The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him today and what came to my heart and mind in John 7:52,
"Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee."
This was the response the Pharisees gave Nicodemus when he was reminding them that a man should not be condemned without first being questioned, "Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he has been doing?" Verse 58.
"Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee."
This was the response the Pharisees gave Nicodemus when he was reminding them that a man should not be condemned without first being questioned, "Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he has been doing?" Verse 58.
I'm sure their response to Nicodemus was driven by their blind hatred of Jesus, but they expressed a bit of ignorance here. The prophet Jonah was from Galilee (Gath Hepher) as we see in 2 Kings 14:25. There were very likely others as well.
Bearing in mind the Pharisees did not have concordances back in the day, or search engines, they might be forgiven a slight mistake here and there. I suspect it is possible to argue the Pharisees meant that in Jesus there has not now arisen a prophet from Galilee, but whatever the case, they were simply mistaken. Jesus, who had his home in Galilee, was the Prophet of prophets: the Messiah!
It is to the anger of the Pharisees and their attempt to use the Scriptures to win an argument with one of their own that catches my eye this morning.
Do people use the Scriptures to win their arguments today? Holy smokes! With all the divisions within the church, all the schisms and all the -isms, we see the resort to Scripture used to argue all kinds of things... and often done in error just as these Pharisees.
I just might be as given to do the same! In the heat of passion over some issue, I'm sure none of us want to be found in error in our use of the Scriptures, and it just might be in the heat of that kind of passion we discredit ourselves.
Possibly some humility in our use of the Scriptures may preclude many of the divisions that take place. Don't misunderstand me, the Scriptures speak nothing but truth and we all need to stand tall to defend those truths. However, I'm not sure all the divisions we see have arisen from correctly handling the Word of Truth. There has been some fumbling going on out there.
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!
If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just reply and let me know.
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!
If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just reply and let me know.
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