SUNDAY and MONDAY, posted on MONDAY

Day 292 – Reading – Matthew 15 and Mark 7

Day 293 – Reading – Matthew 16 and Mark 8

Read and believe in Jesus!

SUNDAY – Matthew 15 and Mark 7.

The religious leaders are still trying to find something against Jesus so they can arrest Him. They watch him with hawk eyes. 

When Jesus and His disciples came into the marketplace after crossing the Sea, many sick people came to Him and touched Him or His garments. Jesus healed them all, but afterwards, when the hungry disciples bought some items to eat ….  AND ATE THEM …  the Pharisees pounced. 

“Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? 

For they do not wash their  hands when they eat.”

The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they first wash their hands, holding to the tradition of the elders. This washing involved someone pouring a specific amount of water over their hands while the fingers pointed upward, letting it drain off at the wrists. Then, the hands would be turned over with fingers pointed downward, and again water would be poured over them.  After that, each hand would rub over the fist of the other. (This was NOT in the law of Moses. It was a ritual added by the uber-strict scribes and Pharisees.  Other similar rituals applied to washing cups and pots and copper vessels …. AND ‘dining couches.’ (Say what?)

Jesus could see the heavy burdens the leaders put on the people (as compared to the light, easy burden He offered them (Matt. 11:28-30), and it made Him angry. 

He fired back at them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,

‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;

In vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines. 

the commandments of men.’

“You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of Men.”

Then Jesus went on to reveal just how they did that in other ways.  The Law says that man should honor their parents and take care of them when they age, but these hypocrite Pharisees, say about the money they decided to give to pay their vows (instead of taking care of Mom and Dad), that it was “Corbin.”  This meant it could ONLY be used for sacred purposes.  They get spiritual creds from the offering, and the parents suffer.

“When you do this, you are making void the word of God!”  Jesus called them “blind guides leading the blind.  When this happens BOTH will fall into a pit.

Then Jesus turned from the Pharisees and gathered the people together to teach them just what happens when you “eat with unwashed hands.”

Jesus: “Hear and understand; It is not what goes INTO the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes OUT OF the mouth.”

Peter: “Explain the parable to us.”

Jesus: “Are you also still without understanding?  Do you not see that whatever GOES INTO THE MOUTH passes into the stomach and is expelled? 

They all nod.

Jesus: “But what COMES OUT OF THE MOUTH proceeds from the heart.  THIS defiles a person. For out of the HEART come…..

• evil thoughts,
• murder,
• adultery, 
• sexual immorality,
• theft,
• false witness,
• slander,
• coveting,
• wickedness,
• deceit,
• envy,
• pride,
• foolishness.  

“All THESE evil things come from within, and THEY defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.”

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After this, Jesus went away from Galilee and withdrew north to the (Gentile) district of Tyre and Sidon.  There, He entered a house and did not want anyone to know.  But He could not be hidden. (Not this Light of the world!)

A Syrophoenician woman who lived there and had a little daughter with an unclean spirit heard of Him. She came to Jesus and fell at his feet.

• The woman: “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David, my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon!”
• Jesus said not a word to her, and the disciples begged Him to send her away.
• Jesus: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
• The woman: “Lord, help me!”
• Jesus: “Let the children be fed first. It’s not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”
• The woman: “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”
• Jesus: “O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire. Go your way, the demon has left your daughter.”
• And she went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon had gone.

Then Jesus left that area and returned to the Sea of Galilee in the area of Decapolis.  There they brought a man who was both deaf and mute, and begged Jesus to heal him.

In a private area, Jesus put his fingers into the mans ears, and after spitting touched his tongue. The He looked toward heaven, sighed, and said, “Ephphatha!  Be opened!”  The man’s ears were opened and his tongue was released and he spoke clearly.  The people were astonished beyond measure, and said, “He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak!”

Great crowd came to Him, bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others. They put them at His feet, and Jesus healed them.

And the people GLORIFIED THE GOD OF ISRAEL!

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MONDAY – Matthew 16 and Mark 8.

As the news of all the healing spread, a large crowd of 4,000 men gathered.  Again Jesus had compassion on them because they’d been with Him for days now and they had nothing to eat. He didn’t want to send them away, unless they fainted on the way.

Again, as before, Jesus asked them what they had.  This time, the disciples found seven small loaves and a few fish.  Jesus directed the crowd to sit down on the dry ground.  He took the loaves, gave thanks, and broke them and gave them to his disciples to distribute.  He did the same with the few fish.

The people ate and were satisfied.  Then, as before with the 5,000, the disciples gathered up the left-overs. There were seven LARGE baskets full.

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Immediately, they got into a boat and left for the region of Magdala. (near Capernaum).

Stepping off the boat, Jesus and disciples were immediately met by a mixed group of Pharisees and Sadducees, there to once again “test” Him. 

(It was very unusual that these two groups of religious leaders should come together, for they hated each other.  Big thing?  The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection of man, and the Pharisees did.)

Anyway, these two groups came to Jesus, asking Him for a “sign from Heaven.”

Jesus reminded them of their lack of discernment.  “When it’s evening and the sky is read, you say ‘It will be fair weather.’  And, when the sky is red in the morning, you say, ‘It will be stormy today.’  You know how to interpret the weather, but not the SIGNS OF THE TIMES!  An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign.  NO SIGN will be given except the sign of Jonah.”

Then they got back into the boat and left for Bethsaida. 

(Did the religious leaders go away scratching their heads?  Jonah?  The prophet who preached in Nineveh? That’s His sign?  Huh??)

In the boat, Jesus looked slowly around at His disciples and said, “Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees!”

The disciples looked at each other.  Leaven?  Is Jesus mad that we forgot to bring those seven baskets of bread pieces?

Jesus must have sighed.  They were missing the point of the warning!!  “Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Don’t you perceive?  Don’t you remember the 5,000 and then the 4,000?  How is it you fail to understand???  I wasn’t talking about BREAD.  I was talking about the TEACHING of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Beware of that!”

At Bethsaida, Jesus healed a blind man. An unusual healing because it was in two steps. First the man got partial healing, seeing people like walking trees, and then was healed completely.

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Afterwards. Jesus led the disciples north to Caesarea Philipp. (This is the area that Herod Philip ruled.)  As they walked the 25 miles, Jesus asked them a question.

“Who do YOU say that I am?”

Peter answered immediately, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Jesus: “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. 

“You are Peter, and on this “rock” (your confession of who I am), I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.  I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven (Peter was the first to introduce the Gentiles to salvation).  Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

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Then Jesus began to teach them that He must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes … and be killed. After three days he would rise again. He said this very plainly.

Peter – the one who just claimed Jesus as the Christ and the Son of God, now took Jesus aside and rebuked Him.  REBUKED the Son of God!!! He said,  “Far be it from You, LORD! This shall never happen to You!”

But Jesus whipped around and said to Peter, “Get behind me Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man!”

And then to them all,

• “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
• For whosoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.
• For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?
• For what can a man give in return for his soul?
• Whosoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”

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(LORD, know my heart, and convict me. O may I never be ashamed of You. May I have courage to take up my cross and follow You!)