IN A YEAR
Isaiah 49-50
Psalm 95
Acts 18
Luke 4:14-30
New Living Translation (NLT)
Jesus Rejected at Nazareth
14 Then Jesus returned to Galilee, filled with the Holy Spirit’s power. Reports about him spread quickly through the whole region. 15 He taught regularly in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.
16 When he came to the village of Nazareth, his boyhood home, he went as usual to the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read the Scriptures. 17 The scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where this was written:
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released,
that the blind will see,
that the oppressed will be set free,
19 and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.[a]”
20 He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant, and sat down. All eyes in the synagogue looked at him intently. 21 Then he began to speak to them. “The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day!”
22 Everyone spoke well of him and was amazed by the gracious words that came from his lips. “How can this be?” they asked. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?”
23 Then he said, “You will undoubtedly quote me this proverb: ‘Physician, heal yourself’—meaning, ‘Do miracles here in your hometown like those you did in Capernaum.’ 24 But I tell you the truth, no prophet is accepted in his own hometown.
25 “Certainly there were many needy widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the heavens were closed for three and a half years, and a severe famine devastated the land. 26 Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them. He was sent instead to a foreigner—a widow of Zarephath in the land of Sidon. 27 And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, but the only one healed was Naaman, a Syrian.”
28 When they heard this, the people in the synagogue were furious. 29 Jumping up, they mobbed him and forced him to the edge of the hill on which the town was built. They intended to push him over the cliff, 30 but he passed right through the crowd and went on his way.
Footnotes:
a. Luke 4:19 Or and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. Isa 61:1-2 (Greek version); 58:6.
BIG GOD ... LITTLE HEARTS [PART 4]
with Sally Lloyd-Jones
Growing up doesn't mean bullying goes away. Regardless of our age, we all encounter pushy people who intimidate and threaten us. God has something to say to both the bully and their victims.
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