March 20 - Throw Him Over a Cliff

No Survivors: Numbers 30:1-31:54

Throw Him Over a Cliff: Luke 4:1-30

My Soul Will Be Satisfied as With the Richest of Foods: Psalm 63:1-11

Those Who Are Righteous Will Go Free: Proverbs 11:20-21


Guess what? I’ve been slacking in keeping the blog updated. :)
Guess what else? This passage from Luke seemed awfully familiar. The men’s Bible study recently studied Luke 4. Here are the notes I already compiled for it. (And you teenage boys thought you had it bad when I taught you. :))

• Verse 18 records Jesus reading Isaiah 61:1-2.
• Jesus read in the synagogue:
o In other synagogues you’ll read of Jesus preaching, but not reading.
o In the synagogues there were seven readers every Sabbath:
 First a priest,
 Second a Levite,
 Then five Israelites of that synagogue.
o Jesus belonged to the synagogue in Nazareth – He read there.
o The text Jesus read (what we call Isaiah 61:1-2) was the scheduled text for that Sabbath.
o That text from Isaiah speaks plainly about the Messiah.
• Jesus satisfies the Isaiah prophecy:
o “The Spirit of the Lord is on me”.
 The Holy Spirit descended onto Jesus when John the Baptist baptized Jesus.
 Jesus & the Holy Spirit are both part of the Trinity.
o “Because He has anointed me to preach good news”.
 Anointing was a ritual of commission.
1. Today, we anoint with a dab of oil on the forehead & usually as part of a ceremony to get something from the Lord, like healing.
2. But usually in the Old Testament times, the Lord would tell a prophet to anoint someone if:
o that person was to become a prophet,
o that person was to become a king, or
o that person was to become a priest.
3. Jesus was definitely commissioned by the Lord to preach the gospel.
 Also, anointing was done quite liberally.
1. The prophet would poor a flask of oil over the head of the anointed.
2. Then the prophet would rub it in real good, like we do when we wash our children’s hair.
3. It symbolized the Spirit of the Lord covering you in a big way to lead you & empower you in a big way.
o “He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind”.
 Think about the many times Jesus would tell someone that their sins are forgiven while healing them.
o “To proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor”.
 This is almost certainly an allusion to the Year of Jubilee, which occurred every 49 years.
 Every 49 years, anything borrowed would be returned to the original owner.
 Selling things like land would have a price that was weighted according to how many years it was until the next year of Jubilee, in which the land would return to the original owner.
 When we accept Jesus as our Savior we return to the Lord.

• For a while it looks like Jesus’ fellow Nazarenes accepted Him as the foretold Messiah (verse 22).
• Jesus wasn’t afraid to make waves with the Nazarenes.
o Jesus knew they’d later chastise Him for “not being able to save Himself” from the crucifixion (verse 23).
 Matthew 27:39-44
 Mark 15:29-32
 Luke 23:35,39
o “No prophet is accepted in his hometown” (verse 24).
 As we mentioned last week, Jesus led a low-key life growing up in Nazareth until He started His ministry at about 30.
 It’s easy to see how His fellow Nazarenes thought that He was just an average Joe.
o Jesus then gave a couple of Old Testament examples of prophets working miracles among non-Israelites.
 Elijah doing miracles at the widow’s house at Zarephath in Zidon (verse 26).
• “Zidon” is the Greek name for Sidon.
• Sidon is a town near the town of Tyre. In Old Testament times, Sidon was the more influential of the two cities.
• It was part of Phoenicia.
• Details of Phoenicia:
o In the northern part of Palestine.
o It was originally called “Canaan”.
o Greeks named it “Phoenicia” because the Canaanites taught the Greeks how to use an alphabet (a set of symbols – letters – that represent sounds instead of objects)
o The Phoenicians primarily worshipped Ashtoreth, a goddess who was identified by some ancient historians with the moon, and by Greek historians with Venus.
 Elisha healing Naaman the Syrian of leprosy (verse 27).
• Naaman was commander-in-chief of the army of Syria.
• Syria’s had just beaten Israel’s army, including the killing of King Ahab of Israel (1 Kings 22:34-35).
• According to tradition, it was Naaman the Syrian who drew his bow to kill Ahab, King of Israel.
• In 2 Kings 5:1-17, Naaman seeks out Elisha on the advice of a little girl Israelite slave to heal Naaman of leprosy. Naaman does as Elisha tells him, and Naaman is healed.
• After that, Naaman vows to quit worshipping Rimmon (the god of Syria) and worship only God.
• The Nazarenes took Jesus’ teachings the wrong way.
o Instead of looking introspectively and recognizing that they needed to trust in Jesus more than their Israeli ancestry,
o The Nazarenes tried to kill Jesus by throwing Him over the hill.
 According to the Smith’s Bible Dictionary:
• The town of Nazareth has several rocky ledges “over which a person could not be thrown without almost certain destruction”.
• There’s one particular precipice 40 or 50 feet high – perhaps the one the Nazarenes tried to throw Jesus over.
o Jesus escaped by simply walking through the crowd.
 Jesus could have humiliated His opponents.
 But He chose to escape without so much as putting up a fist fight.
• The Nazarenes could have had miracles performed in their midst, but they chose their pious religion over Jesus.
• Do we do the same today?
o Do we choose religion over Jesus?
o Are we at FUMCH more Methodist than Christian?