Day 286 and 287—We are in the TENTH month of Bible reading and studying the New Testament Gospels.

NOTE:  Both Sunday and Monday studies are posted on MONDAY.

    Day 286 – Luke 11 (Prayer, short teachings, woes)

Luke gives a shorter version of the “Lord’s Prayer.” He had been praying, and His disciples asked Him to teach them to pray.

Worship God! Align yourself with His kingdom. Ask for your needs. Confess and ask for forgiveness as you practice forgiveness to others. Ask for His protection from temptation.

Jesus illustrates persistence in prayer with a story. A friend asked a neighbor for food for a surprise visitor in the middle of the night. The neighbor was in bed, but because the friend kept asking and didn’t go away, the neighbor got up and got it for him.  “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find, knock, and it will be opened to you. If you give your kids good gifts, how much more will YOUR heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask.”

Again, they accuse Him of delivering a man from demons by the power of the devil. He reminds them of the uselessness of that.  He briefly illustrates this with a story of a strong man guarding his house, but a stronger man overcomes him.  He warns them that when a false exorcist drives out unclean spirits, more will return to the person. It takes the Holy Spirit’s power to truly free the person.

“Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts which nursed you!” cries a woman. “No, rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it,” Jesus replies.

Jesus reminds them of Jonah and Nineveh again, condemning them for always seeing a sign. They had been given enough information to believe and repent, but they would not. Nineveh will judge and condemn them, for THEY repented with much less truth preached to them.

Then Jesus lashes out at the religious leaders with a series of “woes” or curses.  He says they are fools to keep themselves outwardly clean when their hearts are full of greed and wickedness.

WOE to Pharisees tithing herbs but neglecting justice and love for God.

WOE because they LOVE the best positions and the admiration of others.  They are like graves that people walk over and don’t realize.

WOE to the Lawyers (Scribes) for loading the people with burdens they don’t carry. They build memorial tombs for the prophets and in doing so, agree with their ancestors in KILLING these men.  The blood of all the prophets (from righteous Abel to Zechariah), shed until this day, is charged against this generation.

WOE to the Lawyers (Scribes) who have taken away the key to knowledge, hindering others from entering, and not entering themselves.

“And as He went away, the Scribes and Pharisees began to press Him hard and provoke Him to speak about many things, lying in wait for Him, to catch Him in something He might say.”

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    Day 287. – Matthew 13, Luke 8 (parables, their purposes & explanations, healings)

In these chapters, Jesus tells several parables and says “why” He is not talking plainly to the people now. He explains two parables to His disciples so they can get an idea of how they work so they will understand the rest.

Luke tells us that there were also women who followed Jesus besides the twelve disciples. These are mentioned: Mary Magdalene, from whom Jesus had cast out seven demons; Joanna, the wife of Herod’s household manager (I wonder how she heard Jesus and first believed in Him.); Susanna, and many others. These women provided for Jesus and the disciples (who had left their jobs to follow Him) out of their own means.  

Great crowds were gathering around Jesus, and he taught them.  At first, He sat down by the sea to teach them, but they pressed closer, so He had to get into a boat and push out a little way into the water, the whole crowd standing on the beach to hear Him.

He told them many parables, such as the one about a farmer sowing seeds. The seeds fell in four places; along the path where the birds came and ate them, on rocky ground where they had no root and quickly withered, among thorns which grew up and choked them out, and finally on good soil where they grew and produced lots of grain.

Later, the disciples asked Jesus why He was now teaching the people in parables, whereas before (as in the Sermon on the Mount), He had taught them plainly. Jesus responded with a hard-to-understand answer. 

“To you, it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them, it has not been given. For, to one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what little he has will be taken away. THIS is why I speak to them in parables. It’s because seeing they do not SEE, and hearing they do not HEAR, nor do they understand.”  

Jesus said this fulfilled the Isaiah 6:9-10 prophecy where Isaiah volunteered to go and tell the Message God had for His people but was reminded that they would not listen.  “Blessed are YOUR eyes,” Jesus said to the disciples, “for they see, and YOUR ears, for they hear,” Then he told them the meaning of the Four Soils parable.

The SEED is the word of the kingdom sown among the people. The birds represent the devil who comes and immediately takes away the message.  The people (seed) on rocky ground develop no roots in the Gospel. When tribulation or persecution comes, they fall away.  Seeds that fall among thorns are people who gladly hear the message, but the cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the pleasures of the world choke that joy and the message, and they prove unfruitful.  BUT THE SEED THAT LANDS ON GOOD SOIL is the one who hears the word, understands it, and is fruitful. 

Jesus then tells the parable of the Weeds sowed among Good Seed by an enemy of the Kingdom.  The master says to let the weeds grow because, if they are pulled up too soon, it will damage the good plants.  So, at harvest, both are gathered.  The good seed goes into the barn. The weeds are burned. 

Again, the disciples ask Jesus to explain this parable.  “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world; the good seed is the children of the Kingdom; and the weeds are the children of the evil one.  The enemy is the devil.  Both are left to grow until harvest when the angels reap. They will pull out all causes of sin and law-breaking and throw them into the fire.  Then the righteous will shine like the sun.”

Jesus tells parables about finding precious things like treasure and a giant pearl. The one who finds them gives up all they have to possess them.  

The Parable of the Net tells the story of a fishing net that represents the Kingdom. It is thrown into the sea and gathers all kinds of fish. On shore, the fishermen sort the fish, throwing away the rotten fish and keeping the good.  “So it will be at the close of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace.”

Jesus asked His disciples if they understood all those things. They said, “Yes.” Jesus then tells them His new teaching was to be understood in light of the old truths, and vice versa.

He also tells them, “No one, after lighting a lamp, covers it with a jar or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light.  For nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, no is anything secret that will not be known and come to light.  Take care then HOW you hear.”